I was afraid to open my eyes.

I didn't want to see what had been waiting for me on the other side of that door.

But I had had enough of this darkness. Enough for a lifetime. I wanted the light, where it was easier to see, in more ways than one.

No, I was ready for the sun again. I just needed to find the strength to move.

"You can open your eyes, you know." I recognized that voice. I felt a flood of relief hearing it. "You're safe now."

"Death?"

"Yeah, it's me, kid."

I sucked in a deep breath, wary even though Death was with me, and opened my eyes.

We were sitting on a bench on one of the trails in Central Park. The sun had just set, and there was an orangish tint to the sky overhead.

The people around us were carrying on about their lives like they did every day. Like everything hadn't just completely changed forever.

Nothing was ever going to be the same again.

Death, sitting to my left, had stretched out his legs in front of him, leaned back against the bench. He was still holding his side as if in pain, but I could see that the bruises on his face were gone, as well as the cut that had been bleeding a considerable amount.

It felt so odd to be sitting there, in Central Park, after the things I had just witnessed. Yet at the same time, I was grateful for the familiarity.

The city I knew. Nightmares? Not so much.

Death blew out a heavy sigh as he shifted on the bench, rummaging around in his coat pocket, and then came up with a pack of smokes that he held out to me.

I accepted one without thinking, using my zippo to light up before passing it off to Death.

We sat there in silence, like we were just two pals lounging around, smoking, until we moved on to whatever struck our fancy next.

There was no way we weren't going to talk about what had just happened. It felt as if we were pretending nothing was wrong for the moment.

It wasn't until we had both finished our cigarettes that I decided to disturb the quiet.

"How long were we in that place?"

"Not too long. Two days, at the most."

That was a relief. If luck was on my side, then my family was safe. I would be seeing them soon.

"So. Your name is Aleph?"

Death frowned, looking uncomfortable as he rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "I've been called Death for so long I'd almost forgotten my real name."

I found it almost impossible to believe that Death had had a previous life before the one he was living now. His face was usually always void of emotion, unless he was smirking, that it was difficult to tell there was anything underneath it all.

I felt guilt bubbling in my stomach, realizing I had always thought of him as a thing, rather than a person. Just because he wasn't human didn't mean that he wasn't a person capable of feeling.

And seeing him with Lucrezia for those few short minutes...it was obvious that he felt very much.

"If it helps any, I'm still going to call you Death," I told him. "Aleph just seems..."

Death gave a grim smile. "That was another lifetime ago. I haven't been Aleph for a very long time."

I had no way of comparing who he was now and who he had once been. The ones that knew had probably long since been dead. I would have to accept it as the truth.

"Just how old are you, Death?" I found myself asking without thinking.

"Christ, I can't remember." He pulled another cigarette out of his pocket and used my zippo to light up. "Memories start to fade in enough time."

Not all of them, I wanted to say.

He took a long drag on the cigarette and tilted his head back, exhaling a large cloud of smoke. "I only remember very little from my human life. I know I was born in the Middle East, a few decades before the birth of Christ, I think. I had sisters. That's about it."

I felt my jaw dropping in disbelief.

If what Death was saying was true, that he was born shortly before Christ, then that made him over two thousand years old.

Holy shit. The man was a walking, talking history book.

"Oh. I'm...I'm..." A part of me wanted to apologize. Death had lost so much. I knew what it was like to lose things, but never like what Death had lost. From where I was sitting, it seemed as if Death had lost everything. "Sorry."

"Eh." Death shrugged a shoulder, like this was no big deal. "I kept watch over them until they died. They had good lives."

"So..." I tried to think of a question that I could ask without offending him, or bringing up some old memory that he would rather forget, but it was difficult. There was so much that I wanted to know. "So, how did you become an angel?"

Death shrugged again, taking a long drag on his cigarette. "I don't know. Never did know. And after I Fell, most of what I knew I forgot. My memory was erased."

"Why did you Fall?" I asked without thinking. "I thought the only angel that Fell was Lucifer."

"He was," Death agreed. "And his followers. If one of my kind break the rules, like I did, then they're cast out." He paused, flicking a bit of ash off his cigarette. "But I Fell because of Lucrezia."

