Hey!! Final chapter at last! This is the epilogue, I’m happy and sad to say, which means that their story is over…this is so weird for me, you have no idea. Last night I dug up some old notes I had written about Delta, like the very basic plot, and it’s so different. And yet some lines are exactly the same. It’s incredible. But yeah, I just want to give you all a HUGE thank you for everything you’ve done to make their story possible and making me want to write it :) I love you all and I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you and please enjoy this final chapter of their story!
Gracias!! <3 vb12331 (though I promise this won’t be the last time I say that; keep an eye out for a new book I have in mind!!)
Epilogue
♥ Astrid ♥
“Charlie Gallagher,” I panted, my fingers cramping as they clutched at the handholds, “I am never going to forgive you for this.”
His face was a few feet to my right, laughing as he held on easily to the side of the rocky cliff we were attempting to scale. “Come on, Astrid, don’t be such a coward,” he said, smirking as I clung to the handholds, frozen. “I still don’t get how you can be in car chases and shoot-outs at age sixteen but are still terrified of heights when you’re twenty-four.”
“It’s completely different.” I had to force myself not to look down. “The only thing keeping me alive is this itty-bitty rope, and I don’t even get what it’s doing to help –”
Charlie rolled his eyes. “Keep moving and it’ll be over soon.”
“How ‘bout you go first and then drag me up?” I suggested, only half-kidding.
“Beauty before age.” Somehow he managed to make a little bow while hanging in midair, grinning at the expression I produced on my face.
“Isn’t it the other way around?” I grumbled, but he ignored this, just looking at me with that irritating grin until I gritted my teeth and forced myself to start climbing again.
Rock climbing had been his idea, unsurprisingly, and though Charlie claimed the cliff wasn’t even that high and Josh was on the bottom somehow helping us, I still wasn’t convinced that this wasn’t going to kill me. Telling myself that I only had to get to the top and then could coerce Charlie into calling a helicopter or something for me, I made my way up, scrabbling for foot- and handholds, Charlie beneath me to the right.
“How much further?” I gritted out, not wanting to look up or down.
Charlie’s voice floated up. “We’re halfway there, whoa, living on a prayer!”
I groaned, forcing my limbs to keep moving. “Only?” And when he laughed again, “Did anyone ever tell you you’re a crappy singer?”
His only response was to break into a high-pitched rendition of “Climb Every Mountain,” which he clearly thought was appropriate. If I hadn’t been so scared of falling off and hurtling through space, I would have reached back and kicked him in the face. Attempting to tune him out, I concentrated on getting up the cliff, exercising extreme mental control for the next fifteen minutes until at last we reached the top.
“Thank goodness,” I breathed, falling face-down on the ground. “I am never, ever doing anything like that again.”
Charlie stood next to me, shaking his head. “You realize you’re going to have to go back down there.” And when I buried my face in my arms, “You can’t live up here, Astrid; I think it’s illegal or something. Besides, what would you eat?”
“You,” I snapped, rolling over so that I was looking up at him. He grinned, extending a hand to pull me to my feet. I took it reluctantly, clutching at his shoulders as we leaned precariously close to the edge of the cliff. “Let’s not,” I said, trying to move away, but he caught my arms and dragged me closer as I screamed at him.
“Stop being such a baby,” he told me, wrapping his arms around my waist. “Look, I’ve got you. Now just look over the edge – oh my gosh, stop – just look. Isn’t it gorgeous?”
Another reason I hadn’t wanted to go on this excursion was that he had it planned at a ridiculous hour of the day: an early one. We left for the rock-climbing place when it was still dark, and as soon as it was light enough for it to be legal, we had started climbing. I had complained about the earliness to no end, but then, as I stood at the top of a cliff in Charlie’s arms, a gentle wind blowing our hair, I saw why he had picked that particular time.
The sun was breaking over the east horizon, half of a golden ball peeking out from behind the shimmering blue lake we were near. Clouds dotted the sky above, tinted shades of pink, gold, and purple from the sun’s rays as slowly it rose. A shining halo seemed to surround the sky, throwing a golden glow on the water as it lapped against the sun’s surface, and a single bird flew across its shining surface.
“Wow,” I breathed, forgetting the altitude momentarily.
Charlie rested his chin on the top of my head. “See? It was so worth it, wasn’t it? You never believe me.”
I smiled, still captivated by the glowing sunrise. “You’d better have something this good to show me on the bottom to get me back down.”
“How ‘bout breakfast?”
Laughing, I turned around carefully, his arms sliding around my waist as I stepped away from the edge of the cliff. “I love you,” I whispered, putting my arms around his neck, and he kissed me, the wind swirling around us as he held me steadily. As we broke apart, he stepped backwards, one hand reaching into his pocket as he released me. I watched him in some puzzlement, my nerves suddenly jumping as he pulled out a little box and the pieces clicked together in my mind.
