So here it is. The final chapter. I'm quite nervous to post this; normally I don't finish stories, let alone share them with anyone. So please go easy on me, okay? I really hope you enjoy the ending. This has been an amazing journey and -dramatic deep breath- I'd like to thank everyone who favorited, followed, and especially reviewed. I couldn't have done it without you.

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Three months later, Emily is laying on the grass in a field near her house, one arm draped around Hanna's shoulders and the other hand absently plucking flowers from the ground. Hanna sighs and nestles closer to her, and she closes her eyes, enjoying the warmth of the sunshine on her face.

"So for my birthday," a voice says, "I was thinking we could all go to that cute little bed and breakfast place just outside of Philly."

"The one where they serve those mini waffles with the maple-flavored ice cream?" someone replies enthusiastically.

"And you can get those amazing shiatsu massages that last for hours and leave you feeling all, what did they say in the catalogue, 'refreshed and rejuvenated'?"

"That's the one. I thought it would be nice to go, you know, just us five."

Emily sits up, shading her eyes with her hands, and looks around at her friends. Spencer is sitting cross-legged, a French textbook open in front of her; she's been attempting to study all morning, but she keeps getting dragged into the conversation anyway. She doesn't seem to mind. Aria is sitting beside her, weaving something out of long grass and a few flowers. She looks up every now and then, as if checking that all her friends are really there and haven't dissipated in the bright sun. Alison is sitting a little bit away from the group, leaning forward and playing with her hair, an excited smile on her face as she makes plans for her upcoming birthday.

After that night, Alison and Aria had been taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and some burns. The other three had been allowed home that night, although Spencer had first had to get a cast on her wrist. Toby had remained in hospital for a couple of weeks, but Spencer went to visit him every day. When Ali and Aria had finally been released, they'd all met together in Spencer's barn to discuss what had happened.

Ali had started by apologising to them, which had ensured stunned silence for the remainder of her speech. She had been keeping an eye on them for the past few months, ever since she found out they were –A's target. Mona had known she was alive, and had been using them as bait to lure Ali out. It had worked. When Ali found out Mona was going to kill them, she'd followed her to the lodge and done her best to save them.

At that point the pizza had arrived, so they listened to the next part of Ali's story with mouths full of double-stuffed salami-and-pepperoni pizza. When –A – Mona and Paige – had started tormenting her, she'd tried to find out who they were. But they'd threatened her, and they threatened her friends too. She thought the only way to escape it was to make everyone believe she was dead. It had been horrible, but it was what she thought was best. She'd been living a few towns over as Vivian Darkbloom, an alias that nobody had seen through. But then she'd heard that –A was targeting her friends, and, livid, she'd come back to Rosewood to see what was going on. She'd wanted to reveal herself to them, to let them know she was still alive, but she'd been scared. The most she'd been able to do was come to them in 'dreams' – when they were so out of it that they wouldn't really believe she'd been there.

She had a lot of explaining to do – especially to her parents – but she was starting to slide back into her old life in Rosewood. She seemed different. Softer, somehow, like all that she'd gone through had smoothed her rough edges and made her gentler. Emily liked this new Alison, but she didn't love her; those feelings had long ago faded away. And besides, she had Hanna now.

Over the next few days they'd filled in the rest of the story, with a lot of help from Toby. He'd told them what he knew about the A-Team: who'd done what, who'd hurt whom. It turned out that Paige had been the one to lace Emily's cream (and, later, food) with HGH – she'd been the only one close enough to do it. At first Emily was angry about it, but then she remembered Paige's final moments. This is for you. She'd done some unforgivable things, and even if she'd lived Emily would never have been with her again… but she did still love her, in a way, and she would never forget her.

Toby had told the police where to find –A's lair, and the cops had gone and cleared it all out and used the evidence to prove that Mona had been the one threatening Ali and torturing the girls. If she'd survived the fire, she would have been facing a long prison sentence; Radley would never have taken her back.

The girls hadn't heard from Lucas or Jason since their respective disappearances, but that was okay by them. Any reminders of –A, of that horrible period of their lives, were happily forgotten. They moved on with their lives – slowly, painfully, uncertainly. They all took a week off school, and when they'd returned they'd had to face more rumors than the past few years combined. But they dealt with it, together.

They began to pull together fragments of their old lives, weaving them into the lives they hoped they'd get to live now: Hanna got an internship with a local stylist, Aria had started to put together some of her photography to show at a local art gallery, Spencer became class president, picked up all her extracurriculars and even managed to start a support group for students who'd experienced bullying. Emily took up swimming again, even though it reminded her terribly of Paige; but Hanna was there cheering her on at every meet, and it started to become fun again.

Ali enrolled back in school, but this time she was content to keep a low profile; she'd mellowed a bit, and was happy to stay under the radar. She made more of an effort with the girls, too: she helped Hanna write an article on shoes or scarves or something (Emily didn't really care, although she did her best to be excited for her) that ended up getting published in a real magazine; she used some of her savings (you don't spend a lot of money when you're dead) to buy Aria a new, flashy camera, which she absolutely loved; she even co-hosted some of Spencer's bullying support group sessions. And she never missed one of Emily's swim meets, even when she had an appointment with her therapist at the same time.

