Catz: It's been two years and a day since I uploaded the first chapter of this crazy train ride. Time to finish it.

My bare feet dipped into the lake, my toes sending ripples through the calm water, dark with the black sky of night. The reflection of the stars distorted as my kicking feet skimmed the surface of the water.

I stared over the lake, content in the early evening's nightbreak, as suddenly a light flashed over top of the lake, like a lighthouse's beacon in the warm July air. I stopped moving my feet, rigid, staring over the lake.

More flashes, not only over the lake but all around me. I scrambled to my feet, whooping. I ran up the hill to the house, shouting for Danny. He met me at the back door.

"What's up, kiddo?" He asked, mussing my hair, as Ben appeared behind him in the doorway. I only grinned and gestured to the night air, full of tiny flashes. He stared, then broke into a wide grin as well, running into the dark night in his bare feet. Ben simply stood, looking confused.

"Come on with us, Ben!" I called to him. He walked out uncertainly, squinting at the yard full of fireflies.

"Courtney…What are those?" He asked, staring.

"Oh, right…You probably don't know about fireflies, huh?" I asked, feeling kind of stupid. Sometimes Ben seemed like such a normal guy that I forgot his lack of common knowledge. I tried to think of a way to explain, but decided I could show better than I could tell.

"Here," I said, scanning the area around me for flashes. I saw one not far away, pulling the tiny light from the air and into my palm, fingers curled to shut the tiny being into a cage. I pulled him closer to Ben, opening my hand to show the little guy flashing as he sat in my palm. Ben stared, entranced, reaching out a finger to my palm, and the firefly poked at his finger with it's antenna. I grinned as the firefly climbed onto Ben's finger with stubby little legs. He lifted the finger to watch the little guy determinedly hike all the way up his index finger, and sit still for just a moment on his nail before lifting his wings and taking to the air.

Ben turned to me, grinning widely.

"That's so cool."

"I know," I replied, grinning myself. "It's called a firefly, or lightning bug, because of the way it lights up. They come here in the summer, and it's sort of tradition to come out and catch them. At least with me and Danny." I smiled, thinking of all the summers me and Danny had come out here and caught fireflies, tackled each other, and shoved one another into the lake.

"Well, I want to try!" Ben exclaimed, grinning, taking my hand and pulling me down the hill to join Danny at the bottom of the hill.

Danny and Ben got in some big completion to see who could catch the most fireflies and hold onto them without the fireflies escaping. Danny tripped and his hand flew open, all the fireflies spilling out, climbing up to the top of the tiny grass blades they'd landed on before taking to the air.

"I win!" Shouted Ben, opening his hand and letting the twenty-some fireflies he had been holding captive take to the air.

"Yeah, this battle, but the war is far from over!" Danny shouted, lunging at Ben and tackling him around the waist. Ben squirmed away, scrambling to his feet, and both of them circled one another, eyes wide, faces flushed, grinning, as they lunged at each other, swinging and missing in our play-fight game we called "Take down".

I flopped down in the grass, watching them lunge at each other in the summer night. When I had first come home with Ben, I had been worried him and Danny wouldn't get along, but they did alright. Ben got into a lot of things Danny and I loved, including video games. Surprising, considering one was a prison to him for eleven years, but he loved graphics and storyline. He wouldn't play Majora's Mask, though. It made him upset to remember that part of the past; he wanted to move on from that.

He was rather shy at first, seeming not to really know how to take the rambunctious nature of me and Danny, but came out of his shell more as time passed, messing around right along with us. He wasn't quite as crazy as us, especially in public, where he didn't feel comfortable in general. But in private, he could get nearly as swept up in craziness as Danny and I. Like now, for instance, the two of them laughing and watching every move of the other in a friendly brawl.

Danny had been really iffy at first about me and Ben dating; I was still his baby sister, after all; but he got more comfortable with our relationship with time (as long as there was no pda in front of him). Especially at first, when he was freaked out over this random dude I had just brought home. I don't think he really believed the story of our adventure at first - how Ben and I had gone to Kentucky to revive him - but as time went on, and with all the pieces matching the story - Jake in jail, Ben with me, and even a receipt I had saved from one of the restaurants in Kentucky - he seemed to accept the story as reality.

I stood up and stretched, and was a bit surprised to find myself suddenly on the ground, someone heavy pinning me down. I heard a chuckle, looking up to see brown hair in blue eyes, Evan's laugh filling the space between us.

"Looked like they were having all the fun, so I decided to include you." He said, grinning. I pushed him off, rolling away like a boss and jumping to my feet, dashing behind him and jumping on his back. Danny ran from his fight with Ben to grab Evan's arm and pull him down, flopping down on top of him. I dogpiled on Danny, and Ben flopped onto my back. I smiled up at him, half-flushed, half blushing.

I squirmed out from the human sandwich, rolling away a bit before walking back to the seawall, sitting on the edge of it and dangling my feet into the lake. Ben sat next to me, as Danny helped Evan to his feet. The two of them started up toward's Tim's house, talking and laughing growing faint as they moved further away.

I watched them walk to the house where a boy had once lived that turned from friend to enemy. Jake was still in a juvenile detention center, but was receiving counseling and seemed to be getting better. I was glad; not that I had any type of feelings or sympathy for him, but Tim and Evan were having a rough time with it, especially with Jake's occasional lapses in recovery.

Ben nudged my shoulder, bringing me back down to Earth.

"You okay there? You were kind of spacing out." He said.

I looked over at him through the warm night, as the fireflies settled a bit from the earlier evening's craziness; the blinks fewer and scattered.

We weren't perfect, by any means. But we loved each other; all of us did. I loved my brothers; Danny and not-technically-related-but-still-my-brother Evan. I loved my boyfriend and good friend Ben.

And together we could make this weird, amazing family work.

"I'm fantastic." I said, smiling.

I braced one hand on the seawall as I leaned over to kiss him, as all around us, fireflies swung in a lazy summer dance, our feet dipped into the lake's shallow waters.

Catz: And that's a wrap.

It's a day late for the two-year anniversary, but here you go. The story actually got 42 views yesterday; really abnormally high. were you guys checking up for an update for the anniversary? Here it is; just a day late. Whoops~

I wrote this a little under a year ago; right about the time I uploaded the last chapter. Never posted it, but thought about it the other day and thought you guys might appreciate an epilogue. The way I wrote it seems a bit childish to me now (everyone in this story is an enormous dork), but I've been through a lot and matured a ton since then. I decided not to change it too much, though. Keep in with my writing style when I wrote the fic.

I wanted the last words to be From Shallow Waters, but that wasn't happening, so just Shallow Waters works. The story begins, and ends, with Shallow Waters. Those of a river and lake; but all water's not so different, hmm? ;)

Fun fact: wrote and edited this while listening to Fireflies by Owl City.

Thank you to everyone reading this. I love all of you so so much~

For the last time (at least, for this story); review, my lovely Skittles!

Catz outskie~