A/N: This is it y'all. I put in some references to the previous chapters which, I thought, was a good way to end this. I didn't want to end on a grand moment in the actual story, but this Author's Note will.

This was just a little idea I had in my mind back in July when I found out about Artie and Tina. Over a month and 16 chapters later, it's over. It's been a crazy journey because I have never written a Glee fanfiction before, never written a multi-chapter fic before and never had it open for the public to read. I'm extremely grateful for all of you who have been reading and reviewing, especially Average Everyday Sane Psycho who took the time to review every single chapter. You're awesome! All of you are amazing and thank you for spending part of your day reading what I assumed to just a story I wanted to write. I would love to hear your feedback and hopefully, I'll be back sometime with another story to tell. :D

"Ahem."

I pulled away from Tina confused because everything was going to perfectly and for once it wasn't me who ruined it. It seems that in our, er, excitement, we forgot Brad was there. He noisily scooted off of the piano bench and walked off stage, his shoes loudly echoing in the now almost silent auditorium. Seeing Brad leave in a huff caused Tina and I to break out laughing at the silliness of the situation. I linked my hands together behind her back to keep her from falling off my lap. Our laughter subsided and she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pressed her forehead against mine, closing her eyes. I closed mine too and resumed rubbing circles in the small of her back. How was I so stupid enough to let her go?

"What now?" She whispered to me so softly that I almost missed it.

"I think we should talk." I whispered back before we unwrapped ourselves from each other. She climbed off of my lap, giving me a swift kiss in the process. "Do you wanna talk here or…?"

"Nah, not here. Brad might come back and ban us from the auditorium," she replied gathering her things and mine from offstage. "Is there any where you had in mind?"

"Anywhere you want," I replied, letting her go ahead of me as we left the auditorium. I let her lead the way, "So where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," she replied, looking back at me with a small smile on her face as we reached the school's double door entrance. I wheeled over, held the door open for her and motioned for her to go through first. It felt really good to do that. I saw my dad parked in the parking lot and I went over to tell him that he could just go home without me. He glanced over my shoulder to see Tina standing there and he gave me a grin and said, "Go get her champ." He drove away and I laughed at Tina when she jumped up when my dad scared her by honking the horn. She then retaliated by poking me in the back of the head. It all felt really normal and casual and right… like these past few months didn't happen at all. But when she didn't put her hand on the back of my neck like she did before, I was reminded that it did happen. She walked a little in front of me, which was needed. I had to think about what I wanted to say to her and I'm sure she had to also. The wind was starting to pick up a little because autumn was well on its way, but otherwise the weather was still nice.

"Seriously Tee, where are we going?"

"Where else do we go?" She said, pointing in the direction of the street sign. I had to squint a little because my eyesight was pretty bad but from what I could make out, we were headed to the park. It was the right place for us to start over again. We continued our journey in silence that was broken by me asking her to help push me up a small hill. I thanked her when she stepped behind me and wheeled me up like a pro. I slowly wheelied down it, leaving only a small block left until the park. "I've never told you this, but I think it's really cool when you do that, but it's also a little scary," Tina confessed when we started moving at the same pace. I laughed, but was reminded of something.

"Speaking of things we've never told each other…" I talked to her about the things I read in 'Rolling Through Life,' telling her my concerns about my condition and how it would affect our relationship. "I like it when you do some stuff for me, like just now with the hill thing and the massages, but, I want you to know that I can do things on my own."

"I know, but I just wanna help…"

"Tee, I know. And I really appreciate it, but it makes me feel like I can't do anything sometimes..." She opened her mouth to protest, so I went on before she could say anything. "And I know you don't mean it and I don't mean to feel that way, but it happens. And I'll try to stop snapping at you when that happens."

"Okay… so what should we do about that?"

"Just ask if I need help and if I don't, let me do it." I answered, looking at her for approval.

"I can do that." She said surely. "And that whole asserting your masculinity thing you talked about earlier… I get it. But it's not an excuse for objectifying me."

"I know. I'm working on it."

"So I'll try not to baby you and you'll try not to be a jerk about it."