"You guys," Ali says suddenly, jerking Emily back to the present, "I have something to say."

Everyone turns to her. They're still a little jumpy – with Mona's death the A-Team had disintegrated (she had been Red Coat – but she hadn't let the other members know because she thought they would be more scared of a faceless leader than somebody they knew), but they're still wary, almost like they're waiting for something to come along and ruin their tiny piece of happiness. You never know what's going to happen in Rosewood, after all.

"I know we've all been through hell these past couple years," Ali says, looking down at her hands, which are nervously fiddling with a piece of grass. Then she looks up, meeting each of her friend's eyes before continuing. "But I'm… I'm glad we're all here. I'm glad we got through it, and that we're all friends again. I've missed you all so much, and I'm sorry I never got the chance to be with you as you turned into such amazing girls… but I'm here now. And I want to make the most of it."

Ali has said what they were all thinking: it's great to be together, and now that their circle of friends is complete again, maybe they can have their lives back. But better, this time. The words hang over them, warmer than the sunshine. Nothing else needs to be said. Things will be better now.

At that moment Aria reveals what she's been working on: bracelets weaved out of grass and flowers. She's made one for each of them, and she now proudly hands them out. As Aria ties the bracelet around Emily's wrist, Emily smiles. They'd had bracelets before, which Ali had given to bind them together as friends – and to remind them to keep their secret. But now it was different. These were to remind them of how far they'd come, how much they'd been through, and the fact that it had brought them all back together. Back to where they're meant to be. Aria sits back on her heels, grinning at them, and they all grin back. The moment is perfect.

"Well," Spencer says after a couple of minutes, closing her textbook and shoving it in her bag with one still-bandaged hand, "I should get going. Toby and I are going out to lunch."

"Say hi for us," Hanna says cheerfully.

Spencer waves to them and then disappears down the hill. A few minutes of pleasant silence pass before Aria's phone goes off. As she reads the message, her eyes light up and her cheeks turn pink.

"Is that Holden?" Ali asks, lightly teasing.

Aria ducks her head, her bangs falling over the barely-visible burn scars on her cheek. "He wants me to meet him."

Since Jason's 'disappearance', Aria had been getting closer to her old friend Holden. It was perfectly clear to everyone else that they liked each other, and the girls all had bets on when he would ask her out already.

"What are you waiting for? Go get him, tiger," Ali laughs, tossing her blond hair back over her shoulder and winking at her friend.

"I'll see you guys later." Aria grabs her bag and skips off.

Ali cocks her eyebrow, shaking her head slightly. "That girl is really weird," she says affectionately. Then she looks at her watch and leaps to her feet. "Shoot, I'm late. We're still meeting at my place after dinner tonight, right?"

The girls nod, and Ali waves to them, running backwards a few steps, before she turns and jogs away. Emily watches her until she's out of sight, and then she sighs.

"Hey," Hanna says, propping herself up on her elbows and looking at her girlfriend (they'd made it official about two months ago). "Everything okay?"

Emily thinks about all they've been through, about all the things they still have to work through. She looks at the scattering of scars on her arm, from the broken window at the lodge. Hanna sometimes runs her fingers along them and say My hero in a melodramatic way, which always makes Emily laugh.

She thinks about how Ali had to fake her own death just to keep them all safe. She thinks about how Spencer broke down and ended up in Radley, checking out of that hellhole only to step right into a living hell; about how she almost lost the love of her life, who's still undergoing physical therapy. She thinks about how Aria was betrayed by the man she thought she loved, and how she'd had to lie to the police about what had happened. She thinks about how Hanna still sometimes has nightmares about the night she was kidnapped, how she never quite forgave herself for befriending Mona, how her perfect features were now marred by a small burn scar just under her eye from where she'd run into the lodge after Emily.

And she thinks about everything that's happened to her: her car crash, finding out Paige was on the A-Team, joining the team herself, lying to her friends, not being sure who to trust, fighting with Hanna and Aria over secrets she never should have kept, kissing Jason, dumping Paige, working for Mona, almost getting killed and being the reason for her friends' deaths too…

But then she thinks about all the things they have left in front of them. Senior year. Graduation. Going to college – and finally escaping Rosewood. But also the smaller things. Taking Hanna to prom. Going to Aria's art gallery exhibition. Congratulating Spencer on getting valedictorian (was there ever any doubt?). Going to Ali's birthday party. And this moment, right here and now, with the girl she loves.

She turns to Hanna, smiling.

"You know," she says, as they lay back down on the grass and look up at the pellucid blue sky, "I think, for once, it is."

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Well, there you go. What did you think? I'm working on quite a few other stories right now, so if you liked this one you might like to have a look at my others sometime. I'm also still tempted to write a companion to this story, with a chapter from the perspective of each of the A-Team members explaining a bit about how and why they joined. If anyone would be interested in that, leave a review or PM me and let me know. Thanks again, everyone. I hope you liked the story. :)