A/N - And now this is just the short little epilogue for the story. Again, nothing new added from the original post. Thanks for reading everyone.

I kept my promise to the Gray Man, for as long as I could at least. Sam and I continued to watch them from a newly rebuilt fort I put together that week after talking with the Green Man. It was new and better wood with not quite as narrow slits to view from so as to give us a better view. I also cleaned up the area around it as well, expanded the fort so it was more easily accessed, and I even gave it an actual crude door.

Every week Sam and I went up there until the year I graduated from high school. Even after that, I was accepted to NYU and was able to stay relatively close to home, and as often as I could, I would come back on the weekends to sit up there and watch the Green Men with Sam.

But life goes on, for all of us, and I eventually found a girl, fell in love, and ended up moving to Chicago, her home town, to live with her. My mother told me that Sam continued to go up to the roof without me every week. She even let him take up late night snacks and that she would have to clean up the fort after him the next day.

I was twenty-two at the time I moved away. I always missed those weeks and constantly felt guilty about leaving. I still do feel upset at myself for that even now, especially after that final day.

It was seven years later, I was twenty-nine, Sam was twenty-seven, that I got the call.

Sam died.

A sudden aneurism left him unconscious and in the hospital for several days before his body finally gave out. It was a sudden shock to everyone, including my wife and kids. We made the arrangements quickly and took an emergency flight to New York.

We sat together quietly during the funeral, listened to the priest give his speech, listened to everyone's goodbyes. I barely listened to any of it. None of it mattered really. I had lost a brother and that was the only thing I saw that day.

Towards the end, when it was my family and I left to stare at that rectangular patch of grass that seemed to be raised higher than the surroundings, my mother turned to me, staring at me through a black lace veil with eyes that seemed overly dry of its recent tears. She told me then something she kept secret for so many years. "I saw something that day I woke up in the hospital," she said. "I saw a man. A short elderly man. He was gray and hard to see, but his eyes were the clearest thing in that hospital. He looked at me from over the bed and told me, 'Your sons need you. Don't ever leave them.'"

I stared at her for several minutes as she stared at the headstone. She finally looked at me and smiled. "Let's go home. Alex looks pretty worn out."

I turned to see my wife holding my two year old in her arms, his head resting lazily on her shoulder and his eyes lightly closed. She was right, we had been there for a long time, but something was tugging at me to stay, so I looked back to my mother and said, "Can you take Emily and them home? I…want to stay for a little longer."

My mother nodded. "Alright, but don't be too long, okay?"

I assured her I would be home soon, and after quick hugs to all, I watched them walk down the path and back to the cars and drive off. With them gone, I knew all I had to do was wait, and so I faced the marble headstone again and did just that.

I did not have to wait long. Soon, three shadows crept along the ground from behind me. I turned to face who I knew would be there. Three of the Green Men stood there, regarding me with various expressions. The purple one leaned on his staff and gave me with a sympathetic smile. The one in blue gave me a serious look, although hints of sorrow seemed laced behind his irises. The one in red did not look at me, but rather at Sam's tombstone. His eyes were hard and serious, and I could have sworn that he was thinking of digging Sam up and punching him for dying.

I looked around them, searching, but I could not see him. "Where's the one in orange?" I asked.

"At home, resting," the purple one explained. "He wanted to come, but he needed to recover."

I nodded thoughtfully to them all. "Alright. Thank you all for coming at least."

The purple one smiled at me. "Don't mention it. Mikey would have had our heads if we didn't come."

The one in red harrumphed and turned away from us. It ticked me off, admittedly, but I forced that away. To him, we were most likely strangers, so he probably did not see the reason for coming, and I could not fault him for thinking like that.

"Our father, Master Splinter, we told him about you after we spotted you watching us." I glanced at the one in blue who had spoken. "He was concerned at first, but after a couple days, he seemed interested in you, both of you." He walked over and knelt in front of Sam's headstone. "He talked about how he was able to communicate with your brother spiritually and that's how he learned about the two of you. I like to think Sensei helped him at least in some way. Quite honestly, I believe they helped each other out to some degree."

I nodded to him, feeling the hot wetness of fresh tears spill down my cheeks. "Thank you," I stuttered. "I really needed to hear that."

"Hey dude," the red one said. "What did you tell Mikey on the roof that day? The time after our pop died?"

I stared at him for a bit. "Why?" I asked.

The Green Man shrugged. "Jus' curious. He came home talkin' about how great you two were. How it was amazing just how great of people you and yer bro were. I just…I wanted ta say sorry…fer yer loss." The man looked down and his eyes suddenly went distant and remorseful. I saw his body shake slightly as he tried to restrain himself from crying. "I can't imagine losin' a brother."

The one in blue stood up from his position on the ground and took his brother by the arm. "Come on, Raph, let's go." With that, he guided him away and disappeared behind a small mausoleum.

That left me and the one in purple who was still leaning on his staff. He seemed slightly haggard and almost old somehow, but I doubted he was much older than I was. "Listen," he said. "I'm sorry about Raph."

I shook my head. "There's no need to apologize, really."

The purple one nodded and sat down on the dewy grass to examine the carving in the marble edifice. "The truth is, the reason Mikey, or the orange one as you called him, isn't here is because we almost lost him recently. Raph was distraught about it and the idea of someone losing their brother is particularly hard on him right now. He and Mikey are really close, you see."

I stared at him for a moment as I felt the wheels turning in my head. It was like I could hear and feel my brain questioning and then solving all these connections in an instant. "What…what happened to him? To the Ora-to Mikey?" I asked.

The man picked up a stray autumn leaf from the ground and twirled it by the stem between his stubby fingers. "He caught pneumonia a little while ago, and we were afraid he wouldn't make it. We don't have much in the way of antibiotics, so we had to let him try and get over it himself. He took a turn for the worse, and we all got a little paranoid then. We didn't think he would make it quite honestly.

"And then, a couple days ago, he woke up and his fever had broken and he started to recover. He was spouting nonsense about how Sam helped him and guided him back. I thought he was just delusional from the fever, but then yesterday he started looking through the newspaper and found Sam's obituary, and that's how we got here today."

My mind was a blank haze. I stared off into space as realization struck me and the tears began to flow anew. No sobs came from me, just the steady stream that stained my face. I stepped over the purple one and rested my hand on the polished stone work. Running my fingers along the smooth curved edges, I wondered if he always planned it. I wondered if Sam had always thought to do this after that day on the roof, talking with Mikey.

"I'm sorry," the purple one said suddenly and I turned to him. "Mike tends to have these weird fantasies. He tends to get a little crazy at times and doesn't think things through. Eventually, he starts mistaking what's reality and what are just his daydreams."

I smiled and shook my head. "No," I told him. "Those weren't fantasies. I'm fairly certain Sam was there for him."

The man blinked at me. "Why would Sam have been there to help Mikey spiritually?"

I shook my head and chuckled and looked up to the passing clouds. For the briefest of seconds, I would have sworn I saw them together in those clouds, Sam and the Gray Man. They looked happy and peaceful as they looked down on us from the heavens up there, and I could not help but smile at the tranquil feeling I got from their faces.

"Yes, Sam was there," I told the Green Man. "He had to be. He had to return the favor."