Eventually, Vallie laid Juliet down in her bassinet and left a baby monitor with Ophelia. She instructed the girl to come get her if she heard anything, then trailed off outside after Amory.

When Amory spotted her, he breathed out a deep breath and looked away. He made no attempt to say anything to her, and when she didn't either, he turned back, confused. Vallie moved around to the back yard, and when she came back, she was carrying a ladder. Amory quickly moved to help her as she propped it up against the side of the house, then began stepping up it without a word.

Amory stared up at her, in some weird state of shock, then quickly moved to stabilize the ladder when it wobbled. Vallie looked back at him with a soft smile, and he felt some of his resolve begin to crack. Once she made it up to the slanted roof and took a seat, she beckoned him up after her, and he complied.

They sat side by side on the roof, knees pulled into their chests. In a few hours, fire works would be going off and people would be kissing to ring in the new year and they would be expected to feel some intrinsic sense of change. For now, though, it was just them.

"I never meant to hurt you, Amory." Vallie spoke after several moments, keeping her eyes trained forward, out at the sky.

"I just don't get why you never told me." Amory spoke softly, his eyes looking out as well. He couldn't glance over at her. "I would have done anything for you, pregnant or not. I would have kept you safe."

Vallie breathed in a deep sigh, which made him glance warily over, and then she met his eyes. She held his gaze, strongly, before giving a small nod. She was going to reveal a bit more about herself, he knew.

"The first time Tyler hit me was after one of your games." Vallie told him, softly. "We watched the Lions play against the Eagles with a few of his coworkers, and he mentioned to them that I knew you. He was drunk, started calling you all these awful names, saying you were a show-off and an ass. I had a few glasses of wine in me, too, and I just couldn't take it. So, I told all of his coworkers that you were the best man I had ever met, embarrassing him, I suppose. He didn't talk for the rest of the night, but when we got home, it... It was bad. I had to miss work the next day. Then he brought me flowers, and told me it would never happen again as he sobbed, and of course it did."

"Vallie..." Amory breathed out, no more than a whisper. She was back to looking out at the horizon, unable to meet his eye, so he just studied the sharp line of her jaw and nose instead.

"I know from the outside it doesn't make any sense, but when you're actually in it, it feels impossible to leave. He isolated me from you guys, convincing me in various ways that you all were bad for me, or secretly hated me. He threw a fit if I ever tried to go out with coworkers. We had joint bank accounts, and he guarded my spending and took control so effectively that even if I wanted to go, I'd have nothing without his approval." Vallie sighed, looking down at her lap. Amory thought he could see tears in her eyes, but she never let them fall. "I had no friends or anyone to go to, just him. I felt like I couldn't ask anything of you, or the others, not after two years of not talking. My mom knew, and she tried to get me away, but I was in too deep."

Vallie glanced over at him, and her eyes were shiny. There was no fight left in him after that moment; no, all he felt was sadness. He threw an arm around her, pulling her into his side. Some crazy part of him thought that knowing what he knew then, he would do it all over again. Even if Vallie was alive and well, he wouldn't change a thing. In fact, if he could, he might do more damage.

"I never wanted to hurt you guys." Vallie cried against his shoulder. "I had to run, Amory, I had to. I knew it would hurt, thinking I was dead, but I never wanted it to get to the extent it got to. I'm so sorry."

Amory shushed her, soothing her by rubbing his hand up and down her arm. He placed a gentle kiss to the top of her bleached head, squeezing his eyes shut as he breathed in her sadness. He didn't forgive her, not exactly, but god, was he happy she was alive.

"You said earlier that if you ran to me, especially me, Tyler would freak out. What did you mean by that?" Amory whispered against her scalp. She pulled back abruptly, eyeing him with wide, wet eyes.

"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to, Amory."

Her voice was so soft, he almost couldn't hear her. The words slipped past her lips like secrets that were never meant to be revealed. Still, she was eyeing him, wide-eyed and vulnerable. He thought back to the night she tried to kiss him, and all the pieces fell into place; she loved him. She loved him in a way he never loved her, or at least in a way he had never realized he loved her. He gulped and nodded, not breaking eye contact with her.

"Still?"

"Always." Vallie nodded.

"Why were you with him, then?" Amory pondered aloud, desperately.

