A/N: So I know this has taken forever to finish and I bet some of you thought I never would...and I guess I wasn't sure I would either...life seems to have taken a weird turn and interrupted all writing this year...but someone very close to me is going through a tough time and I wanted to do something to make them smile...so hopefully this does that...I know it's short and written in a rush...but I hope it's a fitting ending to this series...

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"Mum, if you're going to insist on giving me the history behind every one of my childhood belongings, I'm never going to leave this room."

Naomi puts the first book her son had ever read by himself back on the shelf and smirks. "Maybe that's my plan."

Ollie rolls his eyes at his mother and flicks his floppy hair Naomi wishes he would cut out of them before turning back around, packing more of his books into boxes. Books that Naomi can remember her and Emily reading to him at night. Books that her son devoured as soon as she bought them for him.

She watches him and smiles fondly, oddly proud that she has passed on the famous Campbell eye-roll to her son. Picks up and hugs the stuffed elephant that Gina had given Oliver when he was born tight to her chest.

In that moment, as she watches her 18 year old son packing his belongings into boxes and bags, she wonders how they have gotten here so quickly. It feels like her little boy has turned into a man in the blink of an eye, now taller than both his parents by at least a foot, his shoulders broad, his voice deep and prone to mumbling. Probably smarter than them too, though she hates to admit it. She's indescribably proud of their boy, of the young man he has become, thoughtful and bright and clever. Can't believe that she actually had a hand in making him turn out this way. And in a day he will be leaving for York to attend one of the world's best universities, a fact Naomi delights in telling almost everyone she meets. Although really, Emily is just as obnoxiously boastful about it.

The blonde absentmindedly pats the elephant in her arms as she thinks about her family, their life together and how this chapter of it is now closing forever. The four of them no longer together, and now she'll constantly be outvoted and outnumbered by her wife and their daughter. Peas in a pod those two, she thinks. Emily has always been much better at handling Scarlett than she has.

She winces slightly. She loves her children equally, just wishes that Scarlett would show a little of Ollie's initiative and ambition. Much to the blonde's annoyance, her daughter had hit puberty and turned into Katie Fitch the second-coming, her gorgeous little girl gone and replaced by a hormonal tirant with irrational mood swings and bitchiness and boys. Lots of boys. In one month Naomi counted three different boyfriends, and her roster of best friends also constantly rotating, save for a girl named Trixie that Scarlett has been friends with for a couple of years, a strange girl who annoys the shit out of Naomi with her single minded obsession to marry a footballer. Emily handles it all with aplomb, as she always has. Naomi is mostly at a loss and longs for the days when her little girl would crawl into her lap and fall asleep, demanding nothing of Naomi but her time and love. Now the blonde stays awake at night counting down the minutes until curfew, unable to understand how her own mother had given her so much freedom when she was that age. Naomi thinks about the things she used to get up to and shudders. Hopes that her daughter isn't down by some lake with a boy doing God knows what. But the blonde always has faith that her daughter will come out of it okay, looks at how her sister in law turned out and thinks that if Katie Fitch can turn out to be a kind and considerate human being afterall, then there's hope for her daughter.

She's been gazing into space for so long that she hasn't noticed Ollie staring at her with an amused and slightly pitying smile on his face.

"Thinking about how depressed you're going to be now that the light of your life is leaving?"

He smirks, proud of himself, and Naomi sees the briefest flash of Cook in her son, Ollie's favourite uncle having had a big influence in his life...sometimes bigger than Naomi has appreciated. Like the time she walked into her house to find Cook giving her son his first porn magazine. Or the first time Ollie got drunk, her and Emily returning from a work function at Emily's school to find their sixteen year old son slurring his words and laughing continuously, because Uncle Cook thought it was a good idea to have an adult introduce him to drinking where it was safe. Or the time he offered to take Ollie to a strip club when he was moping about his girlfriend breaking up with him. But for as many times as Naomi has wanted to kill him, (bloodshed just barely being prevented by Emily on several occasions), she knows that Cook's influence and guidance has been an invaluable part of her son's upbringing, so she can't be too mad at him. For all his faults, James Cook is a good man, and he's set a good example for her son.

"More like wondering what I'm going to turn your room into once you're gone," she shoots back at Ollie, motherhood and middle age doing nothing to curb her sarcasm. "I'm thinking either a sweatshop to make some extra cash, or a gift-wrapping room like that silly American woman...what do you think?"

"I thought Scarlett was going to turn this into her closet?" he laughs. "Or a trophy room for all the souls she's stolen."

Naomi chuckles, immensely proud that her son has inherited her sense of humour. Rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "That girl owns more clothing than everyone else in this house combined. Maybe everyone in the street. I have no idea where she even gets it all."

