Harley's eyes flutter open. She pats at her stomach, but feels no wound, no pain.
Oh shit, she realizes. I'm dead.
She sits up and finds a woman with familiar features smiling softly at her. "Uh," Harley says. "Hi?"
"Hi, sweetheart," the woman says, standing slowly. "Lovely to finally meet you."
"You...too?"
"Oh!" the woman exclaims, laughing softly, and suddenly Harley realizes the resemblance. "I didn't introduce myself. I'm--"
"Isaac's mom," Harley supplies, nodding softly. "Your smiles are identical. It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Lahey. I've heard incredibly good things about you." She moves to shake her head, but the woman grabs her for a hug instead.
"No, it's very nice to meet you." The woman pulls back and holds Harley by the shoulders, smiling broadly. "I haven't seen Isaac smile like that in so, so long. You made him so happy. Thank you." Harley smile drops.
"I can't imagine he's very happy with me anymore. That was a rather, gruesome, way to lose someone." Mrs. Lahey wipes the tears Harley didn't realize were falling, still smiling.
"Part of the story is the end. Now, let's go meet some others, hm?" Harley follows her out of the room, bringing her into a living room. With a jolt, Harley realizes this is definitely the afterlife's version of Isaac's house, and that was definitely Isaac's room she was in. In the living room, there's another woman and two men, one of which is hiding in the back with his hands jammed in his pockets. Before Harley can get a good look at him, the woman tugs her in for a hug.
"Oh!" Harley says, slowly patting her back. "Hello." The woman comes out of the hug, smiling.
"I'm Stiles' mom. Thank you for taking care of him."
"It's no problem. He always did the same for me." She shares a soft smile with the woman. The woman gestures for the hiding man to come forward. Once he's in the light, Harley freezes. "Dad?"
"Hey, soldier." The two stare at each other for a moment before Harley throws herself forward into his arms. He freezes, staring down in disbelief. "You're not gonna hit me?"
"I hate you for what you said," she says, voice muffled by his shirt. "But because your DNA is weird my powers gave off poisonous radiation that killed you, so I think we're even. You said it so I'd be mad when you died instead of sad, anyway. I'm not dumb." She pulls back to look at him. "Besides, we have a lot of time to reconcile now." He smiles secretly, as if he knows something she doesn't. The relief in his eyes is so strong, that Harley can't help but smile again. She steps back to face the final man.
"So," she asks. "Who are you?" Isaac's mom steps forward hesitantly, but the man seems confident.
"I'm Mr. Lahey," he says, holding out a hand to shake. "I'm not much of a hugger, so I fea-" His sentence is cut off when Harley swings, sending him stumbling back. There's a flurry of movement, the most obvious being the laughter coming from her father. Harley steps forward, undeterred.
"You suck," she tells, the now bleeding, Mr. Lahey. "How could you do that to your son? To Isaac? He is one of the most wonderful people I've ever met, and I don't know how in the hell anyone here forgave you for that, but I won't. Go shove your handshake up--"
"Okay," Harley's father says, steering her away, still smothering his chuckles. "I think he understands." Harley huffs, straightening her shirt out. She pauses.
"What am I wearing?"
"It's what you were buried in," Mrs. Stilinski explains.
"Oh, ew. Why is he here?" She points to Mr. Lahey. "Where are we? Cause you guys are all great, but I don't think child abusers get to go to Heaven."
