Author's Note: About damn time, huh?

"Why did you want to meet me?" Eli asked, his hands shoved deep into his pockets as he glanced at the Alice in Wonderland statute – it had always been Clare's favorite; it was an appropriate spot for them to meet.

"I…I know what I want, Eli."

"Good for you."

"Eli!"

"Clare, I know I screwed up, alright? I know and I can never forgive myself for what I did to you. But you know that I love you, right? I love you more than anything. But you keep changing your mind about me. It's like, one moment you want everything to be okay between us and reconcile, but the next, it's like you're spending every second convincing yourself what a horrible idea it is."

Clare leaned against the statue and pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. His words stung, but she knew they were true. She had done that to him, and it hadn't been fair. Now, she finally had made her decision and she knew what she had to do. She had lost Eli once before, and she was not about to risk losing him a second time.

"I know," she nodded, "I know it hasn't been fair to you. We've both hurt each other quite a lot throughout our time together, but I just can't bear the thought of losing you again, Eli. I don't know how we'd work out – you with your career, and me with mine…"

"Clare…"

"But I want to try. I want you in my life again. I don't want to lose you a second time. Spending this time with you…I just don't want to say goodbye to you. I don't want you to walk out my door again, never knowing when or if I would see you again. We've both made some mistakes, but just know that I think if I were to lose you again, on account of my own volition, then that would be the biggest mistake I could ever make."

Eli opened up his arms, and invited her into a hug. He kissed her forehead and said, "Clare, are you sure this is what you want? You're not going to change your mind again, are you?"

"Eli, I have never been so sure of anything in my life before as I am right now."

"Okay," a broad smile spread across his face, "So…does this mean I should plan to move back into the apartment, or what?"

Clare laughed, "Before we start thinking about all of that, we should probably go tell Adam."

"You mean you haven't told him yet?"

"No," Clare slipped her hand through his.

"Poor kid must be bursting at the seams!"

Together, hand in hand, they headed towards the pond where Adam was waiting, watching kids sail miniature sailboats. When he saw Clare and Eli approach, he raised an eyebrow and a huge smile spread across his lips.

"About damn time," he grinned, "Come on. Let me take you two love birds out of dinner."

Fin.

Author's Note: It's not the best, but I am glad to have finished it. Now I can work on finishing some of my other stuff!