Ok this is it. The Epilogue. I hope that after everything is said and done, you are able to believe the HEA as presented. It has been an emotional journey and I am really thankful for the encouragement, kind words and new friends I have made along the way. If you were unable to accept this outcome, please know that I am truly sorry, I really didn't mean to cross the line...stomp on it sure, but not cross it. Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

~Chapter 30

Epilogue - 10 years later.

I look around the house and see the trail of toys. Ricardo the third, or RC, as we call him and his brother Mateo have taken their game outdoors. I know that Lex has followed them so I don't worry. Lex is now twelve years old and I'm dreading the day he passes. He's such an important part of our family. He's slowed down quite a bit but his mind is still sharp and so far his health has been excellent. His bond with me is as strong as ever. I thought that once Carlos came back into my life fully, he would switch allegiances. I was wrong. Lex is my dog and Carlos is relegated to SIC. That makes me smile.

I check my watch and note the time. I have a little over two hours to get everyone ready for the wedding. I can't believe Julie's getting married. I shake my head incredulously. It seems like yesterday that she was just a little girl. So much has happened since then. Rachel and Ron broke up and when it was all said and done, Julie chose to live with us here in Princeton. That was over eight years ago. She was 16 and going through her teenage rebellion years. The divorce tamed her down a bit but she still had some difficult times. Carlos and Julie were at each other's throats and I often stepped in to diffuse the situation. It was rough but worth it. We're all really close now.

In just two hours, Ava and I will arrive at the church to get ready with the wedding party. I will have RC and Mateo ready enough to step into their suits but even that plan is tenuous at best. I have backup clothes for the boys, a med kit, hair gel and a packet of wipes. That's the best I can do. Those two are so close in age, they're practically twins. They also have a love-hate relationship. They're so competitive with each other that anything could happen and often does. I guess combining The Bombshell Bounty Hunter and Batman DNA, was tempting fate and this is the result. I'm just glad they're in school and in separate classrooms. RC is voted most likely to see the inside of a principal's office and Mateo is definitely up for class clown. Put them together and it's pandemonium.

"Ava, you have to jump in the shower now if you want your hair to dry in time." I yell up the stairs. Ava is 10 and the easiest child I've ever encountered. She looks the most like me with her wild curls but she's quiet and smart. She skipped a grade in school and I have to take away her books at night or she'll never sleep. That's one thing I have enjoyed the most about parenting. I love sharing my kids' interests. I was never a reader but I really enjoy reading things with her. We read the entire Harry Potter series together and watched the movies after we finished each book. She gets annoyed by her younger brothers but absolutely idolizes Julie. Ava will take it really hard when she moves away to live with Ethan. Ahh, Julie and Ethan. They are so cute together. I couldn't have chosen a better man for her. They are so much in love and I know they'll be happy together. They've been dating for two years so Ava has had time to adjust to Julie being pulled away from her. It will be rough but not as bad as it could have been.

My phone rings and I hear the Batman theme song. I smile as I look around to find it on the kitchen counter. "Yo." I say knowing that my greeting will make him smile.

"Babe."

"How was breakfast?" I ask and he sighs. Yes, he sighs now. Kids will do that to you.

"Good. I'm on my way home. Do you need anything?" he asks me and I reply with my standard, "yes, a vacation with you."

"Other than that." he responds with a smile. We've had some pretty amazing vacations together.

"No, just come home. Everything is going smoothly but the boys are awake so that could change in a heartbeat." I answer and he says 'okay' right before he hangs up. His phone manners are still a work in progress. I'll give him a pass since he just had breakfast with his little girl and later today has to walk his firstborn down the aisle. I don't think he's prepared for that. Big Badass Ranger has to walk his daughter down the aisle and give her away and I'm not sure if he's going to be able to handle it. I'm hoping for the best.

Ava and I leave roughly two hours later. Our hair and makeup will be done at the church. We're going first since our curls take the longest. That leaves Carlos to get the boys ready, alone. I smile. He has a lot of experience dealing with my messes and he often uses his military training on the boys but at seven and six, they have him figured out. All they have to do is quiver their little lips and ask for Mommy and Carlos is done. It would be funnier if I didn't have to deal with the aftermath. Overall though, Carlos is an amazing husband and father. He needs to toughen up and not let the boys manipulate him. If Ava would do the same, she would get the same result but she's a people pleaser and doesn't take advantage. I can't believe how different all my kids are. It's been an exciting ride so far. I thought bounty hunting was dangerous and full of excitement. So is each day in the Manoso house.

