The Gathering
Present day
"People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that's bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they're afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain."
Jim Morrison
It was a beautiful cold morning. Several cars silently drove down the road and parked close to the small Catholic church, and their occupants silently left their cars and entered the church. The sky was perfectly blue, and the graveyard was covered by the snow that fell the previous night.
The piano music filled the air, while the people took their seats and attended the gathering. The priest talked quietly with Reverend Buchanan, they shake hands and Joseph takes the pulpit and starts the small memorial service.
Reverend Buchanan thanks the priest, who gracefully conceded the word to the reverend. Joseph looks at the faces of all gathered that cold morning. He sees the faces of his beloved family, his daughter surrounded by her new family in NCIS giving silent support, and the man who came into her life and is holding her hand in his, silently giving her strength to finish the task ahead.
At the other side of the small church, there are some FBI agents, family and relatives of the deceased ones, as well as some members of the BAU in DC. The others were away on a case, and couldn't come.
He lowers his head and prays for wisdom and grace, and begins:
"We are here today to celebrate the works and life of an incredible group of individuals. Alone, each had their own strengths and abilities, but put together, they represented the very best of mankind, struggling each day against unimaginable evils, fighting demons that not even the worst of our imagination couldn't bring to reality."
"Stephen King once wrote that monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win."
"Everybody in life one day or another has to face tragedy. Everybody suffers loss. Everybody one day will receive a call, a letter, or will see something on the television that will change your outlook on life. How you see and perceive things."
"Our lives sometimes are shaken by earthquakes, and we look around and see only rubble where our dreams, our lives, our homes used to be."
"We might think, the worst is over now, and we can breathe again. The dust is settling down. But then you realize that there's so much to learn, and there's no one left standing to fight."
"Every time humanity has gone through one of these tragedies - an earthquake, a tsunami or a hurricane - there was loss, and pain, and death. But there was also hope. Yes, hope, because as soon as news of this tragedy comes across the waves of radio or TV, somewhere out there rescue crews prepare themselves and immediately get their gear and go to the site to act as angels of mercy, and go wherever this tragedy happened and they fight, they look for survivors."
"They never go to a pile of rubble and think, oh, what a huge pile of corpses we will find, they think, oh, let's see how many survivors we will find. They might find corpses, but their main aim is to find survivors."
"There is still hope."
"In the middle of rubble, of the earthquakes that life throws in our path, sometimes we still find hope. Hope to keep fighting, looking for answers and saving lives, because that's what you are meant to do, what you're supposed to do. That's not only a job for most of you, but a calling, as you pay the price, you lose time with your family, lose loved ones, your children might even grow up to be strangers to you, but you still keep going because someone has to do it."
"Someone has to make a stand, and fill the breach in the wall."
"These amazing people of the Los Angeles Behavioral Analysis Unit filled the breach in the wall. They dedicated their entire lives to ensure that the monsters that plague the nightmares of our children do not spill out of the imaginary world to reality."
"In the end, they sacrificed their lives on the altar of intolerance and insanity, driven by the fears of a young man who was swallowed by the very monsters he was trying to hunt."
"Each one was special, in their own way, and they will be sorely missed by those who had, if just for a moment, their lives touched by these amazing individuals. They cared deeply for all victims they worked with, they cried at every life lost, and rejoiced at each and every criminal they were able to put behind bars."
"After the earthquake, first there is despair and death, then there is rescue, and there is reconstruction. The rubble must be moved, the terrain cleaned, so life can start all over again."
"God hasn't created us to live between rubble, breathing down the ash and dust of the former lives that we had. We have to move on, and build again."
"So this morning, we honor the fallen, and rejoice in their deeds. They were mighty deeds, and they will forever be remembered by them."
"I invite all present here today, to stay a minute in silence, and watch a small presentation on our fallen."
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