"DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!!!"

That scene had been playing on repeat in her mind for the last three hours now. He was really dead this time. She had seen the body with her own eyes. She saw that horrible man drag away his limp, lifeless form. Bryce, her friend, her one time partner and lover was gone. Forever. There would be no coming back this time.

She had been in shock at first. When she walked into the white intersect room, seeing Bryce unmoving on the floor was the last thing she expected. Then there was also the fact that so much was going on at the time with this new threat.

The combination of shock and the flurry of dangerous activity surrounding her, had not allowed the time for her to process what she had seen. Not until now. Now her brain wouldn't let her forget that image. Bryce was dead.

Alone for the first time since the discovery, Sarah was sitting in the center of her bed when the first tear fell from her eyes and landed on the blanket below. That one tear. That signal, solitary drop of water, opened the floodgates and now full-fledged tears were streaming down her face. Her body was racked with sobs and her head fell forward onto the bed. He was really gone this time.

Bryce. She would never see him again. It hurt more than the first time she had been told he was dead. It hurt so much more. When she heard of his death the first time, she didn't even shed a tear. After his first death, she had thought him to be a traitor. A traitor to his country. A traitor to her. But now she knew that all along he had truly been a hero.

Bryce's second death also caused her so much more grief because it was during and after the funeral of the first, that she realized how much she truly cared about him as a person. How much she would miss having him in her life. She loved him. Not in a romantic sense. Although she had felt about him in that way once and for a long time. But she loved him as a friend. A friend that she never wanted to lose. But it happened. The relationship that they shared had been severed by a gunman's bullet. He was dead. For real this time, and her heart ached.

Her heart would ache forever over losing him. He had been such a part of her life and now that he was dead, a piece of her heart had been taken away. Where that piece used to live, there was now pain and sorrow. She knew that time could never erase it. That pain would follow her forever. She would never forget Bryce Larkin.

As Sarah continued to soak the blanket on her bed with the tears that poured out from her eyes, several questions entered her mind. Why did that man have to take his body?! Why did he want it?! What possible reason could he have for doing such a despicable thing?! Why couldn't have that man just let him be?!

If she ever saw that man again, she would end him. Painfully. Very painfully. Bryce deserved so much better than that! He deserved a respectable burial. He deserved a funeral where his friends and loved one could say goodbye.

After a lengthy period of crying that still persisted, Sarah came to a decision. Body or no, she was going to give Bryce a funeral. He deserved that much at least. Even if she was the only one there. She had to say goodbye to him properly. If she didn't get that chance, she feared the tears would never stop.

That night when the moon had replaced the sun as a source of light, Sarah went out to the graveyard where Bryce's first funeral was held. There she knelt by the tombstone that marked the empty casket.

She slowly traced her fingers along the lettering of his name, before laying the flowers she had brought across it. After a moment, she dropped her head. And as the night breeze blew through her hair, and the tears again fell from her eyes, she said goodbye to the friend she would always remember.