"Joan, are you okay?" Moira looked startled and was wearing a fluffy robe over pajamas as she rushed out of her bedroom.

Nodding, Joan gasped out, "I thought... I dreamed... She's still here, it's okay."

Moira made Joan a cup of tea and watched her carefully. After pouring her a second cup, Moira asked, "What did you dream?"

Joan decided to tell what she saw this morning as her nightmare; she still couldn't believe she had met the Thanatos from myth as she finished, "So I got up, threw on my running clothes and ran here. I am still unbalanced on a bike when I pedal too fast, so running is safer."

Nodding sympathetically, Moira revealed, "Her heart monitor chimed twice last night. It will only be another day or two."

"I am going to miss her more than Paul, more than my parents, more than anyone. She was always so good to me." A tear leaked from Joan's eye. "Paul kept us apart because he was afraid she would tell me that he was hoarding money and stealing from me. I regret every time I let him decline a lunch invitation for us." She put the mug down so she wouldn't drop it. "I love her more than my own mother, and I rarely visited because Paul hated their neighborhood. She deeded me her house and I only started visiting after Paul died." Her guilt felt like stones in her soul.

"Joan, you were her best friend and the daughter she never had. She knew how much you worked and even when she called once a month to check in with me, she would brag about the cases you won." Moira declared proudly, taking her hands, "I feel like I know you and I am proud of you too. You helped win the case in a state where you weren't a lawyer because you know the law so well. You got justice for hundreds of people and not just for Paul. Catherine knows you and Paul were having trouble. She wanted so much more for you than he gave you."

The monitor in Catherine's bedroom beeped and Moira hurried in there with Joan following.

"Catherine?" Moira stated calmly but loudly.

She inhaled as she woke, her heart began beating very slowly but regularly. Opening her eyes, Catherine held out her hand. "Joan." Her lips moved soundlessly.

"Hey, Mom, want a cup of coffee?" Joan asked as sweetly as she could.

Catherine's shake of the head was barely perceptible.

"Okay, you sleep in, and I'll make crepes for you and Moira." Joan glance at Moira then back to Catherine, "She doesn't know I learned to make them from a real French chef."

Catherine smiled and nodded once, whispering almost silently, "Joan's crepes... are better... than a five-star... brunch."

"Oh, fancy. I've only had French crepes when I visited you in New York after Paul was born," Moira announced then whispered loudly, "They were awful."

Catherine half-smiled at her sister, then sighed and fell back asleep. Joan followed Moira back to the kitchen where Moira called a doctor. As Joan began cooking, she made Catherine's favorite burgundy sauce. Carrying the plate into the bedroom, Catherine looked peaceful as the sun began to burn away the gray fog and shine in the window. Joan fed Catherine a single bite and helped her drink a half cup of her favorite coffee with sugar.

"Thank you, Joan." Catherine's hand moved like she wanted to hold Joan's hand but didn't have the strength, so Joan took hers.

"You're welcome, Mom."

"Tell me about the young man you are dating?" Her voice was so soft in the quiet bedroom.

Joan swallowed, admitting, "We only dated for about two weeks, I broke up with him because I... I didn't agree with what he did for a living."

"Was he mean to you? Did he hurt you or ignore your needs like Paul did?" Catherine's almost silent question and curious eyes pled with her to tell the truth.

"He was amazing. We actually met at the conference where Paul died, Thane was there with his sister. He offered me a bottle of water and a protein bar, and we ate those instead of the buffet because the seafood smelled weird. Paul thought it was the seasoning, but I shouldn't have let him eat anything." Joan admitted, "I told Thane the food was to die for, and we laughed, then I met his sister while I was jogging. Paul was sick at..."

"Shh, I know about Paul." Catherine inhaled slowly, "Tell me about Thane."

Shrugging, Joan admitted, "Two weeks ago, I was running in the park and stopped to look across the harbor. He jogged past then turned around. He was staying at St. George Tower. Our first date was an hour later at Bevacco," Joan found herself smiling slightly at the memory.

"Did you have the Farro?" Catherine asked and Joan nodded.

"I had all our favorites and the cheesecake, then he walked me back to your house like a gentleman. He was," Joan revealed but Catherine's whispered interrupted.

"It's yours now... He walked you... to your house... and the next date?'

Catherine insisted on knowing and Joan wanted her to be happy for her so Joan talked about all the fun and wonderful things she and Thane did together, carefully leaving out the part where he was the alleged incarnation of Death and possibly a serial killer or Greek Mafia hitman. Hours later, Catherine hadn't moved or spoken again. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully with a slight smile on her face, but she was breathing far too slowly. Joan got up and went to the bathroom, weeping into a towel to silence her grief. In the kitchen, she poured herself a cup of cooled coffee as the doctor examined Catherine with Moira.

After the doctor left, Joan asked Moira, "Do you want to sit with her?"

