"Can you please tell your daughter to stop fidgeting?" Mrs. O'Donnell, my tailor, asked me frustratedly.

"Lily, quit moving around," I said to my daughter.

Lily was standing on a stool in Mrs. O'Donnell's studio getting fitted for her flower girl dress. She wasn't happy about it, especially because she kept getting stuck with pins. But this was mostly her fault because she wouldn't stop moving.

"But this dress is itchy!" Lily cried.

"You're the one that picked it out! So stop complaining!" I exclaimed. She frowned, crossing her arms over her little chest stubbornly. I rolled my eyes at her and she stuck her tongue out at me. I smiled despite myself. Here was my daughter, in front of me, trying on a flower girl dress that she would be wearing to my wedding. It was so crazy how far we'd come. 

When Carter and I had come back to the adoption center the day after he had first met her, we sat Lily down in her room and told her who we really were. I was the one to tell her, but Carter was by my side, making sure I didn't lose faith in myself, just like he had promised. 

Lily had been confused at first. She wasn't angry and she didn't become angry, either. But she had been extremely confused; so much so that she told us she didn't want to see us for a while. We decided to give her her requested space and we both went back to Manhattan until she was ready to make a decision. 

When Carter and I had gone back, Carter moved his things to my apartment. He commuted the hour and a half from the city to Saranac Hospital for his rotations, but he came back everyday. It had been a very big change for me, having someone living with me. But I soon found comfort in coming home late to find Carter waiting up for me in bed or in making a late night dinner when both of us had late night shifts. Things were still far from all right between me and him, but we were making progress. 

It wasn't until two weeks after our big reveal that Rachel had called us and said that Lily was ready to talk. We both drove back down to Boston to hear what her decision was. But Lily didn't tell us what she wanted right away. Instead, as always, she had questions.

"Why did you put me here?" she had asked, directing the question towards me.

"Because I was young and stupid and irresponsible," I had replied.

"But why?" she asked.

"That is exactly why, kid. I didn't think I could take care of you, not when I was so young myself. And I wanted you to be able grow up somewhere where people would take care of you. So I brought you here," I had explained. 

"You thought this place was better than being with you?" she had asked. Her question had brought tears to my eyes and I nodded.

"Like I said, I was young and stupid and scared," I had told her. 

"What about you?" she asked, now looking at Carter.

"I didn't even know about you until a couple weeks ago," Carter had responded.

"Why not?" she had asked.

"Because I was stupid and angry with your mother and she was angry with me. If you'll believe it, we hadn't seen each other for six years before she went back to live with her Grammy," he had told her. 

"I'm six," she had said, doing the math in her head. He had nodded. "Why didn't you tell me before?" Lily asked, now looking back at me.

"I didn't know how to. And I was afraid of what you would say," I had replied. 

"But you still came here and you talked to me and you made me think that you were just my friend," she had said. I nodded.

"Because I couldn't let you go. But I also didn't think that I would be able to take care of you. That's why I kept you here," I answered. 

"Did you tell Rachel and Lana not to let anyone adopt me?" she had asked. 

"I didn't tell them anything. Before, I would have been happy if some other family came to take you to their home because that would mean that you would have a home. But the more time I spent with you, the more I knew that if someone came to take you, I wouldn't be able to bear it," I explained. 

"Why didn't you just tell me?" she asked. 

"Like I said, I was afraid," I answered. 

"And you aren't now?" she asked. I shook my head. "Didn't you think I would be scared here?" she had asked. I was freely crying now.

"I'm so sorry, Lily. I don't know if you'll ever forgive me for what I did, but maybe when you're older you'll understand why it was so difficult for me to keep you and have to let you go. I wish I could make you understand, but you're too young right now. I just need you to know how sorry I am and how much I care about you," I had said. 

"Why are you crying?" she had asked. Carter put his arm around me.

"I don't know," I had whispered. 

And then she came up to me and hugged me. She told me that she forgave me and that she loved me and that she didn't like seeing me cry, which only made me cry harder. 

After the water works were over, we asked Lily one last time if she wanted to come home with us.

"So, do you want us to be your parents, Lily?" Carter had asked her. 

