Sly gave a hard swallow. His fingers curled around the flowers in his hand. The bouquet was full of genetically altered flowers that produced an array of vivid colors, ones that wouldn't harm the Earth when they started to die.
She always liked bright colors.
With a heavy heart, he reached the small space in front of grave. He gently placed the flowers on the grass and leaned them against the stone. Megan O'Brien Dodd. Daughter, sister, wife. The last epithet made him smile. Sadly, but fondly.
Sly raised his right fingers to his mouth, pressed his lips to them, then flattened the kiss against her name. He held it for a few seconds before letting go.
Reaching into his backpack, he unrolled a blanket. Walter helped him designed it, so that it would never get dirty or wet. When he was done using it, he could line it perpendicular to the ground, and whatever didn't belong would merely tumble off without leaving any residue.
He put his bag off to the side and situated himself comfortably. Once he felt settled, he emptied a small pool of hand sanitizer into his palm from the container in his pocket.
"Hey, Megan," he said while starting to rub the sanitizer in. He talked like she could actually hear him, knowing full well that she wouldn't. "Sorry I haven't visited in a while. Between Scorpion and Aldermaning, I hardly have any time to myself. Patty makes sure that I'm always doing something productive whenever that even happens." Some trees rustled in the distance as a faint wind swept by. His skin chilled. "Oh, did I tell you Ralph has a crush on her? Like, big time." Lips curling up to his nose, he glanced at the white bandage on his finger. "But we're not great help. I mean, the only girl I ever had feelings for was...you. And Walter is still trying to figure out relationship stuff for himself." He paused, breathing slow and steady. He counted his heartbeats in between the passing moments. "I think you'd be proud of him. He's...he's made a lot of progress."
Sly fidgeted with his marriage bandage in the ensuing silence. Trees rustled, birds chirped, cars flew past, everything making more noise than the empty grave. After all this time, there was still a sharp sting. It ran its familiar course, hard and harsh.
He used to run through every single possibility of a response that Megan would use. He pictured her laugh and her smile, sometimes pressing a kiss to a cheek or providing one of her witty comments. But now, two years later, the quiet was as cold as the hand he held when the heart monitors went dead. All the wound up feelings were unraveled to an imaginative listener. He missed the free conversation they shared, her sense of humor, her optimism, and he missed not having to wait for a visit to talk.
Not that he could always just go see Megan while she was alive. He had to find times to visit. But at least he knew she was there, she was only a phone call away. If he didn't stop by the hospital, he would make sure to give her a call. Now he was lucky if he managed a trip to the gravesite once a week.
Sly started to talk about all the things that they discussed when she was alive. "You're never going to believe this Super Fun Guy issue," he started. He told her, in greater depth, about the lives of everyone else. He told her about Walter, then the latest cases and the insane solutions Scorpion came up with.
"I saw this crazy sunset the other day." He went on with extensive detail about the angle of the sun and how unusual it was. And the colors, of course. He also described all of the recent night skies that she would've loved to see. Stars that reminded him of the night of her rocket launch.
Sly kept playing with his ring as he talked. Birds continued singing, all ones he recognized. He liked to tell Megan about different birds. She enjoyed listening.
He sighed.
Living without her became less difficult. But Sylvester found a new way of living. A new strength, a new courage, a new bravery. He attributed most of it to Megan. She taught him what life meant and what was the best way to live it. Megan taught him how to harness the courage that Scorpion showed him he had. Being afraid didn't mean being without courage. And although he was almost always in fear, Megan's memory helped guide him away from that.
But it didn't fulfill the hole from the loss.
He sighed again.
"I miss you, Megan."