A/N: Last installment of the epilogue, and last chapter of the story, Declaring it done after this is posted. Like I said, I think the adventures of Hannah and Aaron could be fun. But I'm probably grasping. Anyway, I hope you liked the story. I discovered recently that this story is actually on the first page if you search for stories sorted by highest number of followers. Didn't know that! Thanks to everyone whose followed this story over the years and supported this take on their relationship, and thanks to all those who reviewed, it's all been great.

This... stinks.

I didn't even do anything! All I did was push that overgrown chimp off my brother. What was I supposed to do? Just sit there and watch him beat up my little brother? And I don't care what he says, Mom told me I was born first. Daddy will get me out of this though. He did last time.

The door opens and the principal steps out. "Alright, young lady, come on."

I huff and jump out of the chair. "It wasn't me." I tell him and go to the chair on the other side of his desk. He comes around and sits down in his own chair and puts his hands together on his desk, giving me one of his stupid looks. "What? It wasn't me! You can ask Gwen!" I say and cross my arms.

"Hannah, Mrs. Rose saw you run up to Tyler and push him to the ground."

"I did not push him to the ground. I pushed him off my brother. Get your facts straight." I mutter and slink down in my chair.

"Well, nevertheless, Hannah, we can not have-"

The door opens and I look over and smile. "Sorry I'm late, had to rush over."

"Daddy!" He'll get me out of this! My daddy loves his little princess, which just so happens to be me.

"Hi, princess." He says and puts a hand on my head. "Her mother will be in in just a minute."

Oh crud.

"That's fine, Mr. Shortman."

I sulk back down in my chair, Daddy goes over to the wall and leans against some book shelves, and I hear Mom's voice outside the door. "Just stay there, and we'll go in a minute."

"But, Mommy, Hannah was just-"

"I don't want to hear it right now, Aaron. We'll talk about it when we get home." That's never good a good sign, talking to us when we get home. Mom's never afraid to let us have it in public. She steps through the door and I sink down even lower in my seat, hiding from her. "Hi, sorry we're late."

"Yes, please, have a seat, Mrs. Shortman."

I don't look up but I see her sit down in the chair next to me. "So, what happened?"

"Well, it seems your daughter got into a bit of a fight with another student at recess."

"Hannah!" Daddy says from the other side of the room, and I feel so bad right now. I hate it when Daddy sounds like that. I get in trouble with Mom all the time, but Dad's different. I mean, Mom's alright most of the time. But why do we live in a house with so many hiding places if we weren't supposed to use them?

"As you can imagine, this is a serious offense. Hannah is facing suspension." Uh oh. "Considering that you're a teacher at Crestview Middle School, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that the district has a strict zero tolerance policy on fighting. And this isn't the first time we've talked to her about this. In fact this isn't the first time she's been warned about her behavior towards other students."

I look over to Mom, expecting her to be looking at me like she's literally about to kill me, but when I look up, she's looking at Principal Brown like that. Huh.

"Did you talk to any other students about what happened?"

"It's not part of our-"

"So you didn't ask anyone else, any other students present at the time of the altercation, or any other staff present during recess about what happened between my daughter and this other student?"

"No, ma'am, but you see-"

"Because I talked to my son, Aaron, her twin brother, who was present at the time, and he told me that Hannah was simply pushing another boy off of him who had my son pinned on the ground. And judging by your tone, I'm guessing you didn't know that. Did you?"

"Well, I-I hadn't gotten a chance to let Hannah give me her side of the story, so-"

"So instead you just drag her in here and threaten her with suspension?"

"Mrs. Shortman-"

"And I'm sure you are aware that the school district also has a zero tolerance policy on bullying, if I'm correct." She says and looks over to Daddy, who has a bit of a blank look on his face with his arms crossed. He nods. He doesn't look as mad as Mom does, but the only time the only time I've ever seen Daddy mad is when me and Aaron were playing in the piano room and accidentally knocked over his guitar. "So, I assume that you are also starting the process needed to suspend the other child as well?"

Principal Brown sighs and closes his eyes. "Not yet, Mrs. Shortman."

