This was supposed to go up way earlier today. I'm sorry, folks, but here we are!

This is it! This is truly the end! I can't believe it's done. I've written a lot of other stories, as some of you probably know, but this one is my baby, it's so, so dear to me, and it means a lot that you all take the time to read and review. When I took this on I wasn't sure that I could do it, and now that it's over I'm glad I was able to create something I'm proud of, and that is in part because of your encouragement and all your lovely messages, so thank you so much for your support, guys!

Also, today is the 103rd anniversary of the sinking of Titanic (yes, I totally planned to post this today because of that, I'm a sap like that), so when you're done reading this, go pay your respects and watch a few documentaries on this tragic but fascinating moment in history.

Robin walks in the door at 8:15 on Friday night after a long day at the station, marveling at the delicious smell coming from the kitchen. She's made apple turnovers again, he thinks with a smile.

Walking into the living room, he leaves his coat on the rack and the newspaper on the coffee table, then moves towards the couch, where he finds her fast asleep with Roland, both nestled on the cushions and breathing deeply. His heart swells at the sight, and he wonders, not for the first time, how he ever got so lucky.

It's been over a year since they were rescued from the sea, since they lost their friends and gained a new life full of trials and conflict and beautiful moments all threaded together.

They'd sold the necklace to a private collector, who took it with him to France with the utmost discretion and left them with a good chunk of money. They'd been staying in an apartment owned by Ruby, within a building owned by Ruby, and when they'd sold the jewel and voiced their wishes to buy a place of their own, she presented them with a notarized document that made them the official owners of the small Manhattan two-bedroom they'd been calling home. She told them they were family, that they'd all lost enough, that they weren't leaving, and that that was the last she wanted to hear of it.

Regina had laughed, hugged her friend, accepting her offer, and then she'd cried herself to sleep in his arms that night, giving into the echoing despair still left in her after Titanic. He'd hugged her tight, kissed her hair, and as she'd cuddled into his side, they'd pondered on what to do with the money now that getting a place to live wasn't a necessity.

They had set up funds for Henry and Roland's education with most of the money, like they said they would, and donated the rest to a women's shelter Ruby founded almost as soon as she disembarked from the Carpathia. She'd marched right into the bank, presented herself as "proof of life" to the men handling her accounts, and demanded her funds were released immediately. When they'd confirmed her identity and she was once again in control of her money, she'd bought a small hotel and reopened it as a shelter under a new charity organization of her own creation, 'The Emma Swan Foundation for Survivors', to be exact.

With the shelter, the women and children that traveled with them, left alone and penniless after Titanic took their husbands and fathers, had food and a roof over their heads while they got back on their feet, and once they'd started making a life of their own and the rooms were vacated, other women had started coming in, running from abusive homes. Regina works there as a counselor now, and she's wonderful at it.

Robin himself had ended up working for the New York Police Department, ironically enough. His talents as a sketch artist are prized in the force, and he makes a decent living from it, but more importantly, he enjoys it immensely, even though more often than not, his friends at work will catch him drawing Regina in his down time and rib him for it. But he doesn't care that they tease him for being head-over-heels in love with her. After all, they're only telling the truth.

While he's at the station, Roland spends his time with Regina at the shelter, helping Granny cook for the women and children staying there. He's quite the little chef, and both Granny and Regina highly encourage his love for cooking, teaching him new things whenever they have the time. He's starting school in the fall, and he could not be more excited if he tried, asks Regina to walk the two extra blocks from the shelter to the school after work just so he can look at it in awe.

Henry has taken the longest to heal, and it's perfectly understandable. He misses Emma, and there are times where he will snap at Ruby and Regina, at Robin, even at Roland, and locks himself up in his room in Ruby's penthouse and not talk to them again for hours, frustrated that he can't seek out the one person he wants comfort from. But every time, he shuffles his feet out of the room once he's cooled down, apologizes to everyone, hugs Ruby and kisses Regina's cheek, and the three of them cry together as the two women lie on each side of him on his bed and read him fairy tales before he goes to sleep, like his mother used to do. Those are just the bad days, though, and they've gotten fewer and farther between as time goes on. Most days are good now, and Robin is proud to see the boy thriving at school and finding joy in his new life despite the emotional hardships that plague him.

Robin's relationship with Regina had also seen its fair share of hardships. Adjusting had been difficult, and they'd fought a lot at first, as he should've known they would (after all, they'd only known each other for a few days before tragedy struck). Regina's a stubborn woman, resilient and hell-bent on always getting her way, but she also feels things deeply, feels them with her whole soul, and despite the yelling and the crying, she's shown him a love he's only ever read about in Henry's nighttime fairy tales, and it's that love that keeps them together, that has helped them understand each other better and build a life together.

Her hair is shorter than is considered fashionable, but she'd needed a change, had wanted to get rid of anything that connected her to her old life. He remembers that day fondly.

Do you hate it? she'd asked after she'd cut it, and he'd buried his fingers in her dark tresses and smiled.

