Hi, so here is the FINAL CHAPTER! Thank You all so much for sticking with me through this story and I hope you enjoy this chapter. As always I do take a little break from fandoms but I will be coming back to this fandom at some point and already have several stories floating around in my notebook.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

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Where Somebody Waits For Me

Chapter 6-Balance

The Final Chapter. Anna and Peter decide what to do in the morning after. Anna's attackers go on trial. A decision is made and there might just be a happy ending in this story for everyone.

It took Peter exactly five seconds to realise what had happened when he woke up and realised that he had am armful of a naked Anna Valdez.

Actually, he was rather impressed that took that amount of time for his brain to catch up and remind him that this was not some sort of dream that his brain had thought up when he was lonely and too full of red wine for his own good.

He looked down for a second and upon seeing her asleep her head half on his arm and half on his chest, and he allowed himself a smug little smile. If all was to be taken into account then he knew that he had done good last night. It was chauvinistic to think of it like that but he had see her reaction to him, he had heard everything Anna had said and had seen her entire body convulse beneath him. There was no way he could not forget that. He was certainly not going to forget that he was the one that had done that to her.

But that left the question of what was going to happen now. He had no idea what he was going to do because deep down he knew that the ball was not in his court. Of course, if he could have had his way they would continue to live together, work together, sleep together. He could come home to Anna instead of an empty cold apartment. He could do the whole marriage thing and have kids something which had never appealed to him before.

With Anna it did. It was cheesy and soppy but it was what it was and he knew that. Anna was the only person he had ever thought about having those kinds of feelings for. Having that kind of life with. Most of his youth he'd been with younger girls, married women or on more than one occasion drunken threesomes with girls who were either drunk or if he didn't bother looking, hookers. He found that he wanted nothing more to do than to ignore all of those mistakes, dealing with the false coin that was lust and vanity and the need to be on top when there was this—this that rang of pure true gold.

Of course if Anna didn't want him like that…and despite what she had said last night that was always a possibility then he found that he could be just this. It would chip away at him bit by bit as he continued but he found that he could be a bed warmer for her if that was all she wanted from him—he'd had the first hit of the drug that he had craved for a very long time. He wanted nothing more to do than to keep riding the high but if he didn't then…then…then he knew that the withdrawal would be the worst thing that he had ever lived through—getting a taste, a look, a moment in the future that he wanted only to have it ripped away from him without warning…

He tightened his grip on Anna just thinking about it.

She stirred slightly against him her breasts pressing into his chest and Peter bit his lip trying to use the pain to focus on things that he didn't need to think about right now. If he was really, really good about this then he might be able to keep this. If he wasn't…well…at the very least he could offer his battered heart and see what Anna would be willing to take for it. Even if she only wanted his body. He would take that. He was so far gone he would admit to anyone who was listening that he would take anything.

Anna woke up so deliciously sleepy that Peter could imagine that it was a regular occurrence. That he was lucky enough to wake up to see Anna in his bed every morning, not just this one. He didn't say anything. If his world was going to end soon then he would be damned if he did not enjoy the last few seconds.

Anna looked at him before she pushed herself up on her elbow to stare at him. For a second that was all it was, the two of them staring at each other and then Anna reached out to run a finger down the side of his face.

Peter did his best not to shudder with some sort of mad desire that was racking through him. He really did.

Anna watched him for a very long second.

"Peter" she said finally. "I know what I want, I know what last night was to me. I know what it was to you, at least I think that I do. The question is does it mean the same thing to you? Because if it does then I don't need to have a big conversation about it. I've seen the end of my life, I've lived through thinking I was going to die, or worse. I know what I want. I want you. If you don't want me, tell me know. If you do…tell me now too…"

She finished the conversation by folding her lip between her teeth and though it took Peter a second to realise that he was being handed his dreams on a platter (and really could you fucking blame him?) he surged forwards and sealed the deal—so to speak—with another kiss that led to…well you know.

Needless to say he and Anna did not prep for the trial that day. Actually come to think of it they didn't really make it beyond the bathroom unless you counted getting the take out food. There were other more important things to deal with.

Laura knew. Peter knew that she knew the second that she had seen Anna and him standing together as they walked into the courthouse. The older woman had seen them together despite Peter trying so hard to make sure that they were on the downlow. The last thing that he had wanted was to do any damage to the case and he was sure that the prosecutor sleeping with the victim would do that.

