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The landscape had been lovely, but Red was happy to come back to his casita. He wanted to put a wet rag around his neck and change his shirt. He was utterly soaked through from the humidity. Then he was going to take a long nap before packing up the skull for it’s proper return.
Then it was time to move again. He’d lingered much too long.
When he came out of the bathroom with the cloth around his neck and his shirt dangling from his hand, he heard someone moving around. In an instant all fabric was dropped and his gun was out. A moment later he heard a woman’s laugh.
He heard Lizzie’s laugh.
Clearly, he was having a stroke from all the heat and stress. If he had to go, Lizzie’s laugh was a good thing to go out on. He slowly walked into the small living room. What he saw there convinced him that he was, in fact, having a stroke. Of all the ways to go, really.
Liz, his Lizzie, was standing there looking like she was waiting for him to come out. She had a bright smile and wore a lovely blue dress. It was the kind of casual thing he’d only rarely seen her in because they were always working. When he didn’t move toward her, because he was frozen in shock, she came toward him.
She kissed him lightly on the lips. “It’s a shock, I know, but it’ll sink in soon enough.”
“I…I don’t think shock is a strong enough word.” His voice was tight as he worked to control his emotions. “How? I saw you…” He swallowed hard. “I held you as you died.”
Her smile faded. “Oh… You haven’t figured… Damn.” She took him by the hand and led him to the small sofa. “Okay, this is going to suck. Yes. You did hold me as I died. I am dead, Raymond.”
“So this is a stroke, then? I’m seeing you because I’ve got a brain bleed. Lovely.” He couldn’t hide his annoyance with that which seemed to amuse her no end.
“Reasonable guess, but no. Something a bit more violent I’m afraid. Think hard. It was just a few minutes ago. You were in the field. There was a cow…”
“It was a bull, Lizzie. Surely you could tell the dif—”
And then it all came back to him as though he was watching it from high above. From there the violence of the bull’s attack seemed more cartoonish than devastating. At least it did until the blood started coating his crisp white shirt and the grass around his body. “He hadn’t had time to feel any of the physical pain of it, which was a blessing. He hadn’t even had time to regret not saying true good byes to those he loved.
He looked up to see that Lizzie’s eyes were filled with tears. “I know. The regrets come flooding in. All the things I should have said. To you, to Agnes, to Ressler.” She winced at that last name. “You figure there’s always time to say more, to explain fully, but there really isn’t, is there?”
He shook his head slowly. “No. I spoke to Dembe and to Agnes, but I didn’t say anything terribly profound. I wanted to hear their voices, to know they were well.”
She shrugged. “It was more than I got.” He winced. All she’d had at the end was them arguing and his terrified expression. “Don’t look like that. Everything’s fine now. We’ll be able to watch Agnes grow up together. You can see what Dembe gets up to. He’s going to retire, you know.”
“No…no, I didn’t know.” He took a deep, totally unnecessary, breath, then shook it off. “Lizzie, why are you here? With me?”
She gave him the simplest answer she could by leaning in to kiss him. It was all offer and explanation, that kiss. When he didn’t respond, she pulled back to watch him.
Finally, after much consideration, he nodded slowly. “Oh. I see.”
“If you don’t want me to stay, I totally understand…”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into another kiss. This time it was bruising and intense. His fingers dug into her shoulders as though he was afraid she’d vanish while they kissed. All things considered that wasn’t an unreasonable fear. His grip only loosened when she shifted closer and wrapped her arms around his middle. That let them deepen the kiss without straining anything.
When they parted, she grinned like a fool. “Oh, if they could only see us now!”
He snorted. “Ressler would shoot me.”
She shrugged. “Wouldn’t matter, would it?”
“No, I don’t suppose it would.” He pulled her back for more kisses. It took him a while to comprehend that he didn’t have to pause his kisses to breathe. Instead he paused to watch her expression. She was even more beautiful rumpled and flushed than he could have expected. “I love you, Lizzie. I hope that doesn’t frighten you too much.”
She shook her head. “No, it doesn’t frighten me. Not now. All that’s left is the things that really matter.”
“What are those things? What really matters to you?”
She sat back against the couch to think that question through. She wanted to give him the most complete answer she could. “What matters is that I couldn’t do it. I was going to fight to stay with you, to make a better life for us and Agnes. What matters is that you were willing to do anything, including die, to make a better life for me and Agnes. For the first time we were close to being on the same page.”
His laughter was completely reasonable and she waited him out with a fond smile. He threw his head back and laughed until he shook with it. She loved that look on him.
“I’m sorry,” he said when he finally got his mirth under control. “We’ve always had atrocious timing, haven’t we?” He clasped her hand, bringing it to his lips. “What do we do now?”
“All the things we never got to. You can show me any part of the world you want. We can spend time together, talking or whatever.” She flushed, which seemed to surprise her. After a moment she recovered. “We can look in on Agnes and the others, but I don’t think we should do that too often. It makes me melancholy if I do.”
He could understand that. To see the girl, or Dembe, and not be able to interact would be painful. “Once a year. On her birthday. And for graduations and things.”
And that’s what they did. They even checked in on the Taskforce. Cooper was with Agnes, of course, so that was easy. When they looked in on Siya, Meera was there. That was nice. She and Red sparred with great gusto. When Ressler finally met someone and married her, Red enjoyed looking in on him more. Liz tried to explain the things Aram was doing, but it gave him a headache.
Only Dembe seemed to notice them at all. He’d go quiet for a moment and look around. It took a couple of years for him to figure out what he was feeling. He’d get that huge smile that lit up his whole body and nod slowly. One year he even whispered their names, so they’d know for sure that he knew.
They argued sometimes about things that didn’t matter anymore, but the making up was always worth it. He had the stamina that he’d had at twenty, which was a lovely little bonus since she was at her prime. They saw the world and they talked. Oh how they talked.
It was a shame, of course, that they hadn’t managed all that before, but this way they had all of eternity for it. That wasn’t so bad, was it?