"Sounds like a plan," and I held my pinky out and she linked hers with mine as we made a promise to be better. We crossed our hearts also for good measure.

"There's our spot," she said pointing to a familiar grassy spot where we once had an ice cream war and other memories lingered. We made our way and got into our usual positions of me lying on the grass and her right next to me, her head resting on my chest.

"I've missed you."

"Me too," I said back. "So how much did you hear a couple weeks ago with me and the divas in the hallway?"

"Pretty much everything after Mercedes called you Vanilla Lightning," she replied laughing at the nickname.

"Oh so pretty much everything," I said back. "I really am sorry. For everything. For leaving you on our first date, objectifying you, yelling at you, ignoring you, being a jerk… just…"

"Artie..." She said lifting her head up from off of my chest and propping herself up on her right elbow. "I've forgiven you for all of that and you need to stop beating yourself up over these things."

"But… I just don't think you deserve someone who messes up so much," I sighed, burying my face with both of my hands. Tina held both of my wrists and pulled my hands away so she could look me in the eyes.

"Who was the one who actually took the time to listen to me when I tried to tell Finn what I was good at? Who gave me enough confidence to dance in front of the whole school? Who was first one who congratulated me on getting a solo? You. I still have the petals from a bouquet of my favorite flowers you gave me after that performance. They're pressed in that Rock n Roll Encyclopedia you left at my house. You even took time out of your own rehearsals to help me during that Lady Gaga week."

"I know…. But…"

"Those nights after we all cried in Mr. Schue's apartment and after we lost at Regionals, you were the one who made me feel like everything was gonna be okay." She ran one of her hands along the side of my face, wiping away my doubts.

"Any good friend or boyfriend would have done that…" I said, finally addressing a topic we never addressed before. "I bet Mike would have." She looked at me in disbelief. "Wasn't he good to you?"

"I'm not gonna lie, he was a perfect gentleman. He was nice, chivalrous… a real knight in shining armor kind of guy." I clenched my jaw and waited for more praise about him. But to my surprise, they didn't come. "But he didn't follow up my movie quotes. He didn't know who I dressed up as at that Harry Potter thing. We didn't have ice cream wars, or trade pizza toppings, or make forts." She said, making me shiver as she traced patterns along my ribcage. She saw that I was about to protest again and continued, "You need to give yourself more credit. You're awesome."

"He was your chance for the normal life I could never give you," I said, propping myself on my elbows, looking at her in the eyes.

"I don't want normal, Artie." She replied. "I could walk and run and jump and dance with Mike… but with you…" she said, smiling that shy, small smile that always got to me. "Artie, with you, I feel like I could fly." I couldn't find the words to explain how much it meant that she felt the same way about me. I lifted her chin with one hand and brought her lips to meet mine. I kissed her slowly and deliberately, conveying all that I couldn't say into that kiss and I was met with equal passion. We parted for air and I lied back down on the ground and Tina nuzzled into my chest.

"Who needs a knight in shining armor when you got one in a sweater vest?" I joked, running my hand up and down her arm.

"A bird sweater vest," Tina added, laughing. "It was good for us to have this talk… I wish we had it earlier."

"Yeah, me too. But at least we know now."

"And knowing is half the battle."

"Mhmm… the other half… it'll be tough. But we can do it right?"

"Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting…" She replied smiling up at me.

"We can work it out," I finished and she repeated. Silence overcame us and we just lied on the ground, enjoying the feeling of each other. I suddenly felt a shiver go through me that had nothing to do with the way she was still tracing patterns on my ribcage. "It's getting kinda cold, wanna head someplace else?"

"Okay. Your place or mine?"

"Yours okay? I think my parents have the Himmelfarbs over for dinner, which means we'd probably have to spend the entire night in my room being anti-social." I told her as I transferred myself back onto my chair.

"You're actually rejecting the idea of us spending an entire night in your room?"

"Yes, I am. What do you think I am? Some kinda pig?" I said in mock indignation. "Your place is nearer anyway. Friday night movie?"

