Final chapter, courtesy of PHANTOMPHOENIX4! R&R please! :)

Chapter 22: The End

"OOF", grunted Marlin as he landed harshly on the concrete floor of the juvenile detention cell. He heard the metal barred doors slam behind him. Marlin rose to his hands and knees and stared at the ground below him, tears sliding down his face. It was useless he was locked up, he wasn't going to get out, he was never going to see Nemo again, or…Dory.

"Dory," Marlin sobbed, "Even if I did get out of here… I'll… I'll never see her again" More tears slid down his face, his sobs getting louder.

"Hey knock it off," said a voice from behind him, "Or I'm gonna shove your tiny little orange head down the TOILET!"

Slowly Marlin turned to glance at his big teenage brute of a cell mate, complete with full body tattoos. The juvenile was sitting on the edge of his bed pounding a fist into his palm.

"I'm not scared of you," Marlin said calmly dismaying the boy's violent gestures, "Compared to a Great White, you're nothing."

"Say that again, kid" threatened the thug getting up off his cot to loam over the fish -boy.

"I'm not scar-UH" The thug punched Marlin in the gut, making him double over onto the floor. Cheering broke out through the hall, as it always does when something violent happens.

"OI!" shouted the officer coming to the cell's door, "What's going on in here!? Back off!"

"No way! I haven't had a good beat down since I pummeled my last roommate," sneered the crook turning back toward Marlin, his new pushing bag and continued to hit him.

"HEY!" shouted the officer again as he scrambled for his keys and entered the cell before pushing the bully away from Marlin.

Marlin withered on the floor in pain as the cop forced the criminal onto the ground and into hand cuffs.

The cop grabbed his talkie, "I have a situation in Prison Block A113, requesting back up, Over." Putting the talkie back on his belt he then turned to Marlin.

"Hey, Punk, that was pretty stupid," he smirked as he stood over Marlin, "Bet you'll feel that tomorrow."

Marlin glared at him clutching his stomach, before closing them tightly.

The cop raised an eyebrow, "Oi, kid, you ok?"

"Can't b-breathe," he choked out before giving a dry hack followed by a small gag.

"You better not puke on the floor! You've made a big enough mess already" scoffed the guard angrily as he reached down and pulled Marlin up roughly by the elbow and pushed him toward the corner. "Do it in the toilet!"

Marlin grasped the side of the toilet, his knuckles turning white with the force. The pain was nearly unbearable. The agonizing pain was radiating out from his stomach, where he had been punched, outwards to the rest of him. He could slowly feel a white hot heat pain climbing up his arms and down his legs.

"W-what's happening?" he gasped as he closed his eyes tightly. Suddenly, the pain spiked and he screamed before his world turned black.

It was cold. That was the first thing Marlin noticed once he came to. It was a relief after the burning pain that had ravished his body just moments before.

"Ugh, my head," Marlin moaned as he tried to open his eyes, before snapping them closed against the harsh light. "Ow".

He decided to stay right where he was, there was no rush. He was stuck in a waterless world surrounded by humans that wanted to fill his last moments with pain until his unavoidable end arrived.

"Yep, might as well just lie here, and wait for someone to kick me over," concluded Marlin depressed.

He didn't have to wait very long before he heard a voice. "HEY!"

"Yep, here it comes."

"Where'd that orange haired punk go!" yelled the voice. Marlin heard rushed footsteps. "A FISH?! WHAT THE-? GEEZ-US!

"Wait…what?" said Marlin his eyes flying open. He was in water! Water! He looked down at himself.

"Orange," he noted before lifting his hands-no, "FINS!" He turned, a giant smile on his face, "TAIL!" He turned again counting his stripes, "ONE! TWO! THREE! I'm me again!"

"WE HAVE A BREAK OUT, OVER! REPEAT, ESCAPEE FROM CELL 95 Block A113!" Marlin looked up at the voice just in time to see the guard reach over toward the flusher a look of confusion written across his face.

"Uh o-AHHHHHHH!" screamed Marlin as he was flushed down the toilet.

"Come on Nemo. You're going to be late for school," hollered Gill into the swaying pink tentacles of the anemone. The Moorish idol waited a moment, no response. "Nemo?"

"I'm coming. I'm coming" came the mumbled reply as the small orange fish slowly emerged from within.

"Alright then, let's go Sharkbait." Nemo nodded sadly as he followed Gill through the reef; suddenly he turned around and swam back toward his home.

"Hold on, Gill, I forgot something," shouted Nemo before he swam back into the anemone and rubbed himself against the pink tentacles a few times.

