AN~ Well, this is it, guys! The last chapter! I am posting it early to thank y'all for the big news that I will post at the bottom. I MIGHT update something else on Thursday, but it's unlikely.

For those of you I misled about the endgame pairing: sorry not sorry. Didn't want it to be too obvious.

For those of you who wanted bisexual/pansexual Daphne: I will devote a long fic to that. I thought of pulling that in too late to really do it right. So I'll write that fic later. Promise.

For those of you who are certain Daphne's straight: Don't read the next fic I publish that centers on her because it will most likely be Daphne/Red endgame pairing.

For everyone who read/reviewed/favorited/followed this fic: thank you so much! I really appreciate all of it, especially the reviews. And I hope I maybe made you consider a pairing you hadn't thought about before, or at least that you liked them even if none of them are your ships.

Daphne goes back to grad school after her semster off, but she does most of her coursework online. When she has to go down to Arizona, she takes Red with her. She graduates only a year late, and then she goes back up to Ferryport Landing. She works for the Poughkeepsie school system and child welfare services up there, but she stays with Red and Mr. Canis most of the time. Ferryport Landing is nice. Safe. She knows everyone there and they know her and she has time to recover completely.

Sabrina comes up for a lot of visits, but she's got a toddler and another kid on the way, so she doesn't have a lot of time. Basil's in college now, too, so Henry and Veronica come up to visit plenty. And over time, Daphne starts to grow back into being herself again. It takes a very long time, actually, and she doesn't date at all during that period (years, it's three years of being terrified to let anyone that close to her). Ferryport Landing is her safe haven, and everyone there understands.

Or, most of them understand. Veronica tries to push Daphne to be a little more outgoing sooner than Daphne's ready, and Henry sort of treats her like she's made of glass, but they're all doing their best. Sabrina, Red, and Snow are the biggest help. They all... they've all been there, in one way or another, and they know how hard it is to reclaim yourself after something essential to your sense of who you are has been shattered.

Daphne dates casually after a while, but none of them really provide what she's looking for. There's no urgency to it, anyway. She's got her family and a pretty big handful of close friends to keep her emotionally satisfied, she's got her job to make her feel useful, she's got a whole lot of acquaintances and distant friends (mostly Everafters) to keep life interesting, and she's got forever. Sabrina and Puck stopped aging at twenty-nine, and as she edges her way closer to that birthday, she figures she'll do the same.

Life is good. She's got excitement and peace in turns. She's happy.

So when a permanent kind of love finds her, she doesn't notice at first. After all, she's not looking for it. She's decided that maybe she's okay being single instead of getting her fairy-tale ending (after all, look how well it worked out for most of the people in the fairy tales), and she'll make her own happiness instead of putting it on someone else.

Pinocchio and Lauren are married, now. Red has a job at a battered women's shelter (Daphne volunteered there a few times, but she found it just hurt too much for her to really be involved with it). Basil is working for the Witness Protection program, oddly enough, and he and Sabrina are working together to help Everafters get themselves real lives and jobs with identification that the government doesn't mind. Toby hasn't found a girl to settle down with, and he's stopped trying. Mustardseed is running Faerie very competently, and as far as Daphne knows he's still single. Bella and Natalie are running a spa together. Tim... well, Daphne doesn't really talk to Tim anymore, but she hears he's doing well. Wendell is a pretty popular blues musician. He's on tour a lot, but he comes back to Ferryport Landing for a few long visits a year.

They've all build pretty good lives, and Daphne doesn't regret most of her decisions. She misses having one person to call hers and only hers sometimes, but it's not that big of a deal.

She and Wendell make a point of meeting up every time he's in town, just to talk and maybe have a cup of coffee. It's nice.

One time, a rainy day that they're enjoying from the nice dry warm inside of Sacred Grounds, Wendell tells her, "I think I'm done going on tour."

"You sure?" Daphne asks, raising her eyebrows. "You love touring!"

Wendell shrugs. "It's lost a bit of its luster. I'm ready to do something different."

Daphne takes a sip of her drink, enjoying the nutty flavor of Mallowbarb's most recent addition to the menu, and says, "This is kind of sudden, don't you think?"

