Epilogue

Five Years Later

"Mason, quit tugging at your sister's hair!" I shouted from the hallway.

I chuckled as a complaining grumble from my eight-year-old godson filled the air. A verbal response would surely be following any second now with claims that his sister did it. "But Aunt Rose, Lily started it!"

"Did not!" she exclaimed.

"You did so," Mason argued back.

I let them go back and forth, keeping an ear out for any escalations in the fight. I didn't have any siblings of my own, but from what Dimitri told me, he insisted it was usually better to just let them argue it out. The only time he said I should interfere was when it seemed like it was going to get out of hand.

So far, though, it was just pretty innocent bickering.

Mia and Eddie were away on vacation and had left the little rascals in my care while they were away. They were probably working on a third rugrat right now. At least I hoped they were, anyway. They made some damn cute babies.

I really wanted babies of my own, but I knew it was impossible. I could tell Dimitri wasn't fooled and was well aware of my want for children and we've actually sat down to talk about it a few times.

We were discussing adoption and debating the pros and cons of it.

As it was, though, neither of us were in a place that we could fathom having a kid right now. I was busy guarding Lissa and Dimitri was going back into training to get reinstated as an official guardian.

Things were looking up for us.

Christian was currently holding back a snigger and since the kiddies were out of eyesight, I flipped him the bird, to which he rolled his eyes and let out a snort. "And you're going to punish the kids for bad behavior? You're such a hypocrite, Rose Hathaway," he whispered.

I frowned at him and scrunched my nose. Rose Hathaway? Try Rose Belikov. You'd think he'd be used to my name change since I haven't been Hathaway for a good three years now.

"First of all, it's Belikov. Second? Screw you."

Lissa's arms were soon snaked around Christian's waist and she peeked her head around him. "That's my job, thank you very much."

I made a gagging gesture and crinkled my nose in pure distaste. "Ew."

My best friend rolled her eyes and smiled. "So have you heard from Adrian or Gretchen?"

That put a smile of my own on my face. Gretchen really was awesome and it turned out that she was pretty perfect for Adrian. Sometimes I would get a little wistful or sad when I thought about our relationship because Adrian and I really do have some incredible memories. But honestly, I wouldn't change anything. He deserved someone who could love him completely and Gretchen seemed to be up for the job.

She was taking less and less modeling gigs and confessed to me one day that she was thinking of retiring altogether so she could open her own fashion line. Lissa had squealed with excitement and while I was happy about it too, I'd never been much of a squealer.

Anyway, Gretchen promised free samples when she got it up and running and I told Adrian then that he better marry the girl. He grinned at me and said he was planning on it.

And now, I knew for a fact that she had a big fat ring on her finger from him. I'd talked to him earlier and he said she accepted.

I nodded happily in answer. "Indeed I have. I've heard from both of them, actually. Adrian called first, though."

Lissa's eyes grew wide with anticipation and Christian rolled his eyes. "I'm going to leave before I lose my eardrum."

He kissed Lissa on the cheek and then walked away and muttered, "Women," under his breath. The blonde royal shot him a glare at his back and I felt her playful annoyance through our bond. I chuckled and loved that she wasn't so ridiculously in love with him that she thought he was perfect. In fact, he probably got on her nerves more than he's been getting on mine lately. Weird, right?

Amazingly, they rarely had major blowout fights and were basically able to reach compromises on most things. Their marriage was something I thought was amazing and admired greatly.

"Now that Debbie Downer's gone, tell me!" she said hurriedly.

"You better get your planner out again, Liss. We've got another wedding to help prep."

I suddenly wished that I had left with Christian.

"Hey, you," Dimitri said from our bedroom doorway.

I smiled as he leaned down to give me a long, lazy kiss. He brushed a thumb across my cheek and I shivered. Dimitri started chuckling into the kiss and the mood was suddenly killed, though I was still grinning. "Hey yourself."

Dimitri and I had been officially married for three years, but Lissa, Christian, Mia and Eddie tease us and say we may as well have been an old married couple with how much we bickered about silly things.

He managed to grate my nerves and I still got under his skin and knew how to push his buttons, which often led to rapid cursing in Russian. I'd at least come to recognize those words. I pretended I didn't, though.

I loved being married to him, but whoever said marriage was easy was a damn liar. I'm happy, definitely, but it's not something that's all sunshine and daisies.

When we had first gotten back together and started sleeping in the same bed, I discovered he'd been keeping the fact that he had nightmares from me. The first one I had to sit through had been absolutely horrible.

I remember him thrashing and sweating and there hadn't been anything for me to do except wait. I'd tried waking him up, but nothing I attempted worked.

So I had to sit there and watch him. When he finally woke himself up, I'd been crying a river. The sight of him so vulnerable like that, so broken . . . it had broken my heart.

At first, he wouldn't talk about them. It was almost like he'd been ashamed, which I later discovered was indeed the case. When he'd realized that I witnessed everything, his face had hardened and he stormed out of the bedroom, shutting me out completely. I'd been so angry and scared and just at a loss. I hadn't known what to do, so I finally resorted to calling my mother. And, as it turns out, she gives some pretty damn good advice. She said while she obviously wasn't an expert on relationships, the best words of wisdom she could give was to hash it out with him.

