Open Case File [COMPLETED]

The End (Part 1)

I would say sorry, but I know that it really won't cut it. But still I'm sorry.

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The path was familiar but still, the figure trudged along it as if every step took conscious thought. The sky was a startling crystal blue, but it could have been raining meteors for all the notice the man took of it.

His appearance was one that those who knew him would never imagine possible. His black hair was long and unkempt, he had a scruffy beard and his clothes were disheveled as if he had slept in them. He might have, he wouldn't have registered if he had.

When he reached the headstone, he stopped and stared down at the carved name. The lifeless words. Words as dead as the one beneath it.

Donovan stood there, stone like all the reminders of lives around him. He didn't cry. He didn't rage. He didn't plea. He didn't scream. All those phases of grief were behind him. What lay in front of him was a vast void of nothingness.

For the past two months, he made this trip, needing to be reminded that it was true. Even when the empty spot in the bed beside him, the other toothbrush by the sink, the left side of the closet with her clothes, the second pair of boxing gloves all told him it was true.

Still, he needed to see the gravestone, feel the words carve themselves into him each time.

Stare down at the place where his heart was buried.

Fresh flowers lay beside the headstone. Steve and Maggie must have brought Kennedy there. They had wrapped Kennedy into their arms and given her a place in their home after seeing the empty form their son-in-law had become.

Donovan wished he had felt the absence of his daughter. But he no longer felt anything.

The life around him kept turning because of the people around him. The apartment was clean because Clint and Eva appeared once a week to do it. There was food in the fridge because Brock and Ashley stopped by to fill it. He had company every couple of days because James and Ali sat with him. People talked to him, but he was never sure if he talked back. If he did, he didn't know what he said.

There wasn't an empty hole inside Donovan, there was simply nothing there at all.

A cutting wind blow across the cemetery, chilling his face, but he didn't feel it. He remained staring down at Carter's grave, barely breathing.

To the figure hidden in a grove of trees yards away, it looked like Donovan would never move again, planted in the ground like the headstone.

Carter watched Donovan, helpless. She couldn't go to him. Couldn't take away his pain. Couldn't caress his face. Couldn't press his hand to her cheek so he could feel the warmth, the life. Couldn't brush his hair away from his forehead. Couldn't stare into his eyes. Couldn't tell him that the beard didn't look good. Couldn't move from her hiding spot, despite the way her heart bled for him.

"Carter."

The voice in her ear spoke with a gentle tone, seeing what she saw and knowing the way it cut into her.

"We have to go."

"Five more minutes," she whispered.

"If you're spotted..."

She nodded, knowing the repercussions. Knowing why two months ago she'd been forced to leave her family behind, leave them with the lie of her death. For them. For their safety. Swallowing hard against the stone in her throat, she pushed herself away from the tree that shielded her, physically needing to force herself away. With each step towards the car, she felt herself breaking in two.