Chapter 4: All good things…
"I remember when, We used to laugh,
And now I wish those nights would last"
Tony DiNozzo bit his lip in frustration as he forced himself to walk though the halls of the hospital. His heart was racing faster than the Eagle Five going plaid while his brain was still going at impulse trying to catch up. It wasn't for the fact that he ran all the way to the hospital from his fourth period math class, but instead it was from the message that he had gotten from Charlie. As Tony turned another corner, he had to use every muscle in his body to keep him from bolting down to the other end. Charlie was standing outside of an ICU room softly talking with a doctor. He's muscles shook as he stood painfully at the nurse's station giving them some privacy to talk. What seemed like an hour, but was only a minute, the doctor walked away and it only took the man four steps before Tony went over to Charlie. The closer he got, the more it took the sixteen year old from keeping his pace to a fast walk.
"It's not good Tony," Charlie said straight out as he slowly met him halfway. "The doctors don't expect Kevin to make it through the night."
Tony's eyes darted all over the wrinkled face of his best friend's guardian. "I don't understand, what happened? I thought he came down for another chemo treatment, he was fine yesterday," Tony's voice rising in volume with each word, as he was unable to hide the fear and panic. "He was getting better."
Charlie placed a hand on the teenager's shoulder and let out a defeating sigh. "I really can't tell you, Tony. No one knows why, it's just his time." go say your good-byes. I'm going to call some family so I'll be back in a bit."
Tony watched as Charlie walked away, but he did not move for a moment. He was just frozen in place trying to gather up his unsettling emotions. There was no way he wanted to spend his last time with Kevin crying, they had one to many moments of that already. Finally his feet started moving to the room, but a part of him tried to stop from entering the room for then it would be all real. Right when he crossed over the threshold his eyes locked on the frail body of his friend. There were tubes and wires entering and leaving his body, his skin was pasty and tinted with a light hit of yellow as it looked like it was just hanging of his bones. His sunken eyes were closed and Tony couldn't even tell if he was breathing or not.
"Kevin?" Tony called out as he moved slowly to the bed.
Blue eyes forced themselves opened and the weakest smile appeared. "Hey Ton, why aren't you in school?"
Tony forced a smile. "Got board, so I thought I'd hang out at a hospital to pick up some hot nurses."
"Yeah, whatever," Kevin tried to laugh but a string of couching came out instead. The mood changed in an instant, and Tony found it hard to keep his emotions in check. "Tony."
"Yeah," he found himself sitting down in a chair right by the bed.
"Can you promise me something?"
"That we'll go see the new Indiana Jones movie, I'm counting on it."
"No, that you'll take someone else and go see it. I know you too well Tony," Kevin looked at his sixteen year old brother. He thought a moment before continuing to speaking. "Let me put it in words that you'll understand. Friends are the magic pill and movies are the chocolate coating to make them go down easier," There was a pause before he added, "And the best part is you don't have to wait an hour to go swimming."
Tony broke out into a laugh at his twist of the movie quote, but it died down and tears filled his green eyes. "But seriously Tony, promise me that you'll live your life to the fullest, don't take reality to seriously. Life is your movie, don't let others direct it."
"I promise," They sat in silence for a few passing minutes, each one gathering their thoughts, "hey Kevin."
"Yeah Tony," Kevin replied tiredly as he fought to keep his eyes open.
Tony took a staggered breath trying to keep his emotion in check. "I'm," but failed miserably, "I'm really going to miss you," he said as his voiced cracked.
Kevin looked into Tony's red rimmed eyes with his own. "I know I'm going to miss you too. Heaven won't be as fun without you quoting movies every five minutes. Hey you better get back to class because you better get you ass into college."
"Always the big brother," Tony said bitter sweetly. He got up from the chair and started to head out but got stopped before the end of the bed.
"And Tony, take care of yourself. I better not see you in a very, very long time."
That was too much for Tony to take in, he wanted to cry out, tell Kevin that he could not promise that. That he didn't want to wait a life time before seeing him again. But as Tony looked at his friend for the last time, he knew that he would fulfill his brother's final request no matter how much it pained him. So Tony said the only thing that came into his mind, "As you wish."
Tony escaped the room without another word or look as he his feet quickly took him down the hall. His world was a blur as the repressed tears finally overflowed onto his cheeks. There was no way he was heading back to school today, or the rest of the week for that matter. Instead he found the nearest movie theater bought a ticket, he did not care what the title of the movie was or that it had already started. Tony just found a seat away from the handful of people and cried until the lights came on.
The funeral was small, family and friends were gathered in the funeral home's church. The casket was closed with a blanket of flowers covering the polished lid. A pastor spoke of life after death and read verses from a Bible. Anthony DiNozzo sat in the first row with Charlie by his side and stared at the expensive box that held the body of his friend. He was trying to not cry, he did enough of that in the movie theater, so he tuned out what the pastor was saying. Minutes had past till he felt a hand on his arm; Tony looked over at Charlie and was brought back to real life.
"You're up son," Charlie said softly.
Tony stood up from the wooden bench and headed up to the podium. He looked out at the sea of black clothes and red eyes and for a brief second wished that he didn't agree to give a eulogy or at lest had written one down on paper. However with one glance at the casket, the words came to mind and with a deep breath Tony spoke.
"Kevin Cornell and I met during the hard parts of our childhood where a friendship was formed that soon turned into a bond of brothers. He always knew that he would never reach his old age but that never stopped Kevin from living. He was part of the rebellion against the Empire, found the ark of the convenient, joined the police academy, learned from the great Mr. Miyagi, became a pirate king and showed people its okay to kick off your Sunday shoes. Movies were a way for him to escape the cancer and explore strange new worlds. But the world that Kevin loved the most was that of M*A*S*H 4077. When he was twelve Kevin told me that when he grew up he wanted to join the army and be a surgeon like Hawkeye Pierce. I remember an episode where Henry Blake told Hawkeye "that there are certain rules in a war: Rule Number one is that young men die. And Rule Number two is that doctors can't change Rule Number one." Kevin was fighting in a war, a war with cancer and sadly like Commander Blake, he too became a casualty. Farewell Kevin, but not good-bye."