Just A Dream
"The Funeral"
He's not coming home this time. I'm sorry. He's gone.
The words echo through her mind as she slips into the most conservative black dress that she could muster up from the deep recess of her closet. As she stares at her reflection in the mirror, she suddenly realizes just how appropriate the color is. Why many women have chosen it to be the color they dawn in their time of mourning.
In many ways black represents every conflicting emotion flooding through her. It represents the numbness and utter void left in her husband's absence. The hurt and pain she feels as she looks forward to a future without him and sees nothing but pain and misery. Tears and heartache. Widowed at the age of 24, after only three beautiful years as his wife, she is left completely alone and lost.
"Elizabeth?" a soft voice of understanding comes from the doorway as her friend and body guard sticks his head in. "Its time."
Without voicing a single word, she turns her back on the mirror, fitting herself in his arms as he wraps them around her. Francis knows better than to voice anything by way of comfort. After all, what words could he really say to ease the pain of the loss of her husband? It'll get easier with time? He's in a better place? There are literally no words of comfort that the articulate, Francis Corelli, can come up with to comfort her. So, instead of deepening the pain, he lends her his silence.
Stepping through the church doors, Elizabeth is forced to hold back the words of disgust that threatened to form at the sight of all those in attendance. More than half of the people seated despised her husband without ever truly knowing the man behind the blank face. Judging him based on his career rather than his character.
A good chunk of those outside that category couldn't go a single minute in his presence without spewing something hateful and/or blaming him for something he literally had no control over. The most hypocritical of all is Lieutenant Marcus Taggert, who now sits near the front of the church with his sister Gia Campbell and her husband Nikolas Cassadine. A big bunch of pathetic hypocrites with nothing else better to do than attend the funeral of the man they despised more than life itself.
Taking her place at the front of the church, on the very first pew, Elizabeth reaches over to her sister-in-law, Emily Quartermaine, pulling her in close as the young woman's tears fall profusely down her cheeks. Among other Quartermaines, Emily has turned to her as a source of comfort, something to hold onto as reality shatters around her. Jason's parents as well as his grandparents are among the few that have turned to her in this time of grieving. Jason's absence has left her with the burden of holding these people together in spite of her shattering heart.
"What are we supposed to do without him?" Emily blubbers as she holds tight to Elizabeth. "What are we going to do?"
"Survive." she voices, not knowing what else she could truly say in that moment. "Its all we can do."
Before long the ceremony begins, the priest saying all the things he thinks a grieving family should hear in their time of need, all the proper things that should be said at a funeral. Soon the time comes for people to say a few words on behalf of the deceased and Elizabeth mentally dared the hateful people to rise to their feet. Fortunately for them, none of the hypocrites rose, leaving Jason's closest friends and family to rise to their feet and stand at the podium.
Sonny rants on for a good ten minutes about all Jason had meant to him, assuring those in attendance that he doesn't know how he'll survive without his brother. The Quartermaines start to physically cringe the more he went on about how close they had been and how deeply affected his family will be without him there, having always loathed their connection from the start.
Carly follows soon after with a blubbery Carly version of what Sonny had already voiced. Of course, no one could really understand much of anything that had been coming out of her mouth between the tears. Truly an emotional mess for all to see. It had taken five guards to remove her from Jason's casket. Leaving many onlookers to believe that the burial would be no prettier than what they had just witnessed.
Then the Quartermaines delivered rather emotional speeches themselves, standing by their fallen relative, united as always. First they recalled Jason when he was a Quartermaine through and through before touching on his time as the Morgan version many knew him as.
While everyone continued to give their speeches, remembering Jason in their own way, Elizabeth remained stoic in her seat. Making no indication of rising to her feet, none at all. She owed none of them her words of grief. All her personal memories, all she recalls of the man that had taken claim to her heart, belongs to her and her alone. For none of them will ever know her husband for the man he truly was and that will forever be their loss.
As the ceremony starts to come to an end, one last person rises to their feet, tears falling almost as badly as Carly's. Jason's ex-girlfriend, Robin Scorpio, takes her place behind the podium, the perfect image of a grieving widow if Elizabeth ever saw one. Subtly she glances over at Jason's casket, looking as if she were attempting to stop her tears, before she faces those gathered head on.
Sweet and loving, as always, she recounts her life with Jason and all the dreams they had for their future. All the dreams she had for him. How she will always see him as the man that had saved her life and brought new meaning to her world when she literally had none to speak of. How she'll always love him for the man he was rather than the one many perceived him to be.
Everyone always believed that Jason and Robin were the Romeo and Juliet of the modern day, but Elizabeth knew them for what they truly were. A relationship that held no growth for either person and no purpose in Jason's future. Not because she was jealous of their connection, but because Jason had sworn to her that they no longer meant anything to him. She's his forever.
Elizabeth will let her have her moment, however, accepting that even past relationships needed some form of closure. She's certain that she and Robin will never find common ground in the foreseeable future, but it didn't mean she couldn't be civil in that moment. Regardless of the woman's initial intentions when she returned.
From the church to the cemetery, Emily remains in Elizabeth's arms, watching as the man that held everyone together is lowered into his final resting place for the rest of eternity. Turning her gaze to the former husband and wife, she finds Carly clinging to Sonny for dear life, tears still falling from her face all the while. One can only wonder how she'll move on without the person that kept her together for so long.
Ned Ashton, her husband's cousin, starts to sing one of the saddest songs she has ever heard as the casket is lowered into the ground. Fighting off tears of her own, she holds both Emily and Monica close, staring at the opening to the grave as the casket disappears from view. He never should have died. This was never supposed to happen. And, as guards fire off their guns in salute for their fallen brother, Elizabeth makes one solemn promise to her husband. She will find whoever did this to him and she will end them.