Author's note: Well, here is Chapter 23, added after the fact, to tie up the loose ends. Those of you who remember the original posting may recall that this was actually located in a shorter form at the end of Chapter 22. With the edit I have performed on the entire story, I really felt that this chapter needed to be set apart and expanded to give the whole thing a proper sendoff. I have enjoyed the writing of this tale and this edit gave me the opportunity to revisit my storyline. I hope that you have enjoyed this story as much as I have. Thank you for reading. I appreciate everyone who commented and I hope that others who read this will call out to tell me if they approved or not. Thank you all. Best Wishes from EnigmaSphinx.

Disclaimers: Months after finishing this story, all I can say is this: I still do not own V or the V-verse. I write my little fantasies as hommage to the wonderful characters created by others and in the vain hopes of creating a little more enjoyment for those of us who really wanted the original to go on.

Dawn

Hours later:

Stephen sank into the seat beside Evey and leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. He wished that he could forget the strain of the past few days but there were still loose ends. Shortly after Atherton's demise, the police arrived and took over the scene.

Eric managed to help Stephen conceal himself from being discovered as V or from being questioned as anything other than another victim of the elder Avery's madness.

Paramedics swarmed after the police, searching out the survivors of the fight. Atherton had been declared dead on scene. Clarissa's injuries were so severe, she was immediate transported to the nearest hospital. He could still see Clarissa's body being taken out of the apartment on a stretcher, the paramedics working on her desperately as she was rushed to a waiting ambulance.

The police had a grasp on the aftermath at the apartment. Stephen and Evey followed the ambulances to the hospital in a police car, riding in tense silence with Eric while Dominic remained at the scene to command the provisional police. Now he and Evey waited for word as the hospital waiting for word on Clarissa's condition. "It's over?" Evey asked him again, leaning against him comfortingly. Stephen nodded, his face lined.

"Atherton took his own life," he said. "I didn't have to kill him, for which I am grateful." He was still dressed in black, having left his cloak and knives in Eric Finch's borrowed police car. He had one hand around Evey's waist, holding her close. "I don't know what I would have done if Clarissa had started with you instead of Eric."

"She tried to protect you, Stephen. She lied to Atherton, even when he threatened her." Evey shivered. "Her life with him had to be hell."

"If she was a trained torturer, I don't understand why she didn't take Dominic, he seemed the least prepared to withstand…" Eric's arrival cut Stephen off. The policeman's face was haggard, his arms wrapped with bandages. He looked at Stephen hopefully.

"Any word?" he asked. Stephen nodded.

"Atherton's body was transported to the coroner…" Eric pulled a face.

"Clarissa?" he specified.

"Nothing yet." Stephen frowned. "Your burns, Eric? I regret that I did not find you before…"

"Clarissa did her best to hold off, Stephen." Eric shook his head. "She had no choice but to begin." Eric scrubbed his face with one hand. "What a bloody day this has been."

A man in surgical scrubs appeared in the doorway. "Mr. Avery?" At Stephen's nod, the man extended a hand. "I am Doctor Hendricks. We have finished repairing the damage to your niece and she is in recovery." He was joined by a another doctor, this one a matronly woman whose kind eyes were shadowed with concern. "This is Doctor Barnes, who agreed to assist me during the surgery."

"Clarissa... How is she?" Evey laid a hand on Stephen's arm as he asked the question, squeezing gently to remind him that he was not alone. He covered her hand with his, grateful for her presence. Dr. Hendricks hesitated.

"We seem to have covered everything, Mr. Avery. Clarissa's injuries were grave, but her youth and her excellent physical condition have served her well. When the bullets penetrated her body, they tumbled, causing a path of destruction that might have proven fatal to another person in less than peak condition. She had a collapsed lung, her bowel was perforated in several places, and several of her ribs were broken. There was some damage to several major organs as well as some bits of shrapnel in her torso but we've repaired as much of the damage as we could surgically."

Evey sucked in a sharp breath. "But not all?" she interjected. "There was damage that you didn't repair?"

"There were some...complications, Miss." Hendricks eyed Stephen curiously. "Your niece seems to have had quite a difficult time in her life, Mr. Avery."

"Clarissa was abused under the previous government, Doctor. I have only recently recovered her from the...group she was raised by."

Doctor Barnes frowned, her expression pained. "Was she in some sort of facilty?" she asked softly. "There are some issues that, well...to be frank, Mr. Avery, she seems to have been badly treated."

"I explained to the nurse who registered Clarissa's arrival here that my niece was being given a toxin to insure her obedience, Doctor. Wereyou able to counteract the poison?"

The woman hesitated. "She had a device implanted in her abdomen that we were able to remove. I think,...After examining the item thoroughly, the mechanism seems to have served two functions. It was the source of a steady delivery of the toxin you warned us about." She shook her head. "Now that it has been removed and the residual poison in her system has been neutralized, she should suffer no lingering effects from it."

"You said that it served two purposes?" Evey asked softly. Doctor Barnes looked down at the file in her hands and nodded.

"What is it?"

The doctor frowned. "May I speak to you privately, Mr. Avery?" Stephen stood very still, his dark eyes anxious.

