Disclaimer: Of course I totally came up with this first. (Quick, how many actually read the disclaimers anymore?) Nah. It all belongs to Horowitz.

PART 6: The Closing

It was four days before the group of old friends came together again, and this time it was inside the confines of a moderately sized flat—Alex's current residence. Ben and Luke were watching from a distance, making sure that nothing got out of hand, but something told Alex that they really needn't have worried.

In the past several days, Alex had reached the point where he wasn't sure what to expect anymore as far as his friends were concerned. He vaguely remembered Ben telling him that his friends had come around once they bothered to listen, but that had been while he was still in the hospital. After getting out of the hospital—where they had confirmed once again that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary going on in his brain—he had proceeded to spend much of the next day sleeping. He had done little more than stumble out to the meals Ben forced on him, collapse on the sofa, and listen to the tele. And sleep. Lots and lots of sleep.

The seizures hadn't left very much brain processing power to do more than that, much less worry about what his friends were thinking or doing.

By the fourth day though, he was feeling a lot more like himself. His thoughts were clear, he had no more dragging exhaustion, and best of all—no weakness in his limbs. He didn't need his cane anymore as a necessity, but as a habit, if he went into public it would once again make an appearance. Not because he needed it, but because the way that people underestimated him made him more comfortable in public. Not that he had needed underestimation in a long time… but it never hurt to be cautious.

The fourth day though… Ben had dropped the bombshell that his friends were coming to visit. He supposed the short notice—only about an hour and before he had his first cup of tea no less—was supposed to make it harder for him to twist thousands of scenarios up in his mind, but it seemed that Ben didn't know him quite well enough. He had spun worst case scenarios all the way through his shower, all the way up until he was sitting on the couch waiting for that fateful doorbell to ring.

Ben was obviously delusional—there was no way that they could have possibly forgiven him…

The sight of Tom and Sabina as they came in the door though… he wasn't sure he would be able to deal with their full rejection.

Then Sabina was bounding across the room, and he almost flinched in reaction to what he was sure was going to be a hit. Then her arms were around him, and Alex was sure that his brain had ceased to function.

She was hugging him.

Her.

Hugging.

Him.

"You're an absolute idiot, you know?" She muttered, squeezing him to tight that the air was being choked out of his lungs. "I'm so happy it wasn't real, but you're still an idiot." She let him go, rocking back on her heels, touching a hand gently to his face. As if she couldn't believe that he was flesh and blood. "I don't understand why you had to go so far, back then, to get away… but you're doing better than I could have ever imagined."

He knew what she was talking about. She had seen him during those fateful weeks in that summer. For the longest time he hadn't thought there was any moving on from it. Clearly though, there was.

"She's right."

Alex glanced up to see his oldest friend leaning against the frame of the door, a pleasant smile on his face.

"Remember, always agree with a woman." Tom smirked at him, causing a hesitant smile to creep up on Alex's face. Did he dare…? "Of course, I suppose it's different for you. Once an idiot, always an idiot."

This time, the smile did creep across his face—shy and cautious. His friends were acting so… normal. As if little time had gone by, instead of years and years. "You know me. I never think before I act."

"That's for sure." Luke muttered from his position on the chair next to the couch.

"Hey!" Alex reached over to slap him, but missed by several inches.

Luke just grinned at him. "You said it first."

Alex stuck his tongue out at Luck, before turning back to his friends—his friends. "Sorry about… before." He guessed that they got that he wasn't talking about the years and years, and instead what had happened only several days before. "Things weren't supposed to be that complicated. They said it would be a bring you in, explain things, and life continues as normal kind of thing. Not some… production. But, I uh… guess Ben explained that too…"

Tom rolled his eyes. "As if things could be normal. This is you we're talking about."

Alex couldn't stop the snort that came out. "I'll have you know, I've had a relatively normal life for the past couple of years." Once the seizures had become the norm, that is… and the occasional training run for MI6 newbies…

He didn't bother to hide the smile at those memories, but decided it probably was best to keep those thoughts to himself. As much as his friends were happy to see him alive and kicking, they probably wouldn't approve of the limited contact he still had with MI6. However, that kind of life wasn't something that you could just walk away from… and it was complicated. Judging from their previous reactions, he figured it was best just not to get into it with them.

"Now, Ben said something to me earlier about a walk, and that sounds like a good idea." It had been mentioned in passing as something he could do to keep the awkwardness at a relatively low level. What better than showing them around the campus…? "I could use some exercise after lying around for the past couple of days."

Both Tom and Sabina looked ready to protest—and he could almost predict what their excuses would be—so he just brushed them off. It looked like he had gained himself another couple of mother hens…

"My doctor already cleared me for activity. It's just what I need. Besides, you need to not treat me like a glass egg. I know when enough is enough." He decided to ignore the looks of amusement that passed between Luke and Tom, and instead levered himself up from the couch and went looking for his jacket. "So are you coming or not? I'm perfectly happy to go out by myself…" And if they remembered anything about him, it was that he was perfectly willing to follow through on his threats.

"Are you… are you sure this'll be okay?" Tom asked.

Alex sent him a mischievous grin. "Are you asking in the 'will there be maniacs trying to kill us' kind of sense, or in the 'are you going to collapse again' kind?"

Tom flushed and sent Alex a glare. "Both then."

Alex just grinned at the sheer familiarity of it all. "Well… since you asked. It looks relatively clear and sunny outside, with a low probability of henchmen or collapsing. Though… if you see someone more than once, let me know. I'll probably know who they are—and that means they aren't doing their job very well." He grabbed his cane from beside the door and walked out into the hallway, barely hearing the short conversation behind him.

"So… has he always been this sarcastic?" That was Luke.

Tom's laughter was clear. "Oh, believe me. He used to be much worse."

Alex smiled to himself. Perhaps everything would be okay again. He had his two oldest friends back, after all. And it didn't seem that they were going to be abandoning him anytime soon. Ben sent him a knowing glance when the others joined him in the hall.

Before he could head out the door though, Tom caught his shoulder—as well as a light flinch.

Tom smiled ruefully at him, before shaking his head. "I feel like we should start over. It's not fair to you to expect everything to be the way it used to be. You've changed… and to be honest, I'm sure I've changed as well." Tom held out his hand, which Alex hesitantly took, not fully understanding. "Hello Alex, I'm Tom Harris. I just moved back from Italy." A sly grin crossed his face. "Which means that I'm now fluent in Italian."

Understanding shot through Alex's brain. This was starting over. "Alex Daniels. Linguistics major that just so happens to speak a little bit of Italian." An easy grin settled on his face, before Sabina took him by the shoulder.

She smiled at him. "Sabina Pleasure. Psychology and language sciences major. And unfortunately, the only other language I speak is some very bad Spanish." She then pulled him into another hug. "And I'm very glad to make your reaquaintance."

Fin.

A/N: And that's all folks!

Sad to say, but I think this is the end of the Starting Anew-verse. Everything is pretty much wrapped up, set nicely in the future, with, as Alex put it, a "low probability of henchmen or collapsing." And he's even got his friends back now—which will probably either be a good thing or a bad thing in the long run for him ^_^

Thank you, every one of you, for joining in on this journey. I hope to tackle another AR story sometime in the future, but I'm not sure when I'll have time or motivation. I have a couple of ideas rolling around in my head, but we'll see what comes next.

Until next time!

S.B.L.