note: ahh, the epilogue. this is where I tied up the loose ends, yada yada yada. this wasn't how I wanted to end it, but if I ended chapter eight and this one the way I wanted to, I woulda had to change the rating to M. XD SO ENJOY THE LAST CHAPTER. :D

the life and times of the fantasmic 4
by, the ultimateSora

epilogue
june 2009

Phoebe had almost forgotten about Jeremy Wells. They dated in her freshman year for a while, and then they broke up when he transferred to UVA.

She remembered the first time she saw the girls all together. It was that following Christmas, and she came home to find out that Carlos and Dorothy Ann were engaged. They decided to stay engaged and marry their junior year.

She remembered the wedding almost like it was yesterday.

---

june 2008
"Purple. The skank's making us wear purple," Wanda huffed.

"It's 'lilac'," Phoebe corrected.

Wanda rolled her eyes. "Okay the, light purple."

Wanda, Keesha, Phoebe, and Dorothy Ann kept the promise they would be bridesmaids at each other's weddings. The four stayed good friends, just as the guys had. Ralphie and Keesha were still together, Wanda was still a fallacious girl (hoping to get some post-wedding action), and Phoebe was currently seeing a guy named Cameron Halifax, who couldn't make it to the wedding.

Carlos and Dorothy Ann couldn't wait any longer to get married. Carlos was even willing to commute between New York and Connecticut as he finished out the semester at UConn (he was graduating in December).

The three of them were getting ready in the room beside Dorothy Ann's, and there was a knock on the door that connected the rooms. It was D.A.

"You guys ready?"

"We should be asking you that," Keesha said. "But it looks like you are."

Dorothy Ann looked down at her dress. "Yeah, but I'm about to shit myself."

"Well, don't," Wanda said. "That's a designer dress, mm'k?"

The girls laughed, and they were ready for the ceremony. Carlos and Dorothy Ann were getting married in a large Catholic church in New York. It was the one D.A. went to for regular service, and she had to book it months in advance. Dorothy Ann had consulted Mrs. Ramone on a traditional Mexican-Catholic wedding, and she learned it was probably going to last almost three hours. She didn't dare tell the girls that.

Phoebe, along with Wanda and Keesha, took her place in the front, and across from the girls were Ralphie, Tim, and Arnold. Phoebe's heart jumped because it was the first time she saw him in three years.

After the service, the wedding party headed to the hotel where the reception was. It was a large, distinguished Manhattan hotel, and Carlos and D.A. had booked a room there for their wedding night. The ballroom was large and fancy, and everyone was having an enjoyable time. Phoebe was at the bar drinking her favorite drink, a Bourbon Manhattan.

"Hey," she heard someone say behind her.

She turned and saw Arnold standing there. He hadn't changed much in three years. He was still tall, lean, wore glasses, had the same pretty, boyish face. The only difference was that his red-orange hair was cut shorter. She put her drink down and felt her stomach flutter.

"Hi."

He gave a nervous grin. "Care to dance?"

She wasn't sure. She knew she had broken his heart many times in their senior year, but then again, he broke hers, too. Before she realized what she did, she nodded. Once she was on the dance floor in Arnold's arms, she forgot all about Cameron and all about her past with Arnold.

"You look beautiful," he said.

She swallowed. "Thanks. You look handsome." And you smell nice, too.

Carlos and Dorothy Ann were dancing nearby, as were Ralphie and Keesha. Both couples were too absorbed in each other to notice anything. The roof could cave in, but they wouldn't notice. Phoebe stopped looking around, and she looked at his blue eyes. His bright blue eyes. She remembered how they used to comfort her, made her feel safe, just by looking at them.

Their hold on each other tightened, and before they knew it, they were kissing. Phoebe told herself it was the alcohol, but she knew she was controlling her own feet as they rocketed out of the ballroom and up to his hotel room.

The last thing she remembered was putting the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign up on the door handle.

---

As the sun rose over New York City, its glare hit Phoebe's eyes. She felt warm, a little sore, and content. Very content. She felt a body next to hers, and she slowly opened her eyes to find Arnold's head resting on her chest. Without trying to wake him, she got up and tried to find her things. She quickly got dressed and ran up to her hotel room that she was sharing with Wanda.

Just as she was about to open the door, a guy she didn't know stepped out, Wanda clad in her robe behind him.

"Bye, Randy, call me sometime," she said after the smiling guy. She looked at Phoebe after Randy was out of ear shot. "He won't call, hence I slept with him."

Phoebe went in the room, shutting the door behind her. "Please tell me you told him to get checked after being with you."

Wanda waved her off. "We used protection. I may not be no Dorothy Ann, but I knows to have it wrapped up."

