31.

"It looks cold outside. Call off school."

Avery laughed from her seat at the table. Emily was at the back door, looking out over the yard. A layer of frost covered everything. "You only have two days until Christmas break. I think you'll survive. And we can't cancel school for it being nippy out. That's not how it's ever worked. Besides that...it would be the school board's call not mine."

"These midterms are killin' me." Emily finally turned from the window and took a seat across from her mom to eat breakfast. It was just past seven. This was their usual routine.

"You're doing great." Avery finished off her toast.

"I know. It doesn't mean I have to like it. Don't forget, we have to pick up my dress this afternoon."

"I'm aware. You only left about 90 sticky notes around the house."

"I can't help it I'm excited. Do you know how hard it was to talk Evan into taking me to this dance?"

"I'm sure it took all of 30 seconds." Avery said with a laugh.

"What took 30 seconds?" Mark asked, walking into the kitchen. He bent and kissed Avery before pouring himself a cup of coffee and taking a seat to eat breakfast.

Emily watched their morning ritual with the hint of a smile on her face. Avery knew it had been strange at first but her daughter was adaptable. Plus she got the feeling that Emily liked having Mark around. Especially after the things that had happened in the spring.

He never did go back to Houston. His superiors insisted, and Mark resolutely resigned. Avery tried to talk him out of it. But he wouldn't be moved. He was too much into the investigation here. And he refused to leave her while she was dealing with her father's funeral.

That had been an interesting few months. Known victims were exhumed. Examined by state medical examiners. Reburied. More cases were built against Walls, a handful of his deputies, even the mayor. Avery wouldn't have believed he had it in him if not for the evidence she had seen with her own eyes. They were closing missing persons cases from a dozen different states based on the information Mark and Leah had put together.

Most important for Mark, they reopened his mother's death at his request. He opted out of being present for the exhumation and Avery didn't blame him a bit. They trusted Rogers, who came back the next day to inform them that they had found evidence that Elizabeth had been smothered. Most likely with one of the couch pillows she had been laying on when the EMTs had taken her away. Mark mourned her all over again. But they finally had their answer. Rob had killed her when Mark had been gone with his friends that senior skip day. And he'd waited for him to come home so he could shock him with it. They hadn't expected Mark to fight them.

Avery buried her father next to her mother. She was hoping for something simple and small for the service, but she underestimated Ted's popularity. He had been well loved. There were students and staff and family that he had touched in some way going back almost 50 years. So Avery ended up going to the reunion after all since most of her classmates had shown up to pay their respects.

She and Emily had debated for a few weeks, about selling the house and leaving. Moving somewhere else. Avery's aversion to the house faded after a bit; she hadn't killed Williams just because she felt like it. The man had been coming with the intent to do harm. He'd gotten what he deserved.

It only took a few sessions with a psychologist for Avery to finally get that through her head. Her odd detachment through what had happened scared her. But the therapist was not worried. Fight or flight. Avery had fought because that was in her nature. She was a survivor.

It was Emily who finally decided that they should stay. She loved the house, she didn't want to change schools right before junior year, she didn't want to move to a whole new town or start over. Unlike Avery, who had heard rumors and whispers and had chosen to ignore, Emily faced things head on. If someone whispered about her or her mother, she would confront it. It got her into a few arguments but nothing she couldn't handle. And the rumors died down. The town had way bigger things to deal with than what was going on at the Landry house.

Staying meant they had to make some change though. They had cleaned and painted, had replaced furniture. Avery stopped herself short of doing a full remodel on the kitchen and the bathrooms. She had no doubt she could handle it but she undersood the redecorating for what it was. Remaking the place so they could make new memories.

"Getting a boy to ask me out." Emily shot her mother a mock sour look. "Do you understand how hard it is to go out on dates when your stepfather is the sheriff? I practically had to blackmail him."

Avery grinned. "Nope. I have no idea what you're talking about." She heard Mark snort beside her. He remembered. She doubted if Emily would have the same issues she'd had as a teenager, no matter who the grown men in her life were. Emily wasn't a wallflower as her mother had been.

The two biggest changes had happened in the fall. She and Mark were married. They didn't bother with anything fancy. Just them and Emily and a judge from the next county over. And then a week later, Rogers had informed them that the town wanted to officially offer Mark position of interim sheriff. He had balked. He didn't know if he even still wanted to do police work. Rogers had insisted. Besides, it was only temporary until the town held an election.

