A/N: Thank you to EdwardAlways, Escape my reality, onyxrush707, mediate89, Wilty, TK-MR, sarah12345, xXxTwilightfan93xXx, JmacKarla, Animelover231, Someone aka Me, shimmershadow30, cajun panda, daniellamorella, TopKat90, vampire's kisses 4 me, and dayys for reviewing! Enjoy the finale, it's the longest chapter of the whole story!

Disclaimer: The Host isn't mine. However, if SM decides to kill off Jeb in a sequel, I will definitely be saying 'it was my idea first'. And that's payment enough for me.

Epilogue

"Come on Mel, it's time to go!" I heard Jamie yell. He was getting impatient, but he was just going to have to wait. I was saying goodbye to Jared, and with the way his fingers were drumming on the small of my back, it was going to be a little while more. I leaned in to kiss his neck and he groaned and shifted back.

"You need to get going."

I shook my head. "No, we still have time," I argued, leaning back in.

I darted my tongue out, savoring the taste of his skin. If I wasn't going to see him for a month I needed something to get me through.

Andy, Kyle, Sunny, Jamie, and I were in the process of leaving to raid. We'd been low on everything for almost a month but had been waiting for things to return to normal before we left. We finally realized a few days ago that things would never be the same again. We would have to find a new 'normal'.

Jeb was gone, taking with him the glue that held our group together. Cliques were a little more defined now. Almost as though we were dividing into political parties. Each group could be depended on to voice certain opinions whenever we had a meeting. Jeb had travelled effortlessly between groups, keeping us all mindful of why we had to do the things that we did. It was rough trying to keep the peace with no single person to be the voice of reason. Conflicts escalated more quickly now and it seemed we were having meetings every other day. It was getting exhausting.

We also missed Jeb's presence for his escape plan. No one knew except for him where we would go if we ever had to evacuate. He thought that the less people knew about a place the better, so he kept it to himself. If we ever had need to escape, we would be out of luck. No one had any idea where we would go. So we were having to work even harder at keeping a low profile while we systematically explored the surrounding area. We were pretty sure it was close but we had so far been unsuccessful. It was starting to get frustrating.

I felt Jared's arms running up my sides and I knew he was getting his self-control back, about to push me away and make me leave. I wasn't ready to let go yet and I moved my hand to the side of his neck, rubbing it back and forth as I brought my lips back to his. He relaxed slightly and allowed me to continue. I knew him too well, this was almost too easy.

Jared wasn't coming on the raid with us. He, Trudy, and Jamie had discussed it at length and decided that only one of them was needed. And for some reason Jared had decided that Jamie should go and he should stay. At least Jared had made it clear that Kyle was going to be in charge on the raid. Jamie had been put off by that a little bit but Jared explained it was only because Kyle had more experience raiding. Jamie accepted it, but made it clear that he wasn't going to play a supporting role forever. That angered me to no end I couldn't say no. I was supposed to be treating him like an adult now. I had to keep reminding myself he wasn't a little kid anymore. Somehow I knew 'he's not a baby' would be my mantra while on this raid.

We didn't plan to be gone long. Two or three weeks, probably. Just restocking, the same thing we had been doing for months with Wanda, though now I was the one doing the shopping. Sunny would be with me of course but she was oddly paranoid that someone would suspect. Kyle and Wanda had tried to talk her out of this more than once. She was a soul. Had she ever suspected? She knew the answer was no but that didn't help her calm down much, so we decided we would only use her places where we needed two sets of hands. She seemed to accept this and was less anxious.

Sunny was much more a part of the community now. She had warmed up to me considerably and she wasn't afraid to leave Kyle's shadow anymore. Not that he ever let her out of his sight. He was now the one following like a lost puppy. I enjoyed their role reversal but I wasn't exactly looking forward to spending a month in a cramped van with the two of them. Now that they knew they were in love they were sickeningly sweet and constantly all over each other. Even if Jared was going to be there with me they would probably get on my nerves. Without him, I had a feeling I was going to get pushed over the edge.

"MEL!" I heard Jamie yelling. He was getting impatient. We really did need to leave as soon as possible or we wouldn't get to the cars before it was light out. I was vainly hoping that time would slow down and I could stay with Jared a little while longer.

He pulled back and put his hands on my hips, effectively keeping me back. "You need to go Mel."

I groaned. "I know. I know," I grumbled as I bent down and grabbed my back from the floor.

