As you know I am terrible at endings so I hope that this is a fitting end for a story that took way to long for me to finish! Thanks for hanging in there and please stick around as I am trying to finish a lot more so that I can move on with more of my brilliant (yes... I can imagine that I am brilliant... dreams are free!!) ideas!

Chapter 10

Booker planted the kickstand of his Harley motorcycle on the ground as he looked across the garden of stone. He wrinkled his nose as he flipped the key effectively killing the engine. He slowly rose from the bike. He could almost still fell the vibrations of the engine on his legs as he shook the blood back into them. He could feel the cold creeping through his joints. His body hadn't felt right since that dreaded day. His knees ached constantly. His shoulder and arm ached dreadfully. His ribs… they still felt like they were put together backwards. He reached his hand up protectively tucking it up under his leather jacket feeling the still painful ribs as they were slowly mending from the accident. He flinched as he hit a still tender spot with the tips his fingers. It sometimes felt to Dennis like he could just lie down and not move again no matter what. Each day that he arose was a miracle.

Dennis walked across scattered stones. There was something about a cemetery. As a child it had felt like at any second someone might punch their way up through the dirt and grab your ankle. He was sure that there were zombies walking around out there at midnight. As he got older he became interested in the stones. It was really the dates on those stones to be exact. He would walk through the really old sections and identify the stones that were from a hundred years ago. He would wonder what they were thinking when they came back to visit their loved on various days. Of course he never would have told anyone or they would have thought he was off his rocker. It wasn't until recently that the true feel of the sadness of the place had just washed over him.

Dennis swallowed down the knot in his throat. He furrowed his brow as he looked at that stone again. His mother had thought it would be nice to put a picture of the happy couple on the heart shaped stone. He wished at that moment that she hadn't been given so much say in the arrangements. There would still have been a stone but the picture… it wouldn't be there as a permanent reminder of what would never be. Then there was the baby… the little angel.

Dennis looked up at the sky. Above him was a tree, a very large beautiful oak tree. He had picked out the spot because of the tree. She had always loved the fall and the leaves. She had loved so many simple little things. The warm touch of his hands on her shoulders… the smell of the evening air… the way clean sheets felt against her skin after she changed the linens. Things that Dennis took for granted.

"Hello…"

Dennis looked at the stone. He looked at it waiting for something to happen. Was she gonna talk back to him? Was she going to answer him? Was she gonna surprise him by reaching up through the dirt and grabbing his ankle making him into a zombie?

"Sorry I haven't been back in a while. I… I wrecked the car." Dennis wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

Why the hell are you crying over this Dennis? It was just a car. It was the last reminder of your father and what he put you and your mother through. Besides you got the bike and its all better now.

"You know I never stop thinking about you. I miss seeing you everyday. I just never thought it would come to this." Dennis looked up at the sky searching for something to help him real his emotions back in. He then looked back down at the ground at the cold granite stone marking her head and the one marking her foot. Dennis sniffled hard as he felt his knees start to shake. Slowly Dennis lowered himself to the ground and crawled over the head stone where he laid his head on against the surface.

"Oh princess… what the hell happened to me. I just can't believe that you were here and then you were taken away from me so fast. I mean why did I have had to lose you like that. Why couldn't you have just told me you didn't want to be with me anymore and left me like that? That way I could have still seen you from time to time… I love you…"

Dennis pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around himself and wept.

--

After a time Dennis calmed down enough to look back at the head stone again. He took a deep breath as he looked back at her name. Elaina Booker. He ran his fingers thought the groves of her name. He let himself fell the sharp, and in some places, jagged edges. He swallowed hard as he touched her picture with the tips of his fingers smiling back at her warm toothy smile.

"I needed to tell you something… I'm not quite sure how to say this… so please don't say anything till I'm done." Dennis laughed a little in spite of himself. He could feel the tears welling up in him again as he looked down at the ground he was seated on. "I'm not sure if I'm going to stick around here much longer. I mean I like it here so don't take it like that. It's just that I've been offered a job by Dean over in Waylen County." Dennis wiped away the tears with his sleeve as they started to fall again. "I just don't know if I want to take it or not. So I am just gonna ride the fence for a while on it. I mean I have the job if I want it and maybe I'll take it… I just don't know if I want to go back to farm country to start a Jump Street program there. If you were here you would have helped me with this one. You could have helped me find the right answer. You were smart like that. I guess that's why you worked in the bank."

Dennis shook his head letting the wind blow through his already messy hair. He closed his eyes as he continued to let the world around him just continue moving past. He tried to imagine himself sitting somewhere other than where he was. He thought he could be sitting high up in the mountains. He could be sitting on the edge of a cliff somewhere. Maybe he was on a farm at the edge of the property. Why on earth could he not just let her go…

--

Behind him someone cleared their throat. The noise was almost like a "Hello!" only not at excited. More like someone who had been standing around for a while waiting to interrupt but couldn't find a way to do it and not appear rude. Quickly Dennis wiped his face and then turned his head to see who was waiting behind him.

"Hey." Tom Hanson shifted nervously as he looked on.

"What are you doing here?" Dennis asked coldly.

"Your mom was worried and she called the Captain. He sent me to find you." Tom responded taking a few steps closer. "I haven't been here too long." He could sense the embarrassment on Dennis Booker's part. He knew the younger cop had a reputation for being a bad boy that he wasn't ready to let go of yet.

"I needed to make a stop." Dennis answered looking back down at the cold hard ground below him.

"Do you need a friend?" Hanson asked. The words sounded kind of funny coming from him and directed at Dennis. With the history he and Dennis had asking if he needed him to be a friend was like asking the devil for ice water. You might not like what you get if you get anything at all.

Dennis sniffled as he looked up at the sky again. He then leveled his stare at Hanson who continued to shift uncomfortably waiting for an answer. Hanson tugged nervously at his denim jacket and then at the waist of his jeans as he waited. Toms brown hair fell tussled and untidy over his eyes. He seemed so genuine with his question; it almost took Dennis off guard. He had already been through the loss of someone important to him when he had lost his father. Maybe he could talk to Tom Hanson.

"Yeah Tom…" Booker cleared his throat as he looked up at Hanson. "I could really use a friend."

"I'll buy the coffee." Tom smiled as he reached his hand down towards his friend.

Dennis looked at the gesture of friendship for a moment before he leaned over and kissed the cold granite surface of the headstone.

"Just a moment." Dennis responded pointing his index finger at Tom as a signal to wait.

He quietly whispered something towards the small angel statue before he looked back up at Hanson. He then reached up and took Tom's hand and let the men help him to his feet.

"Come on..." Hanson patted Dennis on the shoulder as the two of them walked towards the vehicles waiting to carry them back into town.

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