AN: And now, I give you all the final chapter of Sunsets and Sunrises. If anyone is interested, my photobucket account, which can be accessed in my profile, now has pics of the dress Emily wore at the wedding in chapter 17, as well as a basic floorplan of the new condo the Bohemians have moved into, and models for my OCs, thanks to an online dollmaker (The OCs that are seen as kids in this story are shown a bit older in the photobucket account, since the doll maker doesn't offer many options for dolls of kids.) The pics in question are inside the 'Fanfiction Pics' folder. Hope you find them enjoyable. With that, please enjoy the final installment to this story.
Spring had once again come to New York City. Mark stood in the middle of Tompkins Square Park, filming the couples walking past, arm in arm, the old men feeding the pigeons, and a group of children playing in the nearby playground. As he went about filming, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of a leather jacket. Doing a quick double take, he watched as a young man, the owner of the jacket, walked by, his arms wrapped around a pretty girl at his side. The two were deep in conversation. A small lump formed in Mark's throat as he watched them, memories resurfacing.
"Mark?" His thoughts were broken when he heard the familiar voice of Emily saying his name. The filmmaker turned to his wife, who was sitting on the bench behind him with Penny, now a thirteen-year-old girl, at her side. "Thinking about the good old days?" Emily asked with a soft smile. Mark chuckled lightly, kissing her forehead.
"Just one of those moments, when you see something and your mind goes back," he explained.
"Yeah. I have those moments, too," Emily agreed, readjusting her hold on the tiny infant sleeping in her arms. Mark beamed as he looked at their baby girl, Lucia Maria Cohen. It was a unanimous decision to give her a name that meant 'light', to represent the light that he, Emily, Maureen and Joanne all tried to keep burning thorough all the hard times they had gone through.
"You know what we should do?" Penny suggested, stepping into the conversation, tightening her hold on the harness that led Wenceslas, who was no longer the small black pig he once was, but fully grown at 150 lb. "Tomorrow's going to be sunny, so we should head over to Marble Cemetery. It's been a while since we visited the others. I'd like to say 'hi' to them."
The small family shared bittersweet smiles. Collins had outlived the one year estimate he'd been given upon learning how his T-cells had dropped, and had held on for six months longer. As for Roger and Mimi, the sorrow of their deaths had been mixed with happiness for them. It had been a poetic passing, almost tragically beautiful. The virus had taken hold of them both simultaneously. They had died together, side-by-side, while holding hands. It was how they would have wanted it, together even in death.
Wiping away a small tear, Mark glanced down at his oldest daughter.
"I think that's a great idea," he agreed.
"Oh, dear," Emily laughed suddenly, glancing at her watch. "We better get going. Maureen's protest on that store that's discontinuing her favorite lipstick color starts in an hour. You know how she goes Pompeii on us when we don't show up.
"Yeah, she certainly does go berserk if we miss her protests," Mark agreed, packing up his camera, and turning to the playground. "Boys! Let's go!"
"Unka Mark!"
"Daddy!"
Two of the boys abandoned their game of tossing a large red ball around and started running over. The first was three years old with dirty blond hair and chocolate brown eyes. The other boy was a year younger, with blue eyes and frizzy mousy-brown hair. A warm smile appeared on Mark's face as he knelt down to hug the two boys. Rodolfo was looking more like his father every day. Apart from that, the boy had inherited Mimi's stubbornness and Roger's temperament. This combination made Mark and Emily's attempts at raising him difficult, but neither of them would have it any other way. As for his little blue-eyed son, no matter how much time went by, Mark could still remember the day they had chosen his name, Zachary Thomas Cohen. Little Zack was just a fountain of questions, and his inquisitiveness exceeded that of other boys his age. His current record for consecutive 'whys?' asked was twelve, but Mark and Emily both had a feeling that this statistic would increase as he got older.
"So, boys," Emily grinned at the two toddlers. "What should I make for dinner tonight?"
"'Ot dogs!" The boys chorused. Mark laughed and ruffled their hair.
"Hot dogs it is," Mark smiled. Cheering, Rodolfo and Zack started running down the path, with Penny following them to make sure they didn't get into trouble.
"Hey, what's the face for?" Emily asked, noticing the distant look that had appeared on Mark's face.
"Watching those two," Mark shrugged. "It always reminds me of how I used to play with Roger when we were that age." Smiling in understanding, Emily slowly got to her feet and tenderly kissed Mark's cheek.
"I miss him, too, Mark," she sympathized. "I miss all of them. But it's not like we won't see them again. And sometimes, I can almost swear I sense them around. It sounds crazy, but there are times when I can almost hear the chords of a fender, or hear them laughing." The two stood silently, as if expecting some heavenly sign that their friends were there with them, but to no avail.
"I suppose I better catch the boys," Emily decided, watching as Rodolfo and Zack started playing near the fountain. "I just know one of them is going to fall in."
"Here. I'll take her," Mark offered, holding out his arms for Lucia. Once the baby was in her father's hold, Emily placed a loving kiss on his lips.
"I love you," she reminded.
"I love you, too." Taking hold of the cane that had been propped up against the bench, Emily moved on to keep Rodolfo and Zack in line, leaving Mark with Lucia. After a moment, Mark glanced up at the sky, dotted with clouds.
"Wish you were here, you guys," Mark whispered. "It's never the same without you around. We're going to make sure the children grow up, hearing all about you, and all the wonderfully crazy times we had together. We're going to teach them all to live by our old mantra. No day but today, right? I'm going to make sure of that. And I hope you're enjoying yourselves up there. Just don't start the party until the rest of us get there. Okay?"
Before Mark joined his wife, children, and 'nephew', he paused for a moment as a sudden breeze went by, ruffling his hair which had grown a few centimeters over the years. He might have imagined it, but he was so sure that he could smell wonderfully familiar things in that breeze. Roger's aftershave, Mimi's shampoo, one of Collins' joints, and the perfume Angel used to wear whenever she was in drag. A peaceful smile stretched across Mark's face as he looked back at the sky, waving up to the heavens.
"Come on then, Lucia," Mark turned his attention back down at his infant daughter, who was now awake and looking up at him with large violet eyes, eyes that Nana had said she'd inherited from her grandmother, Natalie. "Better catch up to Mommy and the others." With one last glance at the heavens, Mark went on his way to catch up to Emily, Penny, Rodolfo and Zack, walking past the trees where the new spring blossoms were just beginning to open.
AN: (Takes a bow) And that, my loyal readers, is the very end of the Emily Story Arc. After this, I'm going off to try my luck in other fandoms on this site, particularly the Godzilla: the Series fandom. I've been promising GTS stories for some time now, so I best make good on that promise. Before I go, I just want to give a big thank you to everyone who's stuck with my stories from the beginning, especially those who were kind enough to give their reviews, (except a select few who chose to flame instead). You all know who you are.
On a final note, if you've enjoyed these stories, you might want to check out my two Labyrinth fics: Beyond the Thirteenth Hour, and The Power of Innocence. Those two were among my first works that were made public, so I hope they match up to my RENT stories.
And so, everyone, this is Data Girl 3, saying goodbye, and signing off.