Disclaimer: I do not own the Cape, or any of the associated storylines, characters, or settings on that show. Only the plot of this story is my own.

Author's note: This story takes place post Endgame, but it is a little AU in some places in service of the plot, which will fall somewhere in between idealistic and realistic, and will endorse the idea that, in fiction at least, if a story doesn't have a happy ending, that just means the story hasn't finished yet, while also reinforcing the proposition (which matched the story's title) that sometimes you have to earn your happy ending. Two ideas which have been used to endorse very different viewpoints of the world, but nevertheless, do not necessarily conflict. I hope you enjoy this story!

The super-villain known as Chess, who was secretly a dissociated segment of corrupt corporate mogul Peter Fleming's mind, grinned and laughed maniacally in triumph. It had taken him almost two years, and untold millions of dollars, to finally reach this point, but he was finally about to defeat his nemesis, the mysterious individual he only knew of as "The Cape". Chess pointed his gun at the vigilante's head as the Cape (aka Vince Faraday) was struggling to pull himself over the edge of the tower that Chess was standing on top of. But the villain knew that the already wounded hero, who had been shot in his right arm, would never be able to get up on time to save himself. At long last, the mighty Chess, the corporate and criminal kingpin of Palm City, would be able to rid himself of the Cape. Then no one besides the mysterious Orwell would stand in the way of him achieving full dominion over this city!

Chess' triumph was cut short at the last moment, however, just as he was about to pull the trigger on his gun, by the voice of someone that Peter Fleming never thought he would see again. "Don't do it, Dad! Please don't kill him!"

Chess turned toward the source of the voice, the mysterious Orwell, aka the Cape's partner, aka Jamie Fleming, Peter Fleming's daughter! And this time, Orwell wasn't wearing her signature mask or voice modulator, so Peter knew that this was his daughter. Chess pointed the gun right at Jamie. "We're wasting time! Kill the girl first, and then the Cape, but do it quickly!" Jamie visibly flinched at the rough tone of voice that came out of her father's mouth every time Chess took control of his body, and the girl wondered whether or not the gun in her father's hand was about to shoot her next. Thankfully, that didn't happen, and a very different voice emerged from the mouth of the same man, the original voice of Peter Fleming, the one which had told Jamie bed time stories and made her laugh with stupid jokes back when his daughter still worshipped him and thought that he could do no wrong. "Shut up for once, Chess! I'm not going to kill my only daughter who I've been trying to bring home all these years! Now, we are going to put this gun down…now!" Peter Fleming visibly grimaced as he struggled to regain control of his body from the entity known as Chess, which he had created to carry his own negative emotions after his wife had died, the entity which had been gaining more and more control as the years passed by. The man's gun hand shook as the two dissociated parts of his personality warred with each other, one trying to kill the woman in front of them, and the other trying to save her.

Jamie suppressed the urge to tremble, not knowing which side of her father's personality was going to win, but she knew if there was any hope of saving her father, she would have to stand still and see how this played out. The young woman just hoped that her father's love for her would be great enough to motivate him to free himself from Chess. It's not that Jamie had any illusions that her father was a good man, for she knew he had not been an honest businessman since after her mother had died. But despite his numerous character flaws, Peter Fleming was no killer, and he apparently still loved his daughter. Evidently, Chess felt differently, though, and Peter's hand continued to shake, with his index finger alternating between moving towards, and then away from, the trigger.

Peter Fleming's existential struggle was soon interrupted, however, as Vince finally managed to pull himself over the edge of the tall tower and, in one fluid motion, roll into a position just to Chess' side and used his wondrous cape to pull the gun out of Peter's hand, tossing it harmlessly onto the ground. Before either Chess or Fleming could even begin to react to the Cape's actions, the vigilante extended his cape a second time, used it to capture the villain's head, and pulled Peter forward, forcing him to stumble right into the hero's punch, which knocked the CEO of ARK out instantly! The masked hero then turned his "partner in crime", who now bore a shocked look on her face. "Are you okay, Jamie? I know that had to be hard for you, confronting your own father like that. Sorry I had to hit him, by the way. I want you to know I appreciate what you just did, though. I literally owe you my life!"