"In that case, before you try to make an example out of my daughter, I suggest you do your job, and get the whole story before you jump to conclusions just so you can get on with your day. That said, my son tells me the boy who was bullying him this afternoon at recess was named Tyler."

"Tyler Moss, yes, he's a bit of a troublemaker."

"What I would suggest for you to do is to have Tyler come into your office, or preferably your school councilors office tomorrow morning, have Aaron come in with him and have them talk it out, then have Hannah come down, and then the councilor-"

"Debra, Hun."

"Debra, can file a report to you and if she recommends suspension for our daughter," she stops and looks over to me with the same scary look she's giving Principal Brown, "then I will be glad to send her to her Grandpa Bob's to do some chores." Oh no no no no no, not Grandpa Bob. I'm seven! I can't chop wood! Last time I got sent there, he made me sweep his driveway. His driveway is made out of dirt!

Principal Brown closes his eyes and nods. "I think we can do that, Mrs. Shortman."

Mom smiles and nods. "Good." She stands up and grabs her purse. "I'm glad we could work this out."

Mom is the first one out the door and Daddy waits till I'm passing him, putting his hand on my head. I walk out of the principals office, seeing Aaron standing up from one of the chairs by the lady's desk. "Daddy, am I in trouble?" I look up to him.

"No, pumpkin. You were just standing up for your brother. Mom should understand."

"She was pretty mad in there though."

"She wasn't mad at you, Hannah."

"But she said I had to do chores at Grandpa's."

"Hey," Daddy picks me up and smiles, "you're not going to Grandpa Bob's. I won't let your mother send my kids there without me again."

"Daddy!" Aaron runs up from down the hall where he was walking next to Mom. "Mommy said that Uncle Gerald and Aunt Phoebe are coming over tonight." Really?! Uncle Gerald is so much fun! I love it when he comes over. "Are they really?"

"Yep. And you can tell them all about what a brave sister you have." Daddy says and looks over to me. "I'm sure they'd love to hear this one."

"Yeah, I'd just love to tell the story of how I needed to have my little sister defend me in front of the whole school."

"If you weren't so scrawny, I wouldn't need to, and it's big sister! I was born first!"

"Were not!"

"Were too!"

"Daddy?" We ask at the same time.

Daddy looks at me, then Aaron, then over to Mommy. "Wasn't it..." He says to her, nodding his head over to me. I smile and start bouncing on my feet.

"You want to know who was born first?" Mom asks with a half smile. Me and Aaron both nod. She bends over and looks at us both. "I was, now get in the car."

I open the door and the kids drop their backpacks right as they get through the door and start bolting upstairs. "Whoa whoa whoa." Helga calls, stopping the kids half way up the stairs. "I don't remember moving into a cave." She snaps her fingers and points towards the kids back packs they left on the floor. Both Aaron and Hannah groan and roll their eyes in almost the exact same way and drag themselves down stairs and pick up their backpacks and take them upstairs.

I hear them let out a long breath and push her hair back with her hand. "Something wrong, Hun?" I ask, going toward the kitchen.

She starts following me into the kitchen while I roll up my sleeves and start up the espresso machine. "Where did she get this from? This... problem with authority. This is the third time Hannah has been called into the principal's office this year alone."

"Am I answering that honestly?" I ask after a pause, looking over my shoulder toward her, while she gives me a snide look.

"I'm serious, Arnold. We have to do something about this. We can't just keep letting this go, every time she gets into a fight with another kid."

"Well, Helga, I think this time is different. Aaron said that that kid pushed him down and grabbed him by the collar. Hannah was just doing what any sibling would do. I'm proud of her."

"Why on earth are you proud of the fact that our daughters first reaction to something like that is violence?"

"Hey, what I would have given to have someone step in every time you pushed me to the ground."

She steps up next to me and turns my head toward her with two fingers on my jaw. "How else was I supposed to get you underneath me?" She asks with that sexy little smirk.

"You could have just..." I put my hand on her side and tug her into me, "I don't know, asked?"

"Mmm." She moans and puts her arms around my neck. "Woman in my family don't ask for things we want. We just take them."

"Is that why Hannah has such bad manners?"

