I'm not really sure how I feel about this chapter...I like it, but I think it could have been better...I just wasn't finding anything the characters would let me change. This is the last chapter I hope you all like it, thanks for reading :o)

One night, after a particularly rough day, Cassie crawled into bed with Nick. They had had a close brush with Division, and she wasn't all that thrilled about sleeping alone. Nick understood her feelings, feeling something like them himself, so he reached out an arm and pulled her closer, gathering her in a hug to let them both know they were not alone.

"Tell me a story." She said into the darkness of the room.

Nick shrugged a shoulder, "I don't know any stories." He said.

Cassie turned a little to look at him, the moon finally making an appearance through the clouds and shining through the curtainless window "Make one up, that's what my mother always did when I was little." She chuckled lightly "Sometimes."

Nick raised a brow, even though she couldn't see it in the darkness "Sometimes?"

Cassie turned to him a little more "Sometimes she made them up, other times, they were about you."

Nick startled slightly "Me?"

Cassie nodded "Yeah, I just didn't realize they were about you until after I met you." She sighed "It was always the same story told in different ways. The man would help the girl rescue her mother from all different kinds of terrible troubles. Sometimes you were a cowboy, sometimes a knight in shining armor, once you were a present and I was a princess and you helped me rescue my mother the queen."

Nick thought about that for a moment, once more in awe of the amazing talent that Cassie's mother has. "You tell me one, I want to hear all about myself." He said with a quick grin.

Cassie rolled her eyes, but soon settled in to tell her story of the cowboy who rescued the widowed mother of the young farm girl.

"And then they were a family, protecting one another through life's long journey."

Nick had snuggled down close to her, his nose in her hair, as she told her story. He had closed his eyes and was almost asleep when she finished. "That's a good story." He mumbled as he drifted off.

Cassie turned to look at him. In the moonlight she could just make out the slope of his nose and curve of his mouth as he slept. She tipped her head slightly and kissed his cheek, "Sleep tight cowboy." She whispered before closing her own eyes and joining him in sleep.

….

Nick slowly woke up, realizing that for the first time in longer than he cared to admit, he felt content. He opened his eyes and realized that he had his face buried in Cassie's hair, her back plastered to his front as he held her to him.

He loosened his hold on her and she shifted in her sleep, moving to her back and turning her head toward him. He brushed the hair back from her face and just looked at her.

Nick wondered when she had become so beautiful. When had her lashes gotten quite so long and full, and her lips…

"When did you grow up?" he asked her quietly, not expecting an answer.

But he got one anyway. He had been too shocked at his revelation to see that she had opened her eyes.

Cassie smiled sleepily, "When you were looking at all the other girls."

Nick brushed her hair back a little more, "In any of those stories, does the cowboy and the princess or whoever, ever end up together?"

Cassie shrugged. "They could."

Nick nodded distractedly as he ran his fingertips over her cheeks and across her jaw, his surprise at figuring out she was grown starting to wear off. "I'm such an idiot." He said, mostly to himself.

Cassie nodded, still smiling. "Yeah, you are," she said, suddenly feeling a little unsure of herself, "but I love you anyway."

…..

Later that day when Cassie's mother walked into the room, she wasn't surprised to find them sitting on the couch, Nick at one end with his arm around Cassie and her head on his shoulder. She also wasn't surprised later, when Nick thought she wasn't looking, he leaned down and gave Cassie a quick peck on the lips before walking out of the room.

She wasn't worried either.

She wasn't worried, because she has an advantage that most other mothers don't have. It's not about being able to see that future; it's about truly knowing the man that loves her daughter. It's because she knows that no matter what the future brings, Nick will always do his best to keep their girl safe.