A/N: okay, yes I finally did it…. I'm sry for making you wait for it, mainly because I'm extremely lazy and couldn't type my thoughts out right… but that doesn't matter. All that does is that I finished it… so enjoy the final Chapter/Epilogue of Redemption Song.
Epilogue
A few days had passed since Caleb's birthday and the events that happened that night. They all had agreed to put Chase's body at the bottom of the lake. Damien made sure that there was no possible way for the body to be detected or found by anyone who wasn't looking for it, and River, along with enrolling at Spencer himself, told the Provost that Chase went to their uncle's in New York. Kate was awake, alert, and complaining about still being in the hospital. The medicine that the doctors gave her for the reaction she had to the spider bites cleared everything up and they were saying that she could be released in a couple of days.
Sarah was happy to hear that Kate coming back so soon. She had been staying with Riley since the night everything happened because her room had felt so weird and empty without Kate there and she didn't want to be alone. It felt good for her to have someone else there with her and Sarah knew that Riley liked not being alone herself, either. She didn't know when it happened, but the two of them became very close. It was nice, having another friend, and being accepted into the group. She had a good boyfriend, good friends, went to a good school, and would most likely get into a good college. Everything in her life was: good.
Caleb was eerily content with things after his birthday. He had been stressed out about ascending, hoping that it would smoothly and he wouldn't be seduced by the amount of power surging through his body. He felt tempted to use, more often than he did before, but he kept himself distracted with swimming, school, Sarah, and the rest of his friends so he didn't give in. Caleb had things he didn't want to lose because of giving in to temptation.
Damien was preparing to go back to school. He was hesitant to leave his sisters because of everything that had just happened. They had just gone through a traumatizing ordeal and wanted to stay and make sure that they were okay, but he wasn't worried because he knew that they were in good hands. Not only that, but he made it known that if anything was to happen to them, he would be there in a matter of hours, ready to kick the boys' asses.
Pogue sat absent-mindedly on the outside stairs of the dorms, watching as Mia and Riley said goodbye to Damien. After seeing him drive off, Mia pointed him out to Riley and practically forced her to walk over to him. They hadn't spoke much since Caleb's birthday and it was awkward whenever they were together. But then again, so were Mia and Reid, so no one said anything. By the time she got over to him with her arms folded across her chest, it had started to rain again. He ushered her inside and she reluctantly followed behind him. "She forced me to come over here." Riley said, slightly shaking her hair out to see how wet it was. Pogue nodded and ran his hands through his hair. "I know, I saw her." They both looked at each other and lightly laughed. It wasn't really awkward between them; they just didn't know what to say to one another. Neither one of them wanted to break the connection they formed, but no one said anything either. As if reading each others' minds, they both blurted out low "I'm sorry's", causing them both to laugh again. "Why are you sorry?" she asked, trying to drag his apology out further. "For leaving you in the parking lot and not talking to you about how I was feeling." Pogue said, taking a small step closer to Riley. "Kate never really pushed me to talk about a lot of stuff and I'm not used to it. I barely talk to the guys when I get like that, but I never meant to do that." Riley nodded as he spoke and gave him a small smile after he finished. "And why are you sorry?" he asked, taking a few more steps towards her. Riley sighed and chuckled under her breath. "I'm sorry for not talking to you when you wanted to beforehand." Pogue nodded and stopped walking until they were face to face, staring at each other. Riley broke the eye contact, looking down so she could finish what she wanted to say. "My ex wasn't exactly the epitome of communication either. That's why I push so much. I think that pushing is what made him do what he did to me. And that hurt. It still does. I've tried so hard to not let myself feel like that again, but when you left me in the parking lot, I was hurt again. And instinct tells me to avoid most things that hurt, so that's what I did." Pogue stopped her when she said that. "I'm not your ex, Riley." She nodded and looked back up at him. "And I'm not Kate." He nodded in agreement. Pogue wrapped his arms around Riley's waist, slightly throwing her off for a second. "Can we try this again?" Riley thought it over for a minute and nodded her head, agreeing with him and letting his lips meet hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, as he deepened the kiss, pulling Riley as close to him as possible. The couple continued their kiss for a few more minutes, unbeknown to them that they were being watched by a certain envious ex- girlfriend of his.
