It's the end of the world as we know it! Just kidding, but this is the end of the story :)
I want to thank anyone and everyone who has read, voted on, or commented on this story as you are the reason I started writing it in the first place. So thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart and I hope you find this ending satisfactory...Happy reading!
*Corey*
"Trevor Smith...Lucinda Snediker...Sang Sorenson..."
The following names of the graduates read off by the Dean of the university fall on deaf ears as our mismatched family screams, cheers and whistles for our girl; that beautiful little blonde ray of sunshine striding carefully across the stage to accept her hard earned diploma with a radiant smile and a shake of the hand attached to a now dazed looking professor.
"That's our girl!" North's proud shout rises above the rest of the noise, and Sang must hear because her smile spreads impossibly further across her gorgeous face as she finds us in the crowd.
"Fuck, she's gorgeous," Gabe breathes out, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. Sometimes, she really does shine brighter than the sun, and right now, wearing a proud smile that could light up the world, that is more true than ever.
"Damn right she is, and we're the luckiest damn bastards in the world 'cause she's all ours," Nathan declares, and more grunts and grumbles of agreement can be heard as we tune out the rest of the name calling from the stage in favor of discussing the plan for this afternoon.
"Luke, you let Uncle know the plan, right?" Kota's question makes my palms sweat, and the nerves we'd all been fighting this week come back to get me.
Our resident sugar addict nods, bouncing in his chair. "Yep, he decided just to close the diner for the day since he and basically all of his employees will be at the party later."
"Good, okay, that's good." No, Kota you can't be nervous too, or we'll all be wrecks before we can even ask her.
"Everything will be fine, guys. Besides how could she say no to this face?" Making exaggerated pouty faces at us, Sean hams it up until some of the tension fades into nervous laughter.
"But what if it's too soon? What if she isn't ready yet? She's so independent..." Victor worriedly taps at his legs, which bounce unusually similar to Luke's at the moment.
Marc chimes in with his worries next. "No...she wouldn't right?"
Great, right as I was calming down, they go and do this.
"моя малютка (my little one) would not do this," Raven says confidently from beside me, which helps to some degree, but he's always that cocky.
"How can you be so sure," I ask quietly, but it's Axel and Owen who answer my question with more questions.
"Do you believe that Sang is in love with us?" I turn towards Axel whose face is softer than usual as he stares in the direction of our girl.
"Well, yeah," I answer, but that doesn't exactly mean that she's ready for marriage.
Owen goes next. "Does she believe that we are equally enamored of her?"
Brandon snorts. "I don't see how she possibly couldn't know, we show her all the fucking time."
"Then if both of those things are true, I see no reason that she would say no," Axel responds, leaning back into his chair like he hasn't a care in the world and their steady reassurance has us all relaxing.
Then the Dean announces the class of 2018 and I forget all about my moment of clarity.
***
*Sang*
I did it! I graduated. Well, I graduated again, only I finally got to walk, to get my master's diploma in front of a crowd full of my family and friends, quite possibly the loudest bunch here.
I smile to myself as I recall their crazy hooting and hollering when my name was finally called, and happiness like I'd never felt had me practically floating back to my seat and through the rest of the ceremony. Then I got to go find my guys, who met me with warm hugs, proud smiles, and kisses that likely were a little too passionate for public, but I didn't care. I was in love and my life had finally begun, so a little PDA is nothing.
Now we're in the cars, headed back to our place for my graduation party, one that Erika, Jessica, Jade and Karen had all insisted upon. I would have been happy with a quiet movie night in with my guys, but you don't say no to those girls when they have their hearts set on a celebration.
Only, when I glance out the window, we're not on our street at all, but instead I see the front car pulling into Bob's Diner. Confused, I turn to North.
"Why are we here?"
"We, uh, need to pick up the rest of the food for the party," he says without meeting my eyes, letting on immediately that for whatever reason he's not telling the truth.
"Oh, okay..." I hedge, deciding to just play along. If he's lying, there's a good enough reason that I'll find out later. I trust him.
He and the others in the car let out nearly imperceptible sighs of relief that I'm not going to push, so I hop out of the car, more than ready to find out what has them acting like a bunch of nervous nellies.
Entering the diner is strange, as I'm unused to seeing it empty of customers and the crazy day-to-day operations. It's so quiet that it makes me a little uncomfortable.
Kota comes to stand at my side. "Sweetie, would you mind grabbing some menus from the kitchen while we grab what we need?"