Although he couldn't show it now, Vince was very worried about his partner at the moment. He would never forget that fateful night. A year and a half ago, his ex-cop friend had been killed, and with him, what Vince Faraday had thought would be the only way to clear his name and go home. After his family had been rushed out of the city, Orwell had had a nervous breakdown. She had told her partner almost everything after Vince dropped everything to help his friend out when she called him while in tears, speaking incoherently. When he had made his way to Orwell's home, her door was locked and she wouldn't answer it, but Vince had heard her cries of distress and broken down the door. When he had seen Orwell standing in her kitchen, her entire apartment a wreck around her, pointing a large knife toward her own chest and muttering something about how "it's all my fault" and "the voices won't go away", the man's heart had almost stopped. Vince had ran behind Orwell and gently, but quickly, disarmed his friend in less than 2 seconds. Up till then, even the Cape hadn't known that he could move that quickly! After that, Vince's best friend had collapsed into Vince's arms while putting her head on his chest and sobbing. And then she had told him everything, or so Vince thought. How she still blamed herself for telling him about that weapons shipment and ruining his life, that she was really Jamie Fleming and Peter Fleming was her father, that Chess was actually an alternate personality of her father that did things that were worse than anything the man who had raised her would ever do, and that she was still trying to save her dad, even if she had to get him locked up in a mental institution to do it. Then, in that extreme and rare moment of vulnerability, Jamie had revealed that she sometimes heard voices in her head just like her father did, and she had been hearing them ever since she had run away from her father at 16. The voices had actually gone away for a while around the time that she had started working with Vince and the Carnival of Crime, but they had returned soon after she had moved away right after her traumatic experience with the Lich. Vince had tried to convince her to see a psychiatrist then, but Jamie had refused, saying she was afraid she would be locked up before her work as Orwell could be completed. Besides, the brunette young woman had sighed, she had tried pretty much everything to get the voices to go away already, counselor's, doctors, medication. But nothing worked. Except…Jamie confessed to Vince that she had never heard any of the voices around him, and that the voices had stopped telling her to harm herself as soon as Vince had forced herself into the room. After that revelation, Vince had given Jamie an ultimatum: Either she would go back to living with him and the Carnival of Crime again, or he would have her committed, because there was no way he was going to let his best friend kill herself. Jamie had quickly agreed to the first option. And that was how Jamie had ended up spending the next year and a half living with Vince and his friends.

Over that year and a half, as Orwell and the Cape continued to thwart Chess' plans, Jamie and Vince had gotten closer, and had gradually started to share more and more about themselves as time went on. Eventually, despite her best efforts not to, Jamie had even come to trust Vince Faraday, the only person she had allowed herself to trust ever since she had started finding out the truth about her father when she was ten years old. And Vince, despite his own best efforts, began to fall in love with his partner. The devout family man thought that was bad enough. But things gradually got even "worse" on that front, as he noticed the way that Jamie looked at him sometimes with those beautiful hazel eyes of hers when she didn't think he was looking. Evidently, the young woman was falling in love with him at the same time as he was gradually falling out of love with his wife, Dana, who he did not even get to see from a distance anymore since she had been forced to relocate after she tried to stand up to ARK. Vince Faraday still loved his wife and Trip, and wanted desperately to see them again, but his feelings toward Dana had grown less intense as the man realized that, although he still loved the mother of his child, and all of the good things and experiences she had given him, he was no longer in love with his wife. Vince remembered realizing this about six months after his family had been forced to relocate. It had been a bad day. Ironically, Vince's only source of solace that day had come from one source of his problems, as Jamie had just laid next to Vince on his bed most of that day, both of them fully clothed, and the partners in crime had held each other's hands, saying nothing . Jamie had instinctively known somehow that it was not a good idea to try to send Vince on a mission, or even to insist that he should train that day. Neither of them had ever talked about that day, but Vince knew that he had fallen even more in love with Jamie after that had happened.

