Fallen

Chapter Forty-One

"Caught anything yet?" Alec asked.

"Does it look like it?"

"Nope, but I thought I would ask anyway." Alec sat beside me on the dock.

I reeled in the fishing line to cast again.

Three weeks and five days. That many days had passed since leaving York.

The first four days I was stuck in my old bed. Crying off and on. Feeling numb and tired. After resisting eating food and only drinking water when I absolutely had to, Alec had threatened to call in Doctor Hunt to hook me up to an IV to give me the nutrients that I needed if I didn't eat.

With that threat, I got up.

Alec, despite being an old bully of mine. Had become a friend I didn't realize I needed. He kept to himself in the past weeks. He only spoke to me when I spoke to him first. He didn't demand anything from me. Nor did he lie to me.

Not like how he did.

Ben.

We hadn't spoken about him. He knew Dad was dying and he didn't tell me. He should have told me and damned the consequences. 

No, Alec had helped me make the decision to have my father cremated and brought to the house on the Lake Region. When people of our village heard the news and wanted to comfort me, he sent them all away. The women of the village agreed to my wishes of not being seen but that did not stop them from forcing Alec to take in the casseroles and food they made. 

With having so much food which Alec accidentally named Funeral Food one day, we had survived on that for weeks.

We did have a funeral for my father. It wasn't really a funeral. Not even a ceremony. The day the ashes arrived in the second week of being home, Alec and I got Dad's fishing boat running.

We went out into the center of the lake at sunset and scattered his ashes.

No words were spoken. No last goodbye.

"I wonder," Alec said, "if we have any Funeral Food left."

"We don't," I answered back. "I ate the last bit of Mrs. Kempner's mac and cheese casserole yesterday."

"What?" Alec turned to me. "That's my favorite!"

"I know it is!" I snapped back, "I heard you when Mrs. Kempner came to check up on me last week. You basically begged her to make more."

"Oh, you're happy I did that."

The sounds of a car rolled down the dirt road. We both turned to it. It was a nice looking, black car with dark windows. It rolled to a stop before the dock. The passenger door opened.

Ben got out.

Alec stood and stormed down the dock. "Get out." He pointed at the car. "Get in that car and get out."

Ben. He looked tired. Just as tired as I was. He had always kept his face clean-shaven, but a whispered beard now sported his face. Making him seem older beyond his years.

"Your communicators are off."

"They are for a reason."

Ben look past Alec to me.

"Hey! Don't look at her. She doesn't want to see you," Alec snapped.

Ben ignored what Alec said. "You two are called up. You are needed back at your ranks."

"We aren't ready," Alec said.

Me.

I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to go back. Not yet. Not now. Almost a month wasn't long enough to heal from this pain. Pain of lose and betrayal.

"You are going to have to be." Ben look past Alec to me. "You've had almost a month. I know you are hurting and you think I hurt you. But you two are needed. York was attacked."

"Why should we believe you?" Alec shot. "You just want us back."

The driver's door open. King Roth stepped out.

"Do you honestly think I would drive this far here to help my son get back a girl?" Roth said. "You can believe me, I did not drive all this way for that."

"Shit," Alec muttered.

Roth looked at Alec and then me.

"We need the two of you. The government has fallen."