"Yes! Yes, I want you to be my parents. For real this time," she had replied. And with that, it was official. We went through the process of signing documentation and going through background checks and all of the necessary steps that we needed to complete in order to take Lily home. And once that was all over, it was done. Lily was my daughter. Lily was mine and Carter's daughter. And we were her parents.

Now, almost a year later, Carter and I were making ourselves official. We had been living together with Lily in the apartment I owned in the city for a year now. For the past few months, I had been studying for my LSATs while Carter finished up his rotations in medical school. I had gotten my scores and was supremely happy to find that I got what I needed to get into Harvard Law. I had applied and just a few days before I had received a letter of acceptance from my dream school. Carter, in the mean time, had chosen a hospital in Boston for his residency and had gotten his first choice. After our wedding, we would move to Boston, which was close to Harvard Law and close to the hospital that Carter would be working at.

Life had been moving quickly and busily for both Carter and me. Between studying, applying, and working, we had our work cut out for us. However, we made sure we both spent a good amount of time with Lily. Because I was taking my LSATs, I asked for leave from the firm. I told Ryan that I was applying to Harvard Law and when I got in, he was even more excited than I was because it meant that I would come back to the firm to work for him, but as an associate instead of a paralegal. 

Since I didn't have to work anymore, I stayed home with Lily. I helped her with her homework after school and during the day when she was gone, I would study. In the evening, the three of us would watch a movie together or go out and do something fun. We were making up for lost time even though we had our whole lives ahead of us to make up for it. 

Carter and I did eventually go back to Saranac. We wanted to clear up any misconceptions and let everyone know where we stood and what had happened. It wasn't their business, technically, but at the same time, they had a right to know. After all, many of them were a big part of my life before I had left. And it just wouldn't have been fair to Grammy if I left her town out of my life forever. Everyone in town welcomed the three of us with open arms. Danny was especially excited because he finally got to meet Lily, whom he had known about from the very beginning. When I watched everyone accepting Lily as a part of their family, I knew that I wouldn't be able to leave this town behind. At least not forever. It was a part of me that I couldn't let go and it was a part of me that Lily needed to get to know, too. 

As we got into our lives and we became a part of each other's routines, Carter and I decided that we needed to get married. Although we had been living together for a year with Lily, we knew that we needed to make it official. So Carter proposed to me at the top of the Empire State Buidling and I said yes. And now, in just a couple weeks, we were getting married. 

The door to Mrs. O'Donnell's tailor shop chimed and we looked over to see who had walked in. Carter came in, bringing a cool spring breeze inside after him.

"Hey," he said, leaning over and kissing my cheek.

"Hey," I replied. 

"How's the dress fitting going?" he asked, smiling at Lily who was still frowning.

"As well as expected," I replied. 

"This is torture!" Lily cried. Carter laughed. 

"Hey, don't blame me. I suggested we go with a pajama party themed wedding, but your mom wouldn't have it," he said. I rolled my eyes at the two of them as they laughed. I moved in my chair so that Carter could sit. I sat down on his lap and he folded his arms around me, pulling me close.

"I can't believe this is actually happening," Carter said to me, kissing my neck. 

"Me either," I replied, smiling at the surrealness of it all. "But I'm glad that it is," I added. 

"Me, too," he agreed.

"Me, three!" Lily exclaimed from her little stool. We all laughed. Even Mrs. O'Donnell cracked a smile.

I had always said that I wanted to go back to that December to do everything all over again, to redo the decisions that I had made. But as it turned out, I didn't need to. Carter and Lily and I were finally getting the ending that we deserved a long time ago.

There was no need to go back to that December. Because what we had now was so much better. 

                                                     THE END

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A/N: There it is! The end! What'd you guys think? 

I couldn't write the actual wedding. If you know me, you know I HATE making my characters go all the way to marriage. With this, you know that they've ended up together. Make up your own fantasy wedding for them and a life thereafter. It's free to your imagination. 

So, what comes next? I think I'll probably continue writing No Such Thing As Love, which I put on hold a while ago. To my Trinity fans, I will continue to write that story. In fact, that will probably be my next update, whenever I get time again to write. I updated 3 times this week, which is awesome and probably won't happen again until like, winter break. 

As always, leave me a comment! And don't forget to vote!!!

XOXO