Chapter 23: Here

The orange glow of the sun continued to illuminate the town ahead of him. It was almost ethereal to look at, especially when compared to the normalcy of Central City; well, 'normalcy' wasn't the best word to describe a city like that. All his life he was used to tall buildings and the sound of traffic yet here he was, stood at the edge of the town looking at something that was normal in every sense of the word.

The old man tightened his grip around his old wooden cane and shuffled forward in search of the destination he had been looking for. All around him he could see people smiling and laughing. He could see children running around playing games. He could see the glint of the ocean sparkle in his view. If this really was the place he was looking for, he couldn't be any happier than how he felt right now. As he admired the town a small little dog with white fur and a patch of brown on the right side of its face came trotting up towards him and despite not being too good at knowing the different breeds of dog, he could at the very least tell that this little pup was a Pitbull.

"Hey there little one," the man spoke with a wavy tone as he slowly leaned down to pet the dog. The dog stuck his tongue out and wagged his tail as the man's hand rubbed his head. "What's your name then?" he asked the animal as he moved his hand to look at the collar. The smile that appeared from his face was as wide as it was on his wedding day. The dog's name was Skip but that wasn't what made him smile so much; what did make him smile was that the name was imprinted onto a piece of metal hanging from the collar… in the shape of a lightning bolt. He was in the right place. He had to be.

"Skip sure likes you," one of the employees from the ice cream stand beside him spoke. The old man gave Skip one last pat before standing all the way up. "Does he not usually like people?" The visitor asked.

The man behind the layout of ice cream chuckled and smiled, "oh he loves everyone, he's the town mascot at this point. I'm just wondering if he'll ever not let anyone pet him," he laughed again.

"The owners of this dog," The visitor began, "Where can I find them? Do you know?" he asked.

"Hmm…." The man pretended to think, "that would be just down this road and the first building on your right. It's facing right towards the ocean, you'll love it. I'm sure Skip will take you if you ask him nicely," he smiled.

The visitor looked down towards the pup which was now tilting its head with its ears perked up. "How about it Skip? Will you take me to your home?" he asked. The pup barked and began to trot ahead. Skip would periodically turn around and stop when he would notice that the old man couldn't keep up. Eventually the two of them reached the end of the street and turned to see a café that had the sun's shine reflecting from the glass. Above the door and the front window of the café there was a sign that read Café Dawn. The old man peered into the window before entering but saw no employees inside. Skip walked into the building through the flap at the bottom of the door, so the old man followed and closed the door behind him.

The pup barked and then shuffling could be heard from the kitchen behind counter. "One second!" a familiar voice called out to him. A voice he couldn't believe he was hearing, it was a soft, sweet sounding voice that sounded like it hadn't aged at all. "Take all the time in the world," the old man replied with a humorous tone to which the familiar voice responded with a laugh.

A few moments later a relatively short woman stepped out from the kitchen with her hair tied back and a wide smile on her face, "Good afternoon and Welcome to Café Dawn," she began as she focused on tying her apron around her waist, "How may we serve you tod-" she stopped. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Good Afternoon Ognats," the old man grinned.

The woman covered her mouth with her hands in disbelief, but she soon removed them to reveal a genuine smile. She hurried around the counter and all the fresh food she had made earlier in the day to hug her visitor, "It's so good to see you David!" she called out as she embraced him. The old man chuckled and hugged her in return, "I know you said not to search for the two of you, but I couldn't help it."

Nora reluctantly pulled away from the hug and placed her hands onto David's shoulders, "It's fine, don't worry about it," she reassured him, "and you look great!" she complimented but David shook his head dismissing her compliment. "I wish," he laughed, "And you have barely changed after, what? Thirty-Something years? How many years has it been? For you I mean."

Nora gave a sad smile and then motioned him to take a seat at the closest table nearby to which Skip followed closely and hopped onto the booth to sit next to David. "It's been three years for us," she admitted. David smiled and nodded towards her left hand, "and that ring? How new is that?" he questioned.

Nora moved her left hand towards David who took hold of it to get a closer look. "Only two weeks," she laughed, "knowing how slow Luke is, it will probably be three more years until he actually marries me" she laughed.

Nora grew silent, and then spoke again, "We really are sorry by the way. To everyone."

David, again, shook his head. "I don't want to hear it. You explained yourselves back then and we all understood it."

"But to ask him to abandon you and everyone else…" Nora mumbled.

David placed his spare hand onto the other that was already holding Nora's, "He needed to be taken out of that time period to survive. I would have forced him to do it myself if he didn't do it for you." He informed her. "And besides," he began again as he looked around the new life they had built, "it looks like you got your happy-ending," he smiled.

Nora wiped the forming tears from her eyes with her spare hand, "and I'm pretty sure you're about to get yours," she croaked through her happy smile as she looked behind David.

David's eyes remained on Nora; he was almost too scared to turn around. He was terrified that this isn't who he thought it would be. Nora gave a warm smile and nodded. David took a deep breath and turned to look at the man stood beside the table. It was him. It was his Nephew.

The old grizzled police chief's eyes began to water and his face began to quiver despite trying to hide his emotions. Skip jumped down from the booth as David moved as fast as he possibly could from the seat to hug the Nephew that he hadn't seen in thirty-three years. "My boy," David cried, "you're here."

Luke smiled to Nora through his own tears as his head rested on top of David's head. "I'm here," Luke croaked, "I'm here."

A/N: Hey all! So that's it, this story is over! I know it wasn't the best of stories but I really enjoyed writing it and I find it hilarious how the first chapter is just a meet-cute and then it all goes downhill from there. Hopefully the time travel parts make sense and if they don't then that's just a big "oopsie" from me because my pea-brain has trouble with that kind of thing.

To answer the questions about a sequel: I have absolutely no idea if I'll do one because I feel like the story between Nora and Luke is pretty much wrapped up and completed for me. They got a happy-ending, and the one Luke dreamed of (if you remember him talking about it). If I come up with any ideas for a sequel I'll probably try and write it but I can't make any promises I'm afraid.

Anyway, since this is the last time that I get to ramble underneath this story I'm just going to say this: I really hope that you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! I hope that I did the established characters justice and I hope that you enjoyed Luke Singh and Sam. Thank you for reading, the support has been awesome! If you have any feedback that I can use it would be awesome to hear as I have ideas for some other stories that I want to write. Again, thank you so much! ~FarmingPirate