Epilogue

The grumpiest of the wardens, Simon Van Woodsen, had pulled Jade out of her bed on a perfect Saturday morning. She hated Saturdays anyways, there was nothing to do, no school, just visiting hours, and she didn't want to go to hear Neal's excuses once more. The morning was perfect in the sense that it had a beautiful weather outside, not a cloud was seen, at least it wasn't from the tiny window in the cell Jade shared with Kara, twenty weeks for assault.

In other words, Jade didn't really mind being able to do something, she was actually quite happy she had a reason to skip visiting hours, but she still moaned loudly while getting up and closing the book she read, expressing her individuality. She followed Mr. Sour Van Whatever out of the common room, where two girls from upstate were about to fall into a fight over tooth paste, Jenna was going to win the chess game, and Alison was going to get her head in the toilets again. Good times.

She was brought to a place Jade had never been to during her two-out-of-six months she had spent here, which was pretty rare. Jade had been to the "principal's" office already, after an incident involving a moron, a fake ID and, for once, not her. She had also been to the visiting room, once, never again, and the outside area, and everywhere else they were allowed to go with or without an escort. She thought she knew the building very well by now, but she was obviously wrong.

She was buzzed through numerous doors, thrown some comments about getting in trouble by her lovely peers, and ordered to stay still, walk and whatever more Mr. Whatever wanted. Jade had learned quickly that keeping your head down and doing as told was the best way to survive in here.

After walking for a little while, Jade realized what was going on. She had walked this place once before, when she went inside of the place. Was she going out? She knew the judge had talked about sentence shortened because of good behavior, but a third of her sentence removed because of that?

They finally stopped in an entrance room, and she was ordered to pull out her arms. They cuffed them together and left her in there for two seconds before coming back in. With company.

"What are you doing here," Jade said, making her eyes as hostile she could to the man in front of her.

Neal Caffrey looked back over at her, avoiding looking at the cuffs and the orange jumpsuit. "I'm not here to apologize, Jade."

"You better not be, 'cause I don't want to hear one." The two people behind Neal shifted uncomfortably. Jade recognized both of them from her apartment. Feds. They stood there and sprinkled salt in her almost-healed wound. Or was it healed? She had stayed away from Neal since their meet a week after she got arrested, when he had tried to apologize and start over. After that episode she kept her distance from the visiting hours. At first because he made her mad with his stupid face and stupid apology, but soon she did it as a precaution, as a rule, not wanting to become the sappy kid that just let people get away with doing things against her. Even if he was her brother. He would do well with some rejection anyways, he probably had people falling for him left and right with those genes. And pulling a close relationship with a fed, or anything closely related to a fed, while being here was considered pretty stupid.

"I thought you might want a trip outside for a day, so I pulled some strings." His smile was as genuine as his conning could take her, but Jade could read between the lines. This was just a huge and well-planned peace offering.

Jade was torn. One side of her wanted to get a day off this awful place, she was tired of the same halls, the same bars, the doors, the people… But she wasn't supposed to let him get to her like this. "That was nice of you," she replied as neutral as she could trying to find the dignity she lost the second her hands were cuffed together across her belly.

Two other wardens arrived from nowhere, sending dirty looks at Neal. Apparently, they didn't think it was nice of him, it was probably more of a hassle to them, bringing a delinquent on a sightseeing trip.

Jade couldn't hold herself. "To where are we going then?"

Neal smiled for the first time. "That's a surprise," he said, turned around and started walking with the agents, her wardens and herself behind, leaving her no other option than following.

They were probably the weirdest gang that Jade would ever see. In the back seat, was Neal, with some kind of highly expensive suit, with Jade, in orange jumpsuit and sneakers right beside, an agent by the door, a warden behind them again and a warden and another fed in front. If she had seen this car drive by, Jade would have been very confused.

When the car started driving out, Jade was too busy looking out the windows to pay attention to anything else. It was very nice to be able to see something else than that specific building, or that specific road, like she had been for the last two months.

