CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:
LOTTA LOVE

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WHEN MAGGIE OPENED HER eyes, she wondered for a moment if this was another dream. She was laying on a vaguely familiar couch with a knitted blue blanket pulled up beneath her chin, warm fingers slowly massaging through her shamefully oily hair. There was a twinge of pain in her wrist and her head felt heavy, like she'd woken up with the hangover of a lifetime. But she was alive. Paul was sitting beside her. It was his hand she could feel. They were entirely alone and Paul didn't look like someone who'd almost lost his girlfriend. His eyes were half-closed as he struggled to fight away sleep, his features relaxed and unguarded.

Maggie attempted to sit up and hissed as she pressed down on the couch with her bandaged hand. Paul's eyes shot open and his expression immediately shifted into one of grief. She knew for sure then, that this was no dream. That somehow, against all odds, someone or something had intervened between herself and the Grim Reaper. Before she knew it, Paul had pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

"I thought I said one piece, Maggie," he murmured against the heat of her mouth. Maggie let out a tentative laugh. She tried to pull away but Paul wasn't quite ready to release her. He cradled her face between his palms, eyes soft but pained. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again."

"What happened?" she dared to ask.

For a split second, Paul hesitated. He couldn't quite get the words out, as if speaking them into existence would somehow set them in stone. That he would lose her again, so close yet so far.

"You died," he said at last. "Your heart stopped. When Victoria grabbed you, she bit your wrist. She was going to bleed you dry but Leah managed to intervene. They were fighting but then Victoria just gave up. She went after Bella. Seemed to think her job was done when she heard your heart stop."

"Then how am I here?" she asked.

Suddenly, the room felt ice-cold, like she hadn't truly escaped that moment of in-between. The dark night sky was an endless oblivion and Maggie's heart clenched as she reached up with her good hand to squeeze Paul's wrist.

"Can you turn the light on, please?"

He'd crossed the room and returned to her side in a blink. The light was dim but bright enough that some of her unease faded. The shadows fought at the edges of the room but Maggie knew they could not reach her. Again and again, Paul's words seemed to echo in her head. You died. Your heart stopped. She went after Bella.

"Bella," Maggie voiced aloud. She dreaded the answer yet forced herself to ask anyway. "Is she okay?"

Much to her surprise, Paul nodded. "She cut her arm but she'll heal. But Maggie, Edward killed Victoria. She's gone for good."

For good. It didn't seem real. A new dream she'd unconsciously entered into with no end in sight. Slowly, Maggie nodded to herself. She was sure the realisation would really hit her later, when her head was a little clearer and the ache in her wrist had faded away. She cradled it to her chest and listened quietly as Paul finished his summary of events. He'd only seen flashes of it through the pack's mind link with Leah. Mae, brave but so stupid, had chucked one of Emily's glass fruit bowls at the back of Victoria's head before attempting to body-slam her when that failed. She came out of it with a bruised rib and wounded ego but apparently her distraction had worked. Victoria turned to snarl at her and that was when Leah jumped in.

After that, when the fight had ended, Carlisle was given permission to cross the border to tend to both her and Jacob. Paul didn't say much about Jacob, just that he'd broken half the bones in his body when pulling a stray newborn away from Quil. He was too focused on the terror of watching Carlisle suck the venom out of Maggie's wrist. There was no guarantee it would work, that in Emily performing CPR to restart Maggie's heart, she hadn't accidentally sent the venom too far into her bloodstream.

The fact she was sitting there now, broken but with a beating heart, was proof enough to Paul that a miracle had occurred. He kissed Maggie again, his breath quickening as he mustered up the nerve to say the one thing Maggie desperately yearned for.

"I love you, so much."

She froze.

"Paul—"

"I should've said it earlier," he continued before she could get a word in. "I'm never making that mistake again. I love you, Maggie. I'll tell you everyday."

Maggie smiled. She pecked his lips and let her body sink into the safety of his arms. She wanted to rest again, and she would soon, but the joy of the moment was so pure she couldn't bear the thought of ruining it. "I love you too. I'm glad you came to your senses."

Paul scoffed and rolled his eyes. Maggie laughed, her head leaning against his shoulder, eyes slipping shut. She slept fitfully but knew she was alive with every warm press of Paul's lips to her temple and whispered I love you. Now that he'd said it, he knew he could never tell her enough.

And when Maggie woke again, the whole house had filled up. It was morning, the sun high and bright. Paul was no longer at her side, though he wasn't far away as he fought Jared for one of the last muffins Emily had made. It was the Young woman's living room that Maggie was in. In her tired state the night before, she hadn't noticed. Now, she sat up slowly and observed the routine movements of a morning with the pack. The house had a few extra people than normal — Billy and Uncle Everett were there, along with Sue and old Quil — but the air was alive with familiarity.

Mae was sitting next to Maggie with her foot anxiously tapping against the ground. She smiled tightly when she noticed Maggie watching her.

"Good to see you're awake," she said and even her voice sounded forced. "I made Paul promise he'd message me when you woke up but the shithead forgot. He had me waiting half the night with worry."

