Disclaimer: I do not own the song A Thousand Years.
A very, very old woman lay in bed, short white hair sticking up in every direction. Her eyes were closed.
Several figures stood around her. Three men and three women. They all looked very much alike. Their expressions, too, matched: they were all very, very sad.
"Can't you give her another regeneration, Dad?" one of the dark-haired men asked.
The blonde man turned to look at him. "I've given her all I have, Alec," he said softly. "I don't have any left."
Alec looked down. The man beside him, identical to Alec, put an arm around his shoulders. "She lived a good life."
Alec's eyes drifted to the framed picture on the wall. It showed his parents, surrounded by their six children. They'd all been so young then. Marie and Ansley, the littlest two, were infants.
He gazed at the four siblings who stood beside him. One was missing. There had only been five living children for nearly nine hundred years.
Poor Cayden, the third of the identical triplets, was the only human. And he was long gone. For all those hundreds of years, the only triplets had been Alec and Blake.
Soon, Cayden wouldn't be alone.
The blonde man looked down at his watch. "Happy thousandth birthday, Cassie," he said. His voice broke.
The woman who most resembled her mother approached him, hugging him tightly. "She's half-human," the woman said quietly, not needing to add the obvious: that half-humans aged. "You gave her so many more regenerations. You gave her so much more time. She's had a wonderful life."
"But it's not enough," the man whispered. "Her time's run out." A tear rolled down his cheek. He remembered the words of a long-gone friend. Everybody knows that everybody dies.
"It's too soon," he added faintly.
"Myra," Marie said, running a hand through her own brown pixie cut, "I think it's time."
Myra released her father, joining her siblings as they lined up facing their parents. They joined hands.
"Mum, Dad," Myra said, because the woman on the bed had opened her eyes. They were, like they'd been so many regenerations ago, a deep shade of brown. Just like Myra's.
Just like Cassie's had been when she had her husband married.
"Lorcan," Cassie murmured.
Lorcan reached out to take his wife's gnarled hand, his own hand still that of a young man. Tears formed in his eyes as he looked back up at his eldest daughter. "Yes?"
"We have something for you," she said. "We know how much you love each other. We wanted to make that our gift."
She glanced at her siblings, who nodded, and began to sing.
"Heart beats fast..."
Marie chimed in. "Colors and promises..."
Ansley's voice joined the mix. "How to be brave?"
Next came Alec and Blake. "How can I love when I'm afraid to fall?"
Another year ran down Lorcan's cheek as his children continued.
"But watching you stand alone, all of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow."
Marie sang the next part alone, her voice high and sweet, "One step closer..."
The others joined in, "I have died every day waiting for you. Darling, don't be afraid. I have loved you..."
Cassie gazed up at Lorcan, a tear following the wrinkles around her eyes. His own tears dropped from his chin.
"...For a thousand years. I'll love you for a thousand more."
Cassie gave Lorcan a weak smile. Even with the pain she was in, there was adoration in her eyes. "What they said," she murmured.
The song was soft and clear. "Time stands still, beauty in all she is. I will be brave. I will not let anything take away what's standing in front of me. Every breath, every hour has come to this."
Lorcan had been watching his children sing when he heard Cassie speak.
"I love you."
He let out a sob when he looked back down at her. She still gazed up at him, but her eyes were empty.
Cassie was gone.
The singing stopped, everyone clustering around the bed. There was silence, each face soon streaked with tears.
No one noticed the man standing in the doorway. He watched the family for a few moments, but he didn't approach. He felt uncomfortable interrupting their moment.
"Goodbye, Cassie," he said softly, pushing up his glasses. Then he hit his wrist and disappeared.
Lorcan kissed Cassie's aged cheek. His tears dampened her skin. "I've loved you for a thousand years," he whispered. "And I'll love you for a thousand more."
A/N: Goodbye, Cassie.