And hash it out we did.

Finally, we'd gotten into a big fight about it and eventually, he came clean and told me what they were about and why he'd walked away from me after the first one. His pride had been severely damaged.

Apparently the nightmares were all from when he was still a Strigoi. And they included me as one of them.

He still never really talked about what he did in his time away, though. His face would grow haunted and pained and I never forced him. It just didn't seem right to.

Occasionally, he would still have a few nightmares, but for the most part, they'd stopped after we got married. Thankfully.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at all the magazines I had spread out. "We're already married, honey."

I laughed and sat down on the bed. "No shit? Really? Must have slipped my mind."

He raised an eyebrow at me and gave me a grin that made my heart beat about a billion times faster. That husband of mine took the few steps it took to reach me and hovered over me, supporting his himself with his hands on either side of me. His lips bent down and nipped at my ear. "Want a reminder?"

"Absolutely," I said with a large grin.

He smirked at me and shoved all the magazines off the bed, causing me to laugh as he hopped on the bed beside of me.

And then he went on to remind me in the best possible way that he was, indeed, mine.

THE END!

Wow!

I'm so excited! And sad. I can't believe this is officially the end. And it's been exactly a year since I first started posting this. I know it's a pretty short ending compared to the rest of my chapters, but most epilogues I've ever read aren't super long. I hope I managed to bring this to a close all right.

And sorry for all you readers out there who were secretly (or not so secretly) hoping that Rose and Dimitri get pregnant in the end. I couldn't figure out a justifiable way around it without completely going against my fanfiction values, so you have my apologies for no baby Belikov.

Also, I know I didn't conclude whether or not they adopt, or clarify about what went on during Dimitri's four years away, but I figured I'd leave that up to readers. You can use your imagination and tell me your ending if you wish to. I would definitely be interested in reading thoughts behind both of those. :D

Anyway, I don't have the preview ready for the next story. I'm going to wait to start it because I want to finish the new fiction I have for Harry Potter first. And, I want to be able to be sure I'll complete the new story. I don't want to start something and go through serious lags in updates. There were a bunch of those with this story and I didn't like to do it. So, no promises on the new story. I'll think about it and play around with the idea and see what I come up with. Perhaps I'll just develop it into a short story, I don't know, though. We'll see.

So first things first. Final stats for "Crashed" are the following if anyone's interested:

Pages: 241
Words: 109,750
Favorites: 121
Alerts: 119
Hits: 15,467

Whoa! That's pretty impressive to me. I'm super happy with the turnout for this story and am very thankful to have such awesome support from everyone here. It just boggles my mind, really.

I don't really have any 'extras' or 'out-takes' to offer for this. My process doesn't really work that way and any editing/cutting I did, I didn't save, stupidly. Perhaps if I do choose to go through with the new story idea, I'll do that for you guys if you're interested.

I am thinking about doing a major edit on this, though. I'll admit freely that the beginning isn't the best of work and definitely could use some improvement. It honestly kind of makes me cringe to go back and see the starting chapters. I can't help but wonder, "what the hell was I thinking?" Lol. So perhaps in the future you'll see a revamped version of "Crashed" and maybe even under a new name. Now that I think about it, I'm not entirely sure that it's an appropriate name. Lol. I happened to be on a Daughtry kick when I started this, though. Hehe. So any name change suggestions, feel free to speak your mind.

Now on to my respective thank-you's. As soon as I get this posted, I'll get around to the review replies! I did notice, though, that there were a few new reviewers in this round, so shout-outs to you guys! You know who you are.

REVIEWERS:

winterlover888, puppylove216, snv3, CathleenBelikov, XxSunShinelovesTeddyBearxX, Treya, Angie1212, Airvamp12, Little Lady Lioness, RiRi17, Twilighternproud, toooldforthis, Lucia Rayne, Nefarious1972, Joanna11, and parkesy23.

FAVORITES:

