The X-Philes

Epilogue

Dan was sitting in Phil's living room enjoying a homemade blueberry muffin, which it seemed he did like after all, when the call came in from Nurse Millwood that his mother had passed away. She had gone peacefully, she said, in her sleep.

Dan realized he would be tasked with organizing her funeral and that he'd have to request time off from the Bureau to set everything up. Phil, of course, offered to come with him.

The day of the funeral was a sunny one down in West Virginia, with fluffy and thick bright clouds in a soulful blue sky and nothing like the last time they'd been down there. The service itself was beautiful as well: a dark, polished wood casket lined with fine fabric, a photo of the nurse during her days in residency propped up with a wreath at its feet, and white flowers adorned the top of the casket, calla lilies, her favorite.

The service was attended by past and present hospital staff, family, including both her sons, and friends, both new and old, as any good funeral should.

Off to the side stood three ghosts seen only by two of the funeral attendees: a husband and wife, and a friend.

These two funeral attendees departed as the service drew to a close and piled themselves back into the taller and older one's beat-up vintage car that once upon a time they'd spent way too many hours in for the arduous journey back from West Virginia home to Connecticut: a journey they never intended to make again.

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What remained of MedLife was found to have been funded by a private philanthropist who claims to have not known what kind of research he had been funding exactly and will most likely not face any criminal charges. Most others involved, however, were looking at life in prison for their humanitarian crimes. It looked as if the FDA personnel who had been sent in to research claims of foul play were either paid off or perhaps threatened, much like the hospital staff in West Virginia, all of whom were under investigation for their roles in helping either to cover up these crimes or for their silence and complacency in them despite threats from the former MedLife company. This information wasn't followed up by Special Agent Howell, however. He'd handed the case over to a more suitable team and was working on other cases with the help of his civilian partner, one who, rumor had it, could see ghosts. It was said that this was why Dan had such a high rate of solving crimes. Of course, it could have just been that he and his partner seemed to make such a great team.