She slaps my shoulder and backs away with a scoff, and I just laugh and go back to making us some lattes. "So, what are we going to do about Hannah?" She asks, sitting in one of the stools by the island.

"Well, I think she gets a bit of a free pass on this one. She was just defending her brother. But I think we have to tell her that she can't solve her problems with violence."

"Yeah." She says on a sigh. "Sometimes you have to lip sync some lame song."

"Well, it worked, didn't it?"

The kids come back down about a half an hour later when I'm in the living room with a piece of half empty sheet music in my lap. I still don't know how I was able to get a piece of music published, but I did. When I did, I got offered a position at Oregon State University as a professorship. But that's over four hours from here, it would have meant moving, so I turned it down. Didn't take too long to think about it, honestly. When we spent the whole year after we got married searching for just the right house with no luck, we finally just decided to build one. I love this house too.

Mom and Dad still live pretty close. They stay active in the local charities, but they're retired for the most part. Olga moved back to Hillwood with her husband and replaced Principal Wartz just after the twins were born. They actually ended up adopting a child, and were adamant about it being from this country. His name is Sam, and the kids like it when he comes down. I'm glad my kids get to have an extended family. Bob lives about forty five minutes outside the city. He retired from his job a few years ago and bought an old farm house on about ten acres. We like to go out there... when we aren't punishing the kids.

Gerald stopped touring as a comic this year and announced his retirement from comedy. With his career being so demanding, and Phoebe's being just as, if not more demanding, they never got the chance to have kids. But they visit us, and everyone else's kids that they get their fill. I know Lisa, Rhonda's and Curly's daughter gives them a bit of a run for their money. She has Rhonda's attitude and Curly's wild side. She's just about as spoiled as her mother too.

Lila ended up being a teacher too, actually. A preschool teacher at Urban Tot's, where we all went. She discovered her gift for small children during her freshman year of college when she got pregnant. Her and Sid broke up just after graduation, amicably, and she went on to meet a guy who seemed nice until the test came back positive. Cut and run after that. I wanted to track him down for her and talk to him, I thought I could talk him into going back and being there for her, but Lila made me promise not to, so I didn't. But Helen is a pretty sweet kid. Lila named her after her mother. I didn't see her until she came to a book signing of Everyone Needs An Umbrella. That's when she told us what had happened, that she read Helga's book and loved it.

But in the mean time, I hear the door open and I stand up, knowing I'm being beaten to the door by my kids, who know who's coming through the door. "Uncle Gerald!" They both shout, dashing toward the open door.

"Oh come on. What kind of greeting is that for your godfather?" Gerald says and bends down, hoisting Hannah up while his leg gets viced by Aaron. "Man, next time I come through the door, you might have to pick me up, you're getting so big!"

"I bet I could do it right now." Hannah boasts smuggly.

"All the confidence of her mother and then some." Gerald says, looking at me, while I just smile at the sight I'm looking at. I have awesome kids.

"You have no idea, Gerald. Hi Phoebe." I say to Phoebe, going over to the doorway to hug her. "Hannah, you want to tell your Uncle Gerald what happened today?"

"I beat a kid up!"

"Hannah!" Phoebe scolds next to me.

"Was she bigger than you?" Gerald asks, still holding my smirking daughter in his arms.

"It was a boy." I tell him.

"You beat up a boy?!" Gerald asks with astonishment. Hannah smiles and folds her arms, quite proud of her self. The fact that my daughter is proud of the fact that she got into a fight with a boy and won should probably scare me. "Alright, hi-five!" Hannah hi-fives her godfather with a giggle.

He sets Hannah back down to the ground, while I tell Phoebe that Helga is in the kitchen getting dinner ready. It isn't until Hannah is on the ground that Gerald notices my son, whose pouting, still attached to his leg. "What's with the face, little man?" Aaron mumbles something into Gerald's pant leg, causing Gerald to hoist him just, just as he did Hannah, whose ran off after Phoebe. "Sorry, I don't speak little boy with pant leg in their mouth."

Aaron smiles, and I know what's upsetting him. "Hannah had to push a kid off me today at recess."

"Alright, come on, you can tell me all about it." Gerald says, walking into the living room and plopping down into the recliner by the window. "So, what happened at recess?"