"Hey, kiddo, are you okay?" I ask, noticing that Ava is even more quiet than normal.

"I'm fine." She responds and I search her face.

"You know that Julie will still be there for you? She's getting married but she loves you and still wants to be close to you, right?" She sighs and I know that I've uncovered the problem.

"I know. Ethan is really nice and Julie really loves him..." she begins.

"...but" I say, trying to encourage her to tell me her feelings.

"But, she's moving far away and I'll never see her." Ava says and I see tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"She's as close as a phone call or video chat away. You can text her and send her pictures. You can read books with her and when she comes back to town, you can have a girls day and watch movies or go get pedicures. We're going to visit her too. How would you like to go visit her and not have to take your little brothers?" I say and see a spark.

"That would be great." she admits.

"Plus, you're a busy young woman, and as you get older, you are going to get busier and busier." I add. She lets out a shaky breath. She stays silent on the rest of the way to the church. No doubt analyzing everything I've said. This is a hard concept but Ava is not your average ten year old. She's an 'old soul'. Even though she's young, she gets it.

Val's kids pop into my head as they often do when I think about Ava and her personality. She is similar to Angie. Val ended up with 6 kids, three girls and three boys. The younger two are younger than Ava but older than my boys.

My relationship with my family didn't really rebound. I had to come to terms with the fact that I couldn't make them into the parents I wanted them to be. When I came back to tell them about Ava, they were less than receptive to me and couldn't really get past the fact that I tricked everyone. they were unwilling acknowledge let alone ask for forgiveness for their mistakes.

I was able to forgive them and I don't have any ill feelings toward them but I don't see them much. We don't do holidays or chat on the phone. I send them Christmas cards with yearly updates on what my kids are doing. I'd like to believe that they were sad about how they treated me but I came to terms with the fact they are way too proud and concerned how they would look if they admitted they were wrong. What would everyone think? I think Val and I would have made it okay but in the end, she wanted to stay loyal to mom so I walked away. Mary Lou ended up the same way. The Burg is a funny place.

Grandma Mazur's funeral was just a year ago and that was interesting. Grandma had moved to Cape May to be with Dr. King about a year after they met. Grandma had been the quintessential housewife to over-the-top sex-starved widow to mature grandmother and caretaker of a fun retired pediatrician who shocked everyone by responding to his medications allowing them to have a good many years before a heart attack claimed him leaving Grandma alone again. She lived with me for a bit but it wasn't long before cancer took her. She had no symptoms and by the time they found it, it had spread. She lived a full life. The end was surprisingly quick, but I preferred it rather than a long drawn out illness where you have to watch your loved one suffer. I paid for her to be laid to rest at Stiva's, slumber room one, of course, but I only went to the private ceremony at the graveside after everyone left. I didn't go to my parents house afterward either. I didn't want to stir up gossip. I avoid the Burg and it's better that way.

I focus my attention back to the present day. I'm going to cry today and I would prefer it to be a little later on in the proceedings. I shake my head as I refocus back on enjoying this time with Ava and Julie.

The morning goes very well. We laugh, we cry and I find myself peeking out the side door at the waiting guests. Many people are still arriving but I spot Hector and his husband Marcus. I'm still thankful that he was able to get out of gang life, twice. He's an amazing person and I'm lucky to have him in my life. He has been very involved in the children's lives and is one of a few people that can keep the boys in line.

I smile as I see Snipe aka Campbell James. He was that young kid who I picked up all those years ago. He started out like Carlos and with the help of Rangeman, turned his life around. In one day, he inherited 60 big brothers who weren't going to let him return to his stupid ways. It makes me happy to see him with his pregnant wife. He went into the Army not long after he became a Rangebrother and ended up staying in for 8 years earning a pretty high sniper ranking. He's been out for a little more than a year and in that time, he got married, started a family and is preparing to take over the sniper training for all eight Rangeman locations. Busy guy! His mom is very happy to finally have a grandchild on the way. His success makes me very happy.

