J.M.J.

Author's note: Thank you for continuing to read! Thank you especially to MargaretA66, Candylou, ErinJordan, and max2013 for your reviews! I got the epilogue done earlier than I expected, so here it is! Enjoy and God bless!

Epilogue

Seven Months Later

"Isn't he the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your whole life?" Callie touched one of her son's tiny hands and he stretched his fingers.

Frank was sitting next to her on the bed with one arm around her as they both gazed at the new life with which they had been entrusted. "He takes after his mother then."

"He's going to look just like you," Callie replied. "He already has your eyes and your nose and your hair."

Frank noted the few wisps of dark brown hair that decorated his son's head. "I'm not starting to lose my hair quite yet."

"Oh, you." Callie shook her head, grinning as she did. "Here. You hold him for a little while."

She handed the baby over to Frank, who accepted the bundle gladly, if gingerly. He hoped he could eventually hold his son without worrying about breaking him. Callie leaned against his shoulder and closed her eyes, still tired from her ordeal of a few hours earlier.

Frank glanced at the top of his wife's head as she leaned against him and then looked back down at his son. The baby wasn't quite asleep. He was tiredly blinking his eyes every now and again, but he seemed content. Frank gave a small sigh of contentment himself. Right now, everything was just the way it should be.

"Frank?" Callie murmured sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"When did you tell our parents to get here?"

"They'll be here soon, but if you want to sleep, I can ask them to wait a little longer," Frank replied.

"No. It's all right. I've been looking forward to seeing Mom and Dad as grandparents for a long time." Callie smiled and opened her eyes to look at her son. "I don't want to wait any longer than I have to."

"I can't really say that I can picture my parents as grandparents just yet." Frank grinned as he imagined them bending over backwards to make their grandson happy. "They'll probably spoil him rotten."

"He does have two sets of first time grandparents," Callie pointed out. "It's only natural they'll spoil him. Although I'm less worried about them than that brother of yours."

Frank chuckled. "I'm pretty sure he's got enough presents picked out for him for the next ten years' worth of birthdays and Christmases."

"Is he coming with your parents?"

"No, he's coming later. He said he didn't want to take the spotlight off the grandparents."

"What he meant is that he didn't want to have to share the baby with anyone," Callie observed.

"Probably. He is the only uncle, though. He's not going to have to share him with very many people, especially since there aren't any aunts, either."

"No aunt yet," Callie corrected him with a trace of teasing in her voice.

"I hope so," Frank said, and if there was any lack of clarity, Callie still understood what he meant.

Callie reached out to stroke a finger along her son's sparse hair and sighed happily. "Right now, I feel like everyone in the world should have a happy ending and that they really could, you know?"

Frank nodded. "I think it will all work out."

Conversation slowed as Callie closed her eyes again. As much as Frank would have liked her to continue leaning against his shoulder, he used one hand to help ease her down onto the bed, while continuing to cradle the baby in his other arm. Callie had fallen asleep almost instantly when she lay down, but the maneuver had caused Frank to twist more than he was used to doing. He felt a dull ache in the muscles in his side and slowly untwisted himself to try to relieve himself of the sensation.

It was a reminder of how very nearly he had come to never seeing this day. For an instant, the dark days of those last few months of last year threatened to blot out the brightness of the current moment. But no, there had been light in those days, too. In particular, the memory of Tony's voice coming to him in his darkest moment stood out. The rational part of him—no, the stubborn part of him—had spent the last seven months trying to convince the rest of him that it had been his imagination under extreme stress and shock, but deep down, he could never believe that. It had been real. More than that, Frank would never shake the impression that he wouldn't have survived without it.

"That's twice you saved my life," he murmured aloud.

"Hmm? What?" Callie asked, rousing herself a bit.

"It's nothing, Callie. I'm just grateful to be here."

Callie smiled and reached for his hand. "Not half as grateful as I am that you're here."

HBHBHBHBHB

Fenton brushed a smudge of dust from his shirt as he and Laura walked into the hospital. "Do you think I should have changed shirts?" he asked.

Laura chuckled. "You'd think you're meeting a celebrity."

"I'm meeting someone much more important than that," Fenton replied, matching her teasing tone. "My grandson."

"Our grandson," Laura corrected him. "I've been saying that all these last months, trying to convince myself it's real, but it still sounds so strange. I can't quite believe that Frank's old enough to be a dad."

"I know."

They hurried through the hospital to reach the maternity ward. It was one part of the hospital they had never been to before, considering that their sons had been born in New York City instead of Bayport. Fenton tried not to look around at the other parts of the hospital. There were so many hard memories in such places. There had been the time Joe had been shot and had so nearly died. More recently, there had been Frank's narrow escape and long recovery.

In spite of his efforts not to think of it, it occurred to Fenton how easily this day might never have been. He'd feared for so long that he might lose one of his sons to some criminal, but he had never realized until now that that would also mean he would have lost his grandchildren whom he would have never known. How much else would have been lost? How many lifetimes of memories?

"Fenton?"

His wife's voice pulled him out of his dismal thoughts and he looked at her.

"Are you all right?" she asked, squeezing his hand.

"I think so."

They reached Callie's room shortly after that. Callie's parents were already waiting outside. Laura began apologizing to them for making them wait while Fenton knocked on the door to signal that everyone was ready.

Frank opened the door. Fenton saw at once that all the sorrow he had grown so used to seeing in his son's face had been washed away and replace by a deeper joy than he had ever seen there before. Fenton knew the feeling well. He had experienced it twice himself.

