Author'sNote: Alright, folks, here it is. The final chapter. There's a tissue warning for this chapter, as well as a warning about fluff and emotion. But would it be one of my stories if it didn't have fluff? Thank you to each and every one of you who read and stayed with me through this incredible journey. The idea of Carson having survived Sunday was one that I felt needed to be written, and it was an amazing road that he and Sarah took to get to this point. There is the faint possibility of a sequel, but I am making no guarantees at this point in time. As always, thanks to theicemenace and pisces317 who patiently beta'd even when I overloaded their email inboxes with multiple chapters at a time. Another special thanks to pisces317 for allowing me to use and explore the character of Sarah MacKenzie. I hope this ending ties up all the loose ends for you. Enjoy! ~lg

oOo

Four weeks passed before Sarah and Carson were able to head back to Earth. In that time, their relationship grew as they explored the permanence they both wanted. He had yet to propose, but Sarah knew it was only a matter of time. Carter was recalled, but she stopped long enough to tell Sarah goodbye. It spoke of the friendship they'd managed to forge, and Sarah knew she'd miss the colonel's smiling face in the control room.

Just days after Woolsey's arrival on Atlantis, Jennifer was overcome with a strange organism that caused tendrils to grow from her body. Carson isolated her and tried to remove them, but it reacted so badly that he didn't want to make any other incisions. Then, he was isolated along with everyone else who was on the planet with Michael's lab. Sarah missed Carson for that night, having grown accustomed to his presence next to her as she slept. By the next day, however, Amanda had figured out what had happened. Another day later, she had an antidote created and tested on Colonel Sheppard. Sarah arrived shortly after Carson's treatment, amazed to see the restraints being removed from the bed. He assured her that everything was fine, that the antidote created violent seizures and had caused a brief moment of panic.

Finally, they were allowed to return to Earth. They walked through the gate hand-in-hand, Carson carefully carrying the bag that had the last remains of his clone in it. For a part of their journey, they'd travel to the Applecross Mountains and fulfill his last wishes. Sarah wasn't looking forward to that, but she put off thinking about it until after the first portion of their trip.

They arrived in New York City six hours after walking through the wormhole. Sarah hailed a cab, and Carson stared in amazement as she escorted him to the penthouse where her brother and father waited. At least, she hoped her father waited for them. BC had already responded to the email she'd sent a week ago, and she'd been thrilled that he had come to New York for the weekend.

Now, he opened the door with a smile for his sister. He wore a blue button-down shirt and slacks, and his eyes were clear. Unlike last time. He greeted her with a smile before turning to the man behind her. "You must be Carson."

"Aye." Carson shook BC's hand. "Sarah's told me a lot about ye."

For just a moment, BC held Carson's gaze, and Sarah considered calling him on it. But it passed, and her brother invited the two of them inside. "I've got everything ready, but Father won't be home for a while, yet. He left twenty minutes ago to an 'emergency meeting' with some clients."

Sarah rolled her eyes, but the normal anger she felt didn't well up like it once had. Life in Atlantis had helped tame her, as had Carson's influence. "Well, we'll be here when he gets back."

"Of course." BC headed for the kitchen, leaving Sarah to escort Carson down the hall and into her room.

Once there, he took her into his arms, apologizing for her father's absence. Sarah nodded and shrugged. "You wanted to meet my family."

"Aye." He grinned. "An' I must say that I like your brother."

"BC's great!" Sarah stood on her tip-toes to kiss him. "I'm glad you came."

"Me, too."

That evening passed in quiet laughter when, true to form, Sarah's father never appeared. BC ordered pizza, and the three of them spent the hours telling stories from their youth. Carson had Sarah and BC in stitches as he told some of the scrapes he and his brothers had gotten into as lads. She hadn't heard these stories yet, and they left her hardly able to breathe. As he told one, she gasped for air. "Prince Charming?"

"Aye!" Carson chuckled. "Like in the story with the frog?"

BC looked at her. "I never thought about chasing you with a frog, insisting you kiss him!"