The problem was, no one wanted to run for sheriff against Mark. Not that he ran. But people encouraged him to stay on. So he reluctantly took over the office. At first he hated it. He didn't mind cleaning up Walls's mess, firing deputies, hiring new ones. It was being in charge of so much. And so publicly.

Eventually he settled into it. And then he set about cleaning up the town. Emily made jokes about Mark being the town's version of a Clint Eastwood cowboy, but it rang true. All of the rackets that Walls had going were wiped out. New businesses were starting to ask about possibly building in the area. And there was some talk about a small neighborhood of homes being built near the lake.

Mark had an aversion to wearing the uniform that the deputies sported. Avery had seen pictures of him in his police uniform in Houston. No amount of swooning over him had swayed him. No one was going to deny the man the right to wear whatever he wanted. Mostly he stuck to jeans and button down shirts.

The plan was just to do it long enough until somebody more qualified came along. Mark wasn't comfortable being in the public eye. Most of the public didn't care. They liked him. Kids especially liked him. He was more approachable than walls had been. Mark didn't mind doing some of the programs that the schools ran. Avery thought that was probably his favorite part of the job.

Avery was still principal at the elentary school. There had been rumors that she was going to be offered the job at the high school when the current principal moved on the next year. She doubted she would take it. While she was a daddy's girl at heart, she really did not have his way with teenagers. The discipline. She liked the elemntary kids. After working with them for so long she understood them.

She'd healed up just fine after her ordeal. She did get pneumonia, but it was minor. She had a lot of bruises. She couldn't even remember where most of them came from. A few she did. The one on the side of her breast – that was was pretty clear. It was where Williams had dug the gun into her.

Whatever she'd gotten from him, she'd given him much worse. Avery still couldn't believe she'd done so much damage to the man. It had felt like nothing at the time. Adrenaline was a hell of a thing. But she'd be happy if she never had to reach that level of scared to death ever again.

Avery half-listened to Mark and Emily as they chatted through breakfast. It had become sort of a family ritual for them. Supper was a little harder to get the three of them together; sometiems Avery had to stay after school. Or Emily worked at the dance studio. Or Mark had to finish things up down at the sheriff's station. They all made it a point to start the day together.

"I gotta head out. Gonna be late." Mark finished off his coffee and carried his dishes to the sink. "You want a ride to school?" He asked Emily as she pulled her jacket on.

"Oh god. Yes please. I'll just ramble up to the front door in the sheriff's SUV. That'll help my popularity." Emily's voice dripped a mixture of sweetness and sarcasm.

"I could escort you to class if you keep at it." Mark joked with her. He winked at Avery. She smiled back serenely. "Here. You can drive." He tossed his keys toward Emily.

"Really?" She dropped all sarcastic pretense. Emily had recently gotten her permit and had been begging to practice.

"Clear the streets." Avery deadpanned.

"Mom." Emily dragged the word out. She would be turning 17 soon and was really hoping for a car. Jack had already told Avery he was fine with it. But of course Emily had to get her license first.

"Go warm up the truck." Mark smirked as he pulled on his own jacket. Emily grabbed her backpack and practically flew out the kitchen door. "That was easy."

"She's easily appeased." Avery finished clearing the table and turned, finding herself caught in Mark's arms. She laughed when he bent down and kissed her breathless. When he finally came up for air, his eyes had gone a darker shade she recognized. And responded to. Together day and night for months and she still couldn't seem to get enough of him. Even better, he couldn't seem to get enough of her. "You're going ot be late."

"Yeah well. Priorities." He kissed her one more time. "Love you."

"Love you too." Avery said it right back with a grin. From the driveway came the impatient honk of a horn. They both laughed. "You created this monster. You deal with it." She pushed him toward the door. He went, albeit reluctantly.

It was funny, how things had worked out. What they had lost, what they had gained. But they'd managed to find each other. In the end that was really all that mattered.

Done! I know I have been gone for what feels like forever, and I am going to try to do better. I forgot how much writing helped me destress. And I impressed myself that this story only took a couple of weeks to write out. I apologize for the typos – I have caught most of them on my copy, I just didn't want to go back and swap out chapters. Plus when you're exhausted, it's hard to edit. Hope you enjoyed this very random story. Off to start the next one!