“Bye everyone!”

They all helped her carry her heavy luggage to the cab that was waiting
for her on the other side of the cacti garden in front of the cottage. If
they looked past the opened front doors, they could see Stephano’s
handsome profile sitting behind the wheel and tapping his fingers on the
dash to the tune of his radio. LaCountess hurried outside and he looked up
and smiled at her.

She still had her mountain of suitcases to be carried to the cab and her
CotK friends were helping her with it. Just two weeks ago she didn’t even
know any of these people. Now, she had the sad feeling of missing them
even before she had left.

“Bye Kezia, bye Jenieve”

Behind a half curtained window, part of a face could be seen looking out.
The eternally shy Kyer was watching LaCountess’ departure, holding the
edge of the curtain with one hand and her stuffed llama Mr. Spitz in the
other. Sunny blew a kiss to her and waved a hand. She smiled and waved the
toy.

This was the last day. They had come together in this place, witnessed
wondrous events, argued, discussed, battled, searched through tunnels and
stores, and danced at the parties. They had challenged their strength,
their will, their sense of coordination and at points—especially important
to Sunny—their sense of style. And now the challenge was to keep a
straight face while saying their goodbyes.

“Goodbye Mr. Spitz, goodbye Comfy Cottage.”

All the boxes and suitcases where loaded in the trunk now. It was time to
go.

She got into the front seat beside the driver. Stephano was distracted by
Jenieve, who was talking him into thinking about being their driver next
time, if they ever happened to come back together to this place again.

“Goodbye!”

The cab took off, leaving the friends and the cottage behind. When they
got very small, as small as the dust particles in the air, Sunny finally
turned and looked ahead at the road, fighting the memories that had
suddenly started rushing to her mind. She leaned back against her seat and
closed her eyes, trying to think about what was ahead instead of what she
was leaving behind. But she couldn’t keep her mind from reevaluating the
journey that she had taken, and the importance it had in her future
presence in the fandom.

She was now a survivor of a war, which was certainly something to be proud
of. True she had stumbled and screwed up and been frowned upon more than
once along the way, true that she had ruined more than just one clothing
item and spent a lot of time doing weird things that didn’t exactly go
towards her better future.  But one fact still remained; she had made her
mark in the FK fandom. After this, her name was eternally engraved into
one of the Forever Knight war memorials, those that went into the fandom’s
history. *She* was part of FK history now.

And it had been fun too, she smiled appreciatively.

It had always been fun. Since day one, when her journey into this realm
had begun, it had been a satisfying and immensely colorful ride. Before
she had known FK, she was like anyone else that she knew, searching for
books, films, TV shows and even animation to satisfy her thirst for good
fiction. It wasn’t always paying, and never lasting. She remembered one
October day, almost a year ago, when the fountain had finally dried out,
when the book she had sought after was not available at the local library.
It had also been around the time when TV’s only vampire shows had seized
being about vampires, or even make any sense, and when the last good movie
she had seen was already 3 months stale. Trough sheer providence, she had
remembered this old TV show she and her dad used to be watching on and off
for years on Saturday nights, and turned to her computer to search for
“Forever Knight”. What came up was fkfanfic.com, and the rest as they say,
is history.

Stephano took that exact moment to break the silence, “You ra very quite
today, signorina.”

She smiled but didn’t look at him. Before she could say anything in reply
he had already prompted her with a new question, “Did the war go well? You
won?”

It was a very legitimate, very though provoking question. And what was the
answer? Had they won? Had they lost? If they had lost, who then was the
winner? If it were the Knighties, could Kyer and she claim victory? If it
were the cousins, could Lisa and Kezia do so?

And besides, how could anyone win a battle that went like this anyway? How
could they hold onto their triumph, or use it in the future? Or more
generally, how could they all benefit from the adventure they had
experienced in this dream-like affair?

"By doing what we've been doing. Writing collaborative stories. Accepting
different viewpoints. Agreeing to disagree. Remembering that we're one big
happy FK family.”

Kathy’s words came floating to her mind and her smile deepened. How true
they were. And now that she though about it more carefully, this war had
been more like a peacekeeping mission than an actual battle. It had
brought the different factions together without the Knighties screaming at
Cousins for getting Nick’s character all wrong, or the Cousins at the
Knighties for doing the same to LaCroix, or the NatPack because of
Natalie, the Vaques because of Vachon and so on and so on.

“We all won, Stephano,” she said to the curious cab driver.

Stephano shifted behind the wheel as he piloted the car toward the exit
that had the sign  “Airport”. He rubbed his stubble chin and commented
thoughtfully, “You mean you all made paz?… peace?”

“Yes, that’s it, and became one happy family.”

He drove the car into the lane marked as “Departures”; she became quiet
again.

As they were waiting behind the mass of cars to get to the front gate,
Stephan once again cut through their quiet and said, “So signorina! I
guessa here we say adios.” His expression was solemn.

“I might see you again Stephano,” she said assuredly, “After all, I am
planning another visit to Toronto sometime in the future. I may call you
then and say hi, and we can arrange a meeting and see each other again.”

It was his turn to smile, “No signorina. Even if you come backa here, if
it’s not a war, we won’t see each other again.” This made her turn
abruptly to look at his face.

Then the truth sank in. It was true; she wouldn’t see him in Toronto
again. Just like she wouldn’t see Nick, LaCroix, Janette or any of those
characters again, even if she took residence in the city. As soon as she
stepped out of the cab and into the airport, her world would take a
180-degree turn, and she would enter a different realm called Real Life.
The cab finally reached its destination and he pulled over at the curb.

The young Italian man was unloading her luggage and putting it on a cart
next to her when LaCountess reached a final decision, one that she thought
she should have made some time ago, perhaps at their first meeting at the
beginning of the war. Only now she was seeing how much he had helped them
without asking even one question, and how much he had deserved to know.
When time came to say goodbye, she looked up and into his eyes and said
hesitantly, “Stephano, there are things that I would have liked you to
know, about this war we were playing, the city you live in, the
people…there are amazing people walking around this world you live in. And
it would be sad if you didn’t know them.”

She watched him raise his eyebrows. He was waiting for her to go on, but
she didn’t know how to continue what she was trying to explain. There was
so much to tell, three full seasons and a galaxy of fanfiction, and her
plane was taking off in less than 45 minutes. Her eyes glided to the cab,
and inadvertently, rested on the black in-dash radio. Then it dawned on
her.

“Stephano! Do you listen to radio when you drive at night?”

“sí, some times.” he continued staring at her, a little bemused.

She smiled again, “Next time you do, tune into Nightwatch, CERK 490 mhz.
Listen to what the Nightcrawler says, and you’ll know me better when we
meet again.”

He was even more bewildered after that, but he had grown used to it. They
hugged and said goodbye. She looked over her luggage, loaded onto the
cart, and started pushing it toward the entrance before she turned back
one last time and waved at him. He mouthed “CERK” and blew her a kiss.

Then they each went their own way, she toward the calling RL, and he, back
to FK Toronto and its amazing people.

Fin