Jack wiped a tear from his eye as he, once again, read the words engraved into the stone. Frank Morgan Slate. He wouldn't have minded seeing his father's name elsewhere but not here, not on a gravestone. The very few people that had come to his funeral had now left, leaving his best-and probably only friend-Faith, the priest and Shadow the malamute, who rested his head on the wet grass.
"Thank you" Faith whispered from beneath her umbrella, so quiet that Jack could barely hear her.
"No Faith, please don't" Jack chuckled, taking a deep breath to steady himself. Faith looked up, her dark brown hair looking slightly red in the setting sun as it cradled her thin, slender face.
"You saved my life" Faith couldn't help but smile "And you saved the town at the same time, you both did." She glanced down at Shadow, who replied with a simple glance in her direction. "It's the least I can do."
"But I couldn't save the man who'd saved me so many times" Jack whispered, his voice hard "and here we are honoured by another goodbye." He glanced back at his father's gravestone again.
"You honour him by being who you are, a good cop." Faith said quietly "just like he was." Faith sighed heavily. "When your ready, I'm here. When your broken, I'll fix you. Just, pick up the tab once and a while."
"Okay" Jack laughed.
"See you, Jack" She whispered, leaning in to kiss his cheek.
"Goodbye, Faith" Faith smiled at him before heading off into the trees, towards the huge, metal gate of the graveyard, a thing that practically welcomed you to death itself.
"How you keeping up, Jack?" The priest asked, stepping forward.
"Forgive me, Father" Jack chuckled "For I have sinned." Jack tried not to cast his mind back to the many battlefields he'd fought in, the amount of blood he'd seen, on both friend and foe.
"Yeah, I know" The priest said firmly "I've watched the news." Jack ignored that. No doubt the media had blown this thing way out of proportion, just like everything else.
"The funeral was nice." Jack muttered, watching a red, star shaped leaf float gently to the ground. "To the point, Thank you."
"Just like your father." The priest laughed quietly before his voice fell "These are trying times, Jack, you can't lose faith." Jack knew he wasn't talking about the young woman that had been here not 5 minutes ago, yet an image of her smiling face still appeared in his mind.
"Yeah, well" Jack said, clearing the thought from his mind "You can lose what you never had, preacher man."
"Now after your mom died, your father used to come to church when he could. He found peace that way."
"I'm not really looking for it." Jack said quickly, knowing what he said was a lie.
"Well" The priest cleared his throat "if it's any comfort to you, you were you father's pillar of strength, son."
"And he was mine" Jack whispered "gone"
"Your not alone" the priest said, placing a hand on Jack's shoulder. "If you need me, you know where to find me." And with those last words, he too headed off towards the gate that welcomed death. Jack sighed and sauntered over to his father's grave. He fished around in his pocket's before pulling out his father's police badge and pressing it against the curve of the stone.
"Goodbye, Dad" he whispered "I'll see you soon." He took his hand from the badge and dragged his heavy feet around his father's grave. He smiled as shadow shook his fur and barked towards the thick trees, before turning and running towards the gate that welcomed death, with Jack at his heels.