"Janet?" Celeste called to the older woman, recognizing her from a mental illness seminar that Frost Enterprises had sponsored. "How's Laura?" She hadn't seen the girl when she gave her statement.

Janet took a sip of her drink, "Tired, worn out, humiliated, scared. You pick." Stabbing ice with her straw, she muttered, "Jim needs to meet the real crowbar killer." The two exchanged a look. "When I think of what he did...."

Celeste nodded. "No debate here about that scum." After a moment, they sat down on a couch. "Has her mother been told?"

Janet shook her head. "Laura doesn't want to go back to that house, and frankly, I agree." Jim had wormed his way into Brooke's house and bed. "Trevor said she could come stay with them, or I can move into the guest room and she could have my room at the Valley Inn." She brushed the hair out of her eyes and the younger woman noticed the engagement ring.

"Pretty," she said with a smile. Janet deserved some happiness after all this time.

"Amanda's thrilled." The older woman lit up as she thought about her daughter. "Tim's Tim..." Celeste nodded, knowing the difficulties of living with troubled teens. "What can I do to help him?" Janet asked to herself.

"Don't give in!" Those words came out without Celeste thinking about them. "I've been there, done that, awful soundtrack- sounds like a broken record." She wondered how things might have been different if she hadn't given in on the easy stuff with her sister, if she had tried to be more of a mother and less of a friend. How both of them would be different if she hadn't allowed her boyfriend to play such a parental role in her sister's life back before Celeste went to work for Emma.

"I think we all need a good round of family therapy," Janet admitted. "And I told Trevor we would get it before we got married."

"Good for you." Laura appeared at the doorway and looked at them.

Janet got up and hugged her young friend. "Everything go okay?"

"The police are getting the warrant right now," Laura said with a smile. "Seems Jim was found on the front stairs of the police station, tied up. Someone beat him up pretty good and left him there- and Jim isn't saying who." Janet giggled at that mental picture. "They had to take him to the hospital."

Celeste left as the two friends talked. Finding her way back to where Tony had parked, she sighed. "Next time, Tony, next time..." She was going to tell him not to be so violent but Jim deserved what he got and more. "Lie to me- tell me life is simple."

He started as they drove out of the parking lot. "Good guys wear white, bad guys wear black." He stared at the gray sweat suit he wore and smiled at the irony. "Decisions are easy, doing the right thing is always the easiest choice, everybody tells the truth and is kind and helpful..." Celeste giggled at that. "Right to the Inn or left to Snow Valley?" he asked when they got to a four way stop. He had papers to read, shipments to coordinate, plus an adopted brother to check up on, but none of that was as important as spending time with his best friend.

Celeste was in no mood to really be anywhere. She didn't want to see her sister or Matt and she didn't want to go back to where her friends would make a concerted effort to be kind. "First star on the left, straight on until morning," she answered.

He agreed. They didn't belong in a world of mundane things: toast in the morning, meatloaf in the evening. And they couldn't fit into a world of mutant angst. So he drove straight, looking for the place they both belonged.

***

Edmund Grey was walking his daughter around the Wildwind grounds early that morning. Taking a moment, he paused by the family crypt on his way to the hunting lodge. A storm during the night had knocked down several trees. After making a note to have the groundskeeper clean up, he discovered his brother's body under one of the trees, a nasty gash on his head.

Quickly, he had his brother rushed to the hospital. Once there, Dr. Joe Martin explained that Dimitri had suffered a head wound and didn't remember the past two years. In his mind, he had a clean slate. He could never remember what he had done, but he had to face the results of his actions.

Edmund didn't leave Dimitri's side while he recovered. In the end, brotherly love won over dirty deeds. And, also in the end, justice was mercy and mercy justice. Because, for all the money Dimitri had, he could never change what he had done. He could only live with it.

***

Kitty left Emma's office with a pleased smile on her face. While telling the woman what she thought of her past deeds didn't change anything, it felt great.

Pete was waiting in the car for her. "Everything still in one piece?" he asked after kissing her hello.

"I only broke what couldn't be easily replaced," Kitty told him with a grin. She had buried a major part of her past in that office. Too bad she hadn't buried the old Emma with it.

***

Sam looked around the now empty apartment and sighed. He was oddly sad to be leaving this world of nine to five, coming home to worry about supper, and spending time with Rahne.

Rahne McTaggart started to carry out the last cardboard box and agreed with Sam's thoughts. "If we ever have kids..." she started. Sam turned to her, "A want them tae go up tae want tae have this life, not tae want tae wear the X."

Sam nodded. "Bein' here, livin' like normal folks kindof taught us why we fight— so our kids won't have ta." He closed the door after his girlfriend and prayed that someday, they could live the normal person's life. Just the two of them, in a one bedroom place.

***

Paige smiled at her friends, happy to be back. The school's newest student, Ariel, was sitting around with them, just talking and laughing. The girl had made a temporary peace with what was bothering her, a moment as rare as a dash of sunshine during a rainy week. She and Jubilee were giggling about a guy named Forrest. Jono and Ev were playing basketball, Ange was studying a computer. Artie, Leech and Franklin were playing hide and go seek. Life was normal, life was great, she thought as she went to tear Ange from his programming.

Life could only get better.