Nemo and the others had returned to the reef a few days ago, sad and heartbroken. The Tank Gang invited Nemo to live with them but Nemo had already lost so much, he didn't want to lose the one remaining thing of his father, their home. So, every morning and evening Gill accompanied Nemo to and from his home in an effort to comfort the little clown fish.

After a few more scrubs he swam out and rejoined Gil, who gave him a confused look.

Blushing slightly Nemo explained, "I was brushing. Dad had me do it every day." Nemo smiled at the memory of the tickle fights that usually followed the daily routine, before it quickly faded. "I miss him."

"I know, Nemo. I know," answered Gill sadly pulling Nemo to his side into a hug. "Come on, let's get you to school."

"What's up, Dude?" greeted Squirt when Nemo and Gill arrived in the school yard. Nemo perked up at seeing his lackadaisical friend.

"Not much, Dude. Ready for school?"

"Of course Man! I can't wait to learn more about the wave patterns Mr. Ray was talking about! They're so totally sweet! I was up late last night talking with my dad about them!"

Nemo face fell again at the mention of the word 'dad'. "Oh yeah, waves… waves are cool."

A look a horror spread across Squirt's face. "Ah Man! I'm sorry. I didn't think."

Nemo nodded in acceptance of the apology. Gill gave Nemo a comforting pat on the head.

"Time to head off boys, go on." The two of them started to swim off but Gill held Nemo back for a second.

"Try to have a good day, Sharkbait. Keep your chin up, kay?"

"Ok" replied Nemo as he gave Gill another hug.

"Good. See you after school."

"Waves are affected by the gravitational pull of the moon. And…" But the rest of Mr. Ray's lecture faded away, Nemo just couldn't pay attention his mind kept drifting back to his dad. Even though they had been back for a few days the incident was still fresh and painful. Nemo kept replaying the moment when his father was dragged away by the humans, screaming back at him that he loved him and-

"Nemo?"

Nemo came out of it at the sound of his friends' voices. His vision focus and floating in front of him were Squirt, Pearl, Shelton, and Tad.

"Oh hey guys!" his greeted the cheer in his voice forced, "Is it lunch time?"

"Yep! Let's go out to the drop off!" said Tad, the obnoxious butterfly fish, as he sped off.

"Yeah, Man!" agreed Squirt.

"Maybe we'll see Bruce!" added Shelton the seahorse as he swam ahead to catch up with Tad.

"It's always funny to see Bruce scaring fish for fun! Right Nemo?" laughed Pearl the octopus.

"Heh, yeah it is," answered Nemo halfheartedly as they reached the edge of the reef.

"Do you see him, Dudes?" asked Squirt. Tad shook his head as him a Shelton continued spinning in circles looking all around for the Great White.

"That's so weird! Usually he's here around this time," commented Pearl.

"I know right," said Shelton, "And he wasn't here yesterday either! Where'd he go?"

"Aw I really wanted to cheer him on as he scared fish silly!" whined Tad.

Nemo nodded in agreement, viewing the Great White's new hobby was always fun and helped him to get his mind of his dad for a few minutes. Nemo shook his head at the thought of his dad and turned to look out to the open ocean. He looked out until the blue water became so dark you couldn't see any farther. Suddenly a dark object appeared on the horizon. Nemo swam right out to the edge and squinted at the object. A small smile forming on his face as the object got closer.

"Hey guys, look! There he is!" The others swam up to his side.

"Sweet! HEY MAN!" yelled Squirt at the top of his lungs waving at the giant shark. The friends could just make out Bruce wave back and a sudden bright color shoot out from near Bruce.

"Hey what's that?" asked Peal squinting at the color. They all squinted too, the thing becoming clearer as it got closer. The, at first, undistinguishable bright color slowly became orange. Nemo's eyes widened.

"Hey, Nemo, is that?" gasped Shelton but Nemo was already gone.

"DADDY!" Nemo cried, swimming as fast as he could, stumbling over his lucky fin in his haste.

"NEMO!" Marlin called back quickly closing the distance between them. They crashed in to each other, falling into a tight hug, much like their last reunion.

"Nemo! Oh Nemo, thank goodness!" Marlin cried pulling Nemo closer before pulling back and holding Nemo's face in his fins looking his son in the eyes, "I'm here. I'm back!"

Nemo's smile couldn't get any bigger, "Dad! But how?! I thought you-"Marlin pulled Nemo back into a hug.

"Oh Nemo, I'm so sorry! So sorry" his grip tightened again, his eye's watering up.

"How did you get away?"

Marlin smiled, "When the goo were off I turned back and fell into what I believe is a toilet?"

Nemo's smile dropped. "All drains lead to the ocean" he whispered to himself remembering Gill's words. He laughed loudly turning to look Marlin and repeated himself, "All drains lead to the ocean!"