"Because I would have killed you!" Sarah rejoined.

BC pointed and nodded at Carson. "And she would have!"

The front door opened in the middle of that laughter, and Benjamin Cooper walked in. He took one look at the three adults sprawled on the furniture, the pizza box on the coffee table, and glared. "What's all this?"

Carson's smile disappeared as fast as it took the Daedalus to enter hyperspace. He rose along with Sarah as she gave her father a shrug. "Hello, Father."

Benjamin blinked at her. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you again."

"Well, you thought wrong." Sarah met his eyes. "I had someone I wanted you to meet."

Benjamin glanced at Carson, dismissing him with a wave. "In a moment." He turned the force of his glare to his son. "What's this I hear about your decision to change your major in school?"

Caught on either side of BC, Carson and Sarah exchanged glances. Sarah shook her head slightly, indicating that they both needed to stay out of this. BC sensed the awkwardness and moved to get out from between the two of them. "That's right." He held up his chin. "I made my own decision."

"Without consulting me." Benjamin dropped his briefcase next to the couch. "I had to find out from my partners that you'd done so."

"If you had been home tonight, Father, I would have told you myself!" BC's voice shook slightly, and Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose. She hated seeing her brother facing her father's ire, preferring to protect her younger sibling, but she was proud of the way he stood up to Benjamin.

"I had an important meeting to attend." Benjamin glared.

"You always have important meetings, Father," BC said. "For once, I was hoping your daughter's appearance, along with a guest, would wake you up to the fact that we have lives, too!"

Benjamin's jaw worked, but he didn't say anything else to BC as he turned to Sarah. The anger still hadn't faded from his face as he met her eyes. "Sarah?"

"Father." She motioned. "This is Dr. Carson Beckett."

Carson moved forward with his hand extended, and Benjamin's eyes dropped to his leg. Without doing much more than noticing the limp that Carson barely showed, he turned to Sarah. "You can do better."

Carson blinked in shock.

Sarah's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"

"Aye, you're right!" Carson's voice, normally warm and comforting, had cooled considerably and now cut the shocked silence. He stepped between Sarah and her father, and she recognized the rage burning inside of him. "She could do better than me. I know it. An' I'm forever reminded of it when I look at her. But she made her choice on her own, Mr. MacKenzie. Your daughter is a beautiful, intelligent young woman with a bright future ahead o' her. An' she's got that no thanks ta ye. If ye were concerned at all with who she is rather than what she's done, then ye'd see that!"

"You have no business coming into my home and telling me how to treat my children!" Benjamin seethed.

"Aye, you're right," Carson agreed again. "I likely don't. But that willnae stop me from sayin' my piece. I came here ta meet ye, ta ask ye for your blessin' ta marry your daughter. I'd hoped ta build a friendship with ye, no matter what the past might have been. But you're too blind ta see what amazin', wonderful children ye have!"

"How dare you. . . ." Benjamin took one step toward Carson, his hand balling into a fist.

Sarah moved quickly, placing her body physically between her father and the man she loved. "Do it, Father, and you'll never see me again." The ultimatum hung in the air as Sarah and Carson glared at Benjamin. This wasn't the evening she'd hoped for, but she wasn't surprised it had taken this turn. She'd tried to contact her father from the SGC, but his receptionist had apparently not given him the message. "Besides, if you took time to look at your messages at work, you'd know I called you hours ago to arrange this evening."

Benjamin glared for a bit longer before storming down the hallway and into his office. He never slammed the door, but the sound of it closing cut through Sarah's happiness. She felt the tears pressing behind her eyes, and Carson's gentle hand on her shoulder was almost more than she could take. "Carson, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, love." He hugged her, the tension in his body telling her that he needed to work out his anger on his own terms.

BC moved from his spot to gather up the pizza boxes. "Well, I don't know about the two of you, but I'll get a hotel for the rest of the night." He stomped into the kitchen and then went to pack his bags.