Eventually, the members of the Carnival of Crime noticed that Vince and Jamie obviously had feelings for each other, and rumors had begun to fly that the two of them were now in a relationship. Rumors both of them had denied. Both of them were aware that Vince was a strict family man of unwavering principles, and would never start a relationship with Jamie when his wife and child were still out in the world somewhere, and they knew that their feelings for each other could never go anywhere.

Jamie/Orwell's words jolted Vince out of his memories and back to the present. It was clear from the almost vacant expression on Jamie's face that she was still coming out of shock, but she was at least able to speak now. "I'm fine, Vince. I'm just glad you didn't have to kill my dad. And I was able to hack the facility's servers and get enough info to put my father in jail, or hopefully a psychiatric ward, ten times over AND clear the names of both you and your wife!" Jamie put on the best fake smile she could muster, but Vince saw right through it. He could tell that Jamie was even less anxious for him to leave their partnership behind than he was as the blogger added. "You can finally go home!"

….6 months later

Vince waited in the park, sitting on the bench that was his and Jamie's usual meeting spot when they got ice cream. He wasn't sure this was a great idea. Vince had been home for almost six months since he and Orwell had managed to get enough evidence to clear his name and get Peter Fleming (who had plead "Not guilty by reason of insanity" to the crimes leveled against him by the court) thrown into a psychiatric ward indefinitely. Six months since he, Dana and Trip had finally been able to come back to the home they had all shared before the night Vince had "died" two years ago. Trip had actually adjusted to the change rather well, and he was just glad to have his father back. So Vince and his son had been able to pick back up (almost) exactly where they left off after Trip told him about some of the highlights of the last two years of his life. Vince and Dana hadn't adjusted to going back "home" nearly as well.

The truth was, Vince and Dana's marriage was on the rocks. Not only was the Cape's wife mad at him for letting her believe he was dead for 2 years, she was also angry that he had not told her who he was when he had been protecting her and Trip under the guise of the Cape. It has also quickly became apparent that Vince and Dana had become very different people over the past couple of years. Although they still got along well, at least on the days that Dana wasn't madder at Vince than usual for his 2 yearlong deception, the love between them just wasn't what it used to be. Still, Vince and Dana still cared enough about each other to try to preserve their marriage and family, so they had enlisted the services of a marriage counselor 3 months ago. And that had made things worse.

Over the course of therapy, two very important facts had come to light. First, Dana had been dating another man, her old boss from the Palm City public defender's office, for over a year while Vince had been "dead." Vince had not been terribly surprised by this. After all, he had seen Travis Hall flirting with her on a couple of occasions when he had been watching her as the Cape, and he knew that man had been watching out for both Dana and Trip while he had been forced to stay away from his family. So it wasn't all that surprising to Vince that Dana would come to care about the man who had helped her get back on her feet after her husband "died." It still hurt, though, especially after Dana admitted that, although she had not seen, or kept in touch with, Travis since Vince had returned, she still had feelings for the man, enough to make her wonder if keeping her marriage with Vince was the right move. This revelation had started an argument right there in the counseling room, the exact details of which now eluded Vince. What he did remember was that he somehow, out of anger, ended up revealing that he had also developed feelings for someone else as well while he had been away. Vince said this person was a woman who had helped him clear his name and get back to his family (even in the midst of his anger, Vince knew better than to mention he had been teammates with the still-active Orwell in front of the counselor, but Dana knew her husband was referring to the female blogger who had once sheltered her and Trip from ARK, and who had remained close friends with Vince after her husband's name had been cleared). Predictably, this news made Dana pretty upset, even after Vince assured her that nothing had physically happened between him and his "female friend", which was the truth. The blond haired man wasn't sure if his wife was mad at him because she didn't believe that he hadn't been physically intimate with Jamie, or because he was still close friends with the blogger. Jamie had actually come by the Faraday home several times since Vince's name had been cleared , much to the delight of Vince and Trip (she was the only person the youngest Faraday knew who could occasionally beat him at his favorite video game), and to the annoyance of Dana Faraday.

