Here we are, ladies and gentlemen... the last chapter of Dacry & Melanie. What started spontaneously as a reaction to a prompt, turned into a co-writership that lasted for 36 chapters. Because this story started with Darcy, I wanted it to end with her. I would like to thank my co-writer Diplulmaris-Antartica for granted me one of my best adventures so far. I've enjoyed our endless chat-sessions, the emailing back and forth, the staying up late (there are eight hours between her and me since she lives in the States and I in the Netherlands).

I have laughed till my belly hurt, I have gasped in horror, and I have shed a few tears as well during the course of this story, and I will never forget this amazing, thrilling, wonderful collaboration!

I like to thank you all as well for reading and liking our tale, for all the reviews and private messages I received. Thank you all so much for your support and the love you have showed us. You are the GREATEST!

Enjoy this last chapter. Much love! xoxoxoxox

Riley

I come out of my bedroom in the morning and see Darcy sitting at the breakfast bar. She doesn't turn to look at me.

"Darce?" I say quietly, but she doesn't answer.

As I walk around into the kitchen, flipping the light on I stop dead in my tracks and stare at her. Her empty gaze never falters; she stares blankly ahead. Her lips are closed and her hands are closed around a mug. Her hair that has grown just past her shoulders is soaked and strings together. But what is alarming is what is covering her. Red. It is covering her arms, I can see smears on the mug. I look around my kitchen and see the red on the fridge handle. I open it and look inside. Orange juice. She got some orange juice.

"Darcy?" I turn back around and look at her. "Darcy?" I snap a little louder and she seems to jolt, she looks at me.

"Oh, hello, Riley. I think I dozed off." She says hollowly. You dozed off with your eyes wide open?

"What…" I don't even know what to ask. My eyes wander over her again.

She looks down at herself, "It would seem I've done something." She says. Her voice is strangely soft. "I think you'll find it completely justified." She clears her throat as she glances into her mug. I watch her turn and slide off the stool. She walks calmly into the kitchen and pulls something out of her pocket. I see now that she's not soaked. It's dry.

"It's blood." She smiles politely as if she has read my mind. "It's Four's blood. I killed him." She whispers and her smile flashes with a tint of pain and I see her eyes water for a moment. She holds the object out and I look down at the recorder. "He was going to hurt Melanie. He was going to hurt her baby." I carefully take the recorder and set it on the counter. "Don't bother asking where his body is because no one will ever find it and I'll never tell you what I did." She turns the sink on, "I'll never tell anybody."

My eyes slide away from her and I look around the room as she begins washing her hands.

"I think I should call Eric–"

"Everyone doubts me." She says suddenly. "Everybody has doubted me at some point. They think that I'm not strong enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not enough. But the truth is… is I'm too much." She shakes her head and I watch her hair move stiffly. "I'm too much when I open up. I'm too nice. I'm too this. I'm too that."

She sounds insane.

"Play it." She says, turning and looking at me. "Play the recording."

"Darcy, where's Four?"

"Didn't you hear me? He is dead." She whispers, her eyes look around but land on me. How she can speak so calmly is very alarming. "You haven't spoken to me in two weeks. I know why. You think that I was sleeping with Four. I'm Candor, Riley not blind and it's very easy to kill a man."

"Maybe you should sit down." I say as I reach into my pocket for my phone.

"Darcy?" Horror washes through me as I look past her and see Alexis. Darcy turns around and kneels down. "What is that?"

"It is Jello, baby girl, I was trying to make jello and I sneezed. How about you go watch some tv and I'll be in in a little bit."

"Okay." Alexis smiles and runs into the living room and I wish I could bask in ignorance and believe it was jello too. Darcy stands up and looks to me again, she looks a little more human now.

She speaks quieter, "Four was messed up, Riley and if I hadn't stopped him he would've hurt Melanie. He was sick." She says. I look to the recorder and the blood on it. Four's blood.

