And so it ends...

Epilogue

Your funeral, Ig, was beautiful. Much too soon, but beautiful.

I'm sorry. I'm so incredibly sorry. Maybe if I'd made different choices, we would have had more time. You would have had more time.

Nobody had any more suggestions after your date came back, not even Doctor G-H. 'If we had more time,' he said. Maybe, if we'd had more time, we could have gone back to all those places to which we say we'll never return. Maybe we could have searched through them all, one by one; read all the data; found a loophole somewhere. But there wasn't enough time, was there?

Time. It always comes down to time, doesn't it? It's too easy to say that you should have had more. But in the end, I guess you did get more than we thought. Just a single day, but you didn't waste it. You weren't as scared of Death as I am. You saw that day as a blessing, and by the end of it, when it was... time, you seemed happy.

Yes. You were happy when you died. I know that. We were all with you, and you were so brave. Braver than us. It hurt, so much, but... I guess that's life.

I don't know where you are, but... I hope there are more explosives for you to use than you could ever have dreamed of. After being able to see, wasn't that pretty high up on the list of things you wanted? At least I know your biggest wish came true. I don't quite know what the price for your new eyes was, and I'm not sure that it's been paid yet. I suppose we'll have to wait if we want to find out. But all that really matters is that you got to see.

I'll miss you, Ig, but... not too much. You wouldn't have wanted it to cripple me – you told me so yourself. So I'll carry on living me life with the Flock, and somehow I guess we'll all adapt. It'll take time, but unlike you, that's something we have. Too much, it feels like at the moment. I know that if any one of us could have given some of our time to you, we would have done, no matter the cost. But once again, it's all too late. I don't know what will happen in the future; if we'll stay here with Ella and Dr M; if Fang will stick around; what Jeb will do.

I know this, though:

We'll never forget you, Ig. All the times we spent together, you fighting next to me, us all huddled round watching you ignite a fire, build a bomb, cook us dinner. The first time you truly saw me with your own eyes. No, we'll never forget you. Ever.

Love always,

Nudge.

And, that's it. I just want to say thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed this fic - you never fail to make me smile.

I really hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I'm really going to miss it, surprisingly.

Thank you all.

~ Em

:D