"Melanie if you are not out here in two minutes I am coming in there, I don't care what I see!" Jamie shouted down the hall.

I laughed and started out but stopped when Jared put his hand on my wrist. "The kid said we had two more minutes," he said with a devious smile. I couldn't argue with that. I dropped my bag and flung myself back into his arms, knocking him backwards onto the bed. Jamie really shouldn't have given us more time.

After what felt like the shortest two minutes of my life, Jamie was standing in the doorway, with his arms crossed over his chest. "Disengage," he commanded sternly. For some reason Jared and I both reacted like we had been caught making out in the locker room after lunch. We both let go and our gazes dropped to the ground, guilty.

Jamie chuckled. "Wow, if I would have known it was that easy I would have come down here a long time ago."

I rolled my eyes and picked up my bag, slinging it over my shoulder. I squeezed Jared hand then followed Jamie out. "Be careful," Jared called after me. "I'll be waiting for you to get back," he promised with a smirk. I smiled and Jamie rolled his eyes. I was about to step back and give him one more kiss goodbye when Jamie grabbed my wrist and started dragging me away.

"We need to leave sometime this month Mel," he complained.

"We're leaving now aren't we?" I pointed out.

He gave me a small smile. "No thanks to you," he joked.

As we passed Wanda and Ian's room, the red door pulled back and I saw Wanda standing in the doorway, looking remorseful.

"I thought I heard you coming," she said. "Finally," she added with a smile. I laughed and she stepped forward and gave me a hug. "I'm sorry I'm not going with you."

"No you're not," I countered.

"You're right, I'm not," she laughed. "But I'll miss you anyway. Be safe."

She went back into the room and as Jamie and I continued down the hall Ian passed us, moving quickly, only giving us a "Bye guys," as he continued into his room quickly. Then I heard a loud giggle. Ian had discovered his newfound appreciation of Wanda's body. They probably weren't going to leave their room for the entire month. And I would be off raiding with Kyle and Sunny, the wonder-couple. That made me jealous as hell.

We met Kyle, Sunny, and Andy at the end of the hall and they were looking just as impatient as Jamie was. I tried to look remorseful that I had held everything up, but they could tell I wasn't really sorry.

"Are we finally ready then?" Kyle asked. I shot him a look, as did Sunny. Apparently his sarcasm was not something she approved of. Kyle immediately looked shyly at her before looking back at me. "Sorry Mel."

His apologies still floored me. It had been a month since he had realized his feeling for Sunny his personality had done a complete turnaround. Most of the time I couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth. He was so sweet and considerate now. I knew most of it was because he didn't want Sunny to be mad at him, but the motivations didn't matter. Just the results.

"Okay, let's go then," Kyle said, heading off down the storage corridor.

Jamie stopped before we made it too far. "Did anyone grab any Heal?"

We all looked at each other, but it appeared no one had gotten any. Taking Heal on raid had become commonplace after Jamie had gotten injured. We liked to stop problems before they started now.

Jamie shook his head. "Am I the only one who pays attention to the details?" he asked with fake exasperation.

Kyle groaned but turned around. "All right, I guess we can just go out through the hospital," he grunted. I smirked. It was always a good time to watch Kyle try to fit through the crawlspace outside. His shoulders were just a bit too wide, so he had to turn to the side and struggle through. I had to start working on my poker face now. He wouldn't like me laughing as hard as I would surely want to.

We made our way to the hospital and as we drew closer we saw there was a light on. It seemed odd considering the time of night. We had expected everyone else to be in bed, or at least heading in that direction. Then I heard a giggle.

Sunny was in front and stopped, causing Kyle to run into her and almost knock her down. He looked at her apologetically as she motioned for him to be quiet. We stood for another moment and heard another giggle, this time louder than the first. I cast a side-long glance at Jamie who shrugged his shoulders.

There was someone in the hospital. Actually there were probably two people. One who was being funny and another who was laughing. After standing there staring at each other Andy sighed and pushed forward, walking straight into the hospital.

As he entered the room his eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He composed himself quickly and cleared his throat. Whoever was in there made a startled squeak and Andy turned to leave. "I'll give you a minute," he said as he walked back to us.

"Who was it?" I whispered.

He shook his head like he was trying to make sure it wasn't going to explode. "Candy and…..Heath."

Whoa. That was surprising. I hadn't seen that one coming.

We stood there awkwardly for a few minutes until Candy came and stood in the doorway.

"I thought you said you were going out the other exit," she said sweetly, as if nothing had happened.

