Wish You Were Somehow Here Again

She had just been smiling. Requiem had been holding her hand and she had been smiling; talking to the four of them. Saying that she couldn't wait for Claire to visit her in the hospital.

No one had the heart to tell her that Claire had to be put out of her own misery to keep her alive.

She had been going on about what she would have to do once she got better, but Requiem had the sneaking suspicion that she knew she wasn't leaving the hospital. That she wasn't going home again. She just kept on about how there were so many things for her to do, then she closed her eyes with a sigh and was gone.

Her hand was still warm. "Mom?" Requiem asked. He reached out and touched her shoulder but she didn't stir. "Mom?" He asked a little louder. Tears welled up in his eyes; they came to him so easy now that Shaunee was gone from his life. "Mom, please don't leave us, not yet"

Rene-Thibaut had been sitting at her side, watching her with a look of silent determination, fighting back tears as he had been since the horrid disease had taken hold of her. It was the first time in two hundred years that he'd regretted selling his soul. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have had powers that let him feel the disease eating away at her; he wouldn't have had to feel her heart stop, in that instant.

When she died, it felt as though something inside him had died as well. All of the pure, good, selfless feelings that had slowly built up within him since she came into his life were suddenly gone, leaving him empty; after having Chastity as his wife, he had stopped being able to feel rage and hatred the way that he had before and, lacking that and Chastity's love, he could feel nothing. It was simply more than he could bear.

One emotion finally came through and he buried his face in his hands, sobbing helplessly.

Requiem wished he wasn't immortal. He wished he could just kill himself and end all the suffering he had to endure.

He had lost two of the most important women in his life; two of the most important individuals in his heart all gone in less than a year. The only string holding him back was his daughter Mindy. His mother's grandbaby; his wife's life.

Tears fell thickly down his cheeks and he could hear Uncle David comforting Damien behind him, but he couldn't look away from Chastity's face.

It was a beautiful face, even though the disease hollowed her cheeks and sunk her eyes. Her hair had thinned but that didn't make it any less beautiful. She was barely more than skin and bones now, the disease had taken everything, but she was still beautiful.

Sobs shook him as Requiem finally let her hand fall to the bed, his head falling to the mattress as his other hand clenched in the fabric of her hospital gown on her shoulder. He couldn't live with this horrible grief inside him. He felt as if he'd been hollowed and then filled again with horrible things that he could never be rid of, things that would haunt him forever with grief, with the guilt that he couldn't do more for them.

He just wanted his mother back.

It was the harsh sound of Requiems sobs that finally roused RT from his grief. That was his baby, the first child begotten him by Chastity, and he was in pain; Requiem needed him, and he would be damned if he weren't going to be there for his boy. In one quick movement, so sudden that it was nigh unnoticeable, Rene was on his knees by Requiem's side, pulling the young man's head to his shoulder comfortingly. RT was still crying, tears tinged ever-so-lightly with red flowing steadily from his eyes, but he held his son tightly and whispered reassuringly. "Shhh, Requiem, shhhh."

Requiem's hands gripped R.T.'s shirt tightly and he buried his face in his shoulder as he sobbed. Even though he hadn't been close to his father since he was young, and hadn't cried in his shoulder since he was even younger, it was comforting for the man to be touching him and telling him everything was okay.

Even if everything wasn't.

David pulled Damien over and got down on one knee to hug them all to his chest. His shoulders quivering with unshed tears and withheld sobs.

Rene-Thibaut shuddered and broke down into sobs again when David touched him. He'd never told the man as much, but he adored David; having him around was like having another Chastity. It was a strange combination of comfort and pain that he got from having Chastity's brother near at that moment, but right then the comfort was far outweighing the pain. He pulled his sons, both of them, tightly to him and leaned into David's chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Its okay" David murmured to them. "I'm sure she wouldn't want us to grieve for her. She went smiling" He let out a dry sob. "She would want us to keep smiling, like she did" He hugged them all tighter.

Requiem sobbed harder. He knew David was right, but it just hurt too much right now. It was all he could do to keep breathing.

"Oh, David," Rene sobbed. "David, how can we? How can we, without her?"

With that simple question, David fell to pieces. He hadn't shed a tear since he was in his teens. Not when he went to war and witnessed countless deaths, not when his friends were slain at his feet. Now, with the death of his little sister, he was reduced to uncontrollable sobs. "I don't know, Rene, I don't know"

A nurse came in with a doctor to proclaim the time of death as they gently covered her with a sheet.