Wendell makes a face. "People have started talking about how young I look. And it doesn't mean I have to stop making music or anything, but I'm gonna have to keep my face a little out of the way before tabloids start getting suspicious."

"Didn't realize blues musicians made it into tabloids that often," Daphne snorts.

Wendell makes a face at her and doesn't reply. Daphne doesn't push it. He has a point.

For a while they're silent, just enjoying the sound of rain on the other side of their big window and the coffee and each other's company.

Daphne's the one who breaks the silence. "So what are you thinking of doing with yourself after?"

"Don't know," Wendell says. "My options are open. Any suggestions?"

Daphne gives Wendell a contemplative look. "World domination?" she offers at last.

They both laugh.

"Seriously, though, I don't know," Daphne says. "It's your life. You could always go back into detecting. You were pretty good, and the Grimms can't keep the monopoly on that forever."

Wendell laughs again. "Yeah, I found a lost dog and figured out that a bird stole Cindy's necklace. I'm a great detective."

"Hey, everybody has to start somewhere," Daphne defends.

They fall silent again, and Daphne realizes, suddenly, that she doesn't ever want this to change. She wants to spend the rest of her life sitting across the table from Wendell, just smiling at each other. Or something like that.

It's a lot like friendship, the same as it's always been between her and Wendell, but it's different, too. Wendell suddenly seems very necessary to her life (not that he wasn't, before, but it's... different). It's also a lot like the feelings she's had for all her boyfriends, though not the same as that, either. This isn't nearly as urgent. It feels peaceful, somehow. Nothing could ever change, and she wouldn't pine after Wendell for the rest of her life. She'd be perfectly content to just do this.

Knowing that he enjoys her company would be enough.

Well, this has come out of the blue.

"Would you want me to stay here?" Wendell asks. "With you?"

And- does he mean the same thing she wants him to mean? She hopes he does.

She gives him a smile and says, "I'd love nothing more than that."

Wendell smiles back, a bright grin, and reaches across the table to grab her hand. She gives his hand a squeeze right back.

Wendell starts to say something, swallows, clears his throat, and starts again. "I... I know we tried this, tried to be an us, a while ago. And it didn't work out. Would you be interested in starting over?"

"Yeah," Daphne starts, then finds she has to swallow, too. "Yeah, I'd love to."

Wendell's smile, which faded a little in nervousness, comes back even brighter, and brings his other hand up to cup hers as well.

"I, uh, we'd have to go slow," Daphne says. "I haven't really been in a serious relationship in a while, and last time... it didn't go so well. Would you mind?"

Wendell shakes his head vehemently. "No, no, whatever you want. We've got all the time in the world. Just... You're one of my favorite people, and I've always loved you one way or another, and... there's nobody else I'd rather work at spending the rest of my life with." He winces. "Was that sudden? I feel like I just piled a lot on you too soon right after you told me to take it slow. Sorry. I just... You're one of my best friends, you know?"

Daphne laughs a little and squeezes his hands reassuringly. "I get it. It's fine."

For a while, they just hold hands. Then Daphne goes back to drinking her coffee, and Wendell does, too. It's quiet, just the two of them in the almost-empty coffee shop, listening to the rain come down even harder. And Daphne is absolutely content. It's been a long time coming, but she feels like she has everything she could possibly want.

AN~ Well, that's it! The end of Daphne's Dates! I know this chapter was kinda short, but I was trying to get at the fact that there wasn't really much left to say. They've gone through all the drama, and now it's just two people who messed up before finding each other again. They're gonna be happy, and they're gonna take their time before they get married or have kids or anything. They'll probably go on adventures and stuff too but for now Daphne still needs peace, so they'll just kick around Ferryport Landing and get to know each other again.

Thank you SO MUCH everyone for sticking through this with me, through the rough bits and the preachy bits and the little over a year it took me to actually get around to finishing a relatively short story. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

ALSO thank you so much to everyone who voted for this story in Elligoat's Best Sisters Grimm Story of 2014 contest! I totally did not expect to win at all and I'm so, so SO grateful.