A/N: This is it! This is the epilogue! After this the story is complete! I want to say a few thank you's before you guys start reading.

First, thank you to katertots! She was such a big help during all of this! And my friend Jenna! I don't think she'll read this story but she did majorly help with shaping the ending! I have a group of amazing writer friends and I love them all very much for listening to me change my mind about a hundred times on various plot points lol.

Second, TO ANYONE WHO FAVORITED/REVIEWED/KUDOS'D/COMMENTED thank you so much! Your support means everything! One vlog I watch jokingly ends their videos with "and now it's time to pay the price!" which means since they do a lot of their work for free and spend their own time making their videos the best way to compensate them is to comment or subscribe. That concept VERY MUCH applies to fanfic too! (even more so cause vloggers can earn money from ad revenue, fanfic authors CANNOT). Thank you to all of you who "paid the price" by interacting with my fic in some way shape or form! I appreciate you so much! You make created content for this fandom a rewarding experience!

Third, to anyone who spread word about this fic and helped people discover it, YOU ARE AMAZING. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I appreciate everytime I see someone share the fic on twitter or Tumblr! It means the WORLD to me!

And now, on with the show!

Happy reading!

angellwings

PS - I have another multichap coming VERY SOON that I think you'll all REALLY enjoy ;)

EPILOGUE: My Turn

ONE MONTH LATER…

"Are hand-me-downs suddenly cool?" Sylvie asks him in confusion as they walk down the hall toward her door.

He laughs and shakes his head. "Don't think so, no."

Sylvie furrows her brow as she digs a hand in her purse for her keys. "So, then why was Violet so excited about that bag of my clothes she found in the back of your truck?"

"I think it's less about hand-me-downs and more about you, Sylvie," Matt tells her with an amused grin. "She seems to think you're the coolest thing since Taylor Swift or that's the impression Christie and I have anyway."

She guffaws, finally grabs her much too heavy key ring out of her purse, and sticks the key in the lock. "Me? I'm hardly cool. I'm a former farmgirl who watches too much HGTV and belts power ballads in the shower."

"Who moved here on a whim without knowing a single soul and became a badass paramedic who's saved countless lives," he summarizes with a fond but exasperated sigh. "We really need to work on your self perception."

"Says the man who refuses to acknowledge the good work he does for the community outside of the Firehouse," Sylvie replies, tossing a challenging glare at him.

She opens the door and steps inside.

He follows with a modest shrug. "I'm just doing what any average decent person would do."

"Yes, giving your time, money, and manpower to replace a woman's window free of charge after you guys had to bust through it to save her husband's life is totally what any average person would do. I'm sure," she says with a playful eye roll as she throws her purse down on the couch.

He closes and locks the door behind them with a dry chuckle. "Okay, point made. I'm a hypocrite."

She turns and smiles boastfully at him. "But a modest one and that's the best kind, really." Her shoes are kicked off by the couch as she heads to the kitchen. "Okay, we've eaten Christie's vegan lasagna, or in your case pretended to, so now what are we actually having for dinner?"

Sylvie pulls a stack of take out menus out of the drawer by the fridge and spreads them out across the counter.

He smirks, walks over to her, and kisses the top of her head. "Whatever you want. You're the one who made the biggest sacrifice and actually ate the thing so you get to choose."

"It wasn't so bad, really," Sylvie tells him with a soft smile. "Besides, it was really sweet of her to cook for us. It felt rude not to at least try it."

"Babe," he says with a light laugh. "Even Violet didn't eat it and she actually is vegan. I love my sister but she is a terrible cook. That would be the case even without the diet."

"Hey! It wasn't all bad! The dessert was good!" Sylvie says defensively.

"It was berries and coconut cream," he tells her with a light chuckle. "Kinda hard to mess that up."

She plucks a menu for a barbecue restaurant out of the stack and unfolds it across the counter. "Just pick what you want and leave your sister alone. She tries her best."

