Chapter 18

Rigby adjusted his tie as he walked alone toward the cemetery in the back of the park. The sky was appropriately overcast and with a light mist in the air. He had to stop and rest twice because having only been home from the hospital for two days, he was still very weak and sore. He stopped a third time because the tears wouldn't stop falling from his eyes, despite his best efforts to hold them back.

He recalled Benson coming into his hospital room at 1:00 a.m. four days previously and shaking his shoulder to wake him. Normally the hospital visiting hours would have long been over, but they must have made an exception due to the dire nature of the request.

"Huh? What's going on?" Rigby demanded, still half asleep.

"Rigby, wake up. There's something I have to tell you." Benson said urgently.

Rigby opened his eyes and immediately noticed the look of anxiety on his boss's face. The gumball machine appeared shaky and visibly distraught, which was not his usual nature whatsoever. "W-What is it?" he asked with hesitation, instantly sensing that something terrible had happened.

"It's Mordecai." Benson paused apprehensively. " He OD'd sometime this evening. By the time we found him, it was too late to save him. I'm so sorry, Rigby."

"No…" Was the only word Rigby could muster, shaking his head in disbelief. His eyes instantly welled up with tears as it registered that he would never hang out with his best bro again...

The memory drew to a close as he slowly made his way toward the cemetery. He knew that when he arrived, everyone would already be there. He had purposely waited for them all to leave because he didn't want any company. He had repeatedly refused everyone's offers to walk with him or drive him there because they were all worried his about injuries as well as his emotional state. Rigby just wanted to be alone. He was still having a difficult time processing if this was even real. He hoped that he was still in the hospital bed in a coma having a horrible nightmare that he would soon awake from, but he was realistic enough to know that was not the case.

As he made the journey through the park, Rigby felt abandoned and alone. Mordecai had been his best friend, and only real friend, since they were toddlers. They had been nearly inseparable for the last twenty years. They may as well have been brothers for he was a lot closer with Mordecai than he was with his own biological brother. The hopelessness then turned into anger as he thought about how stupid Mordecai had been for even trying a drug that he knew was highly addictive and he knew could ruin his life and kill him.

The rage began to shift inward as he thought of all the very obvious signs of Mordecai's drug use that he had missed. In hindsight they seemed crystal clear. If he had confronted Mordecai directly about the drugs when he first suspected something was wrong, maybe he could have convinced him to get help before this happened. He felt like he had let his best friend down by not being more proactive in finding out what was wrong with him.

When he approached the cemetery there was a small crowd of people gathered there. Rigby saw Mordecai's parents sitting in the front row of chairs that had been set up. His mother's head rested upon his father's shoulder as she cried, clutching her husband tight. She was obviously devastated over losing her only child. His father looked distraught also, but he managed to keep his emotions in check. It was always about image with him. Rigby knew Mordecai's father didn't really like him and wouldn't be surprised if the older blue jay somehow blamed him for this. Nevertheless, he felt a lot of sympathy for both of them right now.

He looked around and spotted the park employees gathered in a small circle off to the side. He made his way toward them when something red caught his eye amongst all the black and gray. Sitting two rows back was his friend Eileen from the coffee shop and Margaret. Rigby narrowed his eyes and stared at the back of her head with a look of pure hatred. He wanted to choke the life out of her with his bare hands. She had obviously caught word of Mordecai's death, probably by way of Eileen, and flown back from college to attend the funeral. 'She has a lot of fucking nerve coming here.' Rigby thought as his eyes burned into her back. He thought about confronting her, playing the scenario out in his mind...

"How are you holding up, Rigby?" Margaret would ask.

"Fine." Would be his response.

"I can't believe Mordecai's gone. I just talked to him a few days ago. "

"This is all your fucking fault, you know!" Rigby would accuse her.

"What are you talking about?"

"He did this because you left and broke his heart like it was nothing. You caused this, you selfish bitch! You killed him!"

Rigby snapped out of the daydream when he felt a hand rest upon his shoulder. "You okay, Rigby?" Benson asked.

"I'm fine, Benson. I was just thinking."

Benson followed Rigby's gaze and immediately knew what he had on his mind. "It's not her fault, Rigby. You can't blame her for this."

"She caused this." Rigby muttered through gritted teeth.

"No, she didn't, Rigby. Mordecai ultimately made his own choices and became his own undoing. She had nothing to do with that. I know you want to blame someone - it's a natural thing to do. It's not fair to put this on her though."