He chucked his cigarette on the ground and then pulled up the sleeve of his coat, running his finger over the black symbols that crisscrossed all over his skin. "My transgressions against Heaven."

I leaned closer to inspect them further, then just as quickly pulled back. I had thought they were tattoos, but I was very wrong. They were blackened, raised burn scars.

"Jesus," I muttered. "That's sick."

"Heaven is a little old fashioned."

"More like barbaric."

Death gave a quiet chuckle, pulling down the sleeve of his coat, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Why did you..." I took a deep breath, struggling to find the right words. "I mean, why did..."

"You mean, why did I Fall because of Lucrezia?" Death supplied.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I didn't understand how he could say her name so easily. Not after what had just happened.

Death blew out a sigh and sat staring straight ahead for quite some time, not saying anything. When he finally did speak, his voice was much quieter than it had been before.

"Because I was alone. I was tired of reaping souls. I wasn't necessarily killing, but I was still taking lives. That kind of thing starts to eat at you after the first few centuries. And despite what I was, everything that I'd done, she loved me." He paused there, his mouth turned down in a frown. His fingers were tapping out a fast rhythm against his arm. "I think that was the craziest thing about it all. She was able to love something like me."

There was a quiet pain that I could see brimming in Death's eyes, even in the growing darkness, that I was pretty sure I understood.

I knew what it was like to be loved by someone you thought you would never deserve.

"I know it doesn't...it doesn't mean much coming from me," I said slowly, "but for what it's worth? She still loves you. Any idiot could see that."

Death gave a short laugh, glancing over at me. "I swear God only knows why she does."

"I don't think that's true," I said. "You're not human, sure. But you're a great man. Lucrezia married a great man."

Even though Death was probably always going to remain a mystery to me, that much I did know about him.

"Oh, Archer." Death gave me a look that managed to seem both amused and annoyed. "You're making me blush."

For the first time in what felt like a long time, the laugh that escaped from me was genuine. "You're so freakishly pale, Death, I think it's physically impossible for you to blush."

Death threw back his head and laughed, loud enough for people walking on the sidewalk to cast curious glances in our direction. His laughter didn't sound remotely normal - I had faked enough laughs to know when someone else was faking, too - but the fact that he was laughing at all? I took that as a good sign.

"Say, Death?"

"Hmm."

I asked the question that had been burning in my mind for the past several minutes.

"Why did Lucrezia...do what she did?" I said slowly. "I mean, she doesn't even know me, and yet she gave her life for me? Forgive me, but I'm having a little difficulty wrapping my mind around it."

And it was not as if I wasn't eternally grateful for what Lucrezia had done. I had only known her for less than ten minutes, but the woman was a spitfire.

I just wished that she had been able to live a new life, now that she had found Death again.

Death didn't take a few minutes to answer like I had been expecting him to.

"You and I both know, Archer, that there's nothing you wouldn't do for your family. Lucrezia was just doing the same thing."

Death was right. There was no denying it.

"But I still don't get it," I said. "If she's been a ghost for centuries, why didn't she try to find you?"

I immediately regretted the question as soon as it left my mouth from the expression on Death's face. I was going to go on to apologize, but Death held up a hand before I could.

"It isn't as if she had stopped loving me, Archer. I don't begrudge her for what she did. There's nothing I want more in this world than to be with Lucrezia, but if she had found me? There's no way I would have done...any of this," he said, gesturing at me.

"What?"

"I brought you back. Kept Havoc off your scent for as long as I could. Called in a few favors to be able to get into that nightmare of yours to get you away from Havoc. I did everything I could to keep you and Hadley and your child safe."

There was that hot feeling of guilt bubbling in my stomach again as Death spoke, reminding me of all that he had done for me, to keep my family safe, even if I hadn't always seen it that way.

But to be perfectly honest, I had no idea why Death had done everything that he had. I wasn't sure if I would ever know what he saw in me that he felt was worth saving.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Death held up a hand to cut me off.

"Sometimes it's best not to ask questions."

"Death, I - "

"Archer, there are things in this world you'll never understand. And you don't need to understand. You just have to...go on."

I sat back against the bench, my arms crossed over my chest, feeling as if the weight of the world was suddenly back on my shoulders again.