"Soo, have you tried to smuggle in a phone via the janitor yet?" Neal asked lightly, apparently to break the silence.

"That couldn't have worked very well." She kept her voice as neutral as she could.

"Well, if his goal was to get half a year added on his sentence, then yes. It worked."

Jade couldn't hold back a smile. "Well not that, but the girl in the cell next to me tried to hide an ID card in a tape recorder."

Neal laughed back. "Well that actually works, you know."

Jade felt like challenging a little bit. She could see every state paid person in the car paying attention to what was said. "How would you know that?"

The male fed at Neal's side leaned forward to look at Jade. "He invented it."

"You're joking."

"The moral is to not do it, you get four extended years for that." Neal replied shortly.

The agent nodded in agreement, and Jade was left really confused. "But they check the cassette players. Why did you put it there?"

Neal smiled even wider. "I guess they started checking the cassette players after I left," he said, and Jade snorted once out of laughter. That wasn't supposed to happen.

"Well, at least you didn't try to jump from the roof in the middle of the day. Or press the fire alarm and hope for the best."

Neal laughed back. "Press the fire alarm?"

"I know right! Talk about being desperate!" Jade smiled back, and suddenly, they were telling stories of escapes going wrong or people being weird in prison, all while the other in the car was trying to find something incriminating on them. The day had already been great, even before Jade knew what the surprise was, and while she tried hard to not make it so. She was fine with this light tone, but she was tired of apologies and being serious. She had too much of that in her life to begin with. Just forgetting about the backstory for a second was refreshing.

Right before the drive ended, the agent beside Neal (who Jade finally had remembered was his handler, although she had yet to remember his name) leaned over to open Jade's cuffs. He pulled the left hand out, and left the right one in while saying "Who's the lucky one?"

Of course they wanted the girl in custody cuffed to someone else. The biggest scandal in history would be an escape attempt from a delinquent getting a free pass out of jail for a day with a bunch of fed all over. The funny thing was that none of the agents and wardens in the car said anything, before Neal spoke up and said that he could do it, which resulted in an even deader silence in the car.

"Oh, come on, Peter, where would she go? I have an anklet, and you'll all be there around her all the time." Neal caught Peter's eyes, and Jade could see a silent conversation happening, where Neal played on that sister-brother bonding thing.

"Fine," Peter replied after a couple of seconds of thinking and exchanging looks with the other police in the car. Jade barely managed to restrain herself from a surprised frown, when her right hand was cuffed tightly to Neal's left. The car stopped right after that, in a parking lot outside of some trees, and something that either looked like a park, or a graveyard.

Jade finally understood. She lost the playful little expression she had before and looked over to Neal. He looked back at her, mixing sadness with apology with his face. "I thought you might-"

"What? Like it?" She said. "If this is what you think bond-"

"Want to see it. She was just as much of a mother to you than to me." Neal cut her off the same way she had cut him off.

Jade sighed. "Of course I do, I just…" she looked around. Grieving wasn't really ideal with a bunch of cops around.

"It was the best thing I could do." Neal replied, and they both moved together to get out of the car. The state troopers were fanning around them as they walked, one in front, one behind, and one at each side. Like running away wasn't the last thing on Jade's mind right now.

She didn't know when or where, but somehow while walking up there, Jade had found Neal's hand, and held onto it, instead of awkwardly brushing the back of their hands to the others. It seemed more natural this way, although some part of her was still pulling away. And it felt necessary holding onto something, as her heart was starting to distort in her chest.

It wasn't a long walk, but just looking at all the graves, the dead people lying there, was enough to make her go home. Once, she thought she saw a Marcus there, and her heart jumped up in her throat, and she swallowed hard to keep it down. There would be no crying, not now.

But Jade had to eat her own words pretty quickly after that. Neal stopped a few graves after Marcus, in front of a white tombstone with her name on it. Ellen Parker. Jade bit her lip and tried as hard as she could to keep it inside, but a sob escaped her lips, and her grip around Neal's hand tightened. She tried to get the words that would ask Neal what happened, but she couldn't get them out.