Rigby shrugged. "I guess."

"Come on, let's go sit down. The service is about to start." Benson encouraged.

Rigby reluctantly followed him and they made their way to a row of chairs and sat beside Muscle Man, Skips and Pops. Fives declined to attend the funeral because he didn't deal with these types of things very well. He promised to pay his respects after the event was over.

Throughout much of the service, Rigby sat in a daze and stared up at the sky. He wasn't really paying attention to what was being said – it all came through as background noise. His mind was occupied with memories spanning back two decades.

When all was said and done, everyone rose to chatter amongst themselves and offer condolences for a moment before parting ways. Rigby stayed in his seat and stared down at his hands.

"You coming, Rigby?" Skips asked with concern. "We're heading back to the house now if you want to come with us."

"No, I think I just want to hang out here for a while. " Rigby said solemnly.

"Okay. Call us if you need us." Skips replied.

"I will." Rigby sat and waited for the crowd to thin until the last few stragglers finally departed.

When he was finally alone he approached Mordecai's gravesite and reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a video game cartridge, Double Dragon, and laid it upon the grave amongst the all the flowers. "He you go, man. I know it was one of your favorites." Rigby wiped a few tears from his eyes. "Why did you have to do something so damn stupid? I wish you had told me what was going so I could have helped you. I don't know what I'm going to do without you. I'm really going to miss you, bro." His voice cracked with emotion. He stood there and stared at the grave for a few more minutes before turning to begin his lonely trek back to the house. When he lifted his head, he was surprised to see a familiar figure walking toward the cemetery alone.

"Hi Rigby. I'm so sorry about Mordecai. How are you doing?" Eileen asked as she approached.

"I'm not doing too well right now, but I'll be okay." Rigby wiped a few more tears from his face. "Where's Margaret?"

"I told her to go on without me. I wanted to wait for you. She's really devastated about this. She keeps saying that it's her fault and that he started doing drugs because she left."

"I'm going to be honest with you, Eileen. That had a lot to do with it." Rigby stated, but remembered Benson's words from earlier. "I guess Mordecai made the choice to do what he did on his own though. He knew how deep he was getting, but was too damn stubborn to admit he needed help." He knew ultimately Benson was right and it would be wrong to make Margaret feel worse about something she had no control over, despite his need to lay blame on someone.

"I know." Eileen replied softly.

"Why were you waiting for me?" Rigby wondered.

"I know how hard this must be for you and I didn't want you to deal with it alone. I thought you would need a friend right now. Do you want to go get a cup of coffee and talk about it?" Eileen asked.

Rigby didn't really want company, but he knew it wasn't going to make him feel any better to sit around alone either. He figured that maybe being with a friend who wasn't associated with the park might help. "Okay."

"Good." Eileen said. She gave him a brief, understanding smile. She then took his hand and led him away from the park and the memories that haunted him there.

The End

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A/N: Well, I'm sure a lot of you are not very happy that I killed Mordecai, but let me explain. I went back and forth between killing him off, or not, for over a week. I came to the conclusion that an ending where Rigby is okay, Mordecai gets miraculously cured and everyone lives happily ever after would be too predictable and cliché even though that's what we all want for our favorite blue jay and raccoon. So I tried to come up a scenario that was unexpected and more realistic. I also felt it would make for a nice twist that most of the story it seemed that Rigby wasn't going to make it, then it ends up being Mordecai. So don't be too mad at me. I do love Mordecai even though I put him through hell! :)

Anyway, in the process of going back and forth on whether to kill him or not, I came up with two different endings, like I said, so I can post the alternate ending (it's not really 'happily ever after,' but it is happier than the one I used) if anyone is interested. So let me know.

I hope you had as much fun reading this story as I did writing it. I would love to write something else Regular Show, but I am fresh out of ideas at the moment. If you have any suggestions, feel free to send them my way in a pm and maybe I will make it happen if I feel like it's something I can work with. I mostly like angsty type stuff and don't too well with fluff. I'm not promising anything because I'm back at school now and don't have as much time, but I'd love to hear some ideas.

Thanks for reading and a BIG THANK YOU to all who reviewed. You guys rock! Reviewers are a big inspiration for an author. So take a few seconds to review a story when you read it and let the author know how they're doing.

Until next time!

-Summer