(Joey’s POV)

After the initial “What are you doing here!?” stage of Angel finding me sitting on her house’s steps, she explained to me that maybe the change in Zac’s DNA was due to Grace. And because of Grace’s effect on Zac, it had caused some changes to Angel, herself.

“You’ve been sick?” I asked her, completely concerned. She nodded and I placed my hand on her knee. I heard Brian growl.

“Only when I felt someone’s anger,” she said.

“Weird, since you’re not sick right now…” Brian hissed, directing his anger from me. I rolled my eyes as Angel frowned.

“Maybe because the main source was Grace and she…forgave me this evening,” she shrugged. I shook my head.

“Weird.”

“I’ll say…” Brian muttered. “So why are you here?”

“Everything’s done,” I said, clapping and smiling a bit.

“What?”

“Devin. He’s cured,” I replied. Their eyes widened, asking—rather shouting—“how!?”. “Well, he just sort of started to feel better since Brian was there, apparently. He hasn’t shown any symptoms of the Drug…”

“And this is without the actual Cure?” Angel asked. I nodded, but Brian’s eyes narrowed.

“You think it had anything to do with Stacey?” Brian suddenly asked. I looked up at his interested green eyes.

“You honestly think a girl can cure him and be a trigger?” Angel asked incredulously. I looked to her, sort of offended. She scoffed at the idea of Stacey curing her brother. That’s when I stood up and walked out to the front steps.

She thought it was repulsive, maybe, to have a girl as our trigger, when she was my original trigger. Although, now that I think about it, Devin’s trigger may be nerves rather than adoration, but still originated from a girl…like me. Angel was my trigger—she knew it, too. But things had changed for me just like they did for Devin and Zac and even Brian.

Because, the more I thought I wanted (or belonged with) Angel, I thought about what I had done to just get rid of someone I really deserved to be with: Meghan. I missed her now because when I thought she’d beg for me to come back, she didn’t. I screwed it up. I thought that just because Angel was the sole reason for my powers, I owed it to, both, myself and her that we’d have to be together and I’d always love her, but I was wrong. I could just say the same about her and Zac. Because she was his “rock” in his control, maybe they deserved to be together. It could go either way and I didn’t want to test it.

I’d always love Angel. I missed Meghan. And now I needed closure.

“I’m sorry,” Angel’s faint voice apologized from behind. I heard the front door close.

“It’s fine,” I dismissed.

“It’s not,” she said, starting to sound sympathetic. “It’s possible for Stacey—or any girl—to be a trigger.”

“I know from experience,” I nodded. She looked up to me with saddened brown eyes that still made me melt inside…as if I was the wrong one here. No. This had to stop. “You know, having someone as a trigger is tough. Brian’s lucky.”

“How so?”

“Well, it’s like with you…” I took a step near her. “No matter how much I want to just leave you behind and only consider you as a friend or…as ‘Devin’s little sister’, I can’t because you’re my trigger...”

“Joey—”

I took another step near her and placed my hands on her waist.

“And I always come back to you, no matter what…like I owe you something,” I added in a whisper.

“Well you don’t,” she gulped. Yeah right.

“And it’s as if there’s a piece of you in me…” I added with a slight smile. I was hearing her heart race as I got closer and started to lean in. I leaned in further and pressed my lips slightly to hers. That’s when I realized that the kiss was different. She kissed me back, but I knew—felt—that it was different. There were no strings attached.

I was over her. And she was confirming that she was over me when we pulled away at the same time. By instinct, we both looked over and saw Zac standing there in a military suit and a metal box in his hands. Angel’s face lost all color as Zac’s remained as strong as ever.

Angel stepped away from me.

“I-It’s not what it—”

“I’m not judging you,” he stated. He looked down to the box he held. Angel looked as if she made the biggest mistake of her life…but that, actually looked like heart break on her. I felt her pain and so had Brian…and Meghan…oh, and Zac, himself. “You told me that if I wanted to apologize to you, it would have to be for everything I wronged you of…so I’m sorry, alright.”

He looked up at her and the light hit his eyes in a way to where I saw they were a regular chocolate brown. There were no extra colors or flakes. He held out the box to her, but she didn’t move. Thus, led to him setting the box on the cement by the stairs.

“What is that?” I asked, even though it didn’t involve me. It looked like a plain, brown, metal box that had a single latch and handle. Nothing special. His eyes flashed up to mine and then flashed to Angel for not even a second. There was still a silence. Suddenly, Brian opened the door.

“What’s going on?” Brian asked, concerned, looking between all of us.

“I told you, last, that I had to make things right,” he spoke to Brian. He nodded, actually, he looked down to the box. “That’s the right thing to do.”

“How does that prove anything?” I asked.

“It proves that no matter how much sh!t I messed up…” Zac preached. “I tried.”

What did that mean? “He tried”. Tried to what? Screw everything up? Break Angel’s heart? Change his DNA? WHAT!? I realized that I wouldn’t know because he looked to Angel once before starting to back up and leave. As soon as that happened, Angel lunged for the box and nearly tore it’s lid off in order to pull out a stack of enveloped letters.