Work Text:
Beginnings
by Alison
Raise a glass for ignorance
Drink a toast to fear
The beginning of the end had come
That's why we all are here
~Jars of Clay
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
You stupid bastard. How could you do this to us? You survived 3,000-year-old mummies, ancient curses, scarabs, pygmies, and a Scorpion King just so you could die ten feet from my front door?
I'll never forget it, that phone call from Evy, her voice hauntingly neutral over the line, Alex sobbing in the background. I'd arrived home to find my wife in the doorway; blood stained hands clutching a terrified Alex to her as a constable hovered over them. What had it been like for her, to come home and find your body?
Damn you. Do you know what you've done to her? A week later and she hardly sleeps or eats. All she does is rearrange books. How could you do this to her? You were all she had for so long and now you're gone, no warning, no goodbye, no nothing, just a box that looks impossibly small. Who the hell picked out that coffin anyway? It's ugly.
And Alex. He adored you, you know. He won't sleep either. If he does he wakes up crying. Do you know what he asked me? If we could bring you back "like I did with Mum." Bastard. I had to tell a nine-year-old boy who was able to raise his mother from the dead that his uncle won't be coming back.
At least the weather is appropriate. I bet you knew it would rain today. My shoes are going to get ruined standing in all this mud. Had to do one last thing to annoy me didn't you? God, you are so irritating.
Damn, you're not even here to defend yourself. Now I feel like shit. Of course if you were here you'd shoot me that grin of yours, take it as the compliment it was and have the three of us laughing at one of your outrageous stories within minutes. Seven actually; Ardeth arrived last night with three other Med-jai warriors to "honor the fallen member of our family." Bizarre little family I've gotten myself mixed up in. There are more of them out there in the streets, hunting. God help the man when they find him because I certainly won't.
I never had family until I met the two of you and all of a sudden I had a wife...and a brother. Would it be wrong to admit this now? You didn't start out that way. From the moment you showed up in that tiny, back alley tavern and got me stinking drunk and picked my pocket, there was something there. Then I fell in love with Evy, she was mine and I couldn't give her up, not even for you. Over the years I buried whatever it was under layers of affectionate scorn, life went on and I was happy.
Until now.
You damn bastard. How could you do this to us?
To me?
end