"You sure it wasn't your bruised rib keeping you up?" Maggie quirked an eyebrow at her. Mae smiled sheepishly. She still seemed... off, but some of the colour had returned to her cheeks. This was the Maeve Cooper that Maggie knew and loved. "Yeah, I heard about that. Mae..."

"I know," Mae bit out. "It was stupid."

"I was going to say thank you but that works too."

Mae just shrugged, unusually bashful. "I couldn't just watch you die."

Before Maggie could get the chance to respond, Zeke realised she was awake and threw himself onto her. Maggie pushed against his shoulders, only somewhat amused as her lungs started to ache from the lack of oxygen. She was relieved when he released her, ruffling her hair but letting the air back in.

"I did what you asked, I promise. But this idiot—" Zeke waved a hand at Mae with a fond grin. "—ran back inside before I could stop her."

Maggie nodded and patted his hand. "I believe you."

"I'm just glad you're okay," his voice dropped into a whisper.

Sensing the sudden tension, Mae mumbled an excuse and, with a confusing amount of reluctance, joined Embry and Quil at the table. From what Maggie could hear of their conversation, they were working on a card for Jacob. Written across the top of the paper in crude hand-writing that could only be Paul's were the words GET WELL SOON, ASSHOLE. How charming.

"I get it now," Zeke said, catching Maggie's attention once again. "What you must have felt seeing it happen to mum. I get it."

"Oh, Zeke."

"It's okay," he cut in, not wanting Maggie's sympathy.

He ruffled her hair again but Maggie could see right through him. There was something heavier in his stare now, a kind of innocence he could never get back. She saw that look every single day, in the mirror; the only difference was that Maggie had defied the odds and come back. Delilah was still stuck in the shadows somewhere, as she always would be, and Maggie feared the moment they'd see each other again. The afterlife was not what Wren had believed, and Delilah and Carson were certainly not together, but maybe that was how it had to be.

Hopefully, Maggie would be old and grey by the time Death came knocking again.

"So," Zeke forcefully cleared his throat. "Has anyone caught you up on the latest gossip, sister of mine?"

"Depends on what you see as gossip," Maggie chuckled.

"Well, a certain cousin of ours has imprinted." Maggie let out a gasp. She hadn't been expecting that. Looking at Quil again, she couldn't even tell anything had changed. "We won't get to meet her anytime soon, though. She's over at the Cullens."

Oh.

Oh.

Well, that certainly complicated things.

Maggie tried not to think of it, Quil with a vampire. Carlisle might've saved her life but she shuddered at just the thought of being within a ten mile radius of a vampire let alone pursuing a relationship with one. Maybe Quil and this vampire would just stay friends.

"Do I know them?" she asked Zeke.

"Not sure. She was in my grade at school before she moved to California," he said. "Does the name Jia Littlesea ring a bell to you?"

Maggie grimaced. She knew all about Jia Littlesea, Quil's so-called enemy since the sandbox. Right. There was no chance of just a friendship, then.

"Oh, and Seth has a girlfriend now," Zeke said, a cheeky smirk tugging at his lips when the boy in question — who was chatting to Leah on the other couch — overheard and threw a pillow at his head. Zeke narrowly dodged it, though Maggie wasn't so lucky. Instinctively, Paul turned at just the wrong moment and shot a glare at Seth. The younger boy ducked behind Leah with a guilty grin.

"Who is it?" Maggie asked while wriggling her eyebrows at Seth.

"Sadie Swan," Zeke answered before Seth could stop him. Maggie frowned at the familiar surname. Zeke waved a hand at her. "Another long story. She's Bella's cousin, and Seth looooves her—"

"Stop it," Seth scowled as his whole face turned red. He reached for another pillow again but seemed to think better of it. "I don't. She doesn't even like me."

"So enemies to lovers," Maggie teased. "That's how Paul and I started out, Seth. It's only a matter of time—"

"Oh please," Jared rolled his eyes. He flopped down on the end of the couch, momentarily crushing Maggie's feet before she managed to wrestle them out and kick them over his lap. "You and Paul were not enemies to lovers. He already had a major crush on you—"

"Dude," Paul scowled and smacked the back of his head.

The rest of the pack laughed and Maggie sunk into the moment, feeling... normal. 

If the moments before death were peace, the times after was pure joy. Surrounded by her friends and family, there was no other place Maggie ever wanted to be. There would be things to worry over later. Jia and Sadie, and how they would fit into her life, her family — if they did. How she was going to explain the bite-shaped scar on her wrist to Wren, Vera and Dakota. What would happen when Mae skipped town the next day, telling no one but her parents, not even Embry.

But for that instant of time, with hope for the future and a whole lotta love in her heart, Maggie Sullivan was more than okay. 

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A/N: I can't believe I'm saying this but that's a wrap on Lotta Love! Two years of my life, I've dedicated to Maggie's story. I'm both happy and sad that it's finally over. Sure, we have four more books to go in this series, and you'll be seeing plenty of Maggie and Paul living their best lives in the background, but Maggie's story has finally come to a close. Please let me know what you guys thought. I really struggled with these final two chapters for a while before posting.

For one last time, thank you so much for reading <3