As Lindy lay sobbing in the hallway of her apartment building, the body of the boy she loved in her arms, there were countless wonders happening around her that she was not aware of.

Let us not dwell on the fact that no one in her building had seen or heard any of the things that had just taken place. It was the least of the great wonders to know that the spectacle of her pain and sorrow had been blocked out by magic, so that the bodies of her hero and the cold-hearted drug dealer who had tried to kill her were not visible to the human eye.

Let us instead remember that in an alternate timeline, Lindy's and Kyle's roles were reversed, and it was Kyle who grieved for the loss of his soulmate. That Lindy had opened the door to her apartment, and Victor was there, a silencer fitted neatly to his .38 special. And when he pushed his way into her home and held the gun to her head, a thousand thoughts flew through her mind in the mere seconds between the pulling of the trigger and the bullet hitting the mark.

If we were to try to capture these thousand thoughts and weave them into a cohesive whole, the point would be this: Lindy would realize that throughout her entire life, she'd always been let down. Her mother, who was supposed to be her protector, nurturer, and first friend, had gone and died and left her at the mercy of a drug addict. Her father had left her in the care of a complete stranger because he'd been blackmailed, and he lied about Lindy now being safe. He himself was safe, tucked away all warm and cozy in a hospital bed while Lindy paid for his crimes. And there was Hunter, who claimed in his letter that he loved her, but had also abandoned her, like everyone else.

It occurred to her while Victor squeezed the trigger, that he was the only one who'd ever truly kept his promise. He said that someday he'd find her, and he did. The sad irony of this realization was what Lindy was thinking of when she died.

But none of that happened. Instead, Kyle proved that Lindy had been wrong about him, that he was the rock in the stormy sea of her life. He rewrote the timeline so that they could switch places, so that he could give his life for her.

And Lindy thought she could die from the pain it now caused.

Perhaps the greatest wonder that Lindy was not aware of was the fact that Hunter was still alive. His heartbeat may have slowed to a crawl, but a faint, fuzzy pulse was still there, practically undetectable. The wound he'd been dealt was healing at an incredible rate, an impossible feat by medical standards. Lindy was only vaguely aware of the sweet scent of rose petals in the air as it happened.

Then, she felt Hunter's arm, previously lying limp next to her, rise up very slowly and wrap around her waist. Lindy stopped sobbing and froze in place, her head still pressed to his chest. She was hallucinating. She had to be. She couldn't accept Hunter was gone so she was imagining that he was still alive.

But then she felt him take a deep breath in, his diaphragm expand and contract in a smooth, strong motion. Lindy gasped, jumping up to see what she hoped to see but could barely believe was happening.

His eyes opened and he was looking up at her. Slowly his lips parted and he smiled. "Hey," he said simply.

She just gaped at him, her mouth hanging open. She tried to form words, but nothing came out. He slowly sat up, grunting slightly with the effort, then looked down at his bare chest. There was a large bloodstain, but the wound was gone, the skin unbroken. There was no pain at all.

He looked up again at her and gave a light laugh. "I'm okay. I'm alive!"

Lindy finally was able to utter a single word. "H-h-how?"

Before he could say anything, Lindy started to blubber, "Y-you were stabbed, and-and you lost so much blood. And your heart stopped and you were so still, and-and…" She trailed off as she started to cry, the emotional weight of losing him and getting him back hitting her with the force of a punch to the gut.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, I'm fine," he said gently, pulling her into his arms to rock her while she sobbed.

"Hunter…oh God, Hunter. I thought I'd lost you," she cried.

In the midst of the joy of realizing he was still alive and having Lindy in his arms, Kyle was only barely conscious of the fact that although Lindy had told him she loved him, he was still in his cursed form. She didn't recognize him as Kyle.

Finally, she pulled away, sniffling and wiping the tears from her eyes. "How is it possible? I don't understand."

"I think I can answer your questions," a voice said. Kyle and Lindy turned to see Kendra standing in the hallway, a few feet away from where they sat.

"Kendra!" Kyle exclaimed, getting to his feet and helping Lindy get up too.

The witch smiled kindly. "Congratulations, Kyle. You saved her."

Lindy pulled away from him. "Kyle? Wha-Hunter, what is she talking about?"

Kyle turned to Lindy with a guilty smile on his face. "Kendra's right, Lindy. It's me, Kyle Kingson. It's been me all along."

