Day 7

Summer

The late evening sun threw random rays of light through the lush tree canopy, making patterns of gold that adorned the blue hammock and the couple that lounged within. The air was finally cooling down some, crickets beginning to join the birds in a duet. Quiet moments were far more common than they had once been in the Logan household. Time had marched onward, as time tends to do and a house that was once full of children's laughs was now far more subdue. All three children were adults, with jobs and lives of their own. Melvin had married two years ago and had announce she was pregnant at the beginning of the summer. In just a few short months Raven and Garfield would be first time grandparents.

"Rae?" His voice was sleepy, his eyes closed in tranquility as he enjoyed the slight sway of the hammock in the breeze.

"Yeah?" She blinked away the drowsiness from her own eyes, turning her head to study him. He had spent a lifetime smiling and laughing and was developing soft wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and around his mouth. His hair, which was still lush thanks to the fact Raven had taken time each month to heal his hair follicles, was graying on the sides around his ears.

"Mellie said something about naming the baby Garfield if it's a boy. You should tell her it's a horrible idea."

"I'm not going to do that." The empath chuckled softly, playing with the hair at his temples. "She loves you, Gar."

"I know she does. Still, it's not a good name. I mean . . . middle name maybe . . . if she insists, but . . ."

"It's her decision. Besides, I bet it will be a girl."

"You really think?" He sounded excited at the prospect and Raven nodded.

"I have a feeling," she confirmed with a small smile.

"It's still hard to believe we're going to be grandparents. How did I get so damn old?"

"How did we get so old," she corrected. "I'm older than you are, remember?"

"Only in years." The statement sounded nonsensical, but Raven nodded again, sighing loudly. While Gar looked like a man that was in his forties, the empath looked no different than she had the day they brought their children home over twenty years ago.

"I think you've become more handsome, as you age." She sensed his insecurity and wanted to reassure him. She did still find him as attractive as ever and was content with her life with him.

"Give it twenty more years," he grumbled doubtfully, tracing his fingertips down the side of her perfect, unmarred face.

"You'll still be my sweet, generous husband. You'll still be handsome, Gar and I'll always love you."

"Are you immortal?" His words were quick and blunt, forced before he could chicken out. The thought had plagued him more and more as of late, as years passed and it became clear it wasn't that she was aging very well, she simply wasn't aging at all.

"I . . . I don't think so," she responded after a moment of silent contemplation. "I expect I will live a very long time though."

"What's a long time? Two hundred years? Five hundred?"

"I can't honestly say." She had no answer for him and she pushed her face into the bend of his neck as if to hide. Gar knew it meant she really didn't want to talk about the subject anymore, but he couldn't let it go yet.

"I'm going to be eighty years old . . . if I'm lucky enough to live even that long and you'll still be exactly like you were at twenty."

"No one will know. I look my age with my holoring on." This was true, though Raven hadn't aged, her alter ego, while still lovely, looked every bit as forty-something as Gar did.

"I'll know."

"Most men would count themselves lucky to have a twenty year old on their arm."

"Yeah, men are stupid like that. The idea is awesome, but in practice . . . it isn't reasonable. I'm slowing down Rae. And it's just going to keep getting worse each year. Eventually I'll be an old, feeble man with no sex drive, no energy . . . and you'll be in that body with the same wants and zest you have right now. You won't be happy with me anymore. You'll find someone young. Some young guy with . . ."

"Garfield, I'm never going to leave you for anyone . . . let alone some immature boy."

"I was an immature boy once . . . and you fell in love with me."

"I fell in love with you despite the fact you were an immature boy. I looked passed the bad jokes and the tasteless pranks. I saw you, who you are at your very core. That's what I love and that's one of a kind." Tears pooled in her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks. "I don't want to think about this . . . about how you're the one that's going to leave me one day. I can't imagine living without you. But I'll have to. For decades, for centuries . . . I'll have to live without you and everyone else I love. It terrifies me."

"Oh." He hadn't thought of it that way and the silence stretched between them for several long minutes. "I'm sorry, Raven. I know you love me and that you won't leave me. I wish . . . I wish I could promise you the same thing, that I'll be there until the end of your own life." He pulled her closer, pressing light kisses upon her upturned face.

"I don't want to be alone," she mumbled, eyes slipping shut to hold back the tears.

"You aren't alone. I'm here, Rae. And as long as I'm here I'm going to love you. I'm gonna love you with everything in my heart and in my soul. I'm going to love you so much that you'll always feel my love . . . no matter how long you live."

"I'll never . . . even if I lived forever . . . I'll never love another like I love you," she promised, eyes opening so she could gaze into his own, twin teardrops rolling down each perfect cheek.

"I know." He smiled, his thumb wiping away the moisture. "I'm not going anywhere for a long time. We have so much life left to share together. Let's just forget about all this, huh?"

"Melvin is going to be such a great mom, she's so excited," Raven stated, eager to leave the previous topic behind.

"Of course she will! She had a great mom to learn from." As the sun set and the fireflies began to quietly flit upward from the grass, the couple linked hands. They talked about their children and pondered how many grandchildren they might have. They planned for the long, happy future they were going to have together and didn't give a second thought to the day when death would part them.