I do not own Walker the CW and Chuck Norris do. Woke up in a bad headspace so I wrote this. Italics = thoughts.
Cordell stood at the grave that belonged to the love of his life. He had always thought that he would be the one to go first. He was a Texas Ranger after all which made his job far more dangerous than Emilys. His unique multicolored central heterochromic eyes stared at the head stone before him with a deep sadness.
The Texas Ranger said nothing. He had no words to speak. What could he say? That he was sorry? That he should have been there? That it should have been him lying beneath the headstone instead of her because he had the more dangerous job?
He swallowed, almost choking with the deep sadness that overwhelmed him. Cordell lowered himself onto his knees in front of his deceased wifes headstone, his eyes never moving from her name etched into the cold granite.
Cordell remembered that night vividly. The SOS text. The sobbing, the fear in her voice. The gunshots and her screams as Emily was gunned down. He knew there was no way he would ever truly get that out of his mind. How could he? Emily was the love of his life. His anchor that kept him steady. The beloved mother of his two children Stella and August.
"What would you do if I died?" He recalled Emily had once asked him after he himself had asked her what she would do if he died. Being killed in the line of duty had probably been what had briefly crossed his mind as he had asked that.
"If you died, my life would be over. I'd grow a crazy widower beard and drink myself blind. I'd come back here every single night just to feel the faintest spark of joy you brought to me." Cordell had answered.
Unshed tears stung Cordells eyes. He had been completely honest but in retrospect he had underestimated the degree of his words. His life, his very world for that matter, had completely shattered upon hearing those screams and gunshots. It had shattered even more when he'd had to identify his beloveds corpse.
A shuddering breath escaped the Texas Ranger as he tried unsucessfully to hold back his emotions. God he missed Emily. He just didn't know how to function in a world without her in it. It never once crossed his mind that he'd have to. That his fourteen and sixteen year old son and daughter respectively would have to deal with the agony of losing their mother so young.
What am I supposed to do Emily? You're the one who always kept this family together. Cordell thought desperately though he knew the answer wouldn't come. Emily had been the glue of the family. Without her everything fell apart.
"You should head home. Our kids need you."
Cordell closed his eyes. Stray tears trickled from his eyes. It was HER voice, just how he remembered it. Opening his teary eyes he turned his head. There Emily stood. She wore the dress she had on before she was killed. "I can't do this without you." Although Cordell knew this was a hallucination he spoke anyway.
"Yes you can Cordi. You're their father." The hallucination of Emily replied moving closer to the grieving widower. "I live on in your memories. I'm never truly gone as long as someone remembers that I existed."
Even if that was true it didn't make Cordells grief and pain lessen. A voice not Emilys spoke.
"Dad?"
He looked over his shoulder to see August and Stella standing behind him. When he looked where Emily had stood she was gone like always. With a silent sigh, Cordell stood and turned to face his kids.
August and Stella both held a saddened look in their eyes. They knew their father was still deeply hurting. It was easy to see. The Walker siblings walked over to their father and hugged him tightly. It took a second but Cordell soon hugged them back tightly trying to keep himself together.
Stella rested her head on Cordells shoulder. She had been so angry that he left even though it had in a way been her own fault since she made him believe he had put her and Augie in serious danger.
August stayed silent and closed his deep brown eyes. The same color eyes he had inherited from Emily. He missed the way things used to be when his mother was still around. Everyone had been happier them.
The wind blew gently around the trio. Not a soul was watching the small, emotionally broken family. The only 'observer' was the granite headstone that read Emily Walkers epitaph.