Day 24: Cemetery (Seth, post-series)
Minor season 2 spoiler – I think. I haven't personally seen or read anything that confirms it, though I've seen other fanworks reference it. So hopefully it's only a minor spoiler? Or just fanon?
Seth took a long pull from the tequila bottle, and looked back down on the gravestone at his feet.
Ray Gecko hadn't had much of a headstone (Uncle Eddie had been between jobs and broke at the time), and not much body to bury.
A distant siren screamed, and Seth decided to get this catharsis shit over with.
"Hey, Dad. Been a hell of a time, the last few years. Richie turned into a monster, I used a shitload of heroin, then I started killing monsters and fell in love. She's way too good for me but she loves me anyway… sort of like you and Mom. But I know I'm a way fucking better guy for her than you ever were for Mom. Richie and I kind of saved the world… probably in spite of ourselves.
"But after all that, I went back to Austin and Big Jim. Richie even helped me, this time. Not because of you, though. Because Big Jim put me in jail, and Richie was pissed about that, at least." Seth snickered, "And probably because my girl unleashed her doe eyes on him. They're fucking lethal, those things."
Seth stuck his left hand into his pants pocket, then pulled it out again. He held it up to his eye, and the diamond he pinched between his thumb and index finger glittered in the ambient light.
"The others in Big Jim's stash are already history… but I always thought I'd come by and give you one. Even the first time I did this job. But you know what? You don't deserve it."
Seth lifted the tequila bottle over the small plot, and upended it.
"Not that you deserve Blue Agave either, you asshole. But pissing on your grave is just fucking tacky."
Seth crouched to lean the empty bottle against the small bronze-and-rock headstone, and clenched his fist around the diamond.
"You were an asshole of the first degree. You were a shitty father, and a worse husband. You abused us, and Mom. No matter what kind of bastards Richie and I turned out to be, you didn't deserve us, and you sure as shit didn't deserve Mom. Hell, old man, one of your kids killed you in self-preservation… if that isn't a big damn clue that you've fucked up somewhere, I don't know what is."
Seth sighed, and stood up again. "I guess that's all I really wanted to say. I'd say 'see you in Hell'… but I really don't think I will. I did help save the world – that's gotta get me into Purgatory, at least. Even if it isn't enough… my girl's going straight to the top. She'll sweet-talk all the angels until they upgrade me, just to make her happy. So burn in Hell, asshole, all on your lonesome."
Seth strolled away, putting the diamond back in his pocket. He'd get a jeweller to cut it into a few smaller ones, and put them into a ring – a channel setting – for Kate. She'd tell him he was nuts, but she'd smile brighter than the gems in the ring. God knew his girl deserved them, and everything good in this world that he could give her. It was the least she deserved for putting up with his sorry ass.
Seth was going to spend the rest of his life trying to be good enough for her… but he knew one thing was true.
He'd always been a better man than his father.