A/N: So this story now has an epilogue. It's long because I had a 5 hour train ride home, and this is what the epilogue became. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own "North and South."

Chapter 15: Epilogue: Full of Fluff

"Can I open my eyes yet?"

"Not until I say you can."

"I'm going to open my eyes."

"You're acting like such a little kid. Keep your eyes closed."

"I'm opening them in 3… 2…"

"Okay, open them," I stepped back from where I was standing and let John look. He blinked his eyes several times to get used to the sudden rush of light.

"What?"

"Do you like it?" I asked, suddenly unsure of my outfit. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, now, not so much.

"Its… I…"

"You hate it don't you?" my arms dropped to the sides. I was going to get Julia! She was the reason I had bought the damned thing in the first place!

"No, of course not. If anything, you compliment the outfit. But…" John ran a hand through his hair.

"But?" I raised an eyebrow, John's glazed over look was telling me something more.

In that instant he took off his jacket and wrapped it around me. It was obviously way too big for me and went up to my knees.

"But I think that it's for my eyes only," he said, bringing me into the mold of his arms that I fitted so snuggly into.

"Jealous much?" I said, smiling my best smile.

"You wish," he said before bringing his lips down to meet mine. No matter how many times he kissed me it always felt like a new experience every time. My hands automatically ran through his hair, and his arms wrapped around my waist.

"John, we're going to be late," I smiled against his lips, one of his hands was now tugging at the hem of my dress and the other was running up and down my back.

"I don't want to keep them waiting," I said, but his lips were beginning their cursory trail down my neck and then back up until his lips met mine once more.

"Let them wait," he said in an almost whisper, and I was his.

***

"Damn it John, keep it in your pants for a minute will you? Some of us want to enjoy Margaret too you know," Julia's voice greeted them as they entered the hallway of the Lennox residence half an hour after they were expected.

"Calm down Julia, there was traffic," I said, before giving her a hug. That girl was just too crazy.

"Not from what your boy toy there tells me," she laughed, and I just turned in time to see John wink at her. I poked him in the ribs where I knew he was ticklish, "You're such a guy."

"Thank you for reaffirming my masculinity," he smiled and I glared at him playfully. Damn him and his charms.

"Come on, everyone's getting impatient already. And I'm sure little Betty wants to open her presents now," Julia grabbed my arm and dragged me into the living room letting John walk in behind us.

The living room was decorated with a ton of tiny flickering lights and the Christmas tree in the corner was huge. But there were plenty of presents underneath just begging to be opened. And on one of the couches sat Jane, cradling her child that was only a few months old.

"Jane!" I was so happy to see her. "And this must be Elizabeth, may I?"

"Of course!" Jane said and she carefully moved her daughter from her arms to mine.

"She's so tiny!" I said looking into the face of the sleeping angel in my arms. And to think that her father was… Well it didn't matter now. Jane had prided herself in being able to go through the pregnancy with no man at her side. Julia had helped her many times, and I only wished I could have been there physically too, but seeing as I lived with John in Sacramento it was impossible to be there all the time. John often humored me and drove me down to Los Angeles to see them all, but it just wasn't the same. I hadn't seen them since a week before the actual birth, it seemed that young Elizabeth had been a little reluctant to come into the world.

"But she's growing," Jane said, coming to my side and looking at the child. I knew that Jane was a good mother, and if I hadn't known it before it was plain to see by the gleam of love that poured out of her eyes as she looked upon her child. It was heart warming really.

And then Elizabeth opened her eyes. I assume that it was due to the fact that she awoke to the face of a complete stranger, but I had never heard a baby wail as loud as that.

"She must be hungry, I'll take her now Margaret," Jane said before I eagerly left Elizabeth to her expert hands. "Hush, hush now sweet one, mommy is here."

John came and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, "Want one?"

"Huh?" I said, not really paying attention to his words as I looked upon the peaceful scene of a mother with her child.

"I said you want one? It'll be my pleasure to make one with you love," he whispered into my ear.

"Ugh, yeah, right," I rolled my eyes at his statement.

"We'll have fun, I promise," he smiled.

"I'm not having any kids until there's a ring, right…" I said, looking at him and pointing to my ring finger, "there."

