EPILOGUE

Three and a half months later...

I sit myself down on one of the many boxes that were in the room, completely exhausted. Seriously. Moving takes a lot out of you.

But then you think about who you are moving in with and all of the exhaustion goes away—well, okay, SOME of it goes away, at least.

"You okay?"

I look up at Rob who had just come in the door. Of course, he doesn't look at all exhausted and he had carried so much more in than I had. But...I am getting a nice view of his chest. You know, since he has no shirt on.

I attempt a smile. "Yeah," I say. "I'll be fine."

He just rolls his eyes, putting the two boxes down on the floor. "Well, if you didn't insist on bringing so much clothes with you, you wouldn't have had as much to carry up."

"Hey!" I object. "Those clothes are essential. Plus, I'm pretty sure my mom would have thrown them out if I didn't take them. She hated my clothes."

He laughs. Oh, how I love that sound. "Well, just think, after we're finished, we can do whatever we want..."

This time I really smile. I heave myself off the box, which isn't that easy, mind you, and go over to him. I wrap my arms around his neck and say, "I'd like that," and I kiss him.

Although, it doesn't last as long as I would have liked. Rob breaks it off, saying, "We have plenty of time for that later. I just wanna get this over with."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever," I say.

See, the thing is, Rob and I are moving in together, if you hadn't already gathered that. I decided to go to college in Indiana. The college is about an hour and a half away from where my parents live. Since I don't really feel like driving three hours a day just for school (there and back), Rob and I decided to get an apartment somewhere closer. Plus, he said he wanted to get out of his house. Living with his mother at the age of 20 was a little embarrassing he had said.

And, you know, we aren't THAT far away from family. Roughly an hour and twenty minutes, since we're ten minutes away from the college.

But it is far enough away that my mom can't stop in every day just to 'see what's up'. Believe me, that's exactly what she would do.

So, yeah, Rob and I got an apartment together. Yeah, it was a little hard convincing my parents to let me move in with Rob, but they soon relented. I mean, I AM 18, after all.

And I have the whole FBI job to pay the money for rent. Rob is working, of course. Gary recommended him to one of his friend's garages that happens to be around here. And, well, he got the job. It pays well, too, Rob told me.

But since my job pays very well, I pay the rent, and we use Rob's money for extra luxuries, or he puts it into savings, for both of us. Which is good, you know, for, like, ten or twenty years down the road when we'll need it.

Oh, and about the FBI. Ever since that night at Rob's house, they have been...well, let's just say they've given me a little more privacy. AND, of course, they didn't move me to Florida. I think that is rather obvious, since I'm here and all. I talked to Krantz, too, about the whole moving-to-Florida thing, and he seemed a little nervous that I had brought that up, which led me to believe he was behind the whole thing from square one. That really didn't surprise me too much at the time.

But anyway, yeah, the Feds had pulled back a bit. So I am now just finding missing people from the vicinity of my own home—and occasionally I have to go to Crane, for check-ups or whatever. But since we moved, Crane is a LOT closer than it was before. Oh, and I'm still only finding missing people that I'm positive WANT to be found—or that are dead, either or.

But enough about my stupid job that pays very well.

I start school in two weeks, which gives Rob and I plenty of time to get used to living together. Hopefully he'll be able to stand it.

And we brought Chigger with us. I mean, I couldn't just LEAVE him with my parents. I would have felt horrible. For the dog, not my parents.

The apartment is two bedrooms—of course, Rob and I are sleeping in the same bedroom, but the other one is just in case someone needs to stay with us—two bathrooms (one in the master and one stand-alone), kitchen, laundry room, and living room. I have to say, that's a pretty damn good first apartment.

Well, I have to hand it to my dad, really, since he found it for us. He got us a good price for it, too. I'm very lucky to have him.

Rob and I are back down to the moving truck. It is still very loaded with our crap. Luckily, we are buying some new furniture, so that isn't necessary to bring up at the moment. (But we kept my bed, since its almost brand new anyway. Rob says he likes it already.) Plus, we have the moving guys to help us bring the stuff up.

I know this sounds corny, but I AM going to miss home. Even with my mother being there. I mean, I'm out in the REAL world now.

But, I have to say, it's really great so far. I know it won't ALWAYS be like that, but...you know. I like the freedom. Very much so.

- § -

"What do you want?" Rob calls to me from the kitchen. He's ordering some take-out for us tonight, since we really do not feel like going out and we currently have no food in the house, except for a box of Cheez-Its that we bought from the gas station on the way here.

"Uh," I say back, "just some fried rice, I guess." I'm in the bedroom putting some of my clothes away. Better do it now then later.

That seems to be both Rob and I's motto for the day. And I thought I was a procrastinator.

Actually, I think it's the fact that I know what Rob and I are going to do tonight that has motivated me to do all the things that I've done today.

Rob comes in the room a few minutes later, carrying the cordless, and he puts it back on the cradle.

"So," he says, flopping back on the mattress—we hadn't quite set up the bedframe yet, so the mattress was on the ground. "How's your first day in your new home?"

"Hmm," I say, pretending to think. "Well, it's been pretty good so far, except for the manual labor."

He raises an eyebrow. "Manual labor?" he echoes. "God, you women have it so easy."

I narrow my eyes at him. "Really? And what's that supposed to mean?" I ask, putting on a very skeptical voice.

"Oh, you know. Just the fact that you are always complaining when it comes to actually doing some work."

Okay, I know he's just joking, but whatever.

"Oh, really? So I guess its fair to say you guys always complain when it comes actual work."

"Actual work?" he says, stifling a laugh.

That's when I get up and walk over to the mattress, then plop myself beside him on it. "Maybe," I say.

He then turns his head to look at me. "So what does this actual work pertain?"

I look up at the ceiling, pretending to be pensive. "Well," I say, "probably this." And then I kiss him, right on the mouth. It seems as if Rob has no objection whatsoever to that.

But just as his hand reaches my bra under my shirt, I hear a knock at the apartment door. "Damn," Rob says, getting up from the mattress. "I'll be right back," he says to me.

I nod and he walks out of the bedroom. A minute later he comes back with the food. He sets the food on the floor next to the mattress, and then he gets back on the mattress with me. He hands me my food and then starts to dig into his.

Gratefully I start eating my food. Wow, this is good. I mean, I hadn't had takeout in a really long time, considering my parents own a whole chain of restaurants, so we can basically get takeout for free.

It doesn't really take long for us to finish our food, since we both hadn't eaten since that morning, on the way here.

I offer to throw the empty containers away. But when I come back in the bedroom, Rob just grabs me and starts kissing me again. I notice that he has all ready removed most of his clothing. Inwardly I pout. I actually like taking his clothes off.

But oh well.

Soon enough, though, our clothes are scattered on the floor, and he's on top of me on the mattress.

"I love you," he says to me, very huskily, might I add.

I grin back from underneath him. "I love you, too," I say just as huskily, and I lean up and kiss him hungrily.

And then...well, I'm sure you can guess what happens next.

Let's just say it is a great first night of living together.

---

This, sadly, is the last chapter, hence the title. It was really fun writing this story, actually. I know I was a little slow updating some of the chapters, but those were the really hard parts to write. Once I got to the happy parts again, it was tremendously easy to write.

Now, I hope you guys will review plentifully.

Cheers.