"I'm okay, knock it off," Kyle said, pushing the doctor away annoyed. "We don't need any stupid hospital. We just need to get home and sleep it off."

"Kyle, we don't sleep it off. It's not as if we're drunk," Jerry muttered, but Kyle ignored him.

"I agree. Take us home." Sam moaned in pain. He didn't want a hospital either, not since they somehow miraculously managed to escape without any broken limbs. He wanted to go home. He wanted his bed, his covers, to bury himself under them and pretend that everything was peachy.

"We cannot land anywhere near your house," the pilot said.

"How thick are you?" Jimmy asked annoyed, seeming in rampaging mode again and Sam had a feeling he would go stuff a punch in the pilot's stomach if he could stand up properly.

"Leave us at the airport, please." Jerry said calmly.

"If you say so." The pilot shrugged.

They were almost there. They'd been knocked out for most of the ride, so now Sam was pumped full of pain killers and antsy to get home. He could barely sit still. His knees kept bouncing up and down which was really stupid because one of his knees really hurt, but he couldn't stop himself.

They'd left William and Jim in Magnet Town. Sam had no idea what would happen to them, but he did hope William would get home to Kay and stay with his family. And Billy had gotten Jim's contact information so that was good. Billy at least hadn't been knocked out. Neither had Angie, thank God. Because Sam wasn't sure how much more falling she could take.

Finally, the helicopter landed on a remote runway. Two cars waited for them to take them to the airport building. Sam kept tapping his thighs, his head buzzing, wanting to get this over with faster, to go to his sanctuary, to sleep it off. He felt drunk, no matter what Jerry said.

When the cars stopped, he threw open the door and practically ran inside the airport and towards the exit. He could see the double doors leading outside to where they would find Kyle's car parked. He wanted inside the Range Rover. He wanted to cuddle in the seat, he wanted... He stopped when he noticed everyone else had fallen behind.

A man in a fancy suit and black sunglasses had stopped in front of Angie and given her a folder and what looked like plane tickets. Why did Angie have plane tickets?

She seemed as surprised as Sam felt. "What's this?"

"Your plane ticket to Arizona," the man answered in an impersonal voice. "You have completed your mission. The deal stands. You do want to transfer to Chicago, don't you?"

"Yes, but..." Angie looked from the ticket to them. "The plane leaves right now."

Sam felt a weird shiver. He didn't want Angie to go. By the looks on his brothers' faces, neither did they. Especially Tom.

But she had to. The sooner she went, the sooner she'd get back. "Don't worry, we'll be all right by the time you get back." Sam smiled and she rushed to hug him.

She then hugged Kyle, Jimmy, Jerry, and Billy, but stopped in front of Tom looking at him longingly. Sam turned away, giving them the privacy they needed. He didn't like seeing her and Tom kissing. It felt so weird.

And Angie left. Sam focused on getting home again so he was exceptionally happy to see Kyle's car waiting for them in the parking lot. Except...

"Can you drive?" Sam asked.

Kyle huffed. "Of course, I can drive. I'm not dead."

"You really shouldn't. All those drugs in our system..." Jerry started, but fell silent once he noticed that everyone was glaring at him.

So they piled up in the car and Kyle drove off. Sam had no idea what happened after he fastened his seatbelt. It felt like the blink of an eye, but they were suddenly there, parked right outside the house.

"What should we do about the luggage?" Jerry asked.

"Let's leave it in the car. We'll get it out once we can walk properly," Jimmy said, opening the door and almost falling over on the grass. "Damn these sedatives," he mumbled finally regaining his balance and heading for the house. Jerry and Tom followed shortly.

"You should get down too kid. I have to pull the car in the garage," Kyle said to Sam who jerked to attention.

He got down obediently. His knees refused to hold his weight and he fell over. At least he couldn't feel the impact. From his side position, he watched Kyle revving towards the garage, almost running over a rosebush. Sam couldn't help but admire Kyle's driving abilities. He'd have probably rammed the car into the house at this point.

He scrambled to his feet and headed towards the door. The path seemed to go on forever, but at least he managed to reach the door without falling over again. Once in the living room, it was a bit harder. All that pesky furniture got in the way. He was about halfway in when one of the armchairs jumped in front of him and he toppled over it and to the floor.

Someone huffed sarcastically behind him.

"Screw you, Kyle," he mumbled, turning to his brother.

Except it wasn't Kyle. It was Christine, glaring at him with a cruel smile as if he were the most pathetic drunk she'd seen in his life. Which, to be fair, was probably what he looked like now.

"What?" he asked before he could help himself, because his mouth had obviously lost its filter.

"Dear, dear, you've finally made it home," she said, stepping inside the room, her tone cruel and unfriendly.

"Christine, are you all right?" he asked, worried.

"Fair question. Am I all right? Of course I'm not, you good for nothing liar!" she yelled.

Sam scurried back over the armchair and fell on the other side.

"You lied to me, you told me you loved me," she continued yelling.

"I do love you," he said, shocked.

"Shut up! How dare you cheat on me? Just who do you think you are?" She marched to him and Sam wondered if it was worth getting to his feet just so she'd push him down again.

Probably not, but he still grabbed on to the armchair and hoisted himself up. Because this wasn't fair. He was a damn mess, stuffed with sedatives, hurt, bruised, battered, emotionally scared and Christine had nothing better to do than come here and yell lies in his face.

"I've never cheated on you. What's wrong with you? I was on a mission. I told you that."

"Stop lying!" she yelled, her eyes filling with tears.