"What else do we do?" She replied and I smiled at her. "Need a push?" Tina asked me as I struggled a little bit to wheel myself from the grass back onto the concrete path. I nodded to her and she helped me up and I told her if she wanted to keep pushing, she could. As she led us out of the park, towards her house, I got our iPod out of my bag and handed her an earpiece. Six and a half songs later, we arrived at her place and settled into our old routine of me getting snacks in the kitchen and her picking out a movie.

"Hell yes!" I exclaimed finding a packet of kettle corn waiting to be popped.

"I'm guessing that you found the kettle corn," I heard Tina shout back from her living room. After a few minutes, I wheeled into the living room, placing the bowl of kettle corn on the coffee table before transferring myself onto to the couch. Tina snuggled into my side and started the movie. The opening credits started rolling and she asked, "… Do you think we're headed back into this too fast? We're acting like it never happened."

I couldn't deny that she was right. Pausing the movie, I turned to her and scratched the back of my head. "To be honest, I don't really know what we're supposed to do. Do you?" She shook her head. "We can take things slow if you want… Or we can keep on going like this…"

"What do you want to…" Tina and I said at the same time, causing us to laugh nervously.

"I don't know what to do…" I confessed.

"I don't know either…" Tina said softly, hugging herself and tugging at the hemline of her shirt. "I just know that I wanna be with you." I leaned over and took her soft tiny hands in my rough calloused ones. I had taken off my gloves earlier and she removed her arm wamers, leaving nothing between us as we held hands.

"Y'know… what I said in the auditorium earlier today… It's true." I told her, rubbing circles in the palms of her hands with my thumbs. "And even though we have no idea what we're doing right now, we just need to give it time." I said remembering my mom's advice, which turned out to be really helpful. "I know this'll work out…because…" I took a deep breath out of nervousness because this was the first time for me to say this looking directly at her. My stupid head had the tiniest doubt she only said it back in the heat of the moment, though I knew in my heart she didn't. "… I love you." I leaned in to kiss her softly.

"I know." She replied.

"Are you really going to say that after every time I tell you that I love you? 'Cause if you are, girl you trippin'."

"No!" She said laughing, giving me a playful shove. I laughed too and listened to her when she continued. "I was just saying that I also know that this'll work out because I love you too…" She smiled shyly and I kissed her again. She deepened the kiss and after a few minutes, she pulled away. "Maybe we're thinking too hard about this," she laughed.

"Maybe we are." I said joining her laugh. "We're so complicated," I sighed. "Next time we have drama, can we just fight over a solo or something?" I joked, knowing that I'd give her the solo without skipping a beat.

"Maybe we should just watch the movie…" She un-paused Little Shop of Horrors on her DVD player. "Eat some kettle corn." She shoved some in my mouth, which I happily munched on. "And just… take things as they come... y'know, give it time." She curled up beside me again and I wrapped my arm around her.

"We got this right?' I asked her.

"We totally got this," she replied, lifting her clenched hand up and we fist bumped.

Then we made out.

We worked up an appetite so afterwards we ordered pizza. The kettle corn had gone from movie snack to weapon, because while waiting for the food to come, Tina thought it would be funny to put some kernels down the collar of my shirt. I in turn thought it would be funny to throw some at her. We were wrong. It was hilarious. What is it with us with food wars? Especially when we both love eating so much. The doorbell rang and we helped clean each other off quickly. She got out the paper towels and sodas as I wheeled up to the front door to pay for our dinner. As we started the movie over again (we were otherwise occupied the first time around), we traded pizza toppings.

I knew that even though some things were gonna have to change and we'll have difficulties sometimes, but we'll always have simple things like this to make us happy. If you had told me this morning that I'd be here with Tina like this, I wouldn't have believed you.

"Artie, what's up? You have a funny look on your face."

"Nothing… I'm just… really happy right now," I said, pouring Parmesan cheese on my pizza.

"Me too," she smiled before taking a bite out of her red pepper flake covered slice.

I reached over and covered her hand in mine.

Today was perfect. Tomorrow, who knows? Nobody said it was easy.