Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow (Aiden Gallagher x Reader)

Epilogue

trigger/content warning: death and grief

Your plug got pulled. Aidan's parents kept watch over the kids for a while. That way they didn't have to see their father kick and scream and punch and cry. He wore your engagement ring around his neck. A token of your love. A token of his loss.

Eventually, he pulled it together. He had to be a father to those children. He liked to think about how you must have been trash talking him to all the other angels. Scolding him for putting his role as their father on hold.

He didn't know how to explain it to Ramona. His parents had to do it. And when he picked her up, she shuffled her feet and stared at the floor before asking, "did she go?"

He let tears drip from his eyes before confirming the news. Mona ran at him, puffy eyed and tired and clung onto him in a lasting hug. "Mommy's in a better place," Mona repeatedly mumbled in his ear.

As time passed, the family started healing. There were times that Ramona would get upset that she couldn't remember her mother's face without keeping photographs around. Mikey often felt frustrated that he would never remember her voice or her soothing touch.

Aidan helped all he could. He brought out old picture albums, showed them footage of when the two of you were still just idiots in love and answered questions, no matter how painful it was.

He grew old without you. Watched the kids grow without you. Both of them were the spitting image of you and had inherited your creative touch.

He remembered being there when Mona graduated, top of her psych class. He was so proud and he knew you would've been too.

He remembered the night he met Ramona's girlfriend. She was an art major and reminded him scarily of you. After the girl had left, Aidan and Mona cried about it together.

He remembered helping Mikey kickstart his own acting career, gradually getting him bigger gigs through old friends who always loved to see the kids.

It was odd because, after you died, random fans on the street would approach and apologise to him. It always made him teary-eyed. Especially when they admitted to having bullied you on the internet before expressing a gut-wrenching remorse.

He still wore your ring around his neck. Many people encouraged him to try dating again, including the kids as they grew into adulthood. And sure, he went on the odd date now and again. He wanted to move on, but the thought of anyone else by his side just felt wrong.

That particular Christmas Eve, the kids were off celebrating with their friends as Aidan sat cross-legged, opposite your headstone, fiddling with the ring around his neck and muttering to what others assumed was himself.

He was filling you in on everything that'd been happening (Mona getting engaged, Mikey being cast into a big action movie franchise) when he suddenly stopped. A single tear slipped from his eye.

"I miss you," He sniffled, "I wish I didn't let you leave that night. It still feels like it's my fault after all these years." His chilled fingers grazed the markings of your headstone. He dried his pink cheeks before rising slowly to his feet.

"I'll see you soon, Peony."