Well, here it is, the last posting of this story. I am going to take a break from this before I start working on the other story. Thanks to all who read and reviewed it.

Here's hoping that you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Sorry, if the ending seems a bit rushed, but I did not feel that there was much else to write here. Everything had happened, and there was no way for me to really elaborate on it.

Epilogue

Two weeks later, Patty and Anton boarded a plane and left the United States to return home to Germany. The days that had passed by after their leaving Jenkinsville seemed to have gone by in a blur. The events following their final visit to the hideout seemed to have passed by in a literal whirlwind.

Now, as Patty sat staring out the window of the airplane, she recalled the events that brought her and Anton to this particular moment.

Her mind drifted back to the day when they had left Jenkinsville with Kathy and David. It had been done rather spontaneously, and Ruth even commented on how she had expected it to come about after they had returned to her house that same afternoon. Patty told her friend that although it had not really changed anything between herself and her parents, that it was a good thing that they had returned. Ruth had nodded and said that a permanent bond now existed between her, Anton, and Sharon, which neither of her parents would ever be able to break.

Later, after returning to New York, Kathy and David had a much better understanding for what Patty had done for Anton more than a decade before. They realized how difficult it must have been for her, and they acknowledged the fact that this had brought the closure that Patty desperately needed.

A week after he had suffered the heart attack, Harry Bergen returned home from the hospital to find that not only Patty and Anton were gone, but Sharon had moved out as well. I am not leaving to go to New York, even though David and Kathy had offered it to me, her note had said. Instead, I am moving to Wynne City, find a job, and start over.

This had horrified Harry Bergen, but it turned out to be precisely what Sharon had done. With the help from Freddy Dowd, she found a small apartment and had obtained a new address before Patty and Anton had left the country. The address, she wired to them in the form of a letter, which arrived the day before they were scheduled to depart from New York City.

Sharon had not only written to her sister and brother-in-law, but she had also written a long letter to Kathy and David as well as one addressed to 'Mr. and Mrs. Reiker'.

This reminded Anton that Sharon had spoken to his father some days before they had arrived in Jenkinsville, but the news of her having spoken to his mother would not be revealed until they had returned to Germany. Until she could deliver it, Patty held the unopened letter in the side pocket of her purse and anticipated returning home.

Instead of feeling agitated as she had felt when they had made the trip to the US, she now felt at peace with everything that had transpired. Snuggling closer to her husband, Patty spoke his name.

"Anton?"

"Hmm?" He responded as he lowered the newspaper he had been reading and wrapped a gentle arm around her shoulder.

"I just wanted to say thank you for convincing me to take this trip," she whispered. "It was a good idea."

"You had a nice time, then?" He asked.

She nodded. "I know it sounds crazy, but I did. I mean; it was hard to deal with what happened with my parents, and then Sharon getting abused, but I'm really grateful that we did it. I actually feel much better about everything now."

"Peace wasn't made with your parents, though," he said softly.

"No, but it's not always going to be my choice, is it?" She asked weakly. "If there is one thing that I realized is that the relationship between us has always been broken, but it was not by my choosing. I guess sometimes it's not always going to be up to me. This time, it was up to them and if they don't want it, then there is nothing that I can do about it," she snuggled closer to him. "I just glad that this time, we caught the ten fifteen together."

He nodded as a small smile broke through. "Me too, my beloved," he whispered as he watched her close her eyes.

As she did, she reached for his hand and soon she felt his fingers encircle her own hand. The last thing her gaze came to rest on before falling asleep was the indented crest of the ring that he wore on his left ring finger.

"You are a person of value and you have a friend who loved you enough to give you his most valued possession," Anton's words continued to echo in her mind as Patricia Ann Reiker fell asleep, her body leaned up against his.