Epilogue

The fog whispers good morning when Alex steps onto the back deck, the coffee in his hand having said the same just a few moments ago. Poe is the only one to mostly ignore him, trotting outside for a couple of minutes in the yard before going back to comfortably snoring at the far end of the living room couch. After closing the door behind him, Alex sits down in one of the patio chairs and takes a sip from his mug, and he thinks he loves it all—the fog, the patio, the coffee, and the dog—though not quite as much as he loves the man sleeping upstairs in their bed.

In their room. In their house, just a few streets over from where Alex had lived once upon a time.

He's still a little stunned that so many of the things he'd wanted, through all the years he'd had no idea they were possible and then the months he was afraid they were, are now his without question. And it's not that everything is perfect, all the best stories are far too complicated for anything like that, but he's grateful for the changes he's given himself permission to embrace. He's grateful two of the best people in his life told him he's never been the bad guy, and that he's always allowed to take something for himself.

Alex coughs a little, too many emotions making it difficult to swallow, and then he thinks back to the night they'd driven back from San Diego and had first talked about him meeting Elijah's mom. They'd made plans easily enough afterward, promising to grab takeout from a Chinese restaurant near her house on their way over a couple of nights later, but it hadn't been the cute kind of dinner someone might have expected after watching too many rom-coms. Life rarely follows those scripts closely, and Alex, Elijah, and Laura had clumsily conversed and distracted themselves with cashew chicken, veggie egg rolls, and wonton soup in lieu of anything more meaningful. All three of them had hoped there would be other chances to be more honest later, of course, even in the shadow of opportunities lost long ago, and their relationships with her have grown in their own wholly different ways since that first night, Elijah scrambling to recover anything left behind by time's implacable claws, and Alex building something next to the remains.

It"s all about as solid as Alex thinks it can be, both fulfilling and flawed.

His relationship with his family is both of those things too, except there's a distinct dividing line between the two. Alex is so much closer to his sister now and finding more time to see her no matter how busy they are, but he's barely tethered to everyone else, the conditions to their love ones Alex isn't all that concerned with meeting. They still talk, his relationship with Elijah not enough to sever the ties to his parents, abuelita, tías, and tíos permanently—his cousins don't seem to care much either way—but it's not all that comfortable to be around them, and he isn't interested in wasting that kind of effort. He and Gabriela will build a new legacy if it comes to that.

He, Elijah, Cassidy, and Michael are already working on building something special to pass along to Elena. Cassidy and Michael will be doing the same with their baby boy, born a few months ago, just after Elena's 11th birthday.

Their baby boy. That was an interesting conversation, Cassidy telling Alex about her pregnancy before sitting down with Michael to tell Elena, and then it became an argument between Alex and Elijah, because neither of them had thought to talk about whether they'd have kids before they'd moved several steps beyond where a discussion like that might have fit in.

In hindsight, most of the blame for the fight rested fully on Alex's shoulders, even allowing for the fact that there don't have to be good guys or bad ones, too much of his past colliding with too much of his present again. He was trying to reconcile his feelings about the mother of his child having a second one without him, and why that made him feel left out of something that hadn't belonged to him for a while. And then he swung wildly in the other direction, assuming that Elijah must want that from him now, a baby or the promise of a future that didn't already exist before the day they'd met. So, he'd picked a fight about something they didn't actually disagree about at all, Elijah more than happy with the way things were, their family of three all he's asked for.

Alex takes another sip as his thoughts, as they often do, wander to Peter and Edgar. Reflecting on this wonderful little life he and Elijah have built will lead him there every time.

"I always knew you would force me to be a morning person," Elijah grumbles from behind him.

Alex turns to find him just inside, leaning against the doorframe with a tired smirk. "Oh, come on, I already know Tyler let you leave early last night, so you had time to get plenty of sleep. Grab some coffee and come sit with me. The fog is pretty."

"You're pretty," Elijah says, so soft this early. "And I really do need some caffeine."

He leaves, however momentarily, and as Alex looks to the backyard again, he wonders what Peter and Edgar's mornings were like all those years in San Diego, when they might not have had as much to look forward to in their day as Alex and Elijah do now.

Really, so much is different now, but at least they'd had time to tell Edgar about it. To thank him over and over again for the gift he'd given them, and to promise him they would never take it for granted.

