I don't own Leviathan.

A picture's worth a thousand words
But you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should have seen it in color

She was sixty-four when she finally found the courage to look at the photographs again. They'd sat in the attic for forty years in an old trunk, collecting dust along with her old pilot goggles, wedding dress, and a pair of his white gloves. As she ran a thumb over the sepia of her ma and da, Deryn almost shoved them back in that old leather trunk. Even after so many years, the effect the photos had on her was astonishing. These were pictures of her parents, photographs of her and Jaspert, old wedding pictures of her and Alek. She didn't want to relive all this—

"What are you looking at, Gramma?"

She started; then smiled at her granddaughter. Lilly Hohenburg was six and beautiful, with pretty green eyes and blonde hair much like Deryn's, before hers had started to grey. Drove her father wild with worry about what would happen when she started to grow up. Right now, she'd sworn off boys (they were "icky" and besides, "I can climb trees and run faster than any of the ninnies in my class anyway!") She took after Deryn in more ways than her blonde hair, a fact Franz exasperatedly reminded his mother whenever Lilly refused to have her hair brushed into pigtails, or got her church dress full of mud five minutes before they left for the mass.

"Just looking at a few pictures, darling," Deryn told her.

"Can I see?" Lilly pulled herself onto Deryn's lap with such and eager expression she couldn't tell her granddaughter no. She mustered a smile and began to show Lilly the photographs.

"Who's that?" the girl asked, pointing a finger at a portrait or Jaspert. He stood stiffly and straight-faced, dressed smartly in his Air Service uniform, but Deryn could detect the sparkle of mischief in his eyes, the tiny smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. She swallowed thickly.

"That's your great-uncle—my brother. He was in the Air Service."

"Like you and Grandpa?" Lilly asked innocently. Meanwhile, Deryn felt like weeping, but it wasn't the girl's fault. Tears came a lot easier than they did when Alek was alive.

"Yes, like me, but not Grandpa. He was—"

"A prince," Lilly interrupted. "I know. Is this him?" She gestured at a fading black-and-white photograph—their wedding photo, Deryn realized. She nodded.

"That's him. And that's me too," she told her son's daughter.

Lilly scrutinized the photograph. "He looks like a prince," she decided. Deryn couldn't help but agree. Even without his title and kingdom, Alek looked like royalty.

"And you look like a princess," Lilly continued. Her grandmother laughed.

"No, I don't," she protested. She tilted her head to the side, as if that would help her see the princess in her twenty-two-year-old self. Her blonde hair was slightly longer than it was at fifteen, curling at her shoulders. She clutched a bouquet of flowers, and she and Alek were roughly the same height. (He'd never grown taller than her, Deryn remembered with a smile.) She supposed to a six-year-old, she did look a little like a princess.

"I just wish I could have been there," Lilly sighed, tracing the photograph with her thumb. "I bet it looks even better in color."

Deryn looked at the picture again and thought back to that day nearly fifty years ago. She remembered the smell of flowers in the spring air, the delight in her husband's green eyes, the screaming of her little cousins and their chanting: "Deryn's getting mar-ried! Mar-ried! She's in lo-ove!" Amelia had led that one, she recalled.

"Yeah," she agreed. "It was definitely better in color."

And if it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should have seen it in color

Lyrics are from In Color by Jamey Johnson. Check it out! It's pretty good, if you like country music.

There you go, Suave Panda. I killed off Alek. Not in a violent way, as you were probably hoping (maybe later, eh?), but I think it's okay writing. Tell me what you think! (Oh, and tomorrow's my birthday and I expect a present—a few reviews would suffice!)