"Come on in," Frank invited them. "There's someone here I can't wait for you to meet."

The grandparents trooped into the room. Callie was still in bed, although she was sitting up and holding her little son. Frank hurried to her side and pulled the blanket back a bit so that the older adults would have an unobstructed view of the baby's face.

"Mom, Dad," Callie said. "Fenton, Laura. Frank and I would like all of you to meet Anthony Jerry Hardy."

The minutes that followed were filled with exclamations of admiration for Tony, as Frank and Callie were already calling him, and for how good Callie looked. Everyone wanted to hold the baby, and so no one got to hold him for long.

Fenton let the others go ahead of him, and so he was last to hold Tony. As he looked down at him, he realized how startlingly much like Frank he looked already. And somehow, in those tiny features of that baby who could have easily been his own son made a baby once again and was named for the boy who, in many ways, had given his life for this child's father, he saw that some things—all the most important things—endure, even when they seem lost.

HBHBHBHBHB

"I think we need more balloons," Joe said, surveying the layer of blue and white balloons that was already blanketing the ceiling of Frank and Callie's apartment.

Iola laughed. "Are you trying to annoy your brother?"

"I don't have to try very hard," Joe joked. "But seriously, there's a bare spot there." He pointed toward the one place where some of the ceiling was still visible.

"Mm-hmm," Iola admitted, "but how many bare spots are there going to be tomorrow, when the balloons start losing helium? Frank and Callie aren't even going to be back until then. Let's get the banner up instead."

The two of them had plotted to decorate Frank and Callie's apartment as a surprise when the new parents arrived home the next day. To that end, they had borrowed a helium pump and had blown up dozens of balloons. Iola had also found a big banner reading It's a Boy! She had planned to hang that in the front window. Doing so proved a bit harder than expected, and it took her and Joe about fifteen minutes to get it into the right position and stay there.

"Whew!" she said, slapping her hands together as if she was wiping off the dust. "Who would have thought that would be such a job? Well, I suppose you'll be leaving pretty soon." Iola said it with a trace of wistfulness.

Joe checked the time on his phone. "I did tell Frank I'd be there half an hour from now. Why don't you come along?"

Iola smiled, but replied, "I don't know. It's kind of a family thing."

"You're practically family."

"Practically, maybe, but that's not quite the same thing." Iola felt her cheeks turn red and she looked down. "I didn't mean to imply…"

"It's all right," Joe assured her. "It brings up an important question. It's been seven months. What do you think?"

Iola took a step nearer to him. "I think I'm more in love with you every day. I'd like to spend forever with you."

Joe gathered her in his arms and kissed her. Even after the kiss was ended, he held her close. "It must be a mistake," he murmured.

"What is?"

"For me to wind up with the most wonderful woman in the world."

HBHBHBHBHB

Joe knocked softly on the door. He had asked Iola to come with him again, but she had insisted this was a moment he should experience with just his brother and sister-in-law. Frank opened the door just as softly, putting a finger to his lips as he did.

"Callie's still asleep," he whispered.

"Should I come back another time?" Joe whispered back.

"No, just talk softly."

Joe entered the room and Frank carefully closed the door behind him.

"How is Callie doing?"

"Good, but she's tired. Come on."

Frank led the way to a small crib set up directly beside Callie's bed. Baby Tony lay inside it, wiggling slightly, but he calmed down as soon as his father picked him up.

"Do you want to hold him?" Frank asked.

"Obviously," Joe replied, already putting his arms out.

Frank deposited his son into his brother's arms, and Joe looked down on the little face, unsure exactly how to describe what he was feeling now. It was overwhelming, something that was too good to be true, except that it was true. The future, which had once looked so bleak an empty, was suddenly full of light and life. He and Iola would build a life and a home and a family together; he would watch Tony and any other children Frank and Callie would have grow up; he and Frank would finally be working together again; there would be holidays and vacations and special memories of every kind. Everything was just exactly the way it should be.

He looked up and met Frank's eyes and they both smiled.

Author's note: Whew! I can hardly believe it. I've been working on this series for over two years now, and it's finished. It's a little hard to say what I'm feeling right now. I'm happy and relieved, for sure. I'm also grateful. I'm stubborn enough that I might have written it anyway without all the love and support I've gotten, but it would have been a far less enjoyable ride. So, to that end I would like to thank everyone who left reviews on this story: Candylou, max2013, MargaretA66, angelicalkiss, caseykam, ErinJordan, BMSH, Sofia, and EvilExecutor. I appreciate each and every one of you so very, very much. Two of you (you know who you are) also sent me some of the kindest PMs I've ever gotten in response to this story, and for that, too, I am very grateful. I also want to thank everyone who favorite or followed this story and everyone who read it and everyone who reads, reviews, favorites, or follows it in the future. It literally would not be worth writing without all of you readers, so again, thank you!

It's a little hard to say what's in store next. I don't think I will write any more in the White Roses universe. I originally had planned to, but the series took such a different turn (in some important ways) that I think it's best to let it stand the way it is. That, of course, does not mean that I'm not going to continue writing in this fandom. On the contrary, I've still got a plethora of ideas begging to be written. It's finding the time to write them that's the difficulty. I'm back in school now, working towards a Master's of Theology, and I'm still working basically full-time, so writing is very much an evening/weekend activity. I think I will be back with another Hardy Boys and/or Nancy Drew fic before too much time passes, but we will have to see how it all works out.

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you!

~Elizabeth Joan