Neal didn't look at Jade, but he still got what she was trying to do. "They found her." He said, voice hushed down by the graves and the trees. "Well, I contacted her, and pulled her into bureaucracy, and… they found her." He stared on the grave. "It's my fault."

Jade sobbed again, and felt tears run down her cheek. She felt like she had to say something to comfort him. "Mom… she," she swallowed. "She was gonna get me, and her car crashed. I could have stopped it, if I hadn't been such an idiot…" Her brother's face looked back up at Jade, and she could see the tears in his eyes too.

"It wasn't your fault, Jade." It was nice to hear him say it, even though she knew he said that just to comfort her.

"Well, Ellen wasn't yours either." Jade gave it right back to him. She knew that he would never intentionally hurt Ellen. Neal didn't have an answer to that; he just looked back to the white tombstone.

"I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have stuffed you in there, especially when I knew what it was like. I-"

"It's fine," Jade replied quickly to get him to shut up. She wasn't sure he pulled her here to get an apology, but she didn't mind. The skeletons in her closet were probably more and bigger than his, who would she be if she didn't accept burying one of his. "Ellen… or mom, they wouldn't want us fighting."

"I guess not." Neal replied softly.

"Besides, I'm losing too many people around me. Ellen and Marcus, and Ma… I don't think I can afford to lose anyone else." Jade made a sad smile through her tears, and this time, it was Neal who pulled in to a hug, with their cuffed together hands in between their bodies. Once his mouth was close to her ear, he whispered; "Look, I have a lock pick in my front pocket, and a car with a really good friend in it right by. If you want to…"

"Shush," Jade just replied silently in his ear. "Don't ruin it."

Neal pulled away and let his right hand fall on her shoulder. "Are you sure?"

"It's not prison, it's Juvie, and it's four more months. I'll manage." Jade felt something sinking in her chest. She wasn't sure what it was, accept? Jealousy? Her moving on?

"You said-"

"I said, yes." Jade breathed heavily and tried looking around at everywhere than in his face. Now it was her turn to feel the guilt. "I'm not going to walk around pretending that running from city to city, afraid to look back, afraid to move, afraid to breathe, is the best thing that happened to me. I'll be fine." She held tighter onto his hand. "Just promise me you'll be visiting, okay?"

"As often as I can. I'll talk my handler into taking me."

Jade broke out a smile and switched her grip on his hand. "Thank you."

Peter, the handler, spoke up. "Neal! We got to go."

Jade's smile turned melancholic and she held even harder on to his hand. She looked over at Neal, and Neal looked over at her, and together, one in a jumpsuit, her hair tired back in a messy ponytail the other in an expensive suit, perfectly styled hair, holding cuffed together hands, walking down a hill on a graveyard to something one of them had been searching for their whole life.

Peace.

THE END

So what it says in the document I'm writing this whole thing (that is about 83 pages now) between these words and the next to come is ASDFGHJKLASFGHJKL, which describes my exact feelings right now. This has been such a cool journey from start to end and I'm FOREVER thankful to the people who wanted to share this with me. If it was reviewing the story or following it or favorite-ing it or following me or favorite-ing me or whatever, you are amazing. I can't believe this is over for now.

Talking about for now, there may be more. The sequel is going on in my brain, but I have to see if I have the time to put it down on paper. It's my final year of high school now, and things are already speeding up to the point that I have little time for anything. There are also a lot of holes in the plot to fill out, a lot of scenes to make and relations to build, in other words a lot of things to do. I want the next one to be more in-depth, longer, better and more character driven, more than this have been. And that takes time and work, and the bravery that I had to post Jade in the first place.

So basically, the plot revolves more around Jade now. You'll see her get out of Juvie and starting a new life moving in with Peter and Elizabeth (Neal's suggestion). She'll start high school, but while trying to fit in, she still has the New York mob on her back.

I guess this is goodbye then.

-CoolCoke

PS. IMSOLOOKINGFORWARDTOSEASON6EVENTHOUGHTIT'SSOONOVERASDFGHJKL