I'd like to say, first, how happy your reviews have always made me - because you put so much thought and attention into reading the fic, it's made it feel really worthwhile to have put so much effort into writing it, so I appreciate it, so much. I am very lucky to have a reader like you!

I'm so glad you liked what I did with the ending for the fic. This is what i'd always planned, of course, but it's always a risk, ending a complex fic that's had so many differing points of view applied to it throughout, so the positive response makes me breathe a sigh of relief! The main thing for me was that while Erik's hand is, in some ways, forced, it had to be his choice, his decision, or it invalidated all of the steps he'd made up until this point, all of his character development. And they could never have a hopeful ending without Charles being free (and I always intended for it to be hopeful, even if it's open.)

I could talk about the process of decision-making in this fic for hours, because it ended up being very complex and involved, but I'm just really happy to have found an audience for it, and one that sees the choices I've made, so thank you very much!