A/N: Super short concluding chapter: mostly dialogue, unashamedly sappy.

Reviews/opinions/critiques welcomed and encouraged!

Here in the dark,

in these final hours,

I will lay down my heart,

and I'll feel the power.

-Bonnie Raitt

"Ally?"

Ally turns towards the door at the sound of her name. Austin's there, breathless and adorably rumpled, eyes fixated on Ally's face, as if he can't believe it's really her. He steps in the doorway, and her heart aches when she sees the bags under his eyes and the exhausted tension in his shoulders. She's not quite sure what she wants to say to him (what she can say to him), or how to say it, so she settles for what's easiest.

"Hi Austin."

"Ally?"

"Hi Austin."

Austin lets out a sharp breath as he sees her propped up in bed: wan, but awake and smiling.

"Ally." He chokes out again.

Ally settles herself into the pillows behind her and beams at him. "Dez brought me a jar of pickles."

The casual way she waves a hand towards the nightstand is too much for Austin, and he leans against the wall for support as he whispers her name like a prayer.

"Ally."

Ally's reply is concerned. "Um. Yes?"

Mr. Dawson moves at her bedside and Austin blinks. He hadn't even noticed anyone else was there. Lester stands and leans over to kiss Ally's forehead. Then he walks towards the door with a chuckle, patting Austin briefly on the back.

"You know, I think I'm going to go get a cup of soup." He says to no one in particular as he leaves the room.

Austin can't bring himself to laugh at Ally's dad's lack of subtlety, although any other time he'd find it hilarious. He's still drinking in the girl in front of him, dreamy-eyed, bright and tangible and sososo close. The girl currently looking at him like he's grown a second head.

"Are you okay?"

Austin realizes absently the absurdity of Ally asking him that as she sits in a hospital bed, but he still can't muster the capacity to say anything but her name.

"Ally."

"That's my name. Don't wear it out." Ally sounds amused as pushes herself higher against the pillows. "Austin, are you going to stand in the doorway forever, or are you going to come in?"

It's the sound of his name on her lips that finally prompts Austin to find his words.

"You remember me."

The look Ally gives him is familiar: equal parts exasperated and affectionate, and an unconscious smile slips across Austin's face.

"Of course I remember you, Austin." She smiles softly. "You're kind of hard to forget." Then she shrugs, looking down to fiddle with the corner of a pillowcase. "And that's how friendship works, right?"

Austin tenses at the last sentence before he takes a tentative step towards the bed. Ally tilts her head up to meet his eyes questioningly. "Is that why you've been so weird for the past five minutes? Because you thought I forgot that we were friends?"

"Kind of." Austin pauses. "But it's not just that. It's-" His voice cracks. "I was so scared, Ally. You fell, and you were so close, but I couldn't catch you, and then you were on the floor and you weren't moving and I didn't know what to do." He lets out a long breath. "I wa-it's just-It's all my fault. And I'm so sorry, Ally."

"And I'm so sorry, Ally."

The words jog a memory that Ally didn't even know she had, and in a whirlwind of recollection, she flashes back to Austin sitting by her bedside, exhausted and vulnerable and heartbreakingly honest. It seems almost impossible, reconciling the words he'd whispered against her fingers and the harsh sobs with this boy standing in front of her now: an unreadable expression and an apology in his voice.

"I think..." Ally says slowly. "I think you've said that to me before."

"In Sonic Boom? I was tryi-"

"No." Ally frowns, trying to filter through the dreamlike reality she'd gone through in the coma. "Here."

Austin looks shell-shocked. "You remember?"

"So it was real?" Ally's voice is almost disbelieving. "All of it?"

"Yeah."

"Including the part-"

"Where I said I loved you?"

It's Ally's turn to look stunned. Her eyes are tentatively hopeful as she meets Austin's steady, clear gaze.

"Because I do." He looks at her seriously. "I am completely in love with you, Ally Dawson. And I know I was oblivious and dense and handled everything wrong, and said a bunch of stupid things that I should never have said, and I understand if the coma made you realize that you are way, way too good for me, but I just wanted you to know that I love you." He sighs. "And I'm sorry for being a monumental idiot."

"You were all of those things." Ally wrinkles her nose, and Austin holds his breath. "But I guess I can forgive you-" She pauses melodramatically and an irrepressible smile spreads across her face. His heart lifts. "Because I love you too."

And then, in two quick strides, Austin's sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling Ally onto his lap and dipping her into a languid, sweet kiss.

He pulls back to tap her on the nose. "I think that pause was the most terrifying five seconds of my life." He presses his lips against her temple. "Aside from watching you fall." He says soberly. "Please don't ever do that to me again."

Ally tucks her head into the crook of his shoulder and tangles their fingers together. "Not planning on it." She traces nonsensical patterns with her thumb on the back of Austin's hand. "Although if you think about it, we wouldn't be here, together, if it weren't for the accident."

"Not quite."

Ally turns to face Austin. "Not quite?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you, before... you know." Austin shrugs. "That I realized that Not a Love Song actually was a love song. About you."

"Austin Moon, I did not realize you were such a hopeless romantic." Ally laughs.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" He grins at her cheekily, lighthearted for the first time in days.

"Eh. We'll see if I keep you around." Ally says, straight-faced. But she settles back into him with a happy sigh, and leans her head into his chest. "We should ask my dad to bring up pancakes to go with the pickles." She tilts her head to look at him. "But don't let go just yet?"

Austin wonders how it's possible to love someone this much. "Never again."

Finished! Am mulling over some ideas for Christmassy/holiday stories, but am not quite sure where those are going. So. Yeah. But let me know if y'all have any input/requests! (I just typed requestions instead of requests. and then I just did it again. what is my life.)