Luke POV:
I tried to fall asleep but thoughts kept me up. After some time Skip came in the room. I was laying there with Alex sleeping in my arms. “She is sleeping?” He asked looking over at her as he walked over to my side of the bed.
“Yeah, she has been for about an hour now.” I answered watching her sleep, she was so perfect. Even with her eyes all puffy and her hair a mess, she was still breathtaking. I looked over to Skip and he looked horrible. “Are you okay?”
“Not really, but I will be.” He answered trying to fix his messed up hair.
“You and Dean were a lot closer than we thought huh?” I said trying to turn my body towards him so I didn’t have to break my neck trying to look at him. As I rolled over Alex rolled to the other side of the bed. I watched her carefully as she scratched her face and fell back to sleep. I sat up and looked over at Skip.
“Yeah, we were.” He answered looking over at Alex then me, “He asked me to watch over her and I am. She only has us now, Melody isn’t talking to her, Roman is dying, her parents are gone and Dean, well Dean is gone. She really has no one but us.” He explained to me and the more I thought about it the truer it got. Alex doesn’t really have anyone but us. She has no friends or no other family around here, she only has us. “Well we will take care of her. All of us, Beau, Jai, James, you and I, and Melody will still be here and be her sister, she just needs time. She will warm up eventually.” I said looking over at Alex. Skip was right, she really didn’t have anyone but us and we are not going to leave her. We won’t. I looked over to Skip “Hey can you do me a favor?” I asked.
“Yeah sure” Skip answered,
“I want to say my goodbyes to Dean, if I leave Alex might freak out if she wakes up and sees she is alone. Can you stay here until I come back?” I asked carefully not knowing if he would be okay with that but then of course Dean asked him to watch over her.
“Yeah of course, go ahead.” Skip said and I carefully got out of the warm bed. When I got out I looked over to Alex to make sure she didn’t move. I walked out of the room quietly making my way over to Dean’s room. When I got to Dean’s door I stopped. I have never been to Dean’s room before, this is the first time and it is to say goodbye to him. When I walked in I saw the normal stuff that was usually in a bedroom, a bed, desk, closet, dresser and a night stand. As I looked around I saw trophy’s, medals, plaques and ribbons, and they all were for some type of fighting. This guy was obviously amazing. I walked over to the bed and saw a bunch of pictures, as I got a better look at them they were pictures of him and his family. One of him and Roman at the gym, another of him and his dad at a soccer game, then another that looked like him and Alex as kids and they were with a woman, I’m guessing there mum, and they were sitting on her lap eating ice cream. Alex had a messy face as she smiled and Dean had a mouth full of ice cream and there mum held them both on her lap as she looked down smiling at Dean. Then there was a picture of Alex and Dean. Alex was holding the camera out and they were making goofy faces. They both were making duck faces and it was funny because even though they were trying to exaggerate it, it looked good on them. As I looked at Alex I smiled, she was so full of life and you could see the happiness in her eyes. I looked at the picture I could remember when she used to smile like that. Then I saw another one of Alex and Roman and they looked a lot younger, she was on Roman’s back and he looked healthy and strong, that picture must have been taken before he got sick. So that is what he looked like before he got sick, wow. Dean looked a lot like him. Then one caught my eye. It was laying on the night stand under neither the picture of Alex and Dean making faces. When I picked it up I saw that it was Alex, Roman and Dean. But it wasn’t like the other pictures, it was different. They were at a funeral, I’m guessing there dad’s, and they were all in black. Alex was in a black dress, and Dean and Roman were in tuxes. Roman was in a wheel chair and you could tell they were all crying, but the thing that got me was that Alex was in between them and Dean had his head on Alex’s shoulder and Roman had his head on Alex’s side and Alex had her hands on both of their heads while she was looking at the casket that was in front of her. As I looked I realized how strong Alex actually is. She was supporting them in their time of need and in her own. Her world fell apart but she still was there for both of them, she was there anchor and her own as well. I flipped the picture over and saw someone wrote on it ‘You say you are weak, but look how strong you are to them. I believe you are The Fighter in the family, not them’ Whomever wrote this had it right, she isn’t weak, she is strong. But why did Dean have the picture and not Alex?
I stood there for a little while longer staring at the picture then I put it back down. I walked over to the desk and sat down in his chair. I looked around the room one more time then I finally decided to say something “Well Dean, I have two things to say. First is how could you leave her? How could you do that? She depended on you the most and you left her, you left her here alone. You were the one person who knew it all and you still did that. I don’t understand how someone could just leave her like that. Why did you do it Dean? Why?” I was crying then. Dean was a good friend, even though we didn’t hang out a lot I still felt like I knew him and I could relate to him. “But the other thing is I want to say is thank you. Thank you for giving her to me. Thank you for letting me be with her and love her. I promise Skip and I will protect her Dean, in fact all of us guys will protect her. I will never hurt her Dean. Thank you for her. I still don’t understand why you did this and I probably never will, but thank you. I will watch over her and try to give her as much joy as I can.” I was still crying as I looked around the room again. I then stood up and walked to the door. “I will miss you man. Goodbye Dean.” And I walked out.
