From Between the Stars
Still own nothing. If I did, owned them, Adam would have to be a bit more obedient instead of bossy.
This is the last act, unless characters argue with me, of the "epic" of Thank you and Now What.
The lone traveller stopped at the base of the hill to look up at the house sitting at the top. It almost appeared palatial, ah, he must be getting fanciful in his "old" age. With a satisfied smirk, he hit the key lock and began ambling up the path. Before he could knock, the door opened.
"I take it someone was spying on me from the widow's walk?" Adam Pierson grinned at Martha Grant.
"As always," she agreed cheerfully. "What brings you back here?"
Dramatically clasping his lapels as if wounded to the heart, Adam replied, "Is my welcome so soon exhausted, dear woman?"
"Of course not," she scoffed. "You just don't strike me as the type not to have a reason every time you so much as sneeze."
"I am terribly transparent," he agreed. "But could it not be something simple as wanting to steal another bottle of Madeira?
"It might be, but I gave you a case of Madeira." Captain Gregg reminded him, as he popped in by his lanky friend's shoulder.
"You'll give me a heart attack doing that one of these days," the falsely younger man groused.
"At least it won't be fatal," Captain Gregg smiled.
"Yes it will be, and dying in any form is damned uncomfortable," Adam snapped. "But, I will get better." He paused, then grinned, favoring the Captain with a wily look. "For that matter, good fellow, so will you."
By this time, the lady of the house, bearing its newest addition entered. "Adam!" she beamed.
"Now, see, my good people. That is what a welcome is supposed to be," the "old man" grinned. "Especially when I come bearing gifts."
"Beware of Greeks bearing.." Martha began.
"The Greeks were not Greek when I was born. But Greece is lovely. I'll take you there, some day, dahling Martha," Adam continued to BS. "Now, Daniel, do you want to be corporeal or not?"
Jonathan and Candi entered shortly after their mother, with Jonathan piping up, "But won't that unmote him? Corporal's are less'n capt'ns. "
Adam stiffled a grin. "No, dear boy. I'm promoting him, not demoting. But I see you're almost as good as I at altering language usefully. Excellent. Now, corporeal means - he won't be ghostly and have to work at being solid. "
Jonathan frowned as her considered this. "But I like him bein' a ghost."
"Yeah, me too," Candi added.
The young looking man sent the two women a look that said loudly, help!, but all he got in return was an amused pair of looks in return.
Finally he sighed. "Children, there are certain aspects of life that my be experienced vicariously with adequate results, however, somethings you just must be alive to enjoy."
"Vic vic " Candi sounded out, puzzled.
Adam looked for help again, same song second verse.
"You are the one who ate a dictionary on the way over," Daniel Gregg laughed softly.
"Well, if you'd let me have Martha, I wouldn't be reduced to book consumption," he shot back. "Does your mother let you watch hockey on the tube, television. The idiot box."
"No, we like baseball." Candi corrected.
"Fine. Is it more fun to watch the Phillies or whoever play or to play it yourself?"
"Ourself," Jonathan took his turn to answer.
"Exactly. So, the captain is watching life and now he wants to live it. Vicarious is like watching the game. And any more detail about the joys of the mortal coil I refuse to answer at this time as you are too young."
At last, Martha took pity on the ancient one, and herded the two older kids into the kitchen, leaving the Greggs and Adam to talk in the living room.
"You've figured out a way to mortalize me?" Daniel asked.
Adam did not answer with words. Opening his gym bag, he set what looked like a velvet bowling bag on the coffee table, dead center. "The problem is, we've been looking for magic. What is needed is a miracle."
"Unchallenged, Carolyn agreed drily. "So, we're going bowling?"
"Silly girl," he chided gently. "Kill the lights."
The captain, taking advantage of what was hopefully soon to be a failed power, snapped them off, and lowered the blinds to make the room as dark as possible.
Then, and only then, did Adam open the pouch, revealing a brilliant, pure crystal that shone with an inner light.
"Is that the prize?" Carolyn asked, finding her voice first.
"No, dear lady. Though I did search for this for years, only to find it too late. It is the Methusalah stone."
"As in Noah's grandfather?" she asked.
"Very good, Carolyn. You read the begats. He was given life until Noah finished the ark, and when it was done, he gave the stone to Noah, and died. When the rains ended, and the ark floated on the earth that had become sea, Noah dropped it into the waters of the deep. The legend runs that if a mortal owns it, they will live, no matter what is done to them or how sick they are. It will cure any disease. "
"I thought your life didn't run that way?" the captain asked.