Even he's acting strange, and I know that he's perfectly aware we normally keep menus at the hostess stand rather than the kitchen, but again I'll let it go. "Okay..."
Glancing back at my guys once more, I head into the kitchen to see no food whatsoever on the counters, only a stack of four menus staring up at me. What are they doing?
Huffing in confusion at their strangeness, I grab the menus and walk back out to them, only to stop cold when a serious sense of deja vu nearly knocks me over.
Sitting in the same booth, in the same order, and in the same clothes as the first day I met them, Luke, Gabriel, North and Sean all stare up at me with love filled eyes as I approach the table, just as I did all those months ago. The others fill the booths on either side of this one, and I can feel my heartbeat pick up as I clutch the menus to my chest.
"Hi," I whisper when they don't say anything.
Gabriel smiles at me, the first to talk as always. "Well hello, you're still fucking gorgeous," he whispers back teasingly, repeating the very first words he ever said to me and I nearly tear up at the wonderful memory of those first few weeks with them.
Instead, I giggle, and Sean leans over to press a kiss to my lips. "No giggling, Pookie or we'll never be able to get through this."
"What is this exactly?" I think I have an idea but I'm too scared to be wrong.
"This is us reminding you of the first day we met, day I met the only girl I would ever love." North's deep rumbles with emotion, and I turn watery eyes to him.
"I could never forget, North Star. It was the best day of my life," I say, and a tear spills over when his own turn misty.
"Best day of ours too, Dream," Luke murmurs, reaching over to squeeze my hand.
I hear shuffling from all around and look over to see the rest of the guys standing to form a semi-circle facing me.
"All they would talk about when they got home that day was the prettiest little bird they'd finally met at the diner," Marc jokes, though his multicolored eyes are serious.
"Then a few days later, Marc, Corey and Raven found every reason to linger at home, to be closer to the beautiful neighbor across the hall," Brandon grumbles good-naturedly and I blush at the memory of meeting Raven's bare chest before I'd even met him.
"And then Silas told everyone about the Angel who flipped houses, and got Owen to smile and moon after a girl for the first time in his life." I giggle at Axel's jibe, and the way Owen looks slightly pink in the cheeks.
"Then Kota embarrassed himself in front of Jessica's gorgeous best friend at the librar–ow! It's the truth and you know it," Nathan glares at his best friend playfully for kicking him.
Kota glares back and teases Nathan. "And Nathan waxed lyrical about the pretty little thing that ran her fingers through his hair, pretty sure he was in love with you then."
Luke laughs at them. "You made Victor blush when you fixed up his car without blinking an eye, he wrote his whole next symphony based on your smile."
Victor blushes, but doesn't deny it when I look at him in surprise. "Axel met you next and you achieved the impossible, you impressed him and he was besotted with the green eyed girl who was changing our world."
Corey smiles and retells the last meeting. "And finally, you showed my brother what a girl could do, put him in his place and could tell us apart quicker than even our parents. He came home already in love and we knew that you were the one for us. We've been in love with you from those very first moments, every single one of us."
At this point, the tears aren't stopping, just steadily rolling down my cheeks and past my wide smile as I watch the loves of my life all slowly kneel in front of me, Silas stepping forward until he's right at my feet. He holds a small velvet box.
"Superman?" My voice is watery, nearly choked, and entirely unattractive but I can't bring myself to care at the moment.
"Aggele mou," he breathes out, his own deep voice wavering as he stares up at me. "My mama told me when I was young that when I found the love of my life that I would know. That something inside of me would simply click into place. My Baba said that it would be like meeting an angel in real life and he was right, they both were.
When Mama passed, I never thought my heart would find the one, not when it felt so broken, and then later I doubted anyone could want each of my brothers as well as me. But then, Aggele mou, then we heard about you and we fell in love and in awe of the strongest girl in the world through stories from our family. So it was inevitable that that love would become real when we finally met, and it did. Aggele mou, Sang, you are my angel in real life, and I want to spend the rest of my life bringing you all the happiness you deserve."
He opens the box to reveal a beautiful silver ring with a simple stunning diamond set into a plain band, and it's the most perfect thing I've ever seen, even more so because he's holding it. "Marry us, Aggele Mou?"
I cover my mouth, eyes wide as I stare down at all of them, finding it nearly impossible to believe that this is my life, that I could be so lucky. I meet Kota's eyes last, and he smiles at me.
"We make a halfway decent family if you'll let us."