All Vince knew was, after that therapy session and his rash confession, Dana had told Vince that he couldn't spend time with Jamie anymore if he wanted their marriage to work. Vince saw his wife's point. He really did. Dana had stopped seeing the public defender for the sake of their marriage, so it seemed reasonable enough for her to ask her husband to stop spending time with someone he was infatuated with (Vince hadn't been quite stupid enough to say he was in love with the blogger). In fact, after he told Jamie about what his wife had said about their friendship later, Jamie had actually agreed with Dana, saying that she did not want to be the reason for any conflict in the Faraday home. After all, by this point, Vince and Jamie had silently acknowledged that they had feelings for each other that neither of them could ever act upon.

Vince sighed. He supposed if he was a wiser man, he would have called his friendship with Jamie off and been done with it. But he hadn't. Vince told himself that he had insisted on still being there for Jamie, as a friend, because she needed him to be there. The new CEO of ARK, who was desperately trying to change her father's company and Palm city for the better, still had a lot of psychological and emotional problems, and she still needed Vince to help her with that. And that was true, as far as it went. Jamie had heard the voices again several times since Vince had come back home, but each time this had happened, whether in the middle of the day or at 2 in the morning, she had called Vince, just like he had made her promise to. The voices had disappeared every time the man appeared, without fail, at Jamie's mansion (which had been her father's before) within 30 minutes of receiving her phone call. Vince knew that this system seriously ticked off his wife, but he didn't really know what else to do, because he was definitely not prepared to let Jamie kill herself or be committed to a mental institution.

Vince told himself that the real reason he had refused to break off his friendship with the blogger was definitely not because he didn't know what he would do, or how he would feel, if he could never see the brunette again, or because, even when Jamie had said it was okay if he wanted to let their friendship go, the woman's hazel eyes had asked him to stay. Nope, those definitely weren't the reasons he had chosen to keep his friendship with Jamie Fleming against his wife's wishes. And it wasn't like he was sneaking around or anything. After all, he and Jamie had only allowed themselves to be friends for the last 2 and a half years, and Dana knew that. And Vince did tell his wife what he was doing every time he went to see Jamie, even if it did make Dana a little upset with him (although she did not seem all that upset about it today, which confused him). Even so, Vince somehow felt it was cheating every time he went to see Jamie, even on those occasions in which his friend was actually going through a lot of emotional suffering. Today, he didn't even have that excuse. It was just Tuesday, his and Jamie's day to have ice cream while she was on her lunch break (Vince was still on indefinite paid leave from the police department while the full extent of the whole Chess fiasco was sorted out). Vince told himself that his "social calls" helped keep Jamie emotionally balanced, and as far as he knew, that was the case. But even Vince couldn't convince himself that he didn't legitimately want to see his "friend" on a regular basis, just for the pleasure of the beautiful young woman's company, and to have intelligent conversations with the blogger. In short, Vince Faraday knew he was in far too deep with his partner in crime (he still secretly moonlighted as the Cape now and again, even though the city didn't need him as often anymore now that the cops in this city didn't work for Peter Fleming), but he had no clue what to do about it. Vince knew he couldn't keep visiting Jamie like this, even as a friend, without there being major repercussions to his marriage to Dana, and possibly his paternal relationship with his son Trip, neither of whom he wanted to lose. On the other hand, for a number of reasons, Vince just couldn't bear to drop the blogger out of his life.

Jamie's arrival momentarily cut off Vince's dark thoughts, and soon, both he and Jamie had chocolate ice cream cones in their hands, and were talking and laughing like they had known each other for years, which Vince supposed they had. The Cape was easily able to ignore the guilty look in Jamie's eyes, and he forced himself not to think about the fact that, after each time he and Jamie saw each other, the beautiful woman would again try to insist that it might be a good idea for them to stop meeting each other socially, and that she would probably try to tell him the same thing again before she went back to work for the rest of the day. That was one difference between him and the blogger, he could feel guilty about his friendship with Jamie both before and after every time he saw the hazel-eyed woman, but he could never feel guilty about seeing her when he was actually in Jamie's presence. Because these days, it was only when he was around Jamie that he felt alive anymore. Oh, he still got along fine with his wife on the days he didn't go to see Jamie, but they didn't click like they used to, and there wasn't any chemistry left there. Even while spending time with Trip, his son who he loved more than life itself, there was always the shadow of the uncertainty that Vince felt over that relationship. The fear that Dana would divorce him, get full custody of Trip, and take his son away to be raised by some strange lawyer, so he could never relax enough to be truly happy around his son either. Around Jamie, however, all of those worries would just fade away, and it would feel just like the old days again, when they only had each other to trust and depend on. Well, aside from the morally dubious, and sometimes less than trustworthy, Carnival of Crime, the members of which Jamie had dropped by to see a couple of times, and said they were doing alright. In any case, it felt like they were the Cape and Orwell again, two against the world, like it was supposed to be that way. Vince of course, just had to run the moment by asking a serious question. "So, how does it feel to run the fabled ARK Corporation?"