They'd made an effort to visit him every few weeks after that first trip, just for a few hours on Saturdays, Elijah giving up some of his morning sleep then too, and not about to complain about being tired. Natasha was there to greet them every time, and they bothered her as little as possible, happy to sit quietly at Edgar's bedside, telling him all about their new life together, whether he was sleeping or not. And though he never talked much, even while wide awake, he'd offer a few words when he felt like he had something important enough to say. Usually, it was in response to something funny about Elena, or maybe a quiet confession Alex and Elijah felt safe enough to share, but every now and then Edgar would react to their retelling of some of the best moments of his difficult past, the smallest smile accompanying his whisper as he chimed in with a secret they hadn't yet heard.

Once, they brought Elena with them to San Diego, mostly because both Edgar and Elena had asked, and Alex and Elijah weren't eager to deny either of them a request like that. It wasn't lost on them that she was only about a year older than Laura had been the day Peter had been arrested, and they weren't sure whether the sight of her would truly sting or soothe, but while Edgar didn't talk at all that day, he'd motioned for her to sit on the edge of his bed, and he reached for her hand as she told him story after story after story.

Then there was the beautiful sunny day, about five months after they'd first met him, when Alex and Elijah walked into Edgar's room to find the Poe collection on his nightstand, just as they'd left it there for him on that rainy mid-December afternoon. Edgar's eyes were wide open, and maybe as clear as they'd ever seen them.

"Yours again," he said.

It was goodbye, or the closest they were ever going to get from him, and they both knew it, their tears waiting until they were back in Elijah's truck, the book in Alex's arms. They got the call from Natasha four days later.

Elijah's fingers comb through Alex's hair and bring him back to the crisp morning, and Alex tilts his head back to smile up at where Elijah's standing behind him, a mug in his other hand.

"Good morning again," Alex says.

"Don't think you actually said that the first time," Elijah huffs, a sarcastic little sparkle in his eye. "Maybe we should both go back to bed and start over."

"Mmmm, or we can start over with a shower after breakfast."

"That works too," Elijah agrees, moving to sit in the chair next to him. "We reminiscing this morning?"

"We are."

"Anything in particular?"

"Nah, just some of everything, I guess," Alex answers. "I love you a lot, you know."

Elijah nods, the way he bites his lip doing little to hide his smile. "I do know, and I love you, but are you okay? Seems like maybe you wandered pretty far down memory lane."

"I did, but I'm okay," he promises. "Or I will be by the time the coffee is gone."

Alex takes another sip as if to help make his point, and Elijah does the same, both of them quiet for a while when Elijah reaches for Alex's hand and pulls it to rest against his thigh. It's immediate, the way Elijah begins to play with the ring on Alex's finger, a habit stumbled upon during a rough night and now a reliably easy way for them to find a moment of calm. Alex closes his eyes and lets himself get lost in the sensation of Elijah's touch and the smooth metal against his skin, wedding bands they wear because when they were first exchanged decades ago, they'd never been given the chance to be seen by anyone at all.

He and Elijah had recited their vows to honor each other, but there was no small amount of love set aside for the couple who should have been able to do the same just as loudly.

"What do you want to do today?" Elijah asks after another minute. "When you're okay again."

"Other than the shower I already suggested?"

"Other than that, yeah," Elijah laughs.

Alex thinks about it, then tips his head to the side. "We could go for a walk around the neighborhood."

"A walk, huh?" Elijah says, suspicion lifting a single eyebrow. "Not looking for any garage sales, are you?"

"Would it really matter if I were? Pretty sure the biggest flirt around here already managed to con me into buying some used books. What else could I possibly need?"

"Oh, I'm the biggest flirt?" Elijah snorts. "That's cute coming from the guy who couldn't resist telling me to keep the vinyls and buy a record player before he came back to see me again on day two."

"Okay, mister ‘I have plenty of charm all the time.' Please, tell me more."

Alex pushes up from the patio chair and hurries to take his mug into the kitchen before Elijah can respond, though he"s really only succeeded in trapping himself inside, Elijah right behind him when he reaches the sink, his voice low against Alex's ear.

"I want to go for a walk with you this morning."

"Okay," Alex says, turning in Elijah's arms so he can read the secret forming in Elijah's eyes. Something else is on his mind, and Alex knows it won't go unspoken for long. "What else?"

"I want to call out of work tonight," Elijah murmurs. "It's a Saturday night—won't be hard to find someone to cover for me."

"Okay," Alex says again. "Why?"

"I want more memories. Good ones. We were never going to be able to change any of their story, but we're still writing ours."

"Okay," Alex smiles, one last time, because he already knows the answer to his next question. "Where are we going?"

"San Diego."