Mia slowly walked back to her room, a little apprehensive to be there by herself. Every time she was, she got lost in her thoughts and upset herself. So she usually went across the hall with Riley and Sarah, but Riley was "occupied", Sarah had a date with Caleb, and Kate was still in the hospital, so she didn't really have a choice. She fumbled with her keys and stepped inside, quickly turning on the light and walked over to her computer, looking for something to preoccupy her mind. She wasn't on for 5 minutes until her phone rang, making her jump a bit. She practically jumped out of the chair and answered the phone. "Hello?" she waited a few minutes for a reply and got frustrated. She pulled the phone away from her ear to look at the caller ID and got angry. "Did you forget that everyone has caller ID, Reid?" she said, hearing a soft chuckle on the other end. "What's up?" she said, walking back over to her desk. "Nothing really, just checking on you." Reid said, making her laugh. "I'm serious, Mia. How are you feeling?" He knew that she hadn't been sleeping well since the incident with Chase, and would come in her room and watch her most nights as she slept to make sure that everything was fine. Mia hears the seriousness in his voice, knowing that we wouldn't drop it. "Better than yesterday." She said to him, running her hand through her hair. "That's all you can ask for, right?" she tried to sound uplifting as she spoke, but Reid didn't buy it. "You want me to come over and keep you company?" he asked, deeply concerned for her. "I could bring some food over and we could watch a movie. I'm even willing to sit through a chick flick." He said, making Mia laugh. "Don't even act like you hate chick flicks!" she said in between laughs. "You cried when we watched The Notebook." Reid joined her in her laughter. "You said you wouldn't say that again." He said, after a few minutes. Mia was still laughing. "Don't feel bad, a lot of boys have been Notebooked. It's nothing to be ashamed of." He huffed and just listened to her laugh for a few minutes. "So you want me to come over?" by then, Mia had stopped laughing and was heavily thinking about it, until she saw her door open. She jumped again but was relieved when she saw River walking in the door. When he saw that she was on the phone, he put his finger over his lips and went over to her bed. Mia and River just stared at each other until River pointed to her cell phone. She broke out of her trance and put the phone back up to her ear, hearing Reid freak out on the phone. "Mia are you okay? Are you still there? What happened?" Mia cut him off when he said that he was about to come to her dorm. "Everything's fine. I'm okay." She heard him let out a sigh of relief and lightly chuckled. "Calm down. Your turning into Damien with your freak outs." She heard him lightly laugh. "He wasn't that bad when he was here." He said, making her scoff. "But I've known him all my life. He's insane. Trust me." Reid and River both laughed at the same time, and Reid got slightly alarmed when he heard this. "Mia, who was that?" he asked, his voice serious again. Mia brushed it off as nothing. "Some guy on this random show on TV I have on. Stop with the paranoia." Reid huffed for a minute, but let it go and let his voice go back to normal. "You still want me to come over?" he asked again, hoping for a yes. Mia slightly turned away from River and sighed. "Actually, I think I'm gonna see if I can catch up with my schoolwork for a while." She said, dampening the mood. "Oh." Reid replied, disappointment evident in his voice. She heard this, and felt a twitch of guilt. "Yea, I haven't been focused much and I let everything pile up, so it should take awhile. But can we do it another time? Like tomorrow?" She sat and waited for him to respond, hoping that he agreed to it. "Yea, tomorrow's fine." He said, a bit of the usual excitement was back in his voice, so Mia felt a little better. "Okay, so I'll see you then." She said and hung up the phone, not waiting for Reid to respond. "Who was that?" River asked, moving slightly from his laying position on Mia's bed. She didn't answer at first; she just sat there and started at her phone for a few minutes. River snapped his fingers in front of her a few times, breaking her out of her trance. She lifted her head and looked at him questioningly. "The phone?" he said again, making Mia's look at him even more confused than before. "Who was on the phone?" River asked lightly, watching realization come on Mia's face. "Oh, um Riley." She said nodding. "She wanted to come over for a few, but I told her not to." River nodded, not pressing anything further. Mia lightly sighed, happy that he took it, but felt extremely guilty for lying to both guys. She got up from her desk and went over to her bed, laying down next to River and fell into a comfortable silence for a few hours.
So there it is!!!
I used 'The Notebook' because it's one of my favorite movies/books ever… (Nicolas Sparks is a phenomenal author and in my opinion, whenever his books are made into movies they end up fantastic… Luved 'A Walk to Remember', I'm excited about 'Dear John', but slightly hesitant of 'The Last Song' because it's the movie Miley Cyrus filmed, and I don't think she can act. So fingers crossed that her work does the book justice.)
Anyway, I know I didn't put Tyler in this chapter, but nothing came to mind to write for him. I didn't use him that much in the story, and I should have. If you read any of my one-shots for this story, he's an important person in Reid and Mia's relationship. I'm gonna try nd use him more in the sequel.
Speaking of that thingy I'm planning, I need a name for it… if you can think of one, let me know, because if I can't figure one out, I'll either use the name of whatever song I listen to the most when I write the first few chapters, or call it Redemption Song 2… nd that's lame..
Nd here are some things to expect from the sequel.
~ Major Reid/Mia/River drama… yes Reid and Mia will get back together (that's the inevitable paring for this, but I never said when, or how many times they get together and/or break up… cuz right now in Reid's head, their practically back together, but Mia isn't on that level yet nd I'm intrigued with how far I'm thinking of pushing River/Mia…)
~ The return of the EXs for Riley and Pogue… I made their relationship to complex because they fell for each other hard and fast, but they both were cheated on before and don't want it to happen again, and they both have issues… So it makes sense to me to add more drama to an already shaky relationship… (Probably because I watch too many soap operas, but I don't care… If people can magically come back from the dead after "going over a cliff", an "airplane going down", or a "car crash" and screw with the lives of the people they love in Pine Valley, Genoa City, and Salem, I can put Kate and Riley's ex boyfriend, who I haven't named yet, in their relationship and let them raise alittle hell.)
~ Speaking of the dead, Chase will be back… with how I have that part in my head, River did something special with that athame before he stabbed Chase with it… that's why he kept it… had something to do with his super secret, diabolical plan… but will he be the same psycho, or will he have a change of heart?
~ Reid's 'Get Mia Back' plan that I said early in the 2nd or 3rd chapter will be put into action and his whole 'perfect date' that he planned will be done too…
~ I'm thinking of letting Caleb teeter on the brink of addiction with The Power… just an idea right now, and I kinda set up for it, but I'm not sure…
Anything else will be a surprise that you'll find out when I write it…
Thank you sooooooooo much for reading this chapter, this story, and braving through this crazy long rant of mine!!!
I'm glad that you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it… it took a totally different turn from what I first intended to do (which is probably why I think the title doesn't really fit, but whatev.), but I'm happy and proud of how it turned out…
Until next time, this is my last time asking for Reviews…
Rugrat4eva