Jamie sighed. "It really sucks, actually! Yes, I get an even bigger bank account, but now I have to pick up the pieces of all the things, all of the lives, my father ruined in this city. Do you know how much of a mess ARK's finances were when I was given control of the company!? Half of ARK's profits where coming from illegal sources, some of which I still haven't figured out the details of. To make matters worse, there are still records of illegal weaponry that MY company is still supposedly holding somewhere, and I can't find those weapons because there locations were kept off the books! It's all driving me insane!" Seeing the concerned look that Vince was giving her after that, Jamie decided to amend her words a little. "Sorry, I didn't meant to worry you, Vince. I know you have enough to worry about with your family, already. I just meant that it's been pretty difficult to clean up my father's mess, but I know me and the new board of directors will sort it out in time. If nothing else, I will probably be able to get my father to tell me where the weapons are when I visit him at this hospital." Vince nodded solemnly. He knew that Jamie Fleming visited her father once every week in the hopes that doing so would help Peter get rid of hiss Chess persona faster. He didn't exactly approve of his friend spending so much time with the villain that it had taken so long to stop, but Vince understood. He of all people understood not wanting to give up on family. Thankfully, Jamie changed the subject of conversation to one that was a little less dark. "Besides, I have been making some headway on changing this city in my new position. For instance, if all goes according to my plans, Palm City PD will be a self-sustaining, independent entity by the end of this year, so you won't have to live through the awkwardness of having a friend as a boss for too much longer!"

Both Jamie and Vince chuckled at that, causing just enough movement in the woman's arms to shake her ice cream cone, making what was left of her ice cream scoop fall off its cone, and right into Vince's lap! Jamie blushed and got out a napkin. "Sorry about that, I'll get it!" But Vince, trying to be a gentleman, attempted to clean up the mess on his lap with his own napkin. And that was when it happened. As Jamie and Vince both simultaneously directed their gaze downward, their two heads, which had already been pretty close together, came into a position in which they were almost in contact. And now the two "friend's" lips were only about five inches away from each other. Vince and Jamie both froze as they became lost in each other's eyes. They had been able to be strong and resist kissing each other so far, but their lips had never been this close together before, and the heat in both Jamie and Vince's eyes made it plain they were both seriously considering crossing that line. In the end, it was Jamie who broke, as her years of unrequited longing for the man in front of her finally got the best of her as she moved her lips toward Vince's. At first, Vince followed suite, and the "friends'" lips slowly closed the distance from 5 inches…to 4, to 3, to 2, to 1….

But at the last second, Vince's higher brain functions kicked in again, and he was instantly flooded with guilt. Cheating on one's wife was not how a Faraday man acted, the blond haired man suddenly remembered, and if nothing before this had been cheating, kissing Jamie definitely would be. All of these thoughts flashed through Vince's mind surprisingly quickly, and Vince was able to pull away from Jamie just before his lips made contact with those of the woman in front of him, causing Jamie to break out her trance-like state as well as the Cape started speaking. "I'm sorry, Jamie. We can be friends, but we can't do this! I have a wife and child and I…"

Jamie looked down at the ground guiltily. "I know. You have a beautiful family. I've spent time with both Dana and Trip. They are great people, and I don't want to hurt them anymore than you do. Trying to kiss you was wrong, and I'm sorry. It's just…" Jamie looked up at Vince, and the cop could see that there were several tears coming out of the blogger's hazel eyes. "I don't think I can do this anymore, Vince! I thought I could. I thought I was strong enough to just be your friend. To only spend time with you maybe once or twice a week now that you're back with your family. But I'm not! I hate being around you and not being able to show you how I feel, not even being able to spend every day with you as close friends like we used to! It hurts too much! You should go home and patch things up with Dana. Forget about me. There is no reason that anybody else should get hurt because of all this!"