"Well, unrequited love is hardly a fairytale, is it?" Vallie laughed lightly, her smile bright enough to light up the night sky. "In the beginning, he was good. Or at least, I thought he was. He was just charming enough to reel me in, and smart enough to trap me without me even realizing. I couldn't pine after you forever, could I?"

Amory didn't reply, finally breaking away from her gaze. He stared outward. Amory had never known love, not in the romantic sense. Every girl he bed, he thought he loved her. Then the next day rolled around, and the rosy haze rolled away, and he thought of all the ways they would never work, and all the people he may love more if he just waited, and the endeavor ended. He wanted the fairytale, but he had never actively pursued it; he had waited for it to find him. Was it possible it had been in front of him all along?

Amory thought of Nadia then. Nadia was his ideal, his standard. She was fiery and strong and competitive, and so damn beautiful. Did he love her? No, but perhaps he could, if they didn't always have a wall up between them.

Did he love Vallie? No, but perhaps he could, if he had ever thought to examine his strong emotions for her in a different light.

"I hope you know, now, Juliet is going to be the most spoiled little baby in the world." Amory placed a small kiss on her hair. It was the closest he could come to forgiveness, the audible sign of acceptance of her story.

"The second she fits into toddler clothes, she'll be in one of your jerseys all the time." Vallie knocked her shoulder into him, a small smile on her lips.

They weren't okay; far from it, actually. But, they were together, and perhaps that was enough.

✩✰✩

Inside, Caspar began to grow restless. He moved around her living room, glancing at the artwork on the walls and the books on the shelves. There was only a slew of romance novels, just as he would expect from the old Vallie. Caspar moved on to the kitchen, where he spotted her wallet on the counter. He cautiously looked around before picking it up and peaking inside.

There was an Arizona driver's license, which he immediately pulled out. Frances Belle. That was the alias she had chosen to go by, which had almost made him laugh. Frances was the name of the main character in Dirty Dancing, and Belle was Vallie's middle name. Even if he didn't recognize her, not fully, he could still see the old traces of her shining through.

Vallie entered the kitchen, quietly, after a moment. Caspar tucked her ID back into the wallet and turned to face her, expression blank and impassive. He didn't know what to say her, and he didn't forgive her.

"Hi." Vallie greeted quietly. Caspar simply nodded in response. "Of everyone, Cas, you were the one that I was most scared to find out."

"Why?" He had internally decided he would not give in to her, but now found he couldn't help it.

"Because, I've never wanted to let you down." She smiled sadly at him, then looked at her hands. "I've never wanted to let anyone down, but not you, especially. My mom told me that you were in the hospital after the fire, and I felt genuinely sick. I hate what I've put you through, because I know better than most that you've been through enough."

Caspar was struck silent, which was not odd for him. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and glanced around for a moment before finally settling his gaze on her. She looked sheepish, and nervous, and he thought, she should.

"What about the corkscrew?" He questioned quietly, his mind plaguing him with the thought of the object he had found.

"Oh." Vallie responded softly, before raising her right hand. Across her palm was a long pink scar, spanning all the way across. "Hurt like a bitch, honestly, but it had to be done. I'm sorry you found that."

Caspar nodded slightly, before taking a tentative step towards her and grasping her hand in his own. He examined the scar for a moment, before his eyes drifted up to meet hers. He wanted to hate her, or at the very least, not be so fond of her. But god, he still was. She was Vallie, his Vallie. And he didn't get it, not at all, but perhaps he wasn't supposed to.

Caspar pulled her into a tight hug, and she breathed out a trembling breath against his shoulder. They both shook a bit, holding onto to each other so tightly that it nearly hurt. Neither of them minded though. This was a homecoming they never thought would happen. A homecoming that maybe shouldn't happen. But it was there, and they had it, and they would not complain.

"I don't forgive you, you know." Caspar said quietly against her hair.

"That's okay." Vallie whispered back. "You don't have to, not ever."

✩✰✩

Nadia wondered off not long after Vallie followed Amory outside. She was frustrated, and angry, and she didn't like the way that everyone else seemed to be just forgiving her. So, she wound up in a room that she assumed was Vallie's bedroom, and she screamed into her pillow.