I see more Rangemen and their wives. It was hard at first going back to Rangeman Trenton but over time, I was able to get back the same carefree relationship with the guys. In the beginning, we went to Miami trying for a fresh start. We were down there for two full years. It was perfect, we got married on the beach and life was good until everything went south with the Martines. Plus, I missed my grandma and Ella. We ended up back in Trenton even though I swore I would never go back. It took me some time and a lot of hard work in therapy to deal with my own abandonment issues and the other emotional traumas that I experienced growing up in the Plum house in Chambersburg NJ. Trenton is not the evil place where bad stuff happens. It's just a place and home is anywhere Carlos and I happen to be raising our family. I have come to terms with the incident, as I now call it, a well. Carlos has yet to fully let it go. He's afraid that if he forgives himself then he runs the risk of hurting me again. As a result, Carlos and I did several sessions together to make our marriage stronger. It really worked. In the end, it was just easier to live at Haywood with the protection it offers. We even made a little apartment for Julie across the hall. She had all the privacy she wanted without the fear she would sneak out. There's no sneaking out of a heavily monitored security building. When Ava was little, I would work at my cubicle doing searches and office duties while she played or napped next to my desk. I eventually started going out on sales calls and that's where I found my calling. I really like meeting new people. I avoided going on sales calls in the Burg so it worked out well. I also loved getting out and having a building full of babysitter/bodyguards, I didn't feel guilty about leaving Ava plus, I knew it was good for the men to be around a little girl. She now has a building full of Uncles who will protect her with their lives. We stayed in the apartment on Seven for a couple of years until Julie graduated and Ava was old enough to go to preschool. Julie decided on Rutgers like her father and chose the main campus in New Brunswick. We opted to send Ava to a private school in Princeton so that's where we needed to live plus, it's not too far away from New Brunswick. Carlos, true to his word, had reversed his vasectomy and as painful as that was, we got two boys out of it and I couldn't be happier. Of course Ella and Louis came with us to Princeton.

Even Lester ended up married with a daughter. I'm a firm believer that every guy deserves a daughter. Especially players, and Lester was the king. She's still pretty young but she'll get there and Lester will have to deal with young boys just like him. I would feel bad for little Gabriella but Olivia will keep Lester from locking her in a tower. Olivia wears the pants in that family thank goodness. Speaking of players, Joe Morelli ended up married to a kindergarten teacher. He never really advanced in his career but he only has himself to blame. Charlotte and Joe have four girls. Talk about justice! He has no one to carry on the Morelli name/curse. Jeanne Ellen also received justice. She ended up breaking up the marriage of a New York Senator that cheated on his young pregnant wife. The divorce and custody suit was public and very messy. Jeanne Ellen didn't fare too well in the media. She has since moved away and is now someone else's problem.

Enough bad thoughts, I admonish myself. I see Tank and his girlfriend Emmy. They have been dating for years and don't seem to be in any hurry to get married. That's fine, as long as they're okay with it. Tank is one of the only holdouts. Bobby, Cal, Hal, Vince, Manny, Woody, Zip and Zero have all gotten married and most have children as well. It was a shift at Rangeman when most of the men were married with families. The Merry Men grew up. Go figure. I see Ella arrive and she sees me turning quickly to come in my direction. Her and Louis have been visiting Louis's family but cut it short to make the Wedding. I give her a hug and she holds a little tighter than usual. Emotions are running high today.

"How's Carlos holding up?" she asks.

"So far so good. The boys have him distracted but when he actually has to give her away, all bets are off. Say a prayer for him."

"I will. Sorry I couldn't be here sooner, Louis's brother didn't want us to leave," she apologizes.

"It's fine, you still have time to fuss over Julie." I reassure her. I leave her to check in on Carlos and the boys and find them remarkably mess-free. I pull out two new game cards and give them to the boys and Carlos looks relieved. He's highly stressed and needs a break. With the boys now preoccupied, I pull him onto a chair and sit on his lap wrapping my arms around him. I want to give him the peace he needs to get through this day.

He takes a deep breath and I feel him start to relax. "We need a vacation," I tell him.

"Where do you want to go?"

"Maldives. Hut over the water. Private Jacuzzi. Room service. Big bed. For at least two weeks."

"Done. I'll clear our schedules." He says and smiles. "Thank you, I needed that." He holds me for a few more minutes until we hear his mother and sisters coming into the church. He lets me up and I hurry back to our room. I know the women will find us quickly and I want to steal a few more moments with Julie before the real craziness begins.

I duck back into the room we're using and see Julie positively glowing. Her attendants are around her all smiles and talking excitedly. I smile and think how lucky she is. She found an amazing guy and didn't have to go down a broken road to get there. She didn't have to marry and divorce Mr. Wrong, then wade through years of emotional baggage including regrets and lies and circumstantial evidence, to get to the happily ever after. They are pure of heart and get to start out together with little to weigh them down. Even Rachel and Ron have stopped their bitter disputes to come together for Julie's big day. And that's what it's all about. Enjoying this moment and releasing the bitterness life throws our way so that we have the freedom to love with our whole heart.

The end.