"It does not." Adam fell silent, lost in a memory. "I wanted it for the woman I loved. Alexa. Wife number 69. She was dying when we met, and tried to run away to save me the pain. I thought I'd seen enough pain that I could handle it, losing her. I was wrong. When the end neared, I could not let her go, and sought this to save her life. I almost had it, then it slipped away, and she died. "
In the silence, Carolyn asked, "Can't you use it to bring her back?"
"I doubt it. Alexa moved on. She haunts my memories only. Nothing of her is left in this world but what I recall. Keeping her memory alive is why I survive. Unlike Daniel, her spirit is at peace. Even if I could, I'd not return her. I can only hope that all my sins are forgiven so that when this head comes away from my neck, I'll see her again and never leave her. "
"How long ago -" Daniel began hesitantly.
"Fifteen hundred forty one days, 10 hours and thirty five seconds, " he replied without even a slight pause to calculate.
There was little to say in light of that; their eyes returned to something safe, the Methusalah stone, sitting, waiting.
Adam reached out to touch it. "Be sure that this is what you want. I imagine that once its gift is given, there's no going back. And there's no more popping around and so on. If you want to throw Claymore out, you'll have to pick him up manually and do so. Is life worth giving up the perks of death?" His eyes, normally filled with blase' humor, had hardened to steel.
When the captain looked to his wife, she shook her head. "I won't answer for you. It's up to you."
Baby Jenny softly cooed, settling any doubts. He had not once been able to hold his own child.
"Yes, I'll take up my matt," he decided, not missing the flash of joy in Carolyn's eyes.
"What do I do?"
Well, when it came down to it, Adam hadn't considered it- beyond getting the thing to Gull Cottage after fishing it out of the Seine. "Um. Good question. Do you have enough control to just pick it up?"
He did, but nothing happened.
Adam tapped it a couple of times. "Voila! Abbra cadabra? Should I break into a chorus of Bring me to life?"
"No!"
"No need to get testy. My singing is not that bad."
Carolyn sighed. "Maybe it was too much to hope for. We do have much more than I ever dared expect," she stated, resolutely, glancing at her child.
"No. I made a promise, and I may have done terrible things over the aeons," Adam vowed, "but I've never broken my word. If this rock isn't it, then something else. "
"Why is it so personal?" Carolyn's question came out of nowhere.
He sighed. "Adam is not my true name. I'm frankly not sure what it is, but one I went by for centuries haunts me. I was Death, killing by the thousands. Around two thousand years ago, wife number 40, Miryam of Magdala, was very ill. They said she had demons. I was desperate, afraid for the first time. A charismatic healer was in town, one of her brothers, Thadeus, was among His talmidin, disciples. He cured us both, changed me from being Death walking. Life is not mine to give, but if I can help, .. I just want to help. Maybe I'm the problem. If I wasn't here, maybe a miracle could happen." Never in all his years had Adam or whatever he chose to call himself at the moment, sounded or felt so forlorn. He'd have taken his own head at the moment, thinking of all the people he'd failed.
But Daniel Gregg could be depended on in times like this. "Nonsense, Adam. You have done more for us than almost anyone. I'm sure our meeting was divinely ordained so long ago. Or perhaps not so long, to you. It never occurred to either of us to hope for more than the night that created Jenny. If that is all there is, then it is not your fault."
His hand unthinkingly came to rest on the stone, and was covered with Carolyn's a moment later, even though to the eye it looked as if their hands were combined in a weird synthesis of two in one. "We've lost nothing. I love Daniel, ghost or not. He's still himself."
"Ditto, " the ghost smiled, thinking of one of the dvd's Carolyn had roped him into watching.
Suddenly, white light engulfed the room. Adam reached up to make sure his head was still attached, then blinked as the light faded. The first thing he noticed was the blasted rock he'd finagled through customs was gone. Then he saw two hands, intertwined, not overlaying one another.
"Are you- uh-" Adam fumbled. Then settled for reaching out and tweaking the now former ghost's nose.
"YES."
Anything is possible when you love someone. Even... miracles? Mr Lundie Brigadoon. as Tommy brings it back from somewhere between the mists and the stars, by loving Fiona.