Kyle closed his eyes briefly, no doubt scrubbing away an unwanted mental image, before he answered. "We were, but we forgot to grab some Heal before we left."

"Oh, okay. Well come on in and I'll grab you some." We followed her inside and she opened the cabinet stocked with all of the medical supplies. Heath was sitting on one of the cots looking sheepish as we passed. I tried not to look at him and make him feel more uncomfortable. I was glad that they were happy.

Candy had taken over Doc's place as the Healer here in the caves. She wasn't quite as good as Doc had been, not having been to actual medical school, but she did quite well. She remembered most of what Summer Song had known about healing and let us know about other things she thought would be helpful for us to get while we were raiding.

She'd had her first big test last week. It was barely anything. Freedom had a cough, deep in his lungs and it wasn't going away. She had him inhale the Inside Clean and gave him a strip of Cool and he was perfect again.

We still missed Doc greatly. He wasn't just our doctor. He was our friend. He was a big part of the glue that held our group together. Everyone trusted Doc. It wasn't that anyone distrusted Candy; she just hadn't been around long enough. She was proving her worth now.

We'd discovered, however, that no one missed Maggie and Sharon. I was pretty smug about that. Lily had taken over Sharon place as teacher and Jamie was raving about her. Apparently she not only knew what she was talking about, but she could make it interesting too. I was glad that Jamie was still interested in school. I would have hated for him to stop just because he didn't like Sharon.

We decided not to fill Doc's space in the council. It would work better with three people anyway. No ties. We just couldn't bring ourselves to replace him. If we had done it, it would be as if he had never existed. It broke my heart to know that I would probably never see him again. Jared had made it clear that he was invited back whenever he wanted as long as Sharon wasn't with him. Doc had politely refused, as I had expected.

Candy smiled as she picked out a big tub of Heal. She handed it to me, along with a couple of bottles of Clean and a tube of Seal. I wedged them into my already overfull bag then stood up, ready to go.

"Alright, I guess it's time to go," Kyle said, trying to break the awkward silence that had overtaken us since we had entered the room. We all nodded and started for the back corner and the crawlspace hidden in the darkened shadows.

Sunny hung back as we all stepped forward. Jamie went through the tunnel first, followed by Andy. Next we pushed Kyle through. I'd decided to go after him so he couldn't see my face when he got stuck. It was good decision too; he was stuck for almost a full minute. As I was about to crawl through the hole I looked back for Sunny who was still standing next to Candy.

She put her arms around Candy and hugged her tightly. "Congratulations," she said. "It's a great feeling isn't it?"

Candy nodded. "The best."

I pushed myself into the hole, smiling happily for Candy and Heath. It appeared that even though things in the caves were very different, things were still the same. Love was still blooming between the inhabitants. Maybe Candy and Heath were proving that no matter how altered the circumstances, we would get through this. That we would carry on as before.

I couldn't help but smile widely as I pulled myself out of the hole on the other side. We were going to be okay. No matter how different things got to be, as long as we loved each other, everything would turn out okay.

I stood up dragged my bag to the jeep. I threw it in the back and climbed in the backseat next to Jamie. Kyle was driving with Sunny in the passenger seat. Andy climb in on the other side of Jamie and we were off. As we got closer to the vans my heart rate increased considerably. My adrenaline was pumping and I could barely stay in my seat.

This was the most fun I'd had in a long time, but though we had barely started I could barely wait to get back. Not just to Jared. Not to Wanda either. I wanted to revel in my new found love for my community. We were what the souls feared. Humans who were happy and thriving. I loved that feeling. We were rebels. But we were also a family. I loved my family of rebels. And I couldn't wait to get back to them.

A/N: So there it is. The end of this story. I'm sad to see it end. I hate to be a disappointment, but there will be no sequel. I have a few other projects I'd like to focus on instead. If I continued it, there would just be lots of fluff with no real plot. So I'm saving those ideas to be used in future stories.

I'm going to take a couple of weeks off from posting anything. Once I'm back to writing my next priority will be to continue with Unexpected Blessing, which I have posted the prologue for. I am also working on a sequel to A Million Reasons. It will be nice to work on something that's lighthearted after the angst of this story. And finally, I have about 5 Twilight ideas swirling around in my head. Most are one-shots that I'm not sure how to write. We'll see if I ever manage to write them.

Thank you once again for reading this story. It was so much more successful than I ever could have imagined. It's true, I have the best readers ever! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And here's my request one final time: REVIEW!!!