Sam's anger all but vanished. She was hurting and he hated it. He had no idea why she thought he'd cheated on her, but it was obviously a misunderstanding. "I'm not lying. Calm down, Christine. Let's talk.".

"Oh, no, no talking." She took a step back, wiping her face. "I know you have a way with words. I'm not going to let you convince me this time. You're the biggest idiot in the world and you will pay for doing this to me. It's over between us!"

Sam just stared for a moment as her words seeped into him, tore him apart. How? Why? "I didn't do anything wrong."

Christine looked away pointedly. It pissed Sam off immensely.

"Look at me! I'm half dead! Don't you care at all?"

"Don't you dare play on my soft side, you lying, cheating scum," she said between her teeth. "It's over. And no matter what you do, I'm not taking you back!" And with those deadly words, she whipped around and stalked out of the house.

Sam's knees gave out under him and he fell back to the floor. Only this time, he didn't want to get up. Because Christine, the girl he loved, the one he longed to get back to, the one he thought would help him heal, had just broken him even more.

*

Kyle leaned his elbows on the windowsill, watching the empty street without really seeing it. Somewhere behind him, on the floor, his cellphone was still in mid call. Kay was maybe still on the other end, though he doubted it. Why would she still be there?

Because she somehow knew about Calla, though she insisted she'd called and there was some sort of shower involved. Some lying, no mission, no danger. Just lies and pain and reproaches. His head hurt too much to grasp things properly, to explain, to try and excuse himself from what he'd done.

Well, it didn't matter anymore. Not after Kay told him she was back with Danny and wasn't coming back. Everything they'd been through was apparently nothing, just his sick imagination. They weren't special. There was no 'till we die. Only until Danny came back into the picture.

He'd thought they were beyond that. Beyond misunderstandings, beyond cheating, beyond changing their minds like teenage girls. Apparently not. And it hurt. Worse than the fall, worse than getting shot, worse than anything he'd ever gone through. Because, up until now, he'd had her.

He looked down to the grassy yard. While they'd been apart, he'd been considering jumping so many times. He knew it wouldn't kill him, it wasn't nearly high enough and landing safely was a reflex he doubted he could overcome. But maybe, now, with his body stuffed full of painkillers, it wouldn't work.

What a stupid thought. This sucked, but it was hardly the end of the world. He just needed to pull himself together and figure out where to go from here. Fresh air. So he climbed on the window frame and made to take a step out.

Someone grabbed him and pulled him back inside. He fell to the floor with a painful thud and stared up at Jimmy who looked ready to punch him in the face.

"No, I'm not letting you kill yourself. What's the matter with you?! I know you're full of painkillers, but I don't think your brain is foggy enough..."

"She's not coming back," Kyle whispered.

"What?" Jimmy asked frowning.

He nodded towards the fallen phone. "Kay. She's not coming back. She said she's back with her ex and she doesn't want anything to do with me."

"What is she? High?" Jimmy asked outraged. "Is she still on the phone because I'm giving her a piece of my mind..."

"No, forget it. She knows about Calla," Kyle cut him off. He got back to his feet and leaned his back against the window.

"Kyle, stop being a moron! You didn't do anything wrong. You just saved our asses. Why is it always you doing all the sacrificing and never her?"

"It's not..." Ah screw this, he was in no mood to explain anything, because it didn't matter. Jimmy was right and Kay was way overboard. He turned back to the window.

"Don't throw yourself out the window while I'm turned away, okay?" Jimmy picked up his phone, turned it off and passed it to him.

"I wasn't going to throw myself anyway. I just wanted to climb on the roof. I do that all the time." Kyle smirked. Jimmy came up next to him and he couldn't help but notice how downright miserable his brother looked. "What happened?"

"Jessie's not coming back either." Jimmy sighed watching the swaying oak tree in their back yard.

"What do you mean she's not coming back?" Kyle asked shocked.

"She called too. Said some nonsense about me cheating and going out to have fun and stuff... and broke up with me. So if we're jumping, we're jumping together."

"Nobody's jumping." Kyle smiled bitterly. "This is obviously some sick misunderstanding."

"Most likely. Jerry and Tina fought, too. And I heard Christine yelling at Sam, so my guess is that's done."

Kyle nibbled on his lower lip. "Snitch Gravel?"

"Probably. Though I'm not sure exactly how."

"Kay and Jessie should know better."

Jimmy nodded. "Yes, they should."

"Wanna play baseball?"

"What?"

Kyle shrugged. "Yeah, it's Sam and Tom's birthday. Might as well do something fun before Mom and Dad get back home and ruin everything."

"Bring it on, then!"

And even stuffed with painkillers and their hearts broken, they all gathered in the back yard to play ball. Because they were alive, because they had a new uncle who came out of nowhere and joined them half-way through the game, because they had nothing left to lose and because they had to get used to it. Today could be their last day. So they would always treasure tomorrow.

To be continued...

💠💠💠

This is it. The finale of Firebomb. Not everything is resolved and there's room for more adventures to come.

I've written this in a very disjointed manner, so I'm a little iffy about how it turned out. I do hope that I managed the following:

- an interesting plot development

-excitement

-mystery

-character development

-make you love the characters and want to read more.

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read and a special thank you goes to the people who took time to comment.

I'm curious if this story changed who your favorite character was or it stayed the same from TY.

What's next for me? For now, I'll focus on writing Wrong Impression which is Angie and Tom's backstory. After I'm done with that, I'll start writing the third book in the series.

Again, a huge thank you to everyone for sticking with me. You're double the special for joining me on two epic adventures!

Much love,

Stef✨