An Ending

She raised her head up, a tear glistening at the edge of one eye.

Does it have to be?

He smiled, reaching down to kiss her.

"Yes," he answered softly. "I think it has to be, love. We’ve had quite a good life together, didn’t we?"

If she didn’t know better, the last sounded almost wistful.

She knew better though and smiling even as she brushed a lock of his hair out of his face.

"Yes we have, love," she said, right before she dropped a soft kiss on his lips.

"Relax a bit more while I go fix some tea," she said.

If he hadn’t been so caught up in his own thoughts, or been so bone-deep tired, he would have wondered at the tea comment.

It was on a thought of his birthplace, though, that he drifted off into a light nap.

In the kitchen, dressed in casual attire, and clanging a few things together in case Jess was listening, Willa cried a little and tried to gather herself.

She did so after she made her way to the kitchen window, tears leaving tracks down her face as she looked out the window as she had done countless times before.

Then, wiping the rest of her tears away, she called the rest of the family to come.

While she waited for them to come, she checked on Jess to find him sleeping, then went back to fix something in order to keep her hands busy.

Mathurin and Alix were the first to come with their families, then her two brothers with theirs.

"Mathurin, think you can go and get Kaeden?" Willa asked. "I think he would want to be here."

"Sure," he said, coming upon Aniella and her family as he was walking out.

He gave her a quick hug as she made her way inside and he portalled to Kaeden’s cabin.

Upon reaching it, he drew in a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" came the terse response from inside.

"It’s Mathurin, sir," he said. "Could I come in?"

"Yes," was his only reply.

"Thank you," he said as he opened the door.

"What do you want, whelp?" Kaeden asked in his usual unwelcoming tone.

Even as he had felt a clenching in his gut at what his mother’s summoning meant, Mathurin had to smile at being called whelp after so many years.

"It’s actually not what I want at all, general," Mathurin said quietly. "Mom would like for you to come out to the cabin with me."

Drawing in a deep breath, he said, "I think it’s about my father."

Looking at the general, and even knowing that the man couldn’t see the look on his face, Mathurin asked, "Will you come? Please?"

In response, Kaeden stood up from where he was sitting and unerringly made his way over to the much younger man.

"You know, Mathurin," he began, laying hands on ‘Rin’s shoulders. "You always have been a credit to both your parents. If you need me, any of you, I am always here."

Dropping his hands away, he simply said, "Yes, I will come."

After they made their way back to the Phoenix cabin, Mathurin saw that his grandmother had come too and was glad of it.

Once everyone had taken a seat around the living room, Willa said, without preamble and after making sure that the discussion would not wake Jess, "Jess is dying."

She let the conversations float around a little bit after the bombshell she dropped.

After a few minutes, she said, "Yes, I’m sure he is. That is why I called all of you. Right now he is sleeping and slowing down even more than he will admit."

Drawing in a deep breath, she said, "In a couple of days, I will be taking him back to the place where he had been born, though not the same time. That is what he would want, and that is what he will have."

Re-focusing on her family, she saw various members holding each other and her knees wanted to buckle when she felt a hand at her elbow and looked up into Kaeden’s face.

"Thank you," she said, calmer and a little better able to deal with things.

She let them talk and went back to Jess who, even in a deeper sleep than he started out in, was stirring restlessly.

"Everyone’s here," she said when he woke, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

He pulled her down to him and held her close for a little bit, before dressing and coming out with her.

For the rest of the day and well into the night, they all shared memories of years past, laughing, crying, and all too aware of the shadow in the room.

The next day, as everyone made their preparations to go to Biskupin, Willa and Jess slipped quietly away and made their way there alone.

"You know," he said. "Even as this place is where I was born, and am glad to leave my ashes here, our home is where my heart is, where my roots are, and where I have always been the happiest."

Looking at him with more tears in her eyes, she said, "I feel the same, my heart, my love."

He kissed her tears away before kissing her long and gently on the lips.

One of the things that had changed in the area since he had grown up there was that there was an inn and that’s where they made their way.

They spent the night in the room, eating a quiet dinner before a burning fire.

Afterwards, he held a hand out to her in question.

Taking it, she led him to the bed, slowly undressing when she got there.

Drawing in a breath, he said, wonderingly, "How is it that a woman can grow more beautiful with each passing day?"

"Probably the same way that a man can grow more handsome with each passing day," she answered, drawing his own clothes from his body.

The time passed in gently bittersweetness, before they both fell asleep, Jess cradling Willa against him, even as she slept with her head laid on his chest near his heart and an arm across him, holding him close.

It was near dawn when Willa woke abruptly, realizing she no longer heard his heart.

"Goodbye my love," she whispered.

Taking care of what they owed for the room and meal, she deftly explained her husband’s lack of appearance to the innkeeper and arranged for a wagon.

"He’s a bit ill," she said to the innkeeper and, for one of the few times in her life, diplomatically explaining that, no, it wasn’t the food.

Once she was able to get Jess’s body into the wagon, she drove back to where the village used to be and awaited for the rest of the family to arrive.

When they did, Mathurin, Fin, and the two Straithcairns arranged a funeral pyre.

It was Kaeden, however, who said a few parting words.

"One of the best men I had the privilege of knowing and serving. Even though the end comes to us all in one way or another, he will always live on in our memories and in our hearts. Go in peace, my leader, my lord, my friend."