The next morning Tom banging on the door wakes us. We're in the same position and I groan because it seems like I just closed my eyes. With barely time to use the bathroom it's back to the cramped car sitting in the same seats hearing Tom talk about past missions and how ironic it was to find me stumbling through the woods at the last leg of a long trucking month.

Maybe because we all know it's the last leg of the journey, or maybe it's just because there's a few hundred miles between us and Mr. Cayle, but the mood is light and everyone in the car seems lighthearted and rested despite the minimal amount of sleep time we actually got.

By lunchtime everyone is quiet as Tom slows down and pulls up to a hidden gated community. I roll down the windows to talk to the attendant and pull out the bag Val gave me handing them my registration papers and my dads ID.

When he waves us through Tom drives slowly forward allowing the guard to look into our car and the one behind us that Toni is driving.  It's a warm feeling community lined on both sides by lush trees. Kids on bikes whiz past us as we gawk at the small but immaculately detailed houses set back from the road.

I don't need to see the address to know which house is mine. It's an exact replica of the house in the painting on my dad's study wall. A rich sky blue with white shutters and a tiny garage sitting above the green sloped hill. It's the house of Mr. Finder. The character in the stories he used to tell me about on long nights beside the firefly lantern. Mr. Finder was a man who goes on easy errands for his wife and daughter but bumbled through them and always ended up mixing things up in the best possible way. Often he'd lose things or pick up the wrong items, but in the end when he got home, everything worked out better than expected.

My fingers tremble as I take the key and place it in the door.  Walking across the threshold makes my knees wobble and my throat tightens until I get inside and look around. It's home. A quarter of the size of my home, but set up in a way that feels just like part of the house I grew up in is here. The furnishings are almost identical, no doubt dad wanted to lessen the shock mom felt when he sprung the move on her.

At the end of the hall is a nursery and I make a new line to it. Light green walls make it calm and airy and a mural on the wall across from the crib is a delicately painted scene of a little girl with a net capturing lightening bugs. The little girl is me. It's a perfect picture of the dream I always carried as a girl. Me, healthy and running catching bugs that held a special kind of magic.

I place my left hand on my chest and think of how much my dad loved me, and how far he was willing to go to give me life, and happiness. So much that he was willing to let me die when I asked him, but still keep the memories of me forever. Maybe he broke the law, and did some things I'd never think he was capable- but so have I now. Maybe love just makes you do things you never expect.

Kyle slips the hand of his stiff arm into mine and uses the other to wipe the now flowing tears from my cheeks.

"It's a beautiful nursery. Your dad was an amazing guy. I'm sorry I doubted him, and that I ever believed my own."

I can't form words to tell Kyle anything.  I'm a mess of emotions and exhaustion and relief that everything is really going to end up okay. Because that's how my dad made it. My heart skips a beat and no matter what anyone says I know it's him, an inner hug that science may say is impossible - but that never did stop my dad. Maddie is living proof that he could do anything.

The crew thoughtfully wanders outside to spend some time down by the back pond while I inventory my new home and pull my emotions under control. Kyle and I make a shopping list and Toni and Joel quickly volunteer to take it to the local mart just a mile away. On their way back they stop and pick up a pizza because no one has energy enough for cooking.

The pizza is warm and gooey and the conversation is lovely as the crew recalls some of their funniest moments together. When the memory stories slow to a trickle and the yawns begin to spread, we clean up the kitchen and bodies move to find a sleep space. Everyone grabs blankets from the pre-stocked linen closet and Kyle and I disappear into the master bedroom feeling no guilt about taking the most comfortable spot, or about closing the door.

Tomorrow morning Joel, Toni, Blaze and Nan will be leaving and Tom will be sticking around until June shows up with Maddie and Buster. He and June will go back home together and according to Tom, "take the scenic route".

I lay next to Kyle listening to the sounds of nature through the open window and feeling the light breeze from his exhales drifting across my skin. It's our first night at home, our first night as Kayla and Scott - our new identities whose paperwork Tom assures us will be arriving by the end of the week. Maddie's new name was the easiest to choose. She will now be Luci. For Luciola, a classification of the firefly.

Both Kyle and I agree, the name will fit her well, she was a spark in the darkness for my father when he thought he would lose me, and a light that guided me from the depths of grief and gave me a reason to reach out and climb above.

She may be an exact replica of my genes, but she's already changed the world in a million ways I couldn't and in a tiny amount of time, that girl has out shined us all. Whatever comes our way, I will be prepared, and cautious, but not afraid- I understand now that it wasn't the light at all, it was believing in the magic that made it.

With Kyle's arm around me and me using his chest for a pillow I smile. I may have taken a few crazy roads, but they led me home. Maybe Mr. Finder wasn't such a crazy character after all.

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That's all folks. A complete first draft and my first work over 53k words. Yay!!! I'll be fine tooth combing for errors and any plot holes and then I'm taking this down to query the finished project. Maybe it'll be on a shelf someday- maybe not- but I'm gonna give it it's best shot. Thanks for being on the ride with me. It meant everything.