Actually he knew.

He would not have that on his conscious, he just wouldn't.

He loved the woman beside him too much.

But either way Laura knew that they were together. He met her cool blue gaze on the stand as he talked through the case with her and he knew that she knew. She jerked her chin a little as if to tell Peter that she approved but if he hurt her friend she'd bury him in a shallow grave somewhere near the Docks and sleep like a baby in the aftermath. Peter understood.

He was still somewhat terrified though.

Watching them cross examine Anna was something else. Peter suspected that he might have jumped in more than he would have done if it was any other defendant but he had to admit that he was caught on the raw here.

Thank God he managed to keep it professional. The defence never once mentioned the fact that Anna was living in his apartment though weather or not it was because he didn't know or because he was too naïve not to know was another matter entirely.

Peter didn't care. Once he got the bastards to admit why they did what they did it didn't matter. Nothing mattered beyond that. Only that he had gotten them.

The rest of it was easy from that moment on.

It was strange that they didn't ask the question that was staring at them in the face. Peter chalked it down to either an incredible amount of luck or the fact that he was so good at hiding his feelings that even if he had gotten what he had wanted for so long he was still able to hide it.

Actually if that was true then maybe he and Anna could keep working together. A prosecutor was only as good as the second chair and while he knew that Anna deserved her promotion to first chair he also knew that he and her even before they'd moved forwards on their feelings had developed a rapport that would be difficult to move onto.

But then again he could already hear Mark in his head telling him flat out in that wonderfully dry tone that he adopted for when he thought that Peter was doing something exceptionally stupid that would jeopardise the chances of a conviction. That was not going to happen. He and Anna working together and sleeping together was not going to happen.

It wasn't like you could have everything in life.

Peter was pulled out of his internal musing when he received the phone call that the jury was back. It had taken two hours which all things considering was quick. The verdict was secure. Anna had been her best on the stand, calm and collected despite the fact that Peter had been a wreck. She had looked both the men on trial in the eye and her voice had not wavered even if she had clasped her hands in her lap. Peter knew they were shaking in the same way he knew that every muscle in Anna's body was locked down.

He knew every inch of her. He had enough knowledge to write a book on the wonderful subject that was Anna Valdez.

When the guilty verdict came through he smiled at her. She smiled back but then she turned to hug Laura her dark hair shifting over her shoulder and Peter had to turn around and clench his hands into fists over his knees and try to not show the emotion that was on his face. This had been a long couple of months from that one phone call to where they were now. Justice had been served as Peter would go after the gang leader as soon as he had the evidence too but he couldn't help but take a deep breath to get himself under control so that he didn't do anything stupid like lean over the bench and kiss Anna in full view of the jury, his boss and the judge.

That was a conversation he really didn't need to have with Mark right now.

But it didn't matter. It didn't matter because he had done it. He had put away the people who had hurt her. Peter swallowed standing up and refusing to admit through his grin, how desperately afraid he had been that he would not be able to do that.

That night Anna came back to his apartment and they ordered in. Somewhere between eating the spring rolls and the duck pancakes Peter had the courage to ask her.

"You know you don't have to leave here? I mean…if you wanted to stay. You could. Even if you wanted to take it slow, I want to take you on a date and all but…I'm used to living with you, gonna take me a bit of time to not."

Anna paused dipping her spring roll into the chilli sauce.

"I was thinking about that too." She said thoughtfully. "I nearly died. And I'm tired of taking things to slow because I'm afraid. I want to live my life. With you. regardless of what happens in a years' time or ten years or twenty years I want to be with you right now. Live in the moment and all. So if you don't mind me sticking around then yeah…yeah"

Peter kissed her then food in front of them be damned. He could always reheat it up later after all.

Happy endings were rare in this world Peter thought that night as he and Anna clutched each other in bed. He could still see the bruises that were slowly turning yellow and fading, he imagined he would see them for a very long time even after they were gone. He thought that perhaps Anna was right. Now it was time to start trusting that something good was going to happen.

That something good could happen. That there was a balance between the good and the bad. It had taken something bad to happen for the good to come out of it.

Peter decided to stop that thought before he started sounding like a damn greeting card.

He looked at the sleeping woman next to him.

There was always time to talk tomorrow.

And I wish all of you amazing readers a very Merry and Happy Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year!

Thank you all so much.

Enjoy.