Author's Note: This song wouldn't go out of my head until I wrote this. Thanks to Financebabe for being my beta for this story! Janet Evanovich owns the characters. Switchfoot owns the song. If you want to hear it, it is on youtube. This is for the Babes.

This is Home

I've got my memories
Always inside of me
But I can't go back
Back to how it was…

As Carlos Manoso walked to the front of the church, images from his past kept flashing in his mind. Friends who never made it home. People he had killed. Memories he would always have, but also memories he would no longer let be obstacles in what happiness he could find in life.

I believe you now
I've come too far
No I can't go back
Back to how it was…

The conversation he had last night with his best friend was also in the forefront of his mind. Part of him was panicking at the changes he was making in his life. He couldn't believe at how much his life had changed in the past year, when he finally accepted that he loved Stephanie Plum and needed her in his life. But, he also knew that he had changed from the man that he was when he first met her and he couldn't go back to how he had been.

Created for a place I've never known…

Looking out over the crowd, he couldn't believe how he was now part of "the Burg". He had lived in Newark and Miami and visited, officially and unofficially, many parts of the world, yet he had never found another place where he felt he needed to be.

This is home
Now I'm finally where I belong
Where I Belong
Yeah, this is home
I've been searching for a place of my own
Now I've found it
Maybe this is home
This is home…

The bridal party came down the aisle. Stephanie's nieces, Mary Alice and Angie, were walking side by side with their flower baskets. Next came Connie, then Mary Lou, and then Lula in their bridesmaid dresses. But, when he caught Stephanie's eyes, he knew that he was where he belonged. She belonged to him and he belonged to her. She was his home.

Belief over misery
I've seen the enemy
And I won't go back
Back to how it was…

He thought back to his main reason for not getting involved with Stephanie. He had made a lot of enemies over the years while working for the government and on his own. He had been afraid of his enemies finding him, getting revenge through Stephanie or other family members. He still had that fear in the back of his mind, but he couldn't go back to the emptiness that was in his life before he became involved with Stephanie. It helped that Stephanie took his fear seriously. She had agreed to train in self-defense and had accepted that she would have to keep a tracker on her at all times. Only when her father had accepted his tracker had the rest of her family accepted their new reality, with the understanding that the trackers would only be monitored in case of emergencies.

And I got my heart set on what happens next
I got my eyes wide it's not over yet
We are miracles and we're not alone…

After Frank gave Stephanie's hand to him, Carlos' smile widened. He was looking forward to the honeymoon, spending time alone with his Babe. But, he knew that the honeymoon was only the beginning of their lives together. Both of them were proof that miracles happened, after all the nearly fatal misses that each had experienced. And, they both believed that finding each other was the best miracle of all.

And now after all my searching
After all my questions
I'm gonna call it home…

He listened to the minister describing what marriage meant. He even held his breath when the minister asked if anyone questioned why he and Steph should be married. No one questioned their love for one another.

I've got a brand new mindset
I can finally see the sunset
I'm gonna call it home

"Now you may kiss the bride." Words he had been waiting for. Holding her in his arms as he kissed her was the perfect ending of his old life.

Now I know
Yeah, this is home
I've come too far
And I won't go back
Yeah, this is home

"May I present Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Manoso." His wife. His lover. His home.