What Do We Do Now?

Disclaimer: Don't own anyone.

"So, what do we do now?" squeaked a voice. It was Mary Magdalene, and she was sitting across from the other Apostles. They all blinked and looked back at her.

"Wait?" Peter ventured, "He said three days."

"Yeah," she mumbled in reply, "But what do we do until then?"

"Hope they don't come after us?" grumbled Simon Zealotes, "There's nothing to say."

"I never thought I'd say this," Mary said flatly, "But I miss Judas."

"I don't!" shot back Simon, "He's a betraying son-of-a-bitch."

"He's dead, now."

"…Both of them…" mumbled Peter.

"Whatever HAPPENED to Judas?" asked Mary.

"…I heard he exploded," Simon replied. Mary yelped.

"I don't believe that's possible. Do you think we should go bury him?"

"They're after all of us, I'd advise against it."

"But he's one of us."

"No, he's not."

"Listen, you guys," Peter cut in, "Mary's got a point. We've got to stick together. We can't just let one of our friends go to the rats."

"Why not?" shot Simon, "It's where he belongs."

"Listen, I'm pissed off at him too, Simon," Peter shot back, "But it's not right."

"Do you think maybe the Romans have found him?" Mary wondered.

"I hope not," Peter replied, "Then we'd never find him."

"What do we do now?" Joseph Caiaphas said, turning to his father-in-law with a look begging for answers.

"What do you mean?" asked Annas.

"Do you think…?"

"It couldn't be."

"It isn't."

"He wasn't."

"But what if he WAS?" asked Caiaphas, "What have we done? Things started going down and I couldn't even stop to think if what we were doing was right or not."

"But haven't we been planning this, Caiaphas?"

"…Not like it went down."

"It was unfortunate that Pilate behaved in that fashion, it's true. But there's nothing we can do now. It was Pilate, not us."

"But we said that his blood was on OUR hands, don't you remember?"

"That was you, Caiaphas. Not me. I never said that. You were not speaking for me. We're not cursed. It was just unfortunate, all of that business. If we could have disposed of the Nazarene ourselves…"

"And what would we have done?"

"Gotten rid of him quickly."

"How quickly?"

Annas sighed. He sat back, tapping a pen with his fingers and blinking his pale blue eyes.

"Stop asking questions. We can't change it now. You think I don't wonder that we may have killed an innocent man?"

"What about that we may have killed the Son of God?"

"We're in charge. If he were, don't you think we'd know?"

"We'd have to know."

"Unless we've been blind."

"What do we do now?"

"Judas…" said Mary Magdalene with a sigh. They'd done it after all. Maybe it would have been fitting for the tombs to be side by side, yet they were not. Joseph of Arimathea had taken care of their leader's grave, Judas' was up to them. And so, Judas lay in the field his money had bought. The Field of Blood, it had been dubbed.

"Fitting," though the Apostles.

"Things were really different back then," said Thomas aloud, "Very, very different."

"What do we do now?"

"A disgrace! I'm a disgrace!" Pontius Pilate declared loudly, "A spineless puppet I am! To stand by and watch as this occurred… I ordered him scourged, ordered him crucified… Who am I to set laws for anyone?"

Pilate groaned, laying back in his bed. He did not think he could take any more disturbances this week. It was insanity as it was.

"What do I do now?" he exclaimed. "…Move on, stay being a governor."

"Stay on, being the High Priest," said Caiaphas, "That's all I can do, I suppose."

"Another day, another Messiah," said Annas dismissively.

"Stay on, doing what we're doing," said Mary with a sigh.

"Whatever it is we ARE doing," said Simon.

"Goodbye, Judas," said Peter, "Goodbye, Jesus."

"At least for now," said Simon, with a slight wink.

"See, we're getting back to what we're doing already!" Peter exclaimed, "We're just… two fewer in number."

"So, we move on?" said Mary.

"Yes… we move on."

The End