"We are her family, Doctor. Ms. Hammond is my fiancee and Chief Inspector Finch is a longtime friend of the family. Whatever you have to say can be said to us all."

Dr. Barnes nodded. "Very well, then. It appears that the secondary system of the device released a steady stream of contraceptive. If your niece wishes to become sexually active, she will require another form of birth control. During our examination of her injuries, there were physical signs of old trauma in many places, injuries consistent with sexual battery and abuse." She shook her head. "I regret to inform you of this, Mr. Avery, but I would have to surmise that your niece has been badly abused over a long period of time. She may well need counseling in order to adjust to a normal life."

"Whatever she needs to help her heal," Stephen assured the doctor woodenly. "I will provide for her." He trembled under Evey's hand. "Will we be able to see her?"

"Not until she is in a room, Mr. Avery. It will likely be a few hours yet."

"Thank you, Doctor Barnes, Doctor Hendricks. I will remain here until then." The doctors left them and Stephen was silent, staring at the floor. Evey looked up at him with concern.

"Stephen?"

When Stephen looked into her eyes, she could see the conflict in his face, his grief at war with his rage. "If I could kill him twice, I would. I swear, Evey, my father was a monster."

She reached up to touch his face, smoothing the lines that bracketed his mouth. "He's dead, Stephen. Let him rot in his grave. Now is the time for healing, not just for Clarissa but for you as well."

Stephen brushed away the tears that were gathering on her cheeks. "It will be a long road, Evey." He glanced at Eric. "Will the police be taking Clarissa into custody?"

"She wasn't part of the report, Stephen." Eric replied. "Neither Dom nor I will say anything about her involvement." He gingerly tucked his hands into his pockets. "She acted under duress. She didn't want to do the things she did but the threat could not be ignored or resisted."

"I have to see to her recovery." Stephen said hollowly. "I will not abandon her now." He swayed slightly and Evey led him to a chair. "I've money enough for whatever she needs to heal. I don't know that she'll accept it, but I need to… I need to help her." He covered his face in his hands. "Oh, God, I don't know what they did to her for certain, but I can guess." He sounded sick.

"She's strong." The older man choked as he said it. "She'll survive this."

"He was her grandfather, Evey. He should have taken care of her, not allowed her to be brutalized!"

Evey put her arms around Stephen, pulling him close. "There is something I need to tell you," she said gently. "Atherton said that you and V were not his children, that your mother married him before you were born but you weren't his." She stroked his shoulder. "I don't know if that makes things worse or better, but it was what he said before he took us upstairs. Atherton Avery wasn't your father and he wasn't Clarissa's grandfather either." She looked into his eyes. "I love you and it makes you no different in my eyes, Stephen. I love you as much now as I ever have."

It took him a few minutes to process what she said but when it sank in, he pulled her onto his lap, folding her in his arms. Burying his face in her neck, he shook against her. "Oh, thank God," he said sincerely. "The thought of carrying his blood…" He rested his head on her shoulder. "Oh, Evey, thank you."

When Stephen lifted his head from Evey's shoulder, his eyes were bright. "Evey, my sweet, when I left you in the train station, I thought my life was over. Tonight, you've given it back to me again for the second time. They say if you save someone's life, you own them." He brushed back an errant lock of her hair. "Not that you haven't owned me from the moment you maced poor Dominic, mind." She smiled at him, remembering. "Will you marry me, Evey?"

She gasped, her eyes widening. "Oh, yes, Stephen, I will." She wrapped her arms around him. "I love you, no matter what life brings. I've loved you since forever, it seems."

"We'll look to the future together, Evey," Stephen said, cradling her. "Whatever it brings."

Eric wandered away from them to stand by the doors that the doctors had gone wondered how Clarissa would react to the knowledge that Atherton had no claim to her anymore. He hoped that it gave her some comfort.

She was brave, he thought to himself. She was strong. Surely she hadn't endured the hell she'd gone through and joined forces with Stephen just to lose her life while standing on the very threshold of the freedom she deserved.

His arms tingled under the bandages and he closed his eyes. Clarissa carried the same marks he did, she'd matched him burn for burn without faltering... He shivered at the memory of her fingers in his hair, her voice whispering his name, and he hoped that she was strong enough to survive.

The coroner stepped into the morgue freezer, his clipboard in hand. He moved among the gurneys, looking for the one on his list. Checking the toe tag, he put a check by the name of the deceased.

"Ivan, let's get this old geezer on the table. Once we've done the prelims, we can get to some lunch." There was no answer. The coroner shook his head. "Ivan!" He heard a footstep behind him and sighed. "C'mon, mate, let's get this over with."

"Yes," said a strange voice. "Let's, shall we?"

The coroner started to turn toward the unrecognized speaker in surprise but something struck the back of his head with great force. As he fell to the ground numbly, his vision dimming, he saw two bare feet swing over the edge of the gurney, dangling for a moment with the toe tag in place, before easing to stand solidly upon the concrete floor before his stunned gaze. He could just make out the name on the tag and it meant something to him, something that skittered through his fading senses wildly before vanishing into confusion.

Avery, A.

Then his vision went black.

Finis

VEV