Crossing Over

Alex

When he found out what his unfinished business was, the only person he told was Willie. They'd already discussed crossing over and decided that they didn't want to go unless they could go together. So Alex waited. He kept it to himself and waited until the day when Willie came to him and told him he'd figured out what his own unfinished business was.

"Would you mind waiting?" Alex asked him. "I can't...I don't want to leave Reggie here alone."

Willie took his hands in his, looking up at his boyfriend — this boy who'd given him so much — and smiled. "We've waited this long, what's a little while longer."

So they did.

They carried on as they always had — going on dates, visiting Julie, hanging out with Reggie. As time went on, Alex started hanging out with Reggie more and more, just the two of them. He knew Reggie didn't mind spending time with both him and Willie, but Alex knew that, especially since Luke left, Reggie was missing the familiarity of their life before, and Alex was the only one who could give that to him. Every so often, Alex would try and gently persuade him to try and figure out his unfinished business, but every time he'd insist that he wasn't ready, so Alex tried not to push him too much.

One afternoon, he and Reggie were hanging out, playing some board game Reggie had 'borrowed' from Julie's house, when Reggie casually said, "You know, if you need to go, you can go, I'll be okay."

"It's cool, I've still got a couple hours before I said I'd meet Willie."

Alex took his turn and then waited for Reggie to take his. When he didn't, Alex looked up at him and saw the rare serious expression on his face. That's when he realised, "Oh, that's...that's not what you meant, is it?"

Reggie shook his head and let out a long breath. "No."

It hit him then. He was ready to go, he knew he was, despite not knowing what lay before him after he crossed over, but doing that meant he would quite possibly never see Reggie again. Reggie had been by his side for so many years now that he couldn't even bring himself to imagine what it would be like to not have him there. He'd been one of his first friends, way before they even met Luke and then Bobby. Although Alex teased him, Reggie had also been his rock through so much stuff, both throughout life and death. Of course he also had Luke, but whenever he was upset about something, whenever he was having a hard time with his parents after he came out, or when it took them a while to find Willie after they broke Caleb's seal on them, he found himself instinctively gravitating towards Reggie. He was always there rambling about Star Wars or coming up with new tunes on his bass, making Alex laugh or smile or roll his eyes. Not even death parted them and yet now...now he had to move on, and moving on meant leaving him behind.

Alex knew this was going to be hard, but he hadn't expected it to be this hard.

He felt his throat clench, tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. "I just...I don't want you to be alone."

"I won't be alone," Reggie told him matter-of-factly. "Julie's here, I've got her."

To his surprise, Alex felt hurt at this. This wasn't what he'd been expecting. When Luke told them he was leaving, Reggie had kicked up a storm, he was so upset for weeks after he'd gone, but he seemed totally fine now Alex was telling him that he was leaving too.

Anxiety prickled at his skin — did this not hurt him as much as Luke leaving? Not that Alex wanted to hurt him, that was the last thing he wanted to do, but did he really not care as much as Alex thought he did?

Alex stood up, drumming his fingers at his sides. "Right, yeah, that's...that's good, I guess I'll just..."

He turned away, making his way out of the studio, but before he got to the door he felt a hand on his arm.