Vince blinked in astonishment. He couldn't believe what he was hearing! "What exactly are you saying, Jamie?!"

Jamie cried harder, shrugging off the hand that Vince tried to comfortingly put over her shoulder. "I'm saying that we need to stay out of each other's lives, Vince! I love you, but I need to go now, and I don't want to see you anymore!"

Vince couldn't bring himself to move or speak as he watched Jamie walk away from the park, still sobbing and oblivious to the pair of eyes that belonged to the red haired woman at the center of the park, who had watched the entire spectacle between Jamie and Vince play out. The Cape didn't even think about the fact that Jamie's scoop of ice cream was still on his jeans, slowly melting. He felt like he had been kicked in the gut, harder than he had ever been hit before, now that he knew that Jamie no longer wanted him in her life. He knew he should have been relieved that the blogger, and the danger to Vince's marriage and family that she represented, was out of his life. That he now had every excuse to walk away from his responsibilities to his emotionally disturbed friend. But he felt the exact opposite of that. Where there had been joy and life in his soul just moments ago, Vince Faraday now only felt pain and emptiness. And when he finally looked up from his slouched position on the bench, he could see through his tear-stained vision that Jamie was long gone.

But Dana Faraway was standing silently right in front of him, holding out a napkin to her husband. "Are you going to try to go after her then?" Vince shrugged, still too stunned to process his present situation as his wife spoke again "You might want to get that ice cream off your jeans before it stains."

Vince nodded numbly, still too shocked to make sense of this turn of events enough to wonder if he was now in trouble with his wife. Finally though, after Vince had cleaned himself up and threw the napkin, and his mostly melted ice cream cone, away in a trash can, he regained enough sense to wonder that very thing as he looked into his wife's eyes. "Did you see…?"

Dana sighed and rolled her eyes. She still had a soft spot for the father of her child, but he had never been all that quick on that uptake, at least concerning matters that didn't involve being a cop or a superhero. "Yes. I saw everything, Vince. For the first and only time, I decided to follow you to see what happened whenever you went to see Jamie. You've certainly gotten yourself into a pickle, haven't you!?"

Now Vince was very confused. Apparently, his wife had seen Jamie and he almost kiss, and the blogger confess that she loved him, but his wife didn't look angry. In fact, for the first time in six months, Dana Faraday actually seem calm and almost…resigned to their present situation. To be honest, it was kind of freaking Vince out a little bit. "Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but why are you so calm about this?!"

Dana sighed again. "Because I've realized lately that I've been a hypocrite the past few months, and that I've had no logical reason to be mad at you. I've kept some things from you, Vince. Things we need to talk about now." Dana led her husband to a table that was a little further into the park as she pulled two stacks of documents and a pen out of her brief case and put them on said table before setting down and motioning for Vince to do likewise in the seat across from her. After he did so, Dana looked at her husband with a very serious expression on her face. "So now you and I are going to have a talk. And when we are done, we are going to make some very important decisions about the future…and whether we or not will be experiencing that future as a married couple!"

Author's note: I just want to start by saying here that this is my first time writing a fanfic for the Cape. I'm sorry to say I didn't even know about the show until several months ago, which is why I have not written a story for this fandom before now. I am not sure if there is still even interest in Cape fanfics, though, so, at the risk of seeming like I'm holding my story hostage, I don't think I will continue writing for very long if I don't get any reviews. I love the Cape, but I have no interest in posting a story that nobody cares to read.

My point is, please review, even if you don't like this chapter, I would at least like to know that there is still interest in The Cape fanfics and Vinwell, and to see what I could do better in the future. I look forward to your input, readers!

-supercode