Sarah looked up at Carson. His eyes no longer held the merriment of earlier that evening, but they were gentle when he looked at her. "What do you want to do, Carson?"

He glanced down the hall. "Right now, find a place we can be alone." He shook his head. "I know ye tried ta tell me, an' I'm sorry I didn't believe ye."

She put a finger over his lips. "I've lived with this my entire life. I'll be okay."

He was still frustrated, but he helped Sarah gather their things. They left after BC informed Benjamin of their plans. They received nothing in response from a man who had so closed his life to others that he couldn't see the destruction he'd brought on his children. That night, Carson held Sarah while she cried, and she knew she likely wouldn't see her father again for a very long time.

oOo

The Applecross Mountains never failed to amaze Sarah with their beauty. Of course, she'd returned to a country she'd missed since leaving Carson to go to Atlantis, but that joy was overshadowed by what they'd come to do. Carson had insisted on hiking to this campsite, and he now stood in a clearing, holding an urn he'd acquired years ago from an off-world mission. It was cold, but spring had started coming to Scotland. The breeze ruffled their hair, and Sarah buried her hands in her pockets while Carson slowly opened the urn.

The ashes of his clone scattered on the wind.

Sarah watched them go, tears in her eyes as she marveled that she could feel such grief for a man she hadn't known. Of course, he'd been as much Carson Beckett as her Carson was, but his life was so wasted. He'd spent it in Michael's custody, working against his will just to try to save lives. The staggering cost of Michael's campaign against the Pegasus galaxy weighed on her as she watched those ashes drift away. In bringing Beckett's remains home, she and Carson had fulfilled his final request. She hoped that, should he have ascended without them knowing about it, he was at peace with what they'd done. And she promised his memory that they would bring Michael to justice.

Carson turned after he'd emptied the urn, his tears flowing unchecked as he stared at her. Sarah didn't say a word but walked directly into his arms. The two of them stood there, ignoring the cold as they grieved together for a wasted life.

oOo

Their arrival in St. Andrews the next day was as opposite from the greeting they'd received in New York as the Sahara was from the North Pole. Moira Beckett met them at the door of her home, hugging them simultaneously. Carson laughed with his mum and kissed her cheek before turning to embrace Kenneth. His brother and his fiancee smiled broadly, and Sarah stepped into Kenneth's arms for a hug. Inside, Calum waited with his family. Catriona stared uncertainly at Sarah until Sarah knelt and offered the stuffed bear she'd bought when she and Carson stopped for lunch. The toddler then adopted her and started calling her "Auntie" by the end of the night.

The next few days passed in a flurry of excitement as the family made final preparations for Kenneth's wedding. Sarah and Moira spent hours talking and working in the garden, the elder woman's warmth a healing touch that Sarah needed after the recent confrontation with her father. She even told Moira about BC and her father, ending the story with how happy she'd been that Carson was there to intervene before things got out of hand. And they would have had he not quietly put her father in his place.

The day of the wedding, Sarah slipped into the chapel Kenneth and his bride had chosen for their nuptials and allowed Carson's eldest nephew to escort her to her seat beside Moira. Kenneth had asked all of his brothers to stand up with him, and Carson would be the last to appear as the best man. Sarah looked forward to that sight as he'd been swept out of their room earlier that morning and caught up in the celebration events. Late the night before, he'd come to bed laughing about the bachelor party and sleepily commented that he hated to think what Sheppard and Ronon would do for his. Sarah had chuckled at that and then stared at the ceiling after he started softly snoring on his pillow. Either he'd been too drunk to care what he said, or he'd forgotten that he hadn't officially proposed just yet. Probably the former, given the way that Kenneth had talked to his fiancee about the bachelor party. And, with six brothers, the Beckett family knew how to throw a bachelor party.

Now, though, she smoothed the skirt on her rich blue gown. She'd found it in New York before they'd flown to Scotland, and the way Carson's eyes had lit when she'd modeled it for him told her it was the right one for her. The sleek, one-shouldered affair had a sparkling inset that wound around her waist and down to the bottom of the skirt, leaving Carson's eyes moving from head to toe. She'd paired it with a delicate sapphire necklace and drop earrings, choosing to wear her hair in a sleek up-do so the bride's gorgeous brown curls would be the star of the entire day.