I'm just as anxious to hear this as he is. Helga and I were going to talk to him together, but Gerald might get him to be a bit more honest. Aaron's a great kid, he has such a good heart, so him being involved in something like this came as a big shock. I mean, I inadvertently taught him perfect pitch, so I've had to be his music teacher, so we're pretty close.

"Well, me and my friends needed one more person for our basketball game, so I went over and asked this kid Tyler if he wanted to be on our team. Tyler doesn't have many friends, so I thought it would be nice if he played with us. He said no, so I asked him if he wanted to sit with us at lunch, because he doesn't usually have a lunch with him. That's when he pushed me and grabbed my shirt. Then Hannah runs over and pushes him off of me and starts yelling at him."

His mother is not going to like hearing this. "So you got bullied?" Gerald asks nonchalantly.

"Yeah. It stunk. Not as much as my sister having to defend me though. She's a girl!"

"Hey, your daddy got bullied by a girl when we were your age."

"You were bullied, Daddy?" My son asks me.

"By a girl?" I hear my daughter ask, darting into the living room and jumping up onto the couch, while Aaron climbs off Gerald and goes to my other side, so both my kids are staring at me wide-eyed, waiting for me to answer them.

"Yep."

"No way!" They both say together.

"Oh yeah. I remember her, too."

"You do?" Hannah asks.

"Sure, I do. She really had it in for your dad. She would spit spitballs at him, squirt him with the water fountain, spill tapioca pudding on him, call him a sorts of names, she was the meanest thing on two legs, and she hated your daddy. She bullied him every day when we were kids."

"What did you do, Daddy?" Hannah asks me.

"Yeah, you fill her locker with Jell-o?" Aaron asks me.

"Put wet noodles in her desk?"

"Superglue her butt to her chair?"

"Yeah, what did you do, Daddy?"

"Yeah, what happened to her?"

"She's in the kitchen."

Both their jaws drop, and their eyes go wide. "Mom?" They ask together. They do that a lot. I nod. They both scramble off of me and off of the couch, making a bee line toward the kitchen. "Mommy!" They call. I look over toward the kitchen, where Helga came in and was greeted by her children trying to tackle her.

"What is it, kids?"

"You bullied Daddy when you were kids?" Hannah asks.

Helga looks at me agape. "Arnold, your were going to let me tell them!"

"Don't look at me." I say, holding a hand out to Gerald.

"Why did you bully Daddy, Mom?" Hannah asks, attached to one of her mother's legs, while Aaron is on the other, looking up at her.

"Well, princess," She starts and walks over to the couch and sits down next to me, pulling Hannah up on her lap, and I reach down to lift Aaron up into mine, "because I loved your Dad very, very much."

"But why did you bully him then?" Aaron asks.

"It's kind of hard to explain, Sweetie. I bullied him because I loved him, and didn't want him to know that I loved him."

"It was a secret?" Hannah asks.

"Yep, the biggest secret ever. Not even Aunt Phoebe knew about it."

"Yes, I did!" She calls from the kitchen.

"But Mommy, I thought you said that bullying was wrong." Aaron says.

"It is, it's very wrong. That's why I don't want you two to bully people, because I know how much of a hard time I gave your father."

"I couldn't stand her." I chime in.

"Really? You didn't love Mom back?" Hannah asks.

"Not until we were grown ups. But even though I couldn't stand her at the time, I knew that she was a great person." I hear Gerald snort from across the room.

"Shut it, Hair Boy." Helga says through clenched teeth.

"What she's trying to say, Hannah, is that you really shouldn't judge a person like Tyler. He might be a better person than you might think."

The kids look down to their laps and I look over to my wife, moving my eyes over toward the kitchen, indicating that we need to talk in private.

I slow to a stop outside the small out in the suburbs. After I talked to Aaron more about Tyler, I decided to do something. I know the school system can't do anything, and I can't just sit idly by while this happens to another child, especially if my kids are involved. I've done the best I can with my kids, and I love them more than anything in the world, and I'm really proud of Aaron and how he tried to befriend someone like Tyler. He has so much of his father in him. "Alright, come on, Sweetie." I get out and wait for Aaron to get around the car, holding out my hand. He takes it and we head up to the door.