The blonde and her son share a conspiratorial smile, two allies in the teenage hormones warzone their house has become the last few years. For some reason it has always been this way. She's always had a special bond with Oliver, and Emily has always had that with Scarlet. She loves her daughter very much, but she just doesn't understand her the same way Emily does, and vice versa with Emily and Ollie. She thinks it's worked out pretty well...up until now. Now that her boy is leaving.

"I can't believe you're going to leave me here with her Oliver," Naomi tries the guilt trip...again. "Me, your poor mother who raised you, stuck in a house with that monster who will –"

"What monster?"

Naomi bites her tongue and turns to see her wife walking through the doorway and watches Emily sidle up next to her, then glance between the blonde and her son with her eyebrows raised, waiting for her answer.

The blonde's breath catches in her chest, like it still sometimes does when she sees her wife, even after all these years. Even though the red in Emily's hair is covering some grey as well, and there are a few extra pounds on her hips and a few more lines on her face, Naomi still to this day has never met anyone more beautiful than her wife. Has never felt luckier to have her. She didn't think it was possible, still doesn't with any other couple, but she and Emily have only fallen more in love every day that has passed. They've had their rough patches of course, but as she's watched many of the marriages of her own friends and family and even parents of her children's friends collapse, she's never once doubted whether the same fate would befall her own marriage. She learned long ago that losing Emily Fitch would be the biggest mistake of her life, and she's never forgotten it.

"What monster?" Emily repeats, wide-eyed.

Naomi smiles guiltily. "Um...our daughter."

She holds her breath until she sees her wife's lips curl into a wry smile. Knows then that she's not in trouble.

"Yesterday she called me an ignorant moron because I don't know who Justin Bieber is."

Naomi smiles fondly. "You're my ignorant moron."

"Aw," Emily coos, inching closer to the blonde. "You've always been good with the sweet talk Naoms."

The blonde leans in and closes the gap between them, their lips meeting as they both smile into the kiss, their bodies gravitating closer involuntarily. Naomi sighs into the kiss, her stomach still flipping like it did when she was 12 and first realised there was something special about the mousey Fitch twin.

"Ugh, Gross," she hears her son complaining from across the room. "This right here, is why I need to get out of here."

The blonde feels Emily smile against her lips before pulling away, both of them knowing that it's all talk, that their son is going to miss his parents and their constant and sometimes inappropriate making-out when he goes away for school.

"And on that note," Oliver announces, finishing taping up yet another box, "the boys wanted to hang out at Malcolm's before I leave tomorrow. Is it cool if I go round there for a few hours?"

He's looking right at Naomi but they all know that it's going to be Emily who answers.

The redhead checks her watch. "Sure, but dinner is going to be at six-thirty. Unless you want me turning up at Malcolm's in my most embarrassing outfit...again, I suggest you be home on time."

Ollie shakes his head and smirks. "Yet another upside of going away for university."

He's out the door and shouting 'I love you' before his parents can even say goodbye.

The two of them stand in silence for a few minutes, each taking in the soon to be empty room and recalling all the memories it holds for their family, too many to count. Naomi can still vividly remember the first day they took Ollie home from the hospital, his little pink body so warm and soft and small in this big room. She remembers the racing car shaped bed they bought him for Christmas when he was five, and how sometimes she'd walk past his room and check in on him and he'd be sitting on the bed, making noises with his mouth and pretending he was racing. She'll never forget the day they repainted the lime green walls blue because Ollie's best friend Jason Miller had blue paint in his room so Ollie wanted it too, the most difficult task that day being keeping an inquisitive and shifty young Scarlett out of the room so she wouldn't make any mess. She remembers when Ollie started high school and felt it was time to grow up, asking for a new bed and a desk and of course a MacBook. There are too many minutes and seconds and moments worth of memories in this room, and Naomi cherishes them all.

-x-

After a while the blonde reaches her arm across and takes Emily's hand in her own, lacing their fingers together.

"We did alright yeah? Raising these kids? I mean I know Scarlett is possessed by some kind of evil demon at the moment and our son has floppy hair that he refuses to cut...but all in all...I think we did okay."

She feels Emily squeeze her hand and then turn to her, big brown eyes glazed with tears.

"We did perfectly," Emily whispers softly, as if she's afraid her voice will break and release a flood of tears. "Together."

Naomi releases her wife's hand and brings both of hers up to cup Emily's cheeks, smiling softly.

"I love you."

"I know."

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So there you have it...the much delayed end to this story. I'm sorry it took so long. I don't feel there's a need for a boring extra chapter filled with thanks and whatnot, so i just want to thank everyone who reviewed and read and followed this story...originally it was going to be ten chapters max, and you guys and your encouragement made it what it was, so thank you.

For those of you wondering, I will eventually finish my other fic, I just don't know when...hopefully I'll have a chapter up in the next few weeks...fingers crossed. I'm sorry it has taken so long.

Thanks again to everyone reading...and special thanks to HMHDHB...just because i loves you.

peace out

:)