Seeing Carson in a kilt was worth every moment she'd spent preparing for the day. She grinned when he finally appeared, his bowtie slightly crooked but his smile firmly in place. Her mind immediately went to their evening, hoping she'd have some time to see him in that kilt before the festivities ended. She knew when he saw her because his smile turned to cheeky as he passed. Sarah settled back into her seat with Carson's sisters-in-law, knowing that her message had been received.

The wedding proceeded without a hitch, and Kenneth was soon a married man. The reception and photos passed without a problem, leaving Sarah with plenty of time to get to know Carson's extended family. They had questions for her, especially since Moira had talked so much about her, and she managed to field them adequately. Still, she was relieved when Calum came to rescue her for a dance. After that, she managed to spend the time with one or the other of Carson's brothers—or Carson himself. As best man, he'd had several different duties and had not been able to stay at her side constantly.

Finally, Sarah returned to Moira's home and slipped into the back garden. She had yet to take off the gown, loving how it swirled around her in the cold night air.

Gentle hands wrapped a soft blanket around her shoulders. Sarah turned as Carson pulled her to him for a kiss. He still wore his wedding finery—minus the crooked bow tie—and didn't seem to be affected by the evening's cold. When he pulled back, he stared into her eyes. "Ye shouldnae be out here without a coat."

Sarah snuggled into his chest. "I've got you for that."

He chuckled and pulled her closer. Sarah allowed his heat to warm skin that had been chilled even though she hadn't really given much thought to her decision to escape outdoors. It had been a way for her to get a few moments alone. Though, now that Carson had arrived, she decided she didn't want to be alone.

He finally shifted so that they stood side-by-side, staring up at the stars. "There's somethin' I wanted ta talk with ye about, love."

The nervous tone in his voice brought her head from his shoulder. Most people wouldn't have picked up on it, but she knew him better than most. "Carson?"

He smiled. "Och, dinnae worry. 'Tis nothin' terrible." His accent had thickened over the last week, and Sarah had given up on not talking like him. It was natural after all this time to look somewhat embarrassed when it happened, but Carson's obvious delight helped her realize he wouldn't become upset. Ever.

Now, he reached into the pocked of his tux jacket and pulled out a small object. The ring lay in his hand as he held it out to her. "I know we've talked about forever, but today, with Kenneth, made me think it's time ta make it official. I know we'll have ta return ta Pegasus, that we'll face things that no one here can imagine. But I want ta do that wi' ye at my side." When she blinked up at him, he smiled. "Marry me, Sarah."

Everything they'd gone through—everything they'd survived—played through her head. They'd laughed together, cried together, and had been the anchor the other needed to get through their life. It wasn't one for every person, but it was theirs. And she knew that her reservations about marriage and the fear that her life would turn out like her mother's had faded the longer she'd known Carson. "I'd love to do that, Carson." Then, she grinned. "Yes!"

His smile, reserved as it had been, blossomed on his face as he slid the ring onto her finger. Sarah turned her hand so that the diamond solitaire and platinum band caught the moonlight and dim light from the house. "It's beautiful!"

"You're beautiful." His soft voice pulled her eyes from the ring he'd placed on her finger. "An' I'm so very lucky to have ye."

Sarah pulled his head down, giving him a searing kiss. "I'm the lucky one, Carson. If you hadn't survived that Sunday, I wouldn't be here, now."

He nodded. "Aye. An' I'm so happy I did."

They stayed in the garden for a few more moments before moving inside to a warmer location. The family that had chosen to stay with Moira had all retired for the night, and Carson led Sarah to their room, closing the door on the world. Later, as she lay wrapped in his arms, she smiled at the ceiling. No matter what the Pegasus galaxy threw at them, they would survive it. And they would thrive.

And they'd do it together.

~The End~