He kisses still tasted like cigarettes and mint. Tyler smiled to herself as she turned away from Billy, who was just waking up. God, he was adorable when he was first coming back to the conscious world. It had never occurred to her before that adorable would ever be a word she used to describe Billy Darley, but in the mornings he was simply adorable. He didn't wake up very quickly, and he'd sit up halfway, leaning back against his pillows or the headboard and blinking drowsily at the room around them. And when he tried to talk he would mumble everything he said in a low, sleepy voice.

It had been a month since she'd come back to California and found out that Billy was alive. A month since she told him she loved him, finally admitting out loud what she had known all along. A month since he'd stared down at her, hesitating for only a moment before he said that he loved her, too.

She'd moved back into the apartment, finding that Billy hadn't ever gotten rid of any of her things. Everything she'd collected during her years as a member of the gang was waiting for her at home when she moved in again. She and Billy slid right back into their old life with ease. They picked up their old routine, but nowadays they were a bit more careful. One would never take on a job without the other, because they didn't want to repeat what had happened to Billy with the Hall.

Her parents thought she was taking classes at the local colleges. Writing classes. She wasn't taking classes, but she was writing. Maybe in the next year or so she'd have a book to try and publish. But for now she was doing just fine helping the gang and dealing drugs.

Bones had been incredibly pleased to have her back, and as she was always pushing herself to work harder, he really did have his best employee back. She'd half expected him to tell her to fuck off when she drove up alone and asked if she could come back. But he'd looked up from his desk and grinned at her when she walked in. He'd told her that if she wanted back in, she had the job. Then he'd grinned at her before she left and said, "Don't disappoint me, Angel."

She smiled back and said, "Of course not," before she stepped out the door.

Now she was happy, now she had the gang and Billy for family, and now she had a job and a life of her own. Now she was home.

She was content with where she was and what she had in life, but she would have been even happier if she'd known what the future held; quite a few big things were coming.

Three months after she moved back into the apartment, she would admit to Billy that she had his name tattooed on her wings. Then she would tell him how to find the name, and when he found it he would be so taken aback and impressed that she'd inked her skin with his name that he would drunkenly get down on one knee and propose. The next morning when they woke up, they would stare up at the ceiling for a few moments in silence, neither of them looking at the other. After a while, Billy would lick his lips and ask, "How about it, then?"

"How about what?" she'd ask. She'd know what he meant, but she'd want to hear him say it.

"What I asked you last–" he would stop mid-sentence and say, "You know what? Fuck it. You gonna marry me or not?"

And Tyler would smile and turn to look at him, and they'd finally make eye-contact for the first time that morning. "Yes," she'd say, and then they'd kiss.

Three months after he asked and she said yes, they'd find enough time to get away from Bones' jobs and go to Vegas for a short wedding/honeymoon. The wedding would take no less than fifteen minutes, with them signing the papers and kissing once in front of the judge. And just like that, they'd be Mr. and Mrs. Darley.

They'd get back home and settle back into regular life, now as a married couple. Tyler would refuse to tell her parents that she was married, and when Billy teased her and asked if she thought she didn't want to disappoint her parents, she'd say, "No. I'm just afraid my dad'll hear about it and come down here to kill you."

He'd shrug and say, "Not the first time he's made the kind of fuckin' threat."

And they'd laugh.

Two years after they got married and when Tyler was twenty, she would publish her first book. A year later she would publish a sequel, and two years after that she'd publish the third, completing the trilogy. After they were a complete set, her books would become quite popular. But she'd spend hardly any time in the public eye or doing interviews or book signings. She would be known as a strange, reclusive author who lived someplace secret and spent her life writing and living alone. She would use a pen name, and the back of her book would say that she lived alone somewhere in California.

Her parents would be proud of their daughter, never knowing that she was married and a member of a gang, or that she was a drug dealer.

Three years after she'd come back to California and almost seven years after she'd first been kidnapped and met Billy, Tyler would go back home to visit her parents. She and Billy would consider taking him with her, and in the end they would decide that he would go, pretending to be her boyfriend, to see what her parents thought of him.

Suzanne would dislike him from the moment she met him, thinking he was nothing but trouble and not liking the way her sons seemed to idolize and look up to him. But Jeff would like the kid; he was funny, and even though he looked dark and intimidating at first, he was actually pretty cool. And as far as any of them would be able to tell, Billy was head-over-heels for Tyler; he always wanted to give her everything she wanted, and he was actually very sweet and gentlemanly around her.

Tyler would eventually tell her dad that she and Billy had been married for a couple of years, and he would seem surprised, but not unhappy. He would congratulate them and warn them that they shouldn't say anything to her mom, because he'd break the news to her after they left. And he would. And three days after they got back to the apartment, her mom would call and rant and rave, screaming into the phone. Tyler would eventually get bored of holding the phone, so she and Billy would settle down on the couch together and set the phone on the coffee table in front of them, where they could watch and listen to her mother yell.

Suzanne Williamson would not happy with her daughter's choices, and she wouldn't even know about half the things Tyler was doing with her life.

But Tyler wouldn't care. She had Billy. She had her own life. She had the gang, who loved her even more fiercely than her own brothers. She had a paying job. She had three published books. And she was home.

But that was all in the future. It was September fifteenth, and Tyler had just crawled out of bed to get dressed and make breakfast. They weren't married, her parents didn't know that she had a boyfriend, and it had only been a little while since she came back. She left Billy to wake up and walked to the kitchen, pouring him a cup of coffee and starting the meal. She turned around a few minutes later when he shuffled in and she walked up, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him.

"Morning," she said.

He sniffed. "Morning," he mumbled, still barely half-awake.

Tyler smiled. She didn't need to worry about the future. She just wanted to spend each and every moment enjoying what was happening right now.

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