I love it, he'd told her sincerely, walking behind her and moving her now short hair to the side, baring her neck to his wandering lips. He'd landed kisses on her skin, from neck to shoulder, wrapping his arms around her and breathing her in for a few moments before taking her to bed and losing himself in her warmth, her touch…

He crouches down in front of her and slowly coaxes Roland away, cradling him in his arms and taking him to his room, tucking him in and kissing his head before he heads back out to the living room. She's still out cold, and he kneels in front of her, brushing the back of his hand against her cheek, grinning when she adorably scrunches up her nose and slowly blinks her eyes open.

"You're home," she says with a sleepy smile.

"How was your day?" he asks in a low voice after he presses a kiss to her lips.

"Exhausting," she pouts, and he chuckles, can't resist the urge to kiss her again, a series of chaste pecks to her mouth until she's awake enough to deepen them, the tip of her tongue tasting his.

"I, uh, I found out some interesting news," he begins when they part, his eyes looking down at her shoulder, where his finger is trailing lazy circles.

"Yeah?" she asks, voice still slurred with sleep.

Robin turns and grabs the paper he'd left on the coffee table, opens the obituary section, and shows it to her. Regina furrows her brow as she tries to find what it is he wants her to see, squints as she reads over a few announcements, until her eyes land on the small picture of Leopold Blanchard gracing the top left hand corner of the page.

"He's dead?" she asks in a whisper.

"The official version is he resisted a robbery and got killed for it, but no one gets stabbed thirteen times for a robbery alone."

"Thirteen times?!" Regina asks, baffled, and Robin can only nod.

"I spoke to some of the men at the precinct, apparently he got in with the wrong crowd, borrowed some very large sums of money and drank it away when his investments didn't pull through, so when they came to collect and he couldn't pay them…"

"They stabbed him to death."

"Seems so, yes," he affirms. She looks pensive, lost in absent perusal of the newspaper page in her hand.

"Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not alright," she admits, "but I will be. I love you, I love our life. And I'm relieved that he's gone, I just… I wish I could've confronted him, you know? All that time looking over my shoulder, scared that he'd see us on the street, that he'd hurt us… he deserved worse than what he got, and I just wish I could've told him that, show him all the damage he caused, get some closure."

"I know, but maybe this can be your closure now that you needn't worry about him anymore. You're free now, my love."

"I've been free since the moment I met you," she tells him sincerely, and it has a surge of pride running through him as he smiles in reply.

"How about a bath? Some warm water, maybe a few candles?" She smiles at that, and he inwardly cheers in victory.

"There it is," he says as he cups her cheek in his hand, "there's that elusive but satisfying smile I think about every time I close my eyes."

She kisses him then, slowly, sampling and exploring lazily, and heat flashes through him when her hand tangles into his hair and deliciously scrapes her nails against his scalp.

"I love you," she says again when she breaks the kiss, and no matter how much time passes, he'll never tire of hearing those words from her, will never not grin at her like an idiot when she says them.

"I love you," he echoes, kissing her smile.

She rises, hands sliding down his arms to thread their fingers as he stands with her.

"Dance with me?" she asks.

"Always, milady," he answers, drawing her into his arms, locking his wrists on the small of her back and burying his nose in her hair as she sighs against his neck. It's become a thing for them, swaying in each other's embrace without music to guide their steps, but they are always in sync, always complementing each other's movements, and he knows, without a doubt, that they're both thinking of the same tune, the sultry melody that young musician –Will was his name, he recalls- had played for them while they danced around the third class dining room of the grandest ship in the world.

Robin will never regret boarding Titanic. He misses John terribly, even crumbles under the weight of his friend's absence sometimes, and the fear they felt, the tragedy they witnessed while they fought for their lives, none of it will ever be erased from his mind or his soul, but he will never regret getting on that ship. It had brought him to Regina, and he's convinced now that it was destiny, that their souls had been entwined long before they met, because now that he's found her, that she's his and his alone, he feels a crippling pain tear through his chest at the mere thought of what his life would've been like without her in it, how dreary and dull his world would've been without her light. Thankfully, he needn't think about that, because she's here, every day, an explosion of color that makes his heart soar.

He thinks of her, thinks about the fact that he makes her as happy as she does him, thinks about her silky hair splayed on their pillow, thinks of her smile, of the way her eyes are sure to well up tomorrow morning when he brings her breakfast in bed and gives her the small diamond ring he's been carrying around in his pocket for weeks now, and he grins, decides that whatever adventure comes his way, he'll embrace it, so long as Regina is right there to live it with him.

Wherever she jumps, he will follow.

FIN

Hope that was satisfying enough to those of you who wanted a glimpse into their lives in New York, and even more satisfying for those of you who wanted Leopold to get some cosmic retribution for all the shitty things he did (I figured him losing all his money and then being stabbed to death was appropriate, don't you?).

Next in my list of multi-chapter fics is Madam President, a fic where Regina is elected President of the United States and is in love with the head of her Secret Service. I don't know when exactly I'll start posting that one, seeing as I have to write a big chunk of it first, but hopefully sometime in June?

Meanwhile, I'll still be doing one-shots and prompts from Tumblr so keep an eye out on the Pixie Dust Never Lies compilation if you're interested =)

And again, THANK YOU!