After a few moments, Marc knocked gently before allowing himself in. Nadia sat up on Vallie's bed, her face set in an angry scowl as she did not know who to expect. When Marc wandered in, her expression softened sufficiently, and she patted a spot next to her on the bed. Marc happily obliged.

"You don't have to forgive her, you know." Marc whispered to her.

"I know." Nadia nodded, focusing on the pillow in her lap. "But I also know that you are all going to, so eventually I will, too."

"Maybe we won't." Marc shrugged, sounding unconvincing even to his own ears.

"You will." Nadia looked at him fiercely, no hint of doubt in her voice. "It's Vallie, of course you will. And half of me wants to, while the other half wants to leave this place and never see her again."

Marc simply hummed in response. Nadia leaned her head against his shoulder, and he let her, resting his chin against her head. They sat in silence for several moments, before another knock startled both of them and they looked up. Vallie entered tentatively.

"They said I'd find you guys in here." Vallie spoke quietly. "If you don't want to see me right now, I get it. But, if you do, then I'm here. And I'll answer any questions you have."

Marc and Nadia both stared at her, wide eyed and frozen. Neither knew exactly what to say. Marc moved first, glancing at Nadia, his eyebrows raised in a question. Nadia searched his gaze for a moment before nodding.

"Why us?" Nadia asked, sitting up just a bit straighter. "Why did you have to involve us at all?"

"Well," Vallie sighed, a small laugh escaping her. "I didn't exactly make a lot of friends after college, thanks to Tyler's ivory tower he kept me in. My mom has known of my plan since the start, but she was afraid that if her and my father and brother were the ones at the house, she wouldn't be able to act well enough to convince them that she didn't know anything. I'm surprised she's fooled my father this long, honestly. I don't have any other friends, and while I hated myself for doing it, I thought that you guys would come, and reconnect, and then call the police. Some hopeful part of me thought it might even bring everyone back together, too."

"Why not just run, let your work report you missing when you didn't show up?" Nadia raised her eyebrows.

"I needed time." Vallie answered quickly, as if that was an option she had already considered. "I needed time where Tyler thought I was in one place, with you guys, so I could flee. I couldn't set up the evidence around our house without him noticing; he only worked part-time and was always there. I needed it to be at the cabin, to spin a story that it had happened before you guys came, and he hadn't cleaned up everything properly. I wouldn't have been able to just miss a shift and go, it all would have been too quick. I needed there to be days, multiple people seeing my absence, and for Tyler to have no idea. I needed him to have no alibi, and I hoped that his generally pompous personality would make him unbelievable to the police. If I just took off without a plan, he wouldn't have stopped until he found me, and I would have lived every day in fear. I needed him behinds bars, and selfishly, I wanted him to suffer a bit, too."

"This was all so cruel, Vallie." Marc whispered out, because he did not know what else to say.

"I know." Vallie nodded from her place at the door. "I had been stupid to think that it would be simple, that you guys would be able to just report me as missing and that would be it. I was desperate, though." She squeezed her eyes shut. "That's not an excuse, either. Just the truth."

There were several moments of tense silence. Marc knew his resolve was already crumbling, because in someways Vallie had been right. She had brought them all back together, like she was always so good at. Plus, had the events of the last 6 months not happened, he probably would still just be working under his grandfather, miserable. Vallie's plan had brought Ophelia and the others back to him, and they had showed him how strong he was. He was traumatized, and hurt, and knew he could never trust her again, but he didn't think he was angry.

Nadia did not feel the same way. She stood then, smoothing her hands over her pants, then sent Vallie an icy glare.

"Once the others are ready, I'm going to leave, and I'm never going to speak to you again." Nadia spoke firmly. "I don't hate you Vallie, and I can't say what I would have done in your shoes, because I was not in them. But I know I would not have hurt this many people to save myself. So, I'm going to go, and I'm going to live the life I have worked so hard for, and I'm going to stop giving you even a passing thought."

Nadia brushed passed Vallie out the door, not bothering to give her a spare glance. After this trip, she would make a formal request to be transferred to another branch; any branch. She would go back to Europe, if she could, and she would put all of this behind her. If life was a competition, and to Nadia it was, then she was going to fucking win.

Vallie looked down at her feet for awhile, before finally working up the courage to look at Marc. He felt wounded just at the sight of her.