***
I can't stop staring at the ring on my finger. It's been several hours since Silas had slid it onto my finger, and I still can't believe that it's real.
I thought I was happy this morning at my graduation, but nothing can compare to the total elation I felt saying yes to the 14 most amazing men in the world, and the dozens of kisses I'd received afterward were only part of it.
What makes this ring even better, aside from the fact that it means a permanent future with the men I love, is that it belonged to Silas's mother. His father had kept it safe all these years for whenever Silas fell in love, and the boys had decided against a new ring in favor for the wedding band from the only true love relationship any of them had been exposed to.
"It's not going to disappear, honey."
I glance back to see Erika smiling down at me, and I laugh. "I know, it just feels like I'm dreaming. My life is so much more than I ever thought it would be."
Plopping down next to me on the couch, she throws an arm around my shoulders. "Oh, hon, that's when you know it's real."
We're quiet for a moment, lost in our own thoughts as the noise from the party in the other room filter through the walls. "Erika, I want to thank you."
"For what?"
"For...for everything. For bringing me into your family, for treating me like a daughter, for being the mother I never had," I ramble, feeling very emotional from everything today.
"Oh, Sang, Honey you never have to thank me for that. As far as I'm concerned, you are family, always have been and I sure as hell would like for you to think of me as your mother. You really are a brilliant young lady and I'm so proud of you. I love you, Sang."
"I love you, too," I whisper as she brings me in for a hug.
Pulling back, she winks at me. "Now no more hiding in here. This is your party after all and your fiances are getting anxious without you."
I giggle at her, but stand and follow her back into the chaos of our family and friends in time to see North turning into a mother hen over Jessica, who seems to be attempting to carry a food tray.
"You can't lift anything heavy in your condition," he tells her, grabbing for the tray as she turns a glare on him.
"And what, pray tell, is my condition exactly, North?" I laugh at the way his expression morphs into 'oh shit' quickly, and he glances around for someone to save him from a pregnant woman's rage.
"Um...pregnant?" Wrong answer.
Before Jess can lecture North about referring to her babies as a 'condition,' Colin sweeps in and kisses her soundly, causing her to melt in his arms, ignoring North completely as he escapes to me.
"She scares me these days," he tells me as he takes my hand, running his finger over my ring before kissing my palm, something they've all done many times today.
The thought of big, bad, North Taylor fearing tiny pregnant Jess has me giggling again. "She's pregnant with twins, I think she's allowed to be scary," I tell him and he just nods before tucking me back into his chest where we settle in to watch the party.
"Love you, Sang Baby," he whispers at my ear.
"Love you too, North Star." More than I ever thought was possible.
We stand like that for a while, watching Rocky and Jay lose to Uncle and Phil at beer pong, and the rest of the family chats and watches movies and fills themselves with the copious amount of food that we had delivered.
Then the TV blares with a breaking news segment that has my blood running cold.
"Attention, everyone in the Charleston area needs to be made aware of the dangerous criminal killing in our midst."
A picture flashes on the screen of a woman, a face that haunts my nightmares, and I hear several gasps and loud swearing from around me, but my attention is stuck to the screen.
"This month alone, four young woman were found dead, each with words carved into their skin and signs of suffocation as the cause of death. Authorities suspect Lauren Sorenson, a 55 year old dementia patient who recently escaped the mental facility she was living in earlier last month. Please call if you have any information regarding Mrs. Sorenson or her whereabouts.
She is considered armed and dangerous, so stay at home, don't go anywhere alone, and stay vigilant until this criminal can be brought to justice."
The TV goes back to the regularly scheduled programming as we all sit in utter silence, so quiet I can hear my heart trying to beat out of my chest.
"Holy shit," Gabriel breathes out, and I can't help but agree with him.
Then my phones rings and I see Mr. Buble's number flash, meaning it's ACademy business.
"Cellophane," the Academy director says as soon as I answer.
"Elephant," I reply in standard Academy code.
"I have an assignment for your team. I'm sure you've heard by now about the serial killer in our midst?"
"Only just," I tell him. "You know my connection, are you sure I should be on this job?"
"It's because of your connection that I believe you are the only one for the job. What say you?"
I glance around at my guys, meeting each of their eyes, knowing they'll have picked up what's happening from my side of the conversation, and find nothing but determination.
Pulling the phone back to my ear, I answer.
"We are willing and we will obey."
^^Sang's ring if any of you were wondering.