"No, lass. I've had months to say goodbye. It's your time." Moira patted her arm then heated up some of the soup Catherine made only three evenings earlier. "Eat, you need your strength. Keep talking to her about all your hopes and dreams and that handsome sounding lad you are dating. And if you run out of stories, just make up the happiest things you can think of. She only wants for you to be happy after she is gone." Setting the bowl in front of Joan, Moira ordered, "Eat. I have to see Father Pritchard about the funeral."

"I'm not taking her back to New York?" Joan asked.

"No, she's home. I'll bury her next to our grandmother as she wished. Both our parents are also buried here. She only stayed in New York for Paul after his father died." Moira put on her coat. "Let your grief be buried with her. She's happy and she wants you to be too." Moira went out and closed the door.

Joan choked down the rest of her soup and coffee and went back to sit with Catherine. She turned her and made her comfortable as she had seen Moira do then she talked and talked and talked about every hope and dream she'd forgotten or surrendered while she was with Paul. Thane made her think about those again. Everything she wanted came back to someone who she believed was impossible to exist.

"Thane is different, Mom. I don't know how to love someone that will live forever," Joan confessed. "I'll be dead in a few decades, and he'll still have ten thousand years left."

"Not necessarily," Persephone's gentle voice chided. The room suddenly was filled with the scent of flowers and the forest.

Joan looked over at her standing in the corner, cradling a bouquet of Catherine's favorite flowers. Holding them up, the new goddess of the spring grinned, "Special delivery."

Joan almost rolled her eyes but instead she said, "Thank you for keeping Olivia alive and the flowers in Catherine's Garden fresh."

"It's your garden, it's your house. She gave it to you for your happiness."

Joan looked back at Catherine and brushed a few strands of thin hair off her forehead. "I don't want Thane to feel this when I die."

Smirking, Persephone handed over the flowers. "He won't. He will only feel his love for you." She vanished in a shimmer of sunlight as the door opened.

"I'm back, Joan," Moira called.

Catherine opened her eyes for a moment. Joan put the flowers close to her face and moved her hand to rest on the stems. "Look what came for you, Mom. Your favorite."

Joan glanced the card and wanted to weep, but her voice was strong as she read it aloud. "Catherine, Enjoy the flowers. Don't let Joan mope. See you soon, Olivia."

"Such... sweet... girl." Catherine smiled and sighed, then inhaled the fragrance of the flowers deeply before falling back asleep. 

Hours later, Joan watched the aurora borealis on the distant horizon then Catherine was gone. Moira checked her and turned off the monitor. The doctor came back and signed the death certificate. Dazedly, Joan walked out into the morning fog. She couldn't tell if the wetness on her cheeks was the mists or her tears. She got turned around. Suddenly, she didn't know where she was, and she could only see a dozen feet in any direction. It was like her grief took physical form to steal the rest of the world form her. Panicked, Joan started running. She could hear the waves ahead of her and knew she must be close to shore. The ground disappeared in front of her, and she slid to a stop. Shaking in terror as her feet hung off a cliff, she panted for a few moments looking down into gray nothingness before she crab-crawled backward. Standing, she peered down the sheer rock face. Her fear of dying evaporated as her grief and loneliness pushed her to step forward into the abyss so the pain would stop.

"Don't." Familiar arms pulled her back against a strong chest.

"Thane?" Her whispered word quivered like a hummingbird trill.

"I'm here, I'll never leave you," he promised, turning her away from the void. "I love you."

Looking up at him, she murmured in a squeaky bereft voice, "I love you too, but I don't want you to feel this when I die." She sobbed into his shoulder as he carried her away from the cliff.

She was shocked when he opened the door to her rental and carried her into the kitchen. It had only been a few minutes. Settling her into a chair, he got her a drink of water. She gulped it then repeated, "I don't want you to feel this when I die."

He smiled, gently cupping her cheek as he knelt in front of her, "I won't ever have to feel the grief you are feeling now, Joan. When I marry you, I will bind part of my soul to yours, and with it, my immortality. You will live as long as I live."

The prospect of immortality through marriage was slightly terrifying so Joan asked, "And what do you get? What do you want?"

Smirking, Thane grinned, "I get your love, and the only thing I want is the promise that we won't have shampoo days or years. I saw what you and Paul had," he revealed as he shook his head, "I don't ever want that... for either of us. I want you to share all your thoughts, and all your feelings, and I even want your anger when frustration overcomes you. We can live in New York; you can work for the D.A.'s office until you are ready to retire and start a family." He knelt in front of her, holding out a beautiful ring. "Believe in me, Joan, believe in us."

"I do." Joan cried happily then she kissed him passionately.

Hours later, Thane pulled The Marigold Tarot Lovers card from Olivia's mythology book. He examined it as Joan laid against his chest. She lifted her head to look at it too.

"That was a good day," the A.D.A. murmured.

"It was, and we will have many more of them," promising, Death smiled.

THE END

~~~~
A/N I hope you enjoyed this short story. It was created during a 7-day story challenge. write a story in 7 working days. I actually took 9 days because I had to split a day but I think it turned out okay. 

"How I became a crazy Cat Lady to Survive the Zombpocalypse" is my #NaNoWriMo Project. It will be coming soon. 

Be Blessed and happy reading, M.M.