It was an unusually gray day in Los Angeles, where sunshine usually is as abundant as cell phones and sushi. Inside, the setting was just as subdued. At approximately 1 p.m. on Nov. 12 a small group of lawyers and managers convened in an oversize conference room in a Los Angeles office building to hash out the final details of their clients' much-anticipated divorce. At around 5 p.m., just as heavy rains began to splatter the windows, the clients -- Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman -- made their separate entrances. Kidman, wearing a casual blue suit and scarf, arrived alone. Cruise, clad in black pants and a black T-shirt, was accompanied by a personal assistant. During the next three hours the estranged couple "interacted very well," says Kidman's lawyer Sorrell Trope, as they and their attorneys divided the spoils of their 10-year union, the final step in their nine-month divorce proceeding.

Shortly before 8 p.m. each signed the documents before them and the meeting came to an end. Says Trope: "Everyone was very pleased and happy." Maybe even a little warm and fuzzy. When it came time to leave, Kidman and Cruise parted not with curt nods or handshakes but with an embrace. "Nicole is relieved that everything is finally over," says a friend, "and that she and Tom will have some kind of amicable relationship." For his part, Cruise told PEOPLE, "We are great friends. She is someone who I love and always will."

Thus ended the war of words and images -- played out in legal documents, photo ops and artfully nuanced public comments -- that characterized Cruise and Kidman's relationship since their split was announced Feb. 5. Gone were the accusations of stonewalling and tight-fistedness, the cryptic to-ing and fro-ing over why they parted, the questions about Cruise's relationship with Vanilla Sky costar Penelope Cruz. Instead, Cruise, 39, and Kidman, 34, who were officially divorced three months ago, focused on their combined $350 million fortune -- the homes, planes and power boat -- carving it all up like Thanksgiving turkey. On Kidman's plate: a five-bedroom Pacific Palisades spread and a multistory waterfront home on Australia's Sydney harbor. On Cruise's: a 280-acre estate in Telluride, Colo., and his airplanes, including a $100,000 Pitts S-2B, a $1.2 million Beech F90 and a $28 million-plus Gulfstream IV jet. As for alimony and child support -- at $250 million, Cruise's net worth is estimated to be nearly twice Kidman's -- the couple's settlement keeps those morsels tightly under wraps.