-potatomash-, -TWINZ-, addiction4jane, AddiictedVampiireFan, Airvamp12, akfirefly, amandaemcmahon, AmericasDawn, Angie1212, Animefan1875, APM0829, bandit32, Be sAfe - biiTe mE, bella roza913, Blood Always Tells, brinna202, chelle131623, chloebrady348, ChronosNumberVII, CrimsonsNight, Crossing-My-Heart, DarkestAngelHeart555, DarknessLightsTheWorld, Deino1217, Dimitri's-babe, dogangelsrule, DuctTapeShoey37, Dynell, elly94, emerald and onyx, excalibur snape, feartheroo, felicity anne, HopelessRomantic984, Hyuchiha Ruki, iamavampirebiteme, ilovenat1995, IsabellaMarieandEdwardAnthony, Jappa, Jasper's chic, Joanna11, Kasa Bella, kiss-me-question-mark, kitty00, krf70au, kunoichixakura, L's-True-Successor23, Lady Knight of Masbolle101, LaL., lilquinon3, Little Lady Lioness, LittleStormy, loveispainn, LRPworks, MakeMeProud, MeantForSomethingMore, mighty-moo, mizzcrakster, Mrs. Whitlock Ivashkov Hale, Ms. Damon Salvatore, Muntzy09, mustluvbooks, nadine belikov, nanettka, natalie3008, nb716, Nefarious1972, nejiskunoichi0011, neverthink121, parkesy23, Pindah, pinky1717, Proonnggs, puppylove216, racerchickjr01, Rachel Swan Cullen, rachelalexandra, Raelover, raniacullen, RawrEvaRawr, redglasses, RiRi17, Risika Silver, roserage, roza123, ruthless527, Sakura Breeze, scared-of-tellytubies21, ShakespeareActressVamp, shaniakeddy, shel-shel, Shelby Allane Masen, Skyler Cullen, sls926, StaceyKay, .rawr, StoryGirlAngel, sunfiresoftball, Talyn EllieBell, Tay Vamp, taylor1adrian, Team Jane, teckechick, There'sSkittlesInThere, this is ah-mazing, tiffanyr, tinkerbell72, TotallyInLoveWithYou, Treya, Twilighternproud, twlight-princess, Ur fantasy luver, VA-FAN, VAMPGIRlDIMITRIE, Vampire-Chick91, winglessangelsstillfly, winterlover888, xXpretty lovableXx, andXxSunShinelovesTeddyBearxX.

ALERTS:

-potatomash-, -TWINZ-, abbyroxursox, AddiictedVampiireFan, agirlnamedraven, akfirefly, AKSimons, AlphaDog, amandaemcmahon, angeldog14, Angie1212, anki145, APM0829, AudreyGrace, bandit32, bella roza913, Bezzaletta, Blood Always Tells, BloodlustedInk, BreatheIfYouFindDimitriHot, brinna202, Celestial Dawn, Crossing-My-Heart, csi-ds9, d4renee, DarkestAngelHeart555, DimitriRozaForever, DnCnChIcK369, dogangelsrule, eliiseeee, Ellis Mom, elly94, ElusiveAuthoress, Emberseve, emerald and onyx, eternallymusical, existingcrisis, feartheroo, FrontlineChaos, Hoku-ao, HopelessRomantic984, iamavampirebiteme, ilovenat1995, Inu-Angel1313, It'sAlreadyTooLate, Jazz-A-Mine, Jhaxe, Joanna11, juneva, Kasa Bella, Laughtered, LaurenKay, Little Lady Lioness, littlemissreality, littlevampette, LittleXDhampir, LizLoveDante, Lucia Rayne, MarahxXx, Margeret Asher, meg123930, 21, mizzcrakster, morning-fight, mrs-dimitri-belikov1, nadine belikov, nanettka, nejiskunoichi0011, nessa1178, neverthink121, Number-1- Twilighters, Parasite Eve, puppylove216, rachelalexandra, RawrEvaRawr, RedJewel2662, reverie96, RiRi17, Risika Silver, robsad79, Roza-and-Dimika-Forever, roza123, RozaRedbird, , Sakura Breeze, scared-of-tellytubies21, ShakespeareActressVamp, shelbe10, SkyBel, sls926, snv3, Soon to be vamp, StaceyKay, sunfiresoftball, supremeviloverlord, Talyn EllieBell, Tay Vamp, the-Upside-Of-Down, theevilcookiemonster, theoneandonlyher, thinair, Thorntangle, tiffanyr, toooldforthis, TotallyInLoveWithYou, Treya, Twilighternproud, twlight-princess, UchihaSophitia, Ur fantasy luver, VampDeez, VAMPGIRlDIMITRIE, vietgirl, Welcome-to-the-FAYZ, winter windwhisper, winterlover888, xoIts Just MExo, and XxSunShinelovesTeddyBearxX.

Wow! That took me a while to do up. A lot of them are repeats, but eh. I just copied and pasted from my account list, so it wasn't too grueling. Also, some of your names may not be entirely correct because the site is weird and is uber-sensitive with periods that connect words for some reason. So my apologies for that.

I want to thank anyone who reviews in the future under the anonymous function. Obviously if you do that, I won't be able to reply to you, but you have my thanks anyway! And thanks to all those who may happen to alert/favorite this as well.

Now that this is officially over, I can do my happy dance! Woot!

And yes, I'm going to do some shameless plugging. I've mentioned before in previous chapters that I have an original work up over at FictionPress, which is still true. I'm diligently working on completing that, but I also have another story up called Bad Moon Rising. It's available on two sites. One is over at FictionPress and another is Authonomy. You can find a link to both in my profile. Bad Moon Rising is a werewolf romance, so if you're interested in original characters, please feel free to check it out!

Anyway, this story is now really and truly finished.

Once more, I must say thank you. I've heard that if you say it too many times, it sounds insincere, but I promise I mean it. Lol. You've all been amazing readers/reviewers and you simply rock!

Peace out!