Thanks for your feedback, Maria, Laura, Jose, Tricia, and Wendy!
I really appreciate you all for sticking with it! I hope you all like the ending that will be posted soon. There are several themes I tried to weave together in this story, and I hope they come together in the ending
. It is an nfic ending and I have converted the nfic to gfic and I will post it this weekend.
- Laura