There was no way I could ever explain all that I felt about this to Death. I would never be able to thank him enough.

"What now?" I said. "What happens next? What are you supposed to do now?"

"Hell if I know," Death said, shrugging. "I don't know if you've realized yet, but I'm a little bit of an impulsive creature. I go wherever the wind takes me."

"Will we ever see you again?"

Death pondered this for a few moments, and then said, "I don't know," in a quiet voice.

Despite all that had happened, I knew I would feel some sense of loss and sadness if I never saw Death again.

"Well, then, what am I supposed to do now?" I got to my feet, feeling antsy all over, as if I needed to go jog for a mile. "Is this it? Everything is done and over with? Havoc's never going to come after me again, and I can peacefully live my life now? Is that what this is?"

"No," Death said immediately. "Havoc won't be coming after you again. You heard Lucrezia. She paid your debt. Havoc has nothing on you anymore."

I felt no sense of relief hearing him say that.

Don't get me wrong, I was incredibly grateful and thankful that I was in the clear and my life was no longer in danger. But it still felt like the end somehow.

I was supposed to just believe that this all was suddenly over and I would never be bothered again? Something about that didn't seem right to me.

"So...so I just..."

"It's really not that complicated, Archer." Death stood, still moving with a bit of a limp as he approached me, reaching out to tightly grip my shoulder. "Your wife is about to have a kid any damn day now, isn't she? Seems to me like you've already got your work cut out for you."

And then there was mention of the baby again.

I dropped back onto the bench with an aggravated sigh, raking my fingers through my hair. "Death, I have a confession."

"Oh? And what's that?" Death said, sitting down beside me again.

"That fear about being a father?" I said. "Well, I never exactly faced that."

I didn't think I would ever face that fear, either. How could I?

"What, and you think I did?" Death snorted. "Nobody ever does, Archer."

A heavy silence fell then. A type of silence that was painful, if that made sense.

"Death, I'm...I'm so - "

"Don't."

I shut my mouth.

"I'm not going to talk to you about my son," Death said. He was staring at his feet, and I could see a tic jumping in his cheek. "But what I will tell you is that you do whatever you can to make sure your child stays safe. That they live. You do everything you can to make sure your child has a good life, because I would never wish that type of emptiness on anybody if anything happened."

It felt like my eyes were burning when Death finished speaking. I didn't like the sudden wave of emotion that had crashed over me.

All I really wanted then was to go to my family and be with them.

"So, this is it, then," I said, glancing over at Death. "The end."

Death shook his head as he frowned. "No. Not the end. Just...a new chapter, I think."

"A new chapter," I repeated. "I think that sounds nice."

"Yeah, well." Death nudged me with a shoulder, chuckling quietly. "Go get on it, then. You're practically vibrating on the spot."

I didn't even have the time to feel embarrassed.

Going to Hadley, seeing her again, holding her in my arms and seeing for myself that she was alive, that our baby was alive, was suddenly the most important thing to me.

I got to my feet and offered out a hand to Death. He took it, and I pulled him upright, only to pull him into what was a very awkward hug. That was what people did when they were saying thanks, right?

"Thank you," I said, stepping back quickly. "For everything."

Death smiled and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "Get outta here."

I set off down the path with what I guessed was a skip in my step, then turned back to say something else to Death.

He was gone, though.

I stared at the bench he had been standing beside not seconds before. And I hoped that if I ever did get to see him again, I would be able to give him a proper thanks.

I began the trek out of Central Park again, anxious to get to Albany as soon as possible to see Hadley.

If this new chapter was beginning now, then I had to be there to greet it then, didn't I?

_______________________________________________________

Tada! It took a bit to write out this chapter - this was one of the biggest scenes between Death and Archer, I think, and it took me awhile to figure out how to do it! So, I hope it didn't disappoint.

I'm on my way home from vacation tomorrow - I was a bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding in California a few days ago! - so things will be getting back to normal soon. I've got the last few chapters of Face Your Fears planned out, so with enough luck, they'll be posted soon!

I hope you all are having a fabulous summer, and thank you so much for being amazing readers and showing me so much support. :)

- Ally