"We'll have to remedy that now, won't we?" he said, his voice still a whisper.

I couldn't help but smile. I had never really thought about spending the rest of my life with John by my side, but it wasn't a thought I hated. In fact, I had never thought about spending my life with anyone else, I guess that when I thought about the future I just assumed that he would be there by my side.

"Yes we will," I said smiling up at him. He was gorgeous, and I knew what I wanted for Christmas. I just wanted him. That would be the best present by far, even better than the Barbie Dream House that my parent's had bought me when I was in the third grade. I had my Ken right here, no pretending.

He smiled back at me before he got down on one knee.

I gasped, was he really? "John, not here." I wanted this to be special, our own little moment, not in the living room of my cousin's house.

"What?" he said, looking up from his place on the floor, "I'm just tying my shoe."

"Jerk!" I said and I flicked his forehead with my finger, he just laughed. Really? Why would he do that?

"Oh, you thought I was going to, oh," he said, smiling and rubbing his forehead where my finger had met it, but I knew he was just playing games with me. How stupid of me to forget his ridiculous sense of humor.

"Dinner is served," Edith said gracefully as she emerged from the kitchen and I just ignored John.

"Edith, so good to see you," I said as I hugged her and gave her a peck on the forehead.

"What was that for? Weirdo," she said wiping off her brow.

"That apron," I pointed at her chest where the words 'Kiss the Chef' were printed on the fabric.

"Ah," she smiled before John greeted Ryan.

"How's the married life treating you?"

"Run now while you still have the chance, you do, don't you?" Ryan joked back, sending me a nod of the head. Did they have to be so stereotypical?

"I don't know, I'm surprised she untied me off the leg of the bed for this, I guess you're right," John said, pretending to scratch his chin in thought. Ooh was he going to get it later.

"Nice to see you too Ryan," I rolled my eyes.

"Don't worry John, if you ever decide to marry my cousin at least you and Ryan will have each other," Edith patted John on the back playfully.

"If, if is good," John quoted Disney's Hercules, a movie we had watched curled up on his couch.

"Yeah, if we sit down now then maybe the food will still be warm. Now if we don't then nobody will get to open their presents tonight, I'll make sure of that," Julia said from her seat at the dining table that was decorated festively. The food looked delicious.

"I don't know about you, but I want to open my presents tonight," Jane said as she took a seat at the table beside Julia.

***

"So how's business up there, everything working out fine?" Ryan and John were continuing their conversation at one end of the table, and as I sat beside John I talked with the girls I had missed these past months.

"What's his name?" Jane was questioning Julia, Edith was looking at her expectedly.

"Wait, you broke up with William again?" I asked, they had been dating on and off since the wedding. But apparently this time Julia had moved on.

"Yup, I dumped that sucker for Andrew, real swell guy," Julia was saying.

"I thought you guys had something for sure," I said, taking a bite out of my food.

"Nah, I guess I just wasn't feeling the fire like you and John feel it," Julia smiled back at me mischievously.

"So when are you guys tying the knot?" Jane whispered conspiratorially across the table. Edith shook her head enthusiastically, her mouth full of food.

"I don't know," I shrugged, and at that moment John's hand was finding mine under the table. I didn't help him either, not until he opened my hand with his so that he could interlock our fingers. Why did he make it so hard for me to stay mad at him?

"But you've thought about it, right? I mean it's only a matter of time before-" Edith began to say.

"He's right here ladies," I said, raising my voice above the whisper we had been talking in.

"Yeah, but don't think I wasn't listening to both of you earlier in the living room. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but come on," Jane smiled, Julia absolutely beamed. I just blushed.

"Well it's not like I haven't thought about it. But it's his move to make," I made an almost imperceptible shrug of my shoulders.

"Don't make this so hard on him again though, because if you do, I swear, I'll drive up to Sacramento and strangle you until you take him out of his misery," Julia shook a finger at men, it was quite funny.

"What do you mean? I love John too much do something like that to him," I said, squeezing his hand under that table.

"Um, hark, last year? Making it so difficult for both of you to be together when it was perfectly clear that you were meant to be," Julia pointed her fork at me; I was quite intimidated.