Marlin stared at his son before he started laughing too, "Do they?" Both father and son hugged each other as they shared their laughter and tears of joys.

The father and son's friends looked on in awe at the unlikely reunion. Suddenly Squirt perked up and turned to the others. "Dude's this is so totally cool! I gotta go tell Gill!" And he swam off

"Is there anything we can do for him" asked Peach to Gill from her perch against a rock.

"No, I don't think so," answered Gill as he glided by her. Since coming back the two of them, scratch that, everyone in the Gang, had had this conversation a thousand times about Nemo. It was easy to see the little clown fish was depressed and rightly so, but the others were still worried.

"I just wish he'd come live here with us," sighed Pearl, "I'm worried that living in his home well just make it worse."

"I do too, but I don't have the heart to tell him no," responded Gill, "We just need to give him time and place to come around. He's-"

"DUDES!"

Gill and Pearl turned toward the source of the shout.

"Squirt? Shouldn't you be in school," scolded Pearl.

"Yeah but he's back! He's back!" Gill and Pearl looked at each other confused.

"Whose back?" asked Gill.

"THE JELLY MAN!"

The others were still confused. "What's that now?" asked Bloat, as him and the rest of the gang poked their heads out from a large hole in a nearby rock.

"Ugh", Squirt rolled his eyes in frustration, "Nemo's DAD!"

"WHAT?!"

Gill and the others quickly approached the large crowd that had formed around reunited father and son. Marlin was well known around the reef for his adventures and the news of his return had spread like wild fire, but Gill had to see for himself.

"Sharkbait!" called Gill as he started pushing through the crowd, "Excuse me. NEMO! Excuse me coming through. Sharkb-"The Moorish Idol stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing the older clownfish, who was talking to another fish around him and all the while holding Nemo close. The rest of the gang quickly caught up, roughly bumping into Gill.

"Whoa" breathed Gurgle, the others nodded dumbly along.

"GILL!" shouted Nemo as he spotted the Tank Gang. He swam over Marlin close behind. The others continued to stare at the older clown fish, who grinned sheepishly, back at them.

"But how?" asked Deb finally breaking the silence.

Marlin smirked "All drain's lead to the ocean right?" If it were even possible the others fell even more into shock before Gill cracked and laughed. The others laughed too.

"Oh, it's good to see you in one piece, mate," said Gill as he pulled himself together and held out a fin to Marlin to shake.

Marlin gladly took it, "It's good to be back." Suddenly his smile fell and his voice filled with sadness. He dropped Gill's fin, "I was wondering- um, well," he glanced down at Nemo who looked back confused. Marlin sighed "W-What happened to… Dory? I mean what did you guys do after she- after she-"

"Wait" interrupted Nemo, "Dad she's-"

"Hold up Sharkbait" cut in Gill smiling, "Why don't we just show him?"

"Huh?" started Marlin.

The Tank Gang looked at each other and backed away from each other, parting to reveal one very special regal blue tang.

Marlin stared frozen in place. "Dory?" he whispered.

"Hi!" She greeted waving happily, "Where've you been, Buddy?"

"DORY!" yelled Marlin swimming forward grabbing her in a hug.

"Oh Dory! You're alive! You're alive" he cried happily into her side before pulling back and planting a kiss on her lips. Realizing this he quickly drew back. "Sorry I- um- I-"

Dory quickly pecked his lips effectively silencing his stuttering. "I missed you too."

Marlin chuckled pulling both Dory and Nemo into a group hug, giant smiles spread across all their faces. "Yeah but I'm back." His grip tighten around his loved ones, "Let's go home."

FIN~

Final author's note: Well guys, it's been almost an entire DECADE in the works, but Of Fish and Men is FINALLY completed! And we owe it all to PHANTOMPHOENIX4, who wrote a whopping twelve chapters! :) That's more than half the entire story. So I guess, really, it has now morphed into her creation, rather than my own. I owe her an immense thank you for dedicating so much of her time to this, and you guys should check out her further works.

I think I speak for both PHANTOMPHOENIX4 and myself when I say that we also owe you, the audience, a massive thank you too: without you guys reading and reviewing and pushing us forward, it might never have seen the end. We wouldn't have gotten anywhere without you guys.

I was 14 when I started writing this story. Now that it is finished, I am 24 years old. My life has changed a whole lot, but my love of fiction (and Finding Nemo of course) is still strong. And even though I never finished my story through my own words, I still feel privileged to have watched it garner so much attention, and make you guys feel a little happier :)

So, that's my final word to you all. Until next time: thanks again and I'll see you in the future!

JemimaLee