"You know, I thought you saw me, that night in the woods."

Marc was taken off guard for a moment, before her words sank in and he realized what she was referencing. His eyes widened, thinking back to the fear he had felt, the flip of hair in the dark. What would have happened if he had abandoned Ophelia's plan and chased after her? Where would they be now?

"I think I did." Marc replied quietly. "But I've always been good at missing out on the things I wanted."

"So, you wanted me to be alive." Vallie looked so unsure, her sentence coming out as more of a question.

"Of course I did, Val." Marc breathed out, coming to take his place in front of her. "Even now, there's nothing I'd want more in the world. Even if, legally speaking, it's a lot safer for you to be gone. I was committed to incriminating myself for Amory that night, and I'd do it for you, too. You bring people together, Vallie, even if this time it was through the most insane plan I've ever heard. You did this, you made the group of us an 'us' at all."

Vallie's eyes began to water, and she moved towards him like she was going to hug him, before she stopped. Marc closed the distance, wrapping her in his arms and breathing in the fact that she was so very real.

"You look so good, Marc." She cried into his shoulder. "It makes me so happy to say that and mean it. You deserve good things. Please, even after you all leave, keep it up. Lean on the others if that makes it easier, just, god, please just be happy."

So, Marc began to cry as well. And he squeezed her to him. And he thought of Ophelia, and Amory, and all of the others who made him strong. He thought of all the crimes he'd committed, and how fragile his life was, and if he were going to go down in a fire or behind bars, he'd like a little bit of time being happy first.

He'd do it. He was going to do it. Because they made him strong.

✩✰✩

Lou had trailed outside to check on Amory not long after Vallie had left. When she came out, Vallie had left them alone, both sitting on the roof of her duplex. It was dark, and cold, and eventually Amory was calm enough to go back inside, but Lou wanted to be alone. So she stayed. With her knees pulled up to her chest, her chin resting against them, she stared up at the stars.

The sound of the front door opening below alerted her slightly, but she made no motion to move.

"Lou?" Vallie called up, and Lou tipped her head down to look at her. "It's getting cold, and I was hoping to talk to you. Do you mind coming down?

"I'm going to need more time, Vallie." Lou responded, her voice less of a yell.

There was a moment of silence, then a deep sigh, then the sound of the ladder moving under Vallie's weight. After a few moments, Vallie was face to face with her, holding onto the ladder with one hand and a large blanket with the other. Vallie tossed the blanket towards Lou, then scrambled up next to her, leaving some distance between them.

"If I give you space, you'll build a wall." Vallie spoke, settling the blanket over their laps. "Everyone else, I understand needing time, but I know the more time that passes with you, the more you'll just drown in your thoughts, and we'll never talk about it."

"What's there  to talk about?" Lou mused with a small, bitter laugh. "You're alive, and I'm a disaster. You know, I took next semester off because of the stress, Vallie. Do you get how big of a deal that is for me?"

Vallie was looking at Lou then, so Lou forced herself to look back. While she expected Vallie to look guilty (that's what she was going for, in fact), she found that Vallie looked awed. Her eyes were wide, and there was a small smile on her face. Vallie reached a hand towards her, then seemed to think better of it, and let it fall between them.

"You're putting yourself first, Lou." Vallie whispered, sounding so very fond and proud. "Obviously, I don't love the circumstances, but you're doing it. You're really doing it."

"Don't do that." Lou shook her head, feeling angry and oh so bitter. "Don't do that, Vallie. This isn't a good thing. It's a train wreck, okay? Everything is a train wreck. You just... You just steam rolled through all of our lives, and now what, we're just meant to move on? Forgive you?"

"I don't expect any of you to forgive me." Vallie shook her head, looking a bit more timid. "I never would have sought any of you out, I wouldn't have ever wanted you all to know that I was alive. But now that you do, I'm just here to explain. Hopefully, it will all make you feel better about what happened, but not feel better about me. That's not my goal."

Lou eyed her for a moment, trying to determine if she were being truthful.

"You've changed." Lou settled on, because she had. Vallie wasn't running from any of them being upset with her, she wasn't saying what they wanted to hear just to get them to forgive her. She was there, and she was taking all of it.

"So have you." Vallie nodded at her.

