Well, dears, this is it: the last chappie! I want to thank mayday321 and Iloveskitteryandmush for their reviews, which always made my day. If you want, I could do a sequel to this, but if not, I have a Spot/OC fic that will be coming in a couple of months. THANK YOU ALL!

CHAPTER 8: FOREVER AND ALWAYS

August 11th, 1902. I had me face buried deep in me pillow, when I felt Mush's hands shaking me. "Get up, Wordy. Time to go to work."

I groaned. "Mush, if you truly love me, you'se gonna let me sleep."

Mush rolled me over and grinned. "This'll prove I love you," he said, and he kissed me on the lips, hard.

I giggled and gently pushed him off. "That'll always get a person up," I said. I got up and slipped into me dress when I noticed Mush staring at me. "What're you lookin' at?" I asked, mocking offense.

Mush sighed. "Just realisin' how beautiful you really are is all."

I smiled and went over to me nightstand. I opened the drawer, pulled out me locket and fastened it around me neck. Mush gently spun me to look at him, and looked down at the floor. "Wordy… Teresa, you gotta know by now how I feel about you."

I nodded. "Sure I do."

"No, you don't. You can't even begin to measure how much you mean to me." Mush drew me close and toyed with the locket. He had the look in his eyes he always got when he looked nervous as he said, "I wanna spend the rest of me life with you. I wanna laugh with you, cry with you, get angry at you, live with you." With that, he produced a small box from his pocket and got down on one knee. Me stomach did a triple flip, and me heart started pounding. I had a good idea of what was coming next.

"Teresa Antoliginio… will you marry me?"

I screamed in happiness. "OF COURSE!" I embraced him, laughing, shouting and crying. Never before had I felt so complete, and I gasped for breath as Mush slid the ring on me finger. "Me angel of a wife-to-be, I love you," he said as he kissed me hand, tears actually falling down his face. He then dipped me back and kissed me. I felt like I was in a fairy tale. I was Snow White or Cinderella, having true love's kiss and going off to live happily ever after. And I was.

Wordy finished her story and looked at her young great-granddaughter. "Well, that's it, sweetheart. That's how I met your great-grandpa."

Little Cassidy's eyes were wide. "Wow! Did you really have to sell papers on the streets? And you had to make up headlines?"

Wordy laughed. "Sure did. It may have seemed like hard work, but it was all a lot of fun. Betcha you would've really liked it."

Cassidy giggled. She then looked around the room, at all the machines and contraptions her great-grandma was hooked up to. Her face fell. "Great-Grandma Teresa?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Are you going to live with Great-Grandpa Colin? With the angels?"

Wordy felt like that six year old had punched her in the gut. Mush had died only a couple of months before, and Cassidy obviously had not learned the meaning of the word 'tact' yet. "I don't know, baby. I might."

Cassidy sniffled. "But I want you to stay here on Earth. With me and Mommy and Grandpa Les." (Yes, Wordy named her son after Les).

Wordy held out her arms to Cassidy, and Cassidy fell into them. "I know you want me to stay, Cassidy, but you can't tell just what your destiny might be." She pushed her off gently and said, "Tell you what. Next time you visit, I'se gonna tell you all about the time your great-great uncle Racetrack won $50.00 at the Sheepshead Bay Races."

Cassidy laughed. "His name was Racetrack? That's a silly name."

Wordy smiled. "Well, his real name wasn't Racetrack, but we all called him that." She looked out her hospital room window and saw her granddaughter Kerry waving at them. "Well, you'se gotta go, Cassidy." She kissed her and said, "See you next week, okay?"

Cassidy smiled. "'Kay," she said as she left the room and joined her mother. Wordy chuckled as she fingered the locket around her neck. Every night, she remembered him, and all the milestones in their relationship:

"By the way," I said to the Newsies after I had gotten settled. "Me name is Teresa Antoliginio."

Dream Boy nodded. "Mine's Mush. Mush Meyers. You can stay in me bed as long as you need."

Mush laughed softly, and then wrapped a hand in me hair. "Would it be alright if I kissed you?" he asked gently.

Would it be alright, he asks me? "It would be heaven," I answered truthfully.

Mush's face lit up as he fastened the locket around me neck. "Now you'se got me heart, Wordy. You'se me girl."

"And you'se me guy," I said.

I heard Mush yelling after me: "Wordy, please let me try to explain! You'se the best thing that ever happened to me! Wordy…" And then he screamed, "I LOVE YOU!"

"Teresa Antoliginio… will you marry me?"

Wordy sighed. She then looked over to a side of her bed… and was shocked to see… "Mush? Well, they must have some pretty darn good hallucinogenic drugs in this place."

Mush cracked up. What Wordy was surprised at was that he looked exactly the same as he did when they met: curly brown hair, brown eyes, six-pack, cropped shorts, everything. "Wordy, you haven't changed a bit," he said.

And he was right! Wordy looked down in shock as she saw her wrinkles slowly fade away and be replaced with smooth skin. She felt her hair grow and when she picked up a mirror, she saw it was black, not grey. She looked at Mush. "Guess it's time, huh?" she said sadly.

Mush nodded. "Race, Spot, Les and all the others are all waitin' for you. What happens up there is that you can live forever in whatever time you want, and all the Newsies is together. We'se never really gonna die or grow old. Especially Bumlets; Bumlets never dies." With that, he walked over and held his arm out to Wordy. "Ready?"

Wordy took it in reply, and kissed his cheek. "I'se been waitin' eighty years to go back to the Lodgin' House." And as Wordy and Mush walked up the stairway to Heaven, they knew; not even death could keep them apart, and their family would always be waiting for them. "So…" Mush said right before they entered the gates.

Wordy turned and asked, "Yeah?"

Mush waggled his eyebrows. "Still got that book of Treasure Island?"

THE END

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