Lindy shook her head, her eyes wide. "No. No, you don't look anything like him-"

"Yes, that was my doing," Kendra spoke up. "I decided to teach Kyle a lesson, to punish him for being an arrogant, superficial, vain, dickish-"

"Okay, okay, we got it, Kendra," Kyle interrupted, holding up a hand. "It was a curse, and it could only be broken if I found someone who could love me in spite of what I looked like. And," he said, taking Lindy's hand with a smile, "I found you."

Lindy slipped her hand out of Kyle's. "I guess I didn't tell you in enough time. You…you still look like…Hunter," she replied, trying to find a way to not be insulting about his scarred, tattooed appearance.

"Actually, I have to take the fall for that one," Kendra spoke up. "Kyle, remember I told you that there might be a steep price to pay for traveling back in time? Well, this was it. You see, the Powers that Be allowed me to heal your wound and to give Zola and Will the gifts I promised you, but they've blocked the part of the spell that would allow you to revert back to your original form. It's my punishment, and yours, for altering the timeline."

"Altering the timeline?" Lindy repeated. "Okay, this is just got a whole lot weirder. I don't get it. So you were cursed AND you traveled back in time?"

"Yeah," Kyle said. "You see, the first time around, Victor…got to you before I did." He shut his eyes tightly, trying to block out the terrible memory of finding her dead. "So I begged Kendra to send me back in time before it happened so that I could save you. And she did."

Lindy looked down incredulously at the ground, at a small patch of blood that stained the carpet. "So you mean…I was the one who died?"

"Yeah," Kyle whispered.

"His love for you is immense," Kendra added. "I couldn't say no, no matter how much I wanted to. But there are now great consequences to what I've done."

"Consequences?" Kyle asked. "How could this be anything but good?"

"We've altered the world, Kyle," Kendra explained. "There are generations of people that are now going to be born that weren't going to be there previously, and there are going to be people who are not going to be born that were supposed to as a result. Butterfly Effect, remember?" Kyle nodded. "Well, as punishment, you are trapped in this form. I'm very sorry, Kyle. I tried to negotiate with them, reason with them. But this was the only way they would allow me to do all the other good things I've been able to do."

Kyle looked down at his hands, his arms. He looked at the twisting tattoos, felt the deep scars on his face. And he realized something: it didn't matter to him. He knew Lindy loved him in spite of them. He had wonderful, supportive friends in Will and Zola, who were going to get the rewards they deserved. He'd managed to conquer his fear today and go to Buckston to look for Lindy, despite knowing all those people would see him. He remembered what he'd told Kendra before: that losing Lindy was the only price he couldn't pay. And that was still the truth. He would learn to live this way.

"It's okay, Kendra," Kyle told the witch. "I made my bed. But what about you? Did you get…punished too?"

Kendra smiled sadly. "I did. After I leave here, I'm forbidden to practice magic for 100 years."

"A hundred years?" Lindy cried out. "Kendra, you can't be any more than 18."

The witch chuckled. "Well, aren't you sweet. One hundred years might seem like a lot in mortal time, but it's not really that much to my kind. I will miss doing magic though," Kendra sighed, then grinned wickedly. "I told them that I didn't regret a thing – this was my most favorite spell I've ever cast, and it's the truth. You should have seen their faces."

Kyle returned the grin. "I'm sorry that had to happen to you."

She shook her head. "Like I said, I don't regret a thing. Well, I have to go now. I'll take care of disposing of Victor for you. I might not be an enchantress anymore, but I can still take out the trash." She turned to go, then stopped and turned back. "One other thing, Kyle. I might not be able to reverse the spell, but there are those in other parts of the world that have access to powerful magic. Look for them; one of them might be able to help you."

Kyle smiled. "Thanks, Kendra. For everything."

The witch did not smile, but she gave a small curtsy, and with a wave of her hand, disappeared into thin air, along with Victor's body.

Kyle looked at Lindy, who was still staring ahead, in the spot where Kendra had just been standing before she disappeared. "Lindy?" he asked quietly, hopefully.

She slowly turned to look at him. Without a word, she walked past him and back into her apartment. Kyle followed after her, and he found her leaning on the window sill, her arms crossed. He reached out to touch her, but he stopped, uncertain how she would react to it. They stood there together in silence for several minutes.