“Astrid,” he began, his eyes warm and smiling and pulling me in as my palms began to sweat. “You know I love you and you’re the only one for me, and so I want to ask you…” He bent one knee, started to lean towards the ground, but then his ankle twisted awkwardly and he tripped a little, sprawling forward. The little box slipped out of his hand, bouncing on the hard ground, and then, as Charlie lunged in its direction, it fell off the edge of the cliff.
Charlie collapsed on the ground, one hand extending over the face of the cliff as if he expected the box to fly back into it. When it sunk in that it wasn’t going to, he pounded the ground with one fist, swearing and shouting, his words garbled by furious disbelief: “TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS OFF A FREAKING CLIFF!”
I pressed a hand over my mouth to hide the giggle that was threatening to escape, smiling as he turned around to look at me with a thunderous expression. “And you still think rock-climbing was a good idea?” I asked, unable to help myself.
He looked like he was considering pushing me off the cliff as he got to his feet and gripped the ends of his hair, looking around desperately. “This is not how this was supposed to work,” he muttered, and then his eyes lit up as he spotted the plastic water bottle he had brought up the cliff with him. As I watched with raised eyebrows, he twisted off the cap and then removed the plastic ring underneath.
“Okay, let’s try this again.” Exhaling loudly, he got down on one knee again, more carefully this time, and held out his hands with the plastic bottle-cap ring in his palm. “Astrid von Shauff, I love you and I want to be with you forever, through the good and the bad and everything. I’ve felt this way for fourteen years, and so now I’m going to ask you – will you marry me?”
Tears were squeezing their way out of my eyes as I covered my mouth with my hands again, smiling and smiling and unable to speak. Charlie’s eyes looked a little nervous as he waited for me to answer, but my vocal cords were having issues. “Yes,” I managed at last, gulping back tears, “yes, yes, of course, yes!”
A huge grin broke out over his face, his eyes shining as he got to his feet and took my hand in his, sliding the plastic ring on my finger. Laughing helplessly, I turned it over and inspected it, saying, “Bit big, don’t you think?”
“The jeweler said we could take it back for sizing,” he assured me, taking me in his arms again, and I kissed him this time, his lips warm and loving against mine. I wanted to stay like that forever, safe and secure in his arms even as we stood at the edge of a cliff, but he pulled away after a moment. Taking my hand, he led me a little ways away from the edge and sat down on the dirt ground. I put my head in his lap, lying there next to him and looking up at the golden sky, a great rush of emotion filling my senses.
“When should the wedding be?” he asked, one hand in my hair.
“This afternoon,” I replied, and he laughed.
“I feel like my mom wouldn’t be too happy about that. We can plan it for, like, October or something. That gives us some time to let everyone know. You know my mom will want a huge wedding.”
I looked up at him. “You’re gonna make me wait five months?”
He smiled. “Be patient. I’ve been waiting fourteen years, remember? What’s five more months?” I closed my eyes as his words drifted over me. “You have to pick out bridesmaid dresses and a hairdo and who knows what else girls do at these things…and we have to pick out a house and plan our lives and stuff like that.”
“How many kids do you want to have?” I asked drowsily, taking his hand.
“Ten at least,” he replied, stroking my hair, and I opened my eyes to smile at him.
“And we can live with them in some cute little suburb where it would be safe for you to be a cop. So, like, not Chicago,” I added as he opened his mouth. Charlie had decided that he couldn’t completely give up the adrenaline that came with the spy life and had become a police officer, currently stationed in inner-city Chicago. I hated the idea of him fighting gangs there, but he always promised to be careful, saying that he felt good helping people out.
Now he just rolled his eyes and said, “Do you think you’ll keep up your medical work? I would hate to see you take all these exams only to be a stay-at-home mom.”
Unlike Charlie, I had been eager to leave the field, entering a completely different one that, I had found, sometimes had the same adrenaline packed into it. After we had officially resigned from Delta a few months after leaving London and had signed all the Official Secrets Act stuff and sworn to keep our mouths shut, we had moved into professions of our own. College was surprisingly easy to get into and through – I suspected that Young had given some help there – and afterwards I had chosen to go into medical school. As Charlie had felt it was necessary to help others as a cop, I remembered the helpless terror I had felt when he was in the hospital and decided I wanted to learn how to act on it.
“I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said in answer to his question, as it wasn’t a huge concern at that point. Delta had agreed to pay our way through college and, in my case, medical school, and so it wasn’t like that was a problem. “For now we better worry about the wedding itself. Everyone will go crazy.”
Charlie groaned. “This is going to suck, I can feel it already. My mom’s going to be crying too much and Josh will be best man so of course he’s going to be an idiot – can we just not invite him –”
“Charlie!” I protested, laughing. “We can’t just not have him at our wedding.”
He sighed. “I guess you’re right. I’ll just have to hope he’s too busy to show up. Sadie will be crushed,” and he rolled his eyes again.
Out of the three of us, Josh had been the most reluctant to leave Delta. He had chosen to join the FBI, which made no sense in my mind, but he explained that it was more possible to have a family and a social life in the FBI than Delta, as Delta wasn’t supposed to exist. As he obviously had already completed enough training for the job, he was currently stationed in Washington, D.C., near, coincidentally, where Sadie was going to college. Charlie had long since given up trying to stem the romance between them, and now that Sadie graduated from Georgetown the previous month we all knew that Josh was only biding his time.