I take a look inside the pick up truck as I pass it. Obviously middle class blue collar, and obviously drinks, might be a hunter, this is Oregon after all. Hunting is pretty big around here. I head up to the door and knock. And after a moment, the door opens and a woman about my age with short, dark hair answers the door, and her eyes get wide. "Oh my god." She obviously recognized me. "Oh my go... You're H.G. Creek!"

"H.G. Creek is actually my pen name, I'm Helga Shortman." I say and stick out my hand and she shakes it vigorously.

"Oh, I'm such a big fan! I-I... c-could you please, um..." She walks over to the coffee table and grabs the third book in the series, and a pen. I smile and open to the title page and sign it. -H.G. Creek, I'm here to talk about your husband. She reads it and her eyes get wide, then she looks behind her shoulder. "What?"

"Well, it seems that Tyler and my son, Aaron," I say, putting my hands on my sons shoulder, "got into a bit of an argument at school on Friday. And after I was told about Tyler, I felt that it was best I come by."

"Who is it?" A deep voice bellows from inside the house, and a few moments after, a tall figure comes out from around the corner. "Who are you?"

"I'm Helga Shortman, your son, Tyler, goes to school with my son, Aaron and my daughter Hannah. And it seems that Aaron and Tyler got into a bit of an argument, and it got a bit out of hand."

"Tye! Get out here!" He yells. I don't even flinch, but I can feel Aaron burrow into my protectively, wrapping himself around my leg. I see a seven year old boy with dark hair come from around the corner, looking so small. "I thought I told you no more trouble making. What's goin' on with you, boy? You didn't hear me?"

"Sir, if I may interject." I say firmly, taking a step inside the house. Tyler's father looks over and I harden myself. "I came by because after I heard what happened, and asked my son to tell me about Tyler, I felt it best, for the sake of Tyler, to come by and urge you to show your son a little more love and support. And I can tell, just by being here for the past couple minutes that you feel it's best to rule your family with an iron fist, and your child doesn't have any problems you can't beat out of him, but I can tell you right now that your are setting your child on a path that does not have a bright future."

"Who are you anyway, lady?"

"She's a seven time best selling author, Michael. She's famous."

"I am also friends with Vanessa, down at Child Protective Services, who will not hesitate to come down and think of a solution that is best for Tyler. Now I would not relish calling her, because seperating a child from their parents is permanently damaging, no matter what the circumstance. But I need you to understand something, Mr. Moss." I tell him and take a few more steps toward him. "If you keep trying to scare your own problems out of your child, you are causing more problems then you are fixing. If you want, I can give you the number to a very talented family councilor who will sit down with all of you and talk all of this out. But if you don't, you should know..." I take one more step closer to him so I'm standing just a foot away from him. "The judge in a divorce hearing always sides with the abused mother and her child over the abusive father."

He stares me down for a few long moments, but backs down once he sees I'm not backing down. "Alright." He says.

I pull a card out of my pocket and hand it to him. "I'm sure that squeeze you in sometime next week." I say seriously. I step back, turning around and grabbing Aaron's hand, smiling. "But in the mean time, I'm sure that we'd love to have Tyler come over some time." I say, looking between Tyler's mother and Tyler, whose peaking out from around the corner.

"Would you like that, Tye?" His mother asks him. He looks down to the floor, kicks his foot and nods. "I'm sure we could work something out."

"Why don't we let the kids decide. But, we actually have to get going." I look back over to Tyler's father pointedly, "I'm glad we could work this all out, Mr. Moss."

"Nice seeing you."

"It was an honor meeting you."

I smile and lead Aaron out the door and down the drive way. "Mommy?"

"Yes, Sweetie?" I say, looking down to my son.

"Can you not tell anyone that a girl had to defend me?"

"That girl happens to be your sister. And you should be proud that you have a sister that looks out for you like that." I wish mine did what I was his age.

"Mommy, please? She's going to hold this over me for the rest of my life as it is. So please, can you not say anything?"

I smile and open the back door, "It will be our secret, honey."

"Really? You won't tell anyone?"

"Not a soul."