"Are you all right?" he finally asked her.

Lindy slowed raised her eyes to him, and gave a short laugh. "I honestly don't know. I'm just…trying to process all of this. I don't know where to begin. I started the day thinking I knew one thing, and now…everything I thought I knew and believed…it's all changed."

"It's still me, Lindy. It always was me. I love you. I always have."

Lindy frowned when she heard this, then looked down at herself. "I need to shower. I've got…I've got blood on me." Without waiting for Kyle to answer, she got up and walked down the hall to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Kyle stood by the window, staring out at the busy city afternoon. He would have to become part of that world again, he knew. He'd avoided it as long as he could, enabled by his father's efforts to isolate him. But he couldn't shut himself away anymore – not if he wanted to hold on to Lindy.

He could only hope she'd come around. He knew that this was a lot for anyone to take in: magic, time travel, witches, curses. He knew he needed to be patient with her, despite patience never being his strong suit. As much as he wanted to show her how much he loved her, he knew he needed to do this at her pace, in her time.

Finally, Kyle heard a door shut, and Lindy came out of the bathroom, wearing a grey tank and black sweat pants. Her hair was still damp from the shower and clung to her face and shoulders. She was the most beautiful thing in the world to him.

When she saw how he was looking at her, she looked away. "So…I guess Kendra cursed you the night of the dance, right?" she asked, moving over to the sofa and sitting down.

"Right," Kyle answered, following her to the sofa. He sat down next to her, but with several inches of space between them.

Lindy cleared her throat. "I-thank you for saving me. I want you to know that…I'm grateful for what you gave up to save my life."

Kyle started to say something, then thought better of it and mumbled "you're welcome" while looking down at his lap.

"Kyle?" Lindy asked.

"Yeah?"

"It is you, isn't it? All those things you told me, the time we spent together, it was all real, wasn't it?"

He slowly turned to look at her. "Yeah, everything. You know, I'd been thinking about it while you were in the shower, and I think that…I loved you right from the beginning. From that first time at the dance when we talked. Deep down, I knew I was in love with you right from the start."

Lindy scooted closer to him. Cautiously she reached out and gently touched his face, running the pads of her fingers over the scars. Kyle closed his eyes, basking in the feeling of being touched – a pleasure he'd been denied for so long. He opened his eyes just long enough to see Lindy lean in and kiss him softly on the lips.

His hands came up to her shoulders, caressing her neck, her hair. He knew he should go slowly – he shouldn't come on too strong. But he couldn't help himself. He returned the kiss with great intensity, and found, much to his delight, that his intensity was more than matched. Lindy's arms wrapped around his neck, and she climbed into his lap, her lips never leaving his. They were frenzied, hungry, passionate.

Finally, Lindy broke off the kiss and caught her breath. "I love you too." She began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Kyle asked, hugging her close.

"Nothing, really. Just when you find out the guy you've had a crush on for three years that you didn't think would give you the time of day and the guy who broke the universe to save you are the same dude, it's a little mind blowing, that's all."

Kyle looked away bitterly. "Yeah, I can see why you'd have a crush on that guy. He was gorgeous. Not so much this guy," he pointed out, gesturing to himself. "The old Kyle could give you so much more. But now…well, I can understand if you'd want that."

Lindy looked bewildered. "You think that I don't-oh my God." She kissed him again. "You silly ass. You are not ugly!" She turned to face him, straddling his lap. "I want you – any way that I can have you."

Kyle's heart skipped a beat at these words, but he still wasn't sure. "But-"

"Nope, shush. You're mine now. You don't get to put yourself down. I won't let anything that belongs to me get trashed, you understand me?"

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Yes, ma'am."

Lindy smiled. "Good. Kyle…for reals, though, we'll find a way to live. I know we will."

They held each other for a long time. Finally, Lindy heard Kyle mumble from the crook of her neck, "Will you come back home now?"

Those words, spoken with such vulnerability and love, made Lindy's heart soar. And there was only one answer.

"Definitely."

So they rode back to the home they'd made together, back to their friends who welcomed them with unconditional love. And they would have busy days to spend together-learning and living and working and growing-and passionate nights to discover each other in ways no one else ever had.

And maybe, just maybe, Kyle would someday find someone with powers great enough to reverse the spell. But he would not dwell on the possibility too much. After all, he had Lindy, and together, they had all the time in the world.