Phoebe laughed and gathered her things to shower. Wanda sat on her bed and turned the TV on. "So where were you last night?" she called to Phoebe, who left the door ajar.

"Not in this room, thank goodness," she called back.

"Haha. That was a sarcastic laugh, by the way."

"Really? Didn't realize."

"Smart ass."

"I heard that!"

"Good! Maybe I wanted you to!"

"Maybe I wanted to!"

"Fine!"

"Touché!"

"No big words!"

It seemed, Phoebe thought to herself as the warm water hit her face, that "no big words!" had become Wanda's new phrase after she had dropped "you weasley wimps" in sixth grade. After Phoebe was done, she wrapped a towel around herself and sat down on her bed as she towel dried her hair.

"So really, whore, where were you last night?" Wanda asked again.

"I..." She bit her lip. "I...I...I kind of slept with Arnold...apparently."

Wanda's jaw dropped, and she jumped to Phoebe's bed. She grabbed Phoebe's bare shoulder and shook her. "You didn't! What about your rich, southern boy?"

"I don't know! I don't know what happened!" Phoebe buried her face in her hair towel. "We were dancing, and then we kissed, and before I knew it, I woke up in his bed!"

"Was it good?"

"It was excellent."

"So what was he like in comparison to Cameron?"

Phoebe bit her lip again. "Cameron and I...well, that is...last night was my first time in...three years."

Wanda smacked her arm. "What? You mean you-"

"Haven't had relations since Arnold," she said before Wanda could put it in nasty terms. She got up and started to get dressed.

"Where you off to?"

"I have to talk to him." She put on her favorite shirt, a short-sleeved yellow and white striped polo that had thin blue stripes between the yellow and white, and she slipped a simple denim skirt on. After she blow dried her hair and put a little make-up on, she slipped her sandals on and grabbed her purse. "I'll see you later."

She got on the elevator and went down to Arnold's floor. She remembered his room number and knocked when she got to his door.

"C'min!"

She slowly opened the door. "It's just me," she said nervously. She found him spraying some cologne on, and she knew it wasn't the one he used to wear. It still smelled heavenly to her, but she tried to keep composure.

"Oh, hey. Didn't get to say 'good morning' to you."

She flushed. "Yeah, I wanted to go shower."

He looked so handsome, she thought. He was wearing a navy blue polo that had thin, spaced out horizontal orange stripes, and it was tucked in his jeans. He put some mousse in his hand and ran it through his hair.

"We need to talk," she said.

He nodded and sat down to put his shoes on. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."

At the same time, they said, "See, I-...You go first...No, you..." Arnold held his hand up. "We'll go together." She nodded, and they both said, "I'm seeing someone else."

"You are?" Phoebe asked, her stomach sinking. Not only did she cheat on Cameron, but Arnold cheated on the girl he was seeing.

"Her name's Juliette. We've been only going out for a few months."

Juliette. She was probably drop dead gorgeous. A gorgeous name for a gorgeous girl, Phoebe sourly thought. Why did she care? Besides, it wasn't like she was going to see Arnold after this.

"Who're you seeing?" he asked.

"A young man named Cameron. Cameron Halifax."

A southern gent, Arnold thought. He was probably rich, handsome, came from long line of distinguished people. Then again, he thought happily, his people were probably Confederate soldiers.

Arnold grabbed his wallet and pocketed it. "I'm going to get something to eat. Care to join me?"

"I don't know..."

"Just friends," he assured her, reading her mind.

She nodded. "I suppose there's no harm."

---

They went to a pizzeria outside the hotel. Arnold told her that he had been to New York enough times so he knew how not to look like a tourist. She giggled, and they each got a large slice of pizza.

"This is good pizza," she said, taking a drink of her Diet Coke.

"Very," he agreed. "So, seeing as we haven't talked in three years, how have you been?"

"I've been good. I switched my major to pediatric nursing, and I'm minoring in French. I decided I could never be a doctor, but nursing appealed to me so much. How about you?"

Arnold smiled. "I could see you as a pediatric nurse." He took a bite of his pizza, and he wiped his lips of sauce. "I graduated early. I actually got a position with a company in east Tennessee to study the rock erosion of the Appalachians. It paid better, surprisingly, that some of the western companies. I start in August."

"You're going to be in Tennessee?" she asked. He nodded. "What about Juliette? Is she going with you?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Honestly, things really haven't been too great between us lately. She a gorgeous girl, but not exactly someone I'd want to marry." He was being honest, she knew. She could always tell when he was lying and telling the truth, and she still had the ability. "What about your southern gent?"

She cringed at that. Just before they broke up, he said she'd move on and 'meet a southern gent, get married, have kids'. "He's fine."

"Anything else?"

She shook her head. "We're kind of at a stand still right now."

