Title: I'll Be There - Epilogue
Rating: PG-13 for language
Pairing: Ennis/Jack
Summary: This is not an AU exactly in that it takes place after the end of the original story. In this, everything that happened in the M/SS did happen, and Jack did die… but… he is being given a chance to let Ennis know how he feels and ease his overwhelming grief.
Disclaimer: Although they are not mine... they will live in my heart forever...
Feedback: Yes, please... let me know whatcha think.
Author's Note: This story is inspired by the song 'I'll Be There' by 'The Escape Club. It was not an easy story to write, but now that it is complete, I am very glad I fought my way through it! Thanks for reading!

Epilogue

He has been waiting a long time. Thirty long years have passed since he last held the love of his life in his arms. Throughout those years, he has watched. Watched his love become an in-law, watched his love become a grandparent… watched his love live without him.

At times it has not been easy to see, times when tears shed in a cold lonely bed touched him so deeply and made him ache until he was compelled to return to his love's side, whispering words of comfort and love that he knew his love could hear, though they were rarely acknowledged or responded to, the smile on the weathered face was enough for him to know he was heard.

He has watched with an aching heart as his love, finally having admitted the truth, allowed another to share part of a heart left bereft and empty with his passing. While he has been comforted in knowing that his love has not been pining alone, he has know true fear… fear of being replaced in his love's heart by this new person, but has known a measure of comfort that, from words spoken by lips longing for his own, though his love may care for another, it is nothing in comparison to the love that is felt for him.

Now he watches intently as his love draws the last few breaths of his life without him. He feels a mixture of joy and sorrow at his loves impending passing, for he knows that now is the day that he has been waiting for, for so long, but he also knows the sorrow his love will face at having left loved-ones behind.

As he hears his love's final words to family and friends, words of love and sadness at leaving those that he loves, and words of happiness at being reunited with him at last, he feels sadness, anticipation and relief.

Now as his love draws that last tentative breath, he turns from the sight of grieving friends and family and steps out between canvas flaps… wait almost at an end.

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He steps out into the clearing, and looks around slowly. He knows that the one he is seeking is here, has known all these years that his love would be here waiting for him. Finally, he sees a figure standing in front of a slow burning fire.

Smiling, he walks quietly over to that figure, memories of another time so very long ago, when he came upon his love in this same way coursing through his mind.

Walking up behind him, he wraps his arms around those broad, lean shoulders, bringing his lips up to his loves ear, he softly whispers, "Hey now… you're sleeping on your feet like a horse." The firm body in his arms relaxes against him, and the head drops slightly, chin resting briefly on his arm.

They stand that way for several minutes until at last; his love turns in his arms and smiles at him, blue eyes flashing with love and happiness.

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"You came…" Jack said quietly, reaching out a hand and touching Ennis' chest as though to reassure himself that he is truly there.

"You waited…" Ennis replied, bringing his hand up to cover the firm tanned one resting over his heart.

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In a small house far away from the mountain, a red haired woman stands in front of a dresser. Tear stream silently down her face as she removes faded flannel shirts and worn jeans from the drawers.

She removes a pair of very old shirts, faded and frayed, looking as though they had not been worn or washed for many years, almost identical stains on the sleeves of each shirt and tucked one inside the other. As she folds them, a small but heavy object falls from within the folds and lands at her feet. Picking up the object, she
looks at it carefully. A small flat object, made from glass, shaped like and about the size of a drink coaster. Turning it in her hand, she looks at the picture there and gasps dropping the shirts to the floor.

There, on the face of the glass object is a picture of a man that can only be her daddy. He looks very young, younger even then her youngest son who has just passed his twenty-second birthday. In the picture, he is sitting in front of a fire, back braced against a log, bottle of whiskey in one hand resting on his knee, and his other arm firmly wrapped around another man whose face is familiar to her. On her daddy's face, is a smile that she only remembers having seen once before and his slightly downcast eyes twinkle with a happiness she only ever remembers seeing that same day… the day that his friend came to see him just after her parents divorce.

The other man, whom she recognizes as a younger version of that same friend, sits between her daddy's outstretched legs, his hands resting lightly on her daddy's denim clad legs, and leans against her daddy's chest. His eyes, bluer then the sky that shows above the mountain peak behind them, are sparkling and happy and his face is split into a wide grin, his face slightly, turned, chin lifted to look into her daddy's gaze.

Suddenly, so many things become clear to her, and she smiles as a tear trickles down her cheek. Thank God, he is happy at last, and where he has always wanted to be.

She smiles, places the glass object back into the pocket of the old shirts, and folds them carefully, hugs them briefly to her chest, and places them in the box of things to keep.

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The sun breaks free over the top of the mountain, and fills the clearing with bright sunlight as the wind catches and carries sounds of laughter, joy, and love up above the peak where it swirls and spins, carrying on the air the story of a love stronger then life or death itself.

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