His chuckle turns into a full laugh. "How many more dinners will it take before you finally admit you don't like her cooking?"

The pointed silence in reply to his question is full of stubborn determination without her having to utter a word. It's completely charming. He grins and shakes his head before pulling her into his arms and kissing her firmly.

When he pulls away, he tucks her into his chest and kisses her temple before speaking against the shell of her ear. "You are entirely too nice. It's one of the many reasons I love you."

She relaxes into his embrace and he feels a featherlight kiss to the hinge of his jaw. "I love you too. Even if you're a bit of a jerk to your sister."

He keeps one arm around her as they choose their food and Sylvie calls in their order. Once that's done he remembers the second bag of clothes that still sits in his truck bed. He helped her carry them down before dinner. She had two huge trash bags full of clothes. They were too big to fit in her trunk.

"By the way, what am I doing with that bag of clothes I still have?" He asks.

"Can you drop them off at the donation spot near your apartment?" She asks, grabbing his hand and pulling him over to the couch.

He nods while they settle in. Sylvie tucks herself into his side with her legs folded underneath her. His arm naturally goes around her as he answers her. "On my way home tomorrow. Do you really have that many clothes?"

She laughs lightly and nods. "A woman's wardrobe is a little more complicated than a man's wardrobe, okay? We can't just wear the same charcoal sweater for a decade like guys can. I was long overdue for cleaning out my closet. Speaking of! I wanted to show you something!"

She jumps up from the couch and pulls him with her. Nevermind that they just got settled and he was enjoying the way she'd snuggled up to him. She drags him to her room, pushes him down to sit on her bed, and then opens her closet door with a flourish. Her pointer finger is lifted in his direction to tell him to wait and then she crosses the room to open two of her dresser drawers. Both are empty. She does her best Vana White, motioning to them with graceful open hands.

"See?" She asks excitedly.

He blinks at her. Not quite sure what she's getting at. The closet looks as though a third of it has been emptied and the drawers are bare except for a bit of contact paper in the bottom.

"Um, yeah, that's great! Good job?" He offers weakly with a confused expression.

Her shoulders sag with a huff. "You don't get it, do you?"

He grimaces and gives her an apologetic glance. "No, I guess I don't."

"Okay, let me try this," Sylvie tells him. "Stay right there. I'll only be a second."

He's not exactly sure where else he'd go but he nods and stays put anyway.

She comes back a couple of minutes later with a tiny manila envelope in her hand. "Here."

It's pressed into his palm before she joins him on the bed with her teeth sunk into her bottom lip. She looks anxious and he has no idea why. He opens the envelope and dumps it's contents into his hand.

It's a key. A plain metal key.

The key, the drawers, the closet.

It all suddenly clicks.

A smile he has no hope of stopping stretches across his face until his cheeks start to hurt. He holds the key up for her to see as he speaks. "Is this a key to your apartment?"

She nods.

"And the drawers are for me?" He asks.

She nods again, this time with a light blush. "The closet space too. That way you can keep some things here so you're not always having to carry your duffle back and forth-"

He surges forward and captures her lips with his. His tongue runs along her bottom lip to coax her mouth open. When she responds, he pockets the key and presses her back into the mattress. His mouth focuses on ravaging hers while his hands slowly unbutton her flannel shirt. Her hands travel south, reaching for the fly of his jeans. There's no doubt where this is headed now. He leans back as he finishes unbuttoning her shirt to meet her eyes.

"Thank you for the key," he tells her with his forehead pressed to hers. "And the drawers and the closet space. It's perfect."

"I love you," she says with a wide smile. "And you made space for me when I needed you most so I thought...well, I thought it was my turn. You're welcome here - in my space and my room - anytime you want. You don't even have to call. Day or night. Whenever. Just come."

"I'll keep that in mind," he promises. "I love you too."

And he plans to keep on loving her for a long time to come.

Hell, he'll love her forever if she'll have him. Maybe even longer than that.