She thought she saw his face almost...brighten, but she wasn't sure. When they were done, the walked around the streets of Manhattan. A cool breeze blew by, and the sky was a bright blue. They took a walk in the park, an they sat down on the grass by a pond.

"This kinda reminds me of junior high afternoons when we'd hang out by Walker Lake," Phoebe said.

Arnold nodded in agreement. "I've missed you, Pheebs."

She turned to look at him. She didn't know what to say. She had missed him, too, but she hadn't thought much about him in almost a year. She faintly wondered if he took the job in Tennessee just to be closer to her, but she shook it from her mind.

She nodded. "Yeah, I...I've missed you too."

Arnold leaned forward and kissed her. Phoebe wanted to pull away, not wanting to fall back in love with him. And besides, they hadn't talked or seen each other in three years; so many things could have changed between them They might not have been the same they were when they had been together.

"I'm the same person you first fell in love with," he whispered, reading her mind.

They kissed, and she pulled back enough to say. "I love Cameron."

He held her face in his hands, kissed the corner of her mouth, and said, "No, you don't." He continued to kiss her, and he ran his hands down her back.

"Don't do this to me."

"You want this."

"I do, but please stop."

He kissed her neck, kissed her cheeks, her eyebrows, her forehead. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She didn't object when he took her back to the hotel.

---

They laid together, side by side, on the bed as the evening sunlight poured in the window. Phoebe ran her finger down Arnold's arm, and she sighed. She was wearing her red, silk nightgown, and he was in his pajama pants. The room was chilly, so they were under the covers. Phoebe turned on her side and kissed his bare shoulder.

"It felt familiar," she sighed. "Being with you, I mean."

Arnold nodded. He looked up at the ceiling, and he felt for her hand. "I'm falling back in love with you, Phoebe."

"We've only been together for a day," she argued. "You can't-"

"Yes, I can," he snapped, not really meaning to.

She bit her lip, not wanting to fight with him. She nuzzled her nose on his neck, taking in his scent. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her close. She wasn't the skinny gangly girl she used to be. She was a little fuller in the hips and chest, and her once bony arms and legs were shapely. She was still far from fat, and Arnold liked the weight she had put on. Phoebe noted he was more toned than he used to be, and he had a light spattering of red-orange, blonde hair on his once bare chest (then again, he used to shave for water polo). Phoebe liked it.

"The company I'm gonna work for also does work in North Carolina," he said.

"You took the job because of me, didn't you?"

He shook his head. "I've been with other women since you, Phoebe. I moved on...until we met last night."

Phoebe sighed sadly. She didn't know why it bothered her that he had been with other women. Sure, she had dated other men, but she was never with them. She kissed his neck softly, and he could feel her warm breath. He realized how much he had missed her in just those few quiet minutes.

"I want to get back together," he said bluntly.

Her response was sharp, "I don't."

"Yes, you do." He sat up. "I know you do."

She did, but she was not going to admit it, as much as it killed her inside. "I'm with Cameron."

Arnold looked down at her. His stomach flipped when he saw how beautiful she looked laying against the pillows, her auburn hair spread out around her. She took his hand, and he squeezed it.

"I'm willing to marry you," he said.

"We've only been together for a day."

"We've known each other since we were kids," he pointed out. "Phoebe, I can't remember a time when I didn't know you."

"Arnold-"

He cut her off by leaning down and kissing her. Phoebe forgot about Cameron, and she pulled back enough to say, "You'd marry me?"

"In a New York minute."

---

june 2009
Phoebe sighed. She'd never forget the huskiness of his voice when he told her that. She'd never forget his touch, his scent, his bright eyes, everything Arnold.

"Phoebe, I told you I didn't want you lifting anything!"

Phoebe snapped from her thoughts and looked up to find her tall, lean, red-headed husband. He looked concerned, but once Phoebe met Arnold's eyes, he smiled.

"Sorry. I was just..." She patted the scrapbook in her lap.

Arnold joined her on the bed, and he patted her stomach. "Look, in six months time, I'll let you do what you want, but until then..." He kissed her cheek.

"I love you," she said quickly.

"Where did the sudden love come from?" he asked grinning. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her ear. "My wife, my first born soon to come, we're moving into our first house."

Phoebe smiled and looked over at the bedside table where three wedding pictures were- Carlos and Dorothy Ann's, Keesha and Ralphie's, and hers and Arnold's. The thought that they were all married, Carlos and D.A. already with children, was still settling with her.

She and Arnold only dated again for three months before they got married on September 23, 2008. They didn't want to wait any longer, and in April 2009, she found out she was pregnant. Their first child was due in December.

Phoebe got up and kissed the tip of Arnold's nose. "I'll go fix up a quick lunch for us."