Woot! Tuck Everlasting fic!
Disclaimer: Tuck Everlasting+ Me No ownage.
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On The Path
He didn't need her. That was what he promised himself. He was just checking. Just making sure that she wasn't living in the past, that she wasn't hanging onto what might have been.
Tree Gap hadn't changed much. The dirt paths were still worn away and the iron fences were still sturdy in their wordless warnings.
But she had. Her hair was longer now, her eyes a little sadder. She wasn't the carefree ten year old girl anymore. She looked like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. And she did, in a way. Not the same way he did, of course, but she still had a secret she couldn't tell anyone, that no one would believe.
Walking down the street with that boy, Johnny he had heard someone whisper, she looked almost happy. Almost as she had five years ago, when they were hiking the mountain, running through the field, hand in hand. She smiled shyly at him, Johnny Boy, and fluttered her eyelashes. He blushed and stuttered. She had smiled at him like that, once.
But that was a long time ago. So much had changed.
No. He didn't need her. And apparently, she didn't need him, either.
At The Wedding
She looked stunning. In her white dress that draped perfectly across her small frame, and the red daises she was carrying in her hands. Her hair was down, loose, like she used to like it. Small freedoms, she had whispered to him so many years ago. She was beaming as she walked down the aisle towards him, towards Johnny Boy. Mae said that he went by John now, but he didn't care. He was Johnny Boy to him, immature and juvenile, everything that she didn't need.
He hoped that she would see him. Maybe if she did, she would come rushing up to him, a grin on her face, and whisper Took you long enough! in his ear. But she didn't. She kept on walking to Johnny Boy. He took her hands, and said the vows, and grinned as they walked down the aisle together.
Her gaze rested on the spot next to him, the shrub that her mother had laced with ribbon. Maybe she saw him, maybe she saw Jesse standing there, watching her walk down the aisle with another man. Maybe she didn't and only saw the white ribbon marking the shrub.
Maybe he was invisible to her.
At The Park
The wind was blowing her hair all around her face, whipping the ribbons in the little girl's hair standing at her feet all around. She patted the little girl on the head, and nodded at her. Patty went running to the other kids playing Red Rover in the field. Her hands rested on her stomach, protruding from under her jacket, showing the signs of pregnancy. Her eyes closed for just a second, and he thought he saw a tear escape. But in a second it was gone, wiped away by her hand. Johnny Boy came up behind her and rested his hand on her shoulder.
Maybe Johnny Boy couldn't see the sadness still residing on her face, but he could. He could see how every time he visited, her eyes were a little darker, her shoulders more slumped over, her expression a little more dead.
Jesse could see it, even if he couldn't. Even if she couldn't see it herself.
At The Ceremony
She was gone. Pneumonia, Mae had said. But she was gone, she had left her children, left Johnny Boy. Left Jesse. Johnny Boy was standing by the portrait of her, her three children standing next to him.
Jesse didn't belong there. He didn't fit in, grieving with people who had known her throughout her entire life. He had been there for two fleeting, wonderful weeks.
And he knew her better than anyone else there, better than Johnny Boy, better than her best friend, better than she knew herself.
And it hurt him more than it hurt anyone else. He had to live with losing her for the rest of eternity. He had to watch humanity wax and wane, all the while remembering her smiling face, wishing she was watching the show with him.
He needed her, and she was gone.
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