“Joel will come, too,” I reminded him. “Can you imagine the havoc he and Josh will wreak there?”
Charlie pulled a face. “You know, you’re really making me rethink the whole marrying-this-afternoon thing. That kid is going to kill me someday, I swear.”
“Can you believe he’s going to be twenty-two next week?”
“Honestly, I’m still getting over eighteen,” Charlie replied, shuddering. “Remember when he bought a pack of cigarettes just because he could? And don’t get me started on twenty-one. That was a crazy birthday that I will regret my entire life.”
I laughed, remembering. “Give the kid a break; everyone goes crazy on their twenty-first birthday. You can drink!”
He gave me a dry look. “He’d been drinking for, like, three years already. I don’t get what the big deal was.”
“He’s gonna graduate college next week,” I said with a little wonder. “Isn’t that crazy? It feels like he just got accepted to U of M.”
The idea of Joel Nicholson being anything older than fourteen was still strange to me. He had barely changed at all over the past seven years, except that he had filled out and shot up, which helped him get a basketball scholarship to University of Michigan. It was weird to think that he was an adult, especially since his eyes were exactly the same: huge, sky-blue, naïve, and so much like another pair that they still sometimes brought a lump to my throat.
“Our little baby all grown up.” Charlie pretended to blow his nose, and I punched his arm affectionately. “Is he still bent on being a lawyer? I’m sensing some annoying arguments of science versus liberal arts at future Thanksgiving dinners.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, apparently. It’s good for him. I just hope he can find some girl that he can settle down with. Someone who can handle him,” I added, grinning.
“Poor thing,” said Charlie fervently, and we both laughed. “We better make sure to invite Janice and Wulf, too, and their whole pack.” He smirked at his own joke. “I can’t believe she’s expecting their fourth already; it feels like they just got married.”
“I know. Time flies.”
Closing my eyes again, I drank in his calming presence as one hand moved through my hair and the other held my own, pressing against the plastic bottle ring. For several minutes we simply stayed like that, wrapped up in each other’s company with the breeze blowing peacefully around us and the rising sun’s rays touching our faces. It was just him and me above the world, forever and always.
“We better get back down,” he said after quite a while. “Josh’s probably ready to kill us.”
Reluctantly we got to our feet, moving back to edge of the cliff with clasped hands. I eyed the way down with a dubious eye, remembering the fear of the way up, and it took Charlie several minutes of coaxing for me to begin the climb down. He stayed right next to me the whole time, cracking stupid jokes to keep my mind off the height, and before I knew it we were back on solid ground, unclipping our harnesses.
“Could you take any longer?” complained Josh, getting to his feet from where he had been sitting and reading some files. His blue-green eyes were dancing as he looked over at Charlie. “I think you lost something on the way up, bud. It came bouncing down a while ago, nearly brained me. Thought it was some bird taking a crap on me, but here you go.”
And from his pocket he pulled out a glistening ring. Charlie’s eyes practically bulged out of his head in shock as he stared at Josh, stumbling forward to take it from him and looking at it reverently. “Joshua Steiner,” he said in an awed voice, “I’m naming my first kid after you.”
Josh laughed, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking extremely pleased with himself. “Why, thanks, bud. You’re going to have an issue if it’s a girl.” He winked at me as I grinned at him. “I guess I’ll just leave you guys for a moment…I think I left my phone over here, and Sadie told me she’d call this morning…”
He sauntered away from, ruffling one hand through his hair as he hummed contentedly and sent one last smirk over his shoulder. I looked at Charlie, who was still staring at the ring with a shocked expression, the nerves jumping in my stomach again as he met my eyes. His grey ones were swirling intoxicatingly as he opened his mouth and then hesitated.
“Well?” I said, unable to resist. “Not that I don’t love this eighty-nine cent water bottle ring, but…”
“You’re seriously gonna make me go through that again?”
I nodded, grinning, and Charlie took another deep breath, putting the ring in the palm of his hand and getting down on one knee again. The diamond in the center of the golden band sparkled in the rising sun that filtered over the treetops as he looked up into my eyes.
“Astrid von Shauff, will you marry me?”
My hands were trembling again, even though I had already said yes, but I played it cool, pretending to deliberate. “Will I marry you down here and up there?” I teased, and he rolled his eyes, shifting on his knee as he glowered at me.
“In a house, with a mouse?” he retorted, and I smiled. Reaching out my left hand, I allowed him to slip the ring on my finger, lifting it to my eyes to look at it in the light. It was beautiful, the sun glimmering off the facets of the diamond, fitting perfectly. Taking his hands in mine, I tugged him to his feet and wrapped my arms around his neck as his went around my waist. His grey eyes filled my vision as he looked down at me, and I felt the tears coming to my eyes once more.
“In a box, with a fox,” I said softly. “I would marry you, Charlie Gallagher, anywhere.”
THE END