EPILOGUE:

He stood quietly in the graveyard, bundled in a black wool coat and black scarf. He held flowers in his hand. One bouquet was lilacs, the other, lilies. His hair was dark brown, bordering on black, and blew in the wind, occasionally blocking his pale green eyes.

"Hi Mom, hi Dad." He took a deep breath, looking at the headstone.

Kaitlynn Daws
Loving Friend, Sister, Daughter, and Mother.

"Happy Anniversary!" He attempted enthusiasm, but emotion choked his voice. "You know, I came downstairs today and expected to see you two in your room, dancing, like you always did on your Anniversary. This is the first year neither of you have been here to celebrate. I know Dad wasn't there last year, but came downstairs and found you dancing with his ashes. I supposed you might be dancing now, we just can't see you. You have six feet of privacy, after all. Everyone is doing alright, I guess. Uncle Leo is getting older and little bit sicker, but he's still hanging in there. Uncle Mikey is, well, he's Uncle Mikey. Dad, if you can hear me, and if you can somehow relay a message to your little brother, please tell him to start acting his age and stop worrying us to death that he'll get himself killed." He attempted another smile, failed, and just took a deep breath.

"Judy is doing fine." He continued. "April keeps trying to stop her from fighting with us, after what happened to Casey and Aunt Emily, but she won't listen. Meredith isn't helping. She keeps helping her sneak out. Uncle Leo is looking out for her, don't worry. He promised Uncle Raph, and he's keeping his promise. She's just as wild as you always said Uncle Raph and Aunt Emily used to be."

He put the flowers in the two cups by the headstone, pulling out the wilted ones that had been there. He had just been there two months before on Halloween for his mother's burial. He'd be back again several times before the whole family came in August for his father's and his uncle's birthday. He was interned two feet away from his mother and father with his Aunt, Emily Fredericks. A few feet away from them was his cousin Meredith Frederick's godfather, Casey Jones.

"Milo will probably be here soon to wish you two a happy anniversary too, so he can tell you how he's been." He laughed quietly when he thought about his own godfather.

"I know there's just three of us fighting now, and Judy is still learning, but we're strong and we're safe. We're doing everything we can to keep up what you all started. We're trying to keep this city safe. And I think we're doing pretty good." He fought the tears that threatened to spill out of his eyes.

His father had died fourteen months before and his mother, only two. She had died the day before her birthday. It had been a good funeral. Raph was still alive then, he had come and stayed after to talk to Emily's grave with Meredith. April and Judy had stayed with him so she could be at Casey's grave. Catalina and Rita had made sure to come, each of them caring a great deal about Kait. Mikey and Leo came and helped Judy and Meredith carry the coffin. He had been too chocked up to carry his own mother's coffin, but he had been the one to place his father's ashes inside with her.

There was a little flat rock beside his parents' grave. It had no writing on it, because he had not wanted anything. When his grandfather had died, he left instructions for his children to bury him simply, with no pomp and circumstance. And so they did. He died five years before the first of his children, his first daughter-in-law, so he was saved from the pain that had begun to tear at the family. Emily and Casey were killed trying to protect a group of kids that got stuck inside an armed robbery. Not long after, the four brothers began to deteriorate. The mutations that made the Hamatos what they were did not give them the lifespan they all had hoped. Don and Raph had died of illness and old age, Leo was not far behind. Mikey was doing alright, but so had Don until it was almost too late. Kait had been the last human to die so far, growing ill soon after Don's death. April always said it was grief, but no one ever really knew what it was. Raph had died only two weeks later.

That left him with no parents. He was a grown man, could take care of himself, but it didn't mean he didn't feel lost without them. Without his mother painting in the living room. Without his father fiddling with something electronic in his lab. Without the story of their love overcoming everything, even doing its best against death.

He hoped for someone to love like that. Someday, maybe, he hoped.

But for now he had a cousin that drove him insane and an almost cousin who wanted to be just like him.

"Sean!" he heard his cousin's very familiar voice from where she was waiting at the car.

"I'm coming!" he shouted back without turning to look at her. His eyes were trained on the ground at his feet. "I miss you two. I miss you, Mom, and I miss you, Dad. I love you." He let one tear out. "I'll come back at Christmas and make sure they others come too."

He turned to go, but paused. "Good bye."

AN: And this is goodbye for me too. It has been wonderful to write for you all and your reviews and messages have kept me going for years. I will miss all your enthusiastic, borderline insane reviews and support as I go on to focus on my original fiction. This story was my last hurrah before bowing out of fanfiction for a while, at least until I get that itch again to fix something I don't like.

Have fun with Random Reviewer the 2nd. You are in good hands. And I'll be reading that one along with you all!

So, I wish you all well and it has been a pleasure writing with you.

Sincerely (for the last time),
C M