"Go take a shower." I say quietly as I pick the device up. "Put your clothes in the trashcan in the bathroom." I grab the blood smeared mug and rinse it off.

"You're not going to report me?" She whispers.

"What did I just say? Go take a shower."

She turns and goes without another word, shutting the bedroom door behind her. I look once more to Alexis sitting on the couch in her pj's with Socks sitting beside her equally interested in the cartoon. Finding my headphones in a drawer I step into the coat closet and close the door, putting one headphone in I press play.

First I'm annoyed to hear Four's voice as he talks. He's speaking to Darcy. His voice seems to get further away and what he's saying is just plain arrogant. He talks about Eric. He talks about me and then he starts on Melanie. He insults Darcy, and just goes on and on with what he wants to do to Melanie.
He hates her because she's Eric's. He's obviously jealous.
Then suddenly he starts talking about her baby. Saying unsavory things that even disgust me, though I've witnessed and done my share of horrible things, until suddenly there's a sickening crunch.

I hear Darcy sob audibly just once. I can picture it, her covering her mouth with the realization of what she's just done. Then …there's more sound. Thumping. Crunching. Darcy mumbling incoherently to herself, I hear her say Melanie's name.
"Sick of all this bullshit..." she hisses, hitting him again with whatever her weapon was. "Sick of you. You think you can–" She is speaking through a clenched jaw, each word seems to be an assault "-Take. Away. My. Family." The recording goes fuzzy for a second and it's quiet. "Not on my watch."

The recording cuts out and I stare at the darkness. I clear my throat and remove my headphone. Four was acting weird anyway. He can be assumed dead or a deserter.
I reach up numbly and pull the chain turning the light on. I reach up past the shelf, pushing a couple shoe boxes aside and take off the vent cover. Blinking tiredly, I set the recorder inside and place everything back.

"I'll be out in a little bit." I say as I kiss Alexis on the head.

"Okay."

I step into the bedroom and hear the shower going as I walk slowly to the bathroom door I can feel my heart pounding. She really killed Four. I press my ear to the bathroom door and listen as I wrap my hand on the doorknob and turn it, slowly entering. I tug the curtain slightly and look in at her scrubbing her arms. I can see scars of welts and fading bruises. It was him hurting her all those times.

"I know you're there." She says quietly. "I can feel your presence."

"You cleaned up the mess, right?" I ask.

"Yeah. I cleaned it up."

"You're certain?"

She turns and looks at me, "Riley, for eight hours I was on my hands and knees cleaning. I was covered because …what I did with his body.. what was left of it.. . It was messy."

"Alright." I push my sweats off and step into the shower, grabbing my shampoo and squeezing more into her hair. She closes her eyes as I work her hair and rub behind her ears.

"You're the only one, Riley," she says before stepping under the water and rinsing away the pink bubbles. I get the soap and start washing her body, I don't have the patience to be careful with her bruises and she doesn't seem to care.

The longer I touch her the more I want her. So I take her. Against the wall. And I don't care about protection this time. The only thing I hope for is a little boy.

some time later

Darcy

I give mad props to Mel for going through this and not killing Eric. Either she was patient or he was very durable. I'm lying in bed staring down at the massive bump. It looks massive to me. 38 weeks of watching my body change. Riley comes in and Socks bounds up onto the bed. He sniffs my legs, he sniffs the bump, and then he licks my face. His way of saying 'hi, mom.' He's full grown now and I see Alexis come in with her art project from school. She'll be seven next week.

"Hi, mommy." She smiles Riley picks her up and sets her on the bed. "I made this for you." She holds the piece of paper for me to see. She points to each stick figure. There's my first mommy, there's daddy, there's you and there's the baby and there's Socks."

"I love it, we'll put it up on the fridge." I smile and accept her hug. She's been waiting as patiently as she can for this baby to get here.

"She wants to go see Mackenzie, so I'm going to drop her and Socks off at Mel and Eric's then it's you and me." Riley smiles.

