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Photo courtesy of Jensen Ackles World

Photos courtesy of Jensen Ackles World

*****

Joshua was inconsolable. Rocking his best friend in his arms, he continued to softly whimper, sniffing Alec's face ... his hair ... taking the X5's hand in his own as if trying to pull his spirit back from wherever it had fled. There was a small crowd forming now, a polite circle of mutants, all of them watching the incredibly sad tableau. Alec had been well liked in Terminal City, respected ... counted on. His death was a huge blow to them all.

Max felt as if a gigantic gash had just been torn in her heart, like part of her was suddenly missing. Not even the deaths of Seth ... Ben ... Tinga ... had affected her this deeply. Alec had been a part of her in more ways than anyone else knew ... more ways than she had wanted to admit.

The fact that he was gone forever was inconceivable.

An hour later, Joshua was still sitting on the floor with Alec's body in his arms and Max beside him. Everyone else had gone back to work, leaving the three of them ... the two of them ... alone, although Logan kept a watchful eye from across the room.

"Joshua," Max said softly at last. "You have to let him go. We have to let him go."

"Joshua knows," the dogman said, his voice equally quiet, as if the boy he was holding was just asleep and he was afraid of waking him. "Dead's dead. You say it, and you keep on going." He raised red-rimmed eyes to Max. "Alec told me that after Annie died."

And that's when Max finally lost it. Her eyes and throat filling with hot tears, she began to sob, hugging Alec's body along with Joshua.

Logan started to come toward them, but stopped, the look in his eyes incredibly sad, but not really knowing what he could do. Alec had been his friend, too -- a better friend than he'd realized. And so Eyes Only just stood there, watching, wanting to comfort Max but no words adequate. Alec was gone. Nothing would bring him back. No one could replace him.

Dead's dead. You say it, and you keep on going.

The sky was beginning to lighten in the east, the long horrible night finally coming to an end, when Max, her body aching from sitting on the floor for hours, and her throat sore from crying, said huskily, "What are we going to do with him?"

Joshua just looked at her.

"His--" She closed her fingers gently on Alec's now cold hand, hating to refer to him as a "body." He was ... had been ... so handsome ... so beautiful ... so alive ...

Joshua just clasped his friend more tightly, like he was hugging a beloved doll, and shook his shaggy head "no."

"Joshua," Max pleaded, realizing she had to be the sane voice of reason now. "You have to let him go. Alec's gone. He wouldn't want you to act like this. He'd want you to be strong, to face reality."

"Alec's not gone until ..." Joshua looked down at X5-494's still face. "He's not gone. I won't let him be gone, Max. Not like Isaac. Not like Annie. Not Alec."

"Joshua ..." She looked deeply, earnestly, into her friend's bloodshot eyes. "You have to get hold of yourself. We have to take care of Alec now, do right by him. We can't let them," she jerked her head to indicate the world outside Terminal City's fence, "have him."

"No," Joshua said adamantly. He exhaled heavily, the sigh seeming to come from the depths of his soul. "No one will touch him. I won't let them. I'll protect Alec." Suddenly, realizing what he'd just said, he added softly, "This time I'll protect him."

My God, Joshua blames himself, Max realized with horror.

"When someone dies in here," she pressed on, "in Terminal City ... they've been burning the remains ..." Her voice trailed off, the thought of doing that to Alec, reducing his beautiful body to a pile of charred bones and ash, making her feel like she was going to vomit.

"No!" Joshua barked, shifting his hold on Alec but still cradling the X5 protectively to his chest.

"We could bury him at Father's house," Max said desperately. "Next to Isaac."

Joshua thought about that a moment, then shook his head again. "Alec wouldn't like that," he said. "And someone might find him ... disturb him ..."

Joshua was right. X5 DNA was worth millions of dollars. Burying Alec there would be like burying treasure, and the chance someone would desecrate the grave was too great.

"Then where?" Max turned around and saw Logan seated against the far wall. He hadn't slept either, and looked ready to drop from exhaustion. "Logan!" she called. He climbed to his feet and walked over.

"What can we do with him? He needs to be someplace nice ... someplace peaceful and beautiful and safe ..."

Logan thought a moment, then said, "There's a wilderness area north of town. It used to be a state park, but not many people go there any more. It's extremely beautiful ... isolated. There's a meadow on this hillside I remember from when I was a boy. It overlooks Seattle. You can see the Space Needle from there." He was staring down at Alec now, so cold and still, his limbs beginning to stiffen. "You could visit him sometimes," he added, his voice cracking with emotion. "We all could."

Joshua sniffed loudly one last time, and nodded. Then, at long last, he let go of his friend, physically at least, laying Alec's body down on the floor and rising stiffly to his feet.

It was Max who tenderly placed her black leather jacket over the dead transgenic's face.

*****

Late that afternoon Joshua, Max, and Logan stood together by the fresh grave on a beautiful grassy hillside in the park north of Seattle. The small carved stone marking X5-494's final resting place said:

Alec
(1999-2022)
Friend, Brother, Hero
"Genetically Empowered"

There hadn't even been a coffin, just blankets and a pillow ... Joshua had insisted on the pillow ...

They stood together, the three of them, remembering all that Alec had been, until the sun went down and the stars came out. And then, finally, they really did have to say "goodbye."

Mole was waiting for the trio when they returned to Terminal City -- a Terminal City that somehow seemed far darker now that one of its brightest lights had been extinguished.

"What?" Max said wearily as she passed him at the entrance to their headquarters. "No cigar?" The lizard man didn't quite look himself without the proverbial smoke in his mouth.

Mole looked down at the ground, then quickly back at her. "I quit," he said quietly.

Dead's dead. You say it, and you keep on going.

THE END