"I…" I began, but I knew that Jane and Edith, especially Edith, hadn't heard the whole story. I had told them that John and I were pretending at the beginning but that eventually we realized that we liked each other and decided to make it real. It seemed plausible to them, they understood.

"What?" Jane gaped.

"Girl talk, living room, now. Ryan, you keep John in here or you're sleeping on the couch tonight," Edith said standing from the table and warning Ryan, "And I don't care that it's Christmas."

Julia smiled at me before dragging me into the living room.

"Spill," Jane said as they gathered around me, little Betty was still fast asleep in her basket.

"I grew up, what else could I say?" I really didn't want to talk about these things, I had fixed things with John, we were fine now.

"Please?" Edith begged, she was good at getting what she wanted.

"Okay, okay, I'll talk," and Edith clapped her hands together in excitement, earning herself a glare from Jane who looked over at the fast asleep Elizabeth. "Well as you know, Henry and I didn't really end our relationship on the brightest note. I seriously thought I was in love with him for those years that passed. When I came for the wedding I had no intention of hurting anyone, I really just wanted Henry to at least feel some regret over losing me, but how could he when he had you, Jane? Then I realized he was messed up already, but by that time Jane and John had both already been hurt and I felt like a complete piece of shit, sorry Betty. When I told John about my feelings for him, he was more than happy to love me back. But I was insecure, I felt that I didn't deserve to be loved because I hadn't contributed back much love to the people around me. I felt like I had to give a little to get a little, you know? I couldn't let myself be happy when other people weren't, and I was still afraid of getting my heart broken again. But then I found that we all deserve a second chance at love, maybe sometimes we won't find it in the right places, but that doesn't mean we have to give up."

"Wow, I couldn't have said it better myself," Julia sighed dreamily.

"Yeah, I lived it didn't I?" and I survived it. Hell I would do it all again so long as I knew that John would be there for me in the end.

***

"So what did you girls talk about?" John asked me as we walked with our fingers interlocked. We were walking through a park. Most people were inside with their families, but we enjoyed the lights their adorned houses offered us.

We had left Edith's house shortly after opening a few presents and drinking more eggnog than one person should drink.

"Nothing in particular, who know, which guys we thought were cute and what not," I smiled cheekily at him. "Girls don't share their gossip with guys, you know that. Code of honor sort of thing."

He raised his eyebrows but he smiled anyway.

"You haven't given me my present yet," I pretended to pout, having him here by my side was present enough.

"You'll get it, it's just really big and I didn't want you to open it here, or else how would we get it back?"

"Uh-huh, sure. I bet you didn't even buy me a present."

"I have the other years, what makes this any different?"

"Just saying, boyfriends think that they can just pretend they forgot."

"I never forget."

"I believe you," I pecked his lips before running into the openness of the park. The park was on a hill, and because it had rained earlier that day the sky was smog free and the city blinked prettily.

"Just because it's Christmas doesn't mean that you can act like a little kid," John said as he reached me and softly tackled me to the ground. It was damp, but we didn't care.

"The trick to growing up is never growing old," I kissed his nose. Boy was he handsome.

"I lied."

"About what?"

"Your present."

"You forgot?"

"Nope."

"What?"

"It's a big deal, but it can fit in my pocket."

"Gross."

"You're the one thinking it. But it's not that."

"What then?"

"Close your eyes and keep them closed."

"Is this to get back at me for earlier? I made it up to you didn't I?"

"Yes you did, and no it's not. Just close your eyes."

"Fine," I did as I was told, but it was annoying. Now I understood his impatience. He grabbed by hand and kissed it. "Now?"

"Yes."

It seemed to reflect all the light coming from the city. I could only gasp.

"Margaret, will you marry me?" John asked, flashing his best smile. I kissed him.

"Yes, yes, yes!" I mean what else could I say?

***

He slipped the ring onto my finger.

I was looking at him so intently, happiness just threatening to burst out of me. I completely blanked out until I heard those words.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Thornton."

That day, that day I married John, was the day my life became complete.

A/N: So what did you think? Please leave me a nice review!!!

PS. Please check my profile for the a new one-shot that I published recently, lots of fun, I promise! ;)