Disclaimer: These guys aren't mine. Any of them. Author's Note: Sequel to No Happy Endings and Some Time Alone Dream Come True by Twist +++++++++ The only problem with being a ghost is that you can't shut your eyes. You could close them of course, physically, but it wouldn't do you any good. Ghosts don't see with their eyes, you see. They see with something else. Something that can't be defined. So you could shut your eyes, but you cannot shut out the world. Whish is why most ghosts don't attend their own funerals. Pete Wisdom didn't have a choice. Kitty attended, of course, so he felt compelled to go as well. It was raining, as is always the case at funerals. It's as if Mother Nature has sympathy to those in mourning. None of the guests seemed to mind too much. (Meggan was good at diverting rain storms) The whole of Excalibur had come to pay their respects, although Pete was fairly certain that they were here only to honor Kitty's wishes. He wasn't exactly close to any of them. Piotr was absent. He was going through thorough psychological evaluation, and was kept locked up the rest of the time. Kitty had made sure of that. The psychiatrist was baffled by the strange dreams that plagued the Russian. Pete had made sure of that. In his time, Pete Wisdom had attended many funerals. He'd made a habit of making an anonymous appearance at those for the people he'd killed in the line of duty. However, when it came to those he knew, he avoided them like the plague. He wasn't one to handle grief well. Which is partially responsible for the amount of time he spent with his arms around Kitty, desperately trying not to think of his body lying in the casket. The other part was that he felt totally and completely alone. In the week that had passed since his death, he'd realized more and more that there was no way he would ever be able to directly communicate with his friends ever again. The funeral passed with infinite slowness, and Pete couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as his coffin began to be lowered into the Scottish soil. Kitty's reaction was quite the opposite. For the first time since she'd seen Pete lying on the operating table, Kitty completely broke down. The rest of Excalibur, unsure how to react, stood around uncomfortably, while Pete wrapped his arms tighter about her. "Come on, now, luv, no need for that," he muttered, all the while thinking of how futile a gesture it really was. "I'm still here." "We all are." Another voice put in, as a young, feminine hand placed itself on her other shoulder. Pete looked up to see a young blonde girl standing there, a girl he recognized from the pictures he'd seen in Kitty's bedroom. It was Illyana Rasputin. And behind him stood Doug Ramsey. Pete glanced quickly around him, and was startled to discover that the field was filled with similar figures, some with their heads bowed in reverence and grief, some with a smile of welcome for him. Some Pete recognized from the computer's files, some he didn't know at all. But all of them seemed to know precisely what he was feeling, and accepted it. For the first time in a week, Pete felt welcome. The End? +++++++++