Lou wondered if that was true, then supposed it must be. She wondered if the new her and the new Vallie would be friends, if they met under different circumstances. She didn't think so, but that didn't matter much. The old Lou and the old Vallie still lived within them, caged within the deepest confines of their hearts, and they were screaming out to one another, battling arteries and sharp rib cages to grasp for the other.

There, under the Arizona moon, they were just two girls who had lived a lifetime together and a lifetime apart. Two girls who had once been fond, and bright, and silly, and who had loved each other dearly even if they weren't the type to say it aloud. Lou grasped for Vallie's hand without looking at her, and wondered if the disaster she'd been put through actually had a purpose. Her armor had been pierced, and perhaps now she could let the light in.

✩✰✩

Lou and Vallie wandered back inside about an hour before midnight. Ophelia was sitting with Marc on the couch, her head rested against his shoulder and her eyes droopy. In one of her hands, the baby monitor was still clutched, and she kept herself awake just to listen for any new sounds. None ever came.

Vallie came to stand in front of the two of them, offering out a timid hand to Ophelia. Ophelia sat up, eyeing her hand for just a moment before readily accepting it. Vallie pulled her to stand, then tugged her up the stairs towards her baby's room.

They were silent as they moved into the room, and Ophelia took it all in. It was decorated just as Ophelia would expect from Vallie; castles and princesses and dragons and knights. Ophelia moved to look over Juliet's crib, eyeing the sleeping baby with apt wonder. She was beautiful, just as she expected anything that came from Vallie to be.

They stayed in there for awhile, careful not to talk and wake Juliet. Eventually, Vallie nodded towards the door and Ophelia agreed, both moving out. Vallie took a seat right there in the hallway, her back against the closed door, and Ophelia took a seat across from her.

"One of the hardest parts about all of this has been accepting that you would never know about her." Vallie sighed after a moment. "In a perfect world, you would have thrown me the cutest baby shower, and I would have asked you to be her godmother, and we wouldn't have to worry about any of this."

Ophelia's eyes began to water, and she no longer held herself back. She practically threw herself across the small space, wrapping her arms around Vallie's neck and sobbing without reserve. Vallie was shaking against her, so she knew that she was crying, too. After a few moments, Vallie quietly shushed her, sending a soothing hand up and down her back.

"We can still have that." Ophelia pulled back, blinking away a few tears. "I can plan a party, and I can pretend to be shocked when you ask me. We can still do it."

"Lia..." Vallie looked at her so fondly, and so, so sadly. She raised a hand to wipe away a few stray tears from Ophelia's cheeks, then gave her a small smile. "I love you, and because I love you, I feel the need to point out that you should hate me right now."

"I'm not sure that I can." Ophelia shook her head. "I never gave up on you, I'm the one who pushed for all of us to find you. It would be stupid of me to be angry now, when seeing you, here and alive, is the best possible outcome I could think of."

"How did you find me, anyways?" Vallie furrowed her brows, and Ophelia turned sheepish.

"Story for another time." Ophelia waved off, a small smile now on her face. "We have plenty to catch up on. I don't need any convincing, not like the others. I just want to know everything I've missed."

So, that's what they did. There, in the dimly lit hallway, with their knees touching and their voices no louder than a whisper, they talked about anything and everything. Midnight came and went, the rest of the world celebrating the start of something new, but Ophelia had found her something new hours before. The hands of a clock did not change anything, but the warm, breathing body in front of her made all the difference.

---

when this is published, it will probably be about two weeks out from when this was finished. I just need to say, I am so soft for Ophelia and Vallie. Besties who commit murder and atrocious crimes and are like oh well!!

Literally my longest chapter so far, 2x some of the earlier chapters. I don't think the ones after this will be nearly as long, but we're drawing to a close people! This story will actually be 26 chapters + an epilogue, so like. Penultimate next chapter, yanno. I know I've updated quite frequently recently, but the next one may not be out for a few times (have some family stuff going on). so, enjoy this quick turn around while I have the time to edit and such!

I hope I did a good job portraying your individual characters reaction to everything. this situation is such a complex one, and there's such a range of emotions that are valid to feel. I really tried to work out how I thought each individual character would respond to everything :)

If you were one of the members of the group, how do you think you would respond to Vallie?