I wait as Riley takes them. He insists on taking me out on a date. I told him I didn't want to go very far from the house so he said he would surprise me.

I'm still sitting in bed when Riley comes back. He crawls onto the bed and kisses me. "You know, when I married you I was scared you were going to change your mind."

"Change my mind about what?"

"Me. Us."

"Nothing could change my mind about that." I say quietly, "Besides... Socks is attached to you and I couldn't take him away, it would break his heart."

Riley grabs me and pulls me closer, "Brat." I only laugh and accept his rough whiskered kisses.

"Riley, what are we going to name this little boy?" I ask as I rest my head against his hip and he looks at me with pure joy.

"I don't know. What do you like?"

"What about Xander?"

"Xander..." He thinks about it for a moment and nods. "I like it better than Eric's suggestion."

"Well, Eric would name every baby Eric if he could," I roll my eyes. It's a good thing he and Mel had a girl.

"I like Xander," Riley smiles. "Xander O'Bannon." He squeezes my leg. "Come on, lets go."

I push myself up and feel like I'm a thousand pounds. I stand up and make my way to the closet to get a sweater but I don't make it that far before I think I piss myself.

"Riley, I did it again." I say quietly as I look down. I can't stop it though. "Or..."

"What?"

"Actually.. I think my water just broke," I say as I feel the muscles tighten slowly below my belly button and in my lower back. "Yeah, it's... it's time, Riley."

"Okay. It's time." Riley says this about five times before I snap at him.

"Riley! Get the car and call Mel!" I shout. He snaps out of his panic and does as he's told. The contractions start and I try to remember what Mel told me about breathing, but really I just want to scream. I brace a hand flat on the wall and wait. Riley hurries back in and scoops me up, of course he's not going to try and get me to walk to the car.

I scream in the car. It's necessary. He holds my hand and I'm sure he's lost circulation in his as I squeeze.

At the hospital Riley stay by my side. I don't think anything could make him leave me. He holds my head up as I push. Two hours seems like five minutes. When I hear the baby cry I let my head fall back against Riley's hand and I look up at him. He watches the nurses as they clean the baby and I can see the apprehension in his face. But as soon as one nurse walks over holding our son Riley points to me. She hands the baby to me and I look down at him. I can't believe I've done this. In a good way. I can't believe it in a good way. I mean I can. Oh whatever. I'm happy is what I mean. He's perfect.

Xander Riley O'Bannon.

When I hand him to Riley he takes him carefully and the look in his eyes is a mixture of fear and wonderment. They watch each other.

"Hi," I hear Riley say softly, "I'm your daddy."

Three months later

Riley talks to him a lot. Every night after I sing Lexi her song, I walk into the bedroom to find Riley holding Xander, talking to him. As I leave Lexi tonight, I look at Socks nestled next to her on her bed. He's her best friend. I check the locks and turn off lights then walk into the bedroom and set the guitar against the wall as I listen Riley speaking softly.

"You gotta lot of big sisters, I'll explain some day how that happened. But right now what you need to worry about is timing. If you could cry whenever you hear the words 'princess daddy' you'll save me from afternoon tea parties. Mommy is better at them anyway. Do you know how I look with a tiara on? Not good. It clashes with my beard. I don't look good in yellow and glitter." He whispers, Xander coos softly, "You gotta help me, little man, we need to stick together. Socks is a deserter, he falls for the pb&j sandwiches and he's useless."

"Okay, enough chit chat." I say as I slide into bed, "It's bed time. For little boys and big boys."

Riley is reluctant every night to put Xander in his crib so he bides his time and cradles him in his arms as he bounces gently. Xander falls asleep each time and then Riley carefully puts him down and climbs into bed with me. "Did you know that you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen?"

"Are you just saying that because you want sex?"

"Yes, and also it's the truth." Riley smiles as he pulls the blankets over us.

The End