mercy | jared padalecki

xxxix. more human

   "Are you sure you want to do this?" Jared asked Laurel, looking down at her as she smiled up at him.

    "Yes, I'm sure," she confirmed.

    "Well, I don't wanna push you into doing something that you don't wanna do."

    "I want to do this," she said. "I need to, Jar. Come on, let's do it."

    She gripped his bicep as they started to walk away from the car, towards the graves that are under the James name. In her hands was a bouquet of red roses and a bouquet of pink Gerbera daisies, each for their own respective grave. He was dressed in a nice pair of jeans and a button up shirt while she was wearing a black dress paired with beautiful heels. No one else was in the cemetery, which they were thankful for as they stopped in front of the two graves.

    "Jared, this is my father and my sister," she said softly, staring down at the gravestones. "Father, Ken, this is Jared. My boyfriend."

    Jared stood there silently as she continued to stare at their headstones, emotions and thoughts plaguing her mind. Then, she started speaking and her words shocked Jared.

    "My father... He wasn't a good man, Jared. There are things that he did to me that no father should ever do to their children. But I took it, I took it all so that Kendall wouldn't have to. He took away my childhood, which is why I'm a little childish sometimes. I never got that chance. Living on campus during high school was a blessing, I only had to go home when I wanted to. And Kendall always stayed with me, no matter where I went."

    "Laur..."

    "Let me finish," she whispered, itching her elbow. "He was my father, but he wasn't my dad. And when he died, when I was 17, I was just so thankful. And so I felt guilty about that foe the longest time. That guilt only went away when Kendall died and suddenly I was much more guilty of that death. I'll probably never forgive myself for the guilt of either of those deaths and my reaction to my father's. But you've made me feel more human, less like the monster that I saw myself as. And so I wanted you to be able to meet Kendall."

    "Thank you," he said gently, before grasping my chin and turning me to look at him. "Thank you for telling me all of that. It won't change how I see you or how I feel about you. Is it okay if I talk to Kendall?"

    She nodded, smiling when he pressed his lips to her forehead and took the roses - which were originally for her father - from her, setting them down on Kendall's grave, "Yes. You can talk to her."

    "Hi, Kendall. It's nice to finally meet the most important person in Laurel's life."

    And so he spent the next ten minutes talking to Kendall, telling her funny stories from on set with Laurel and different dates they had gone on, along with why he liked her sister so much. Laurel never let go of him, tears gathering in her eyes as she listened to the man she was falling in love with talked to her deceased sister as if she was standing right there with them. And when he was finished, she set her flowers down and bid farewell to her family before leaving with him. At the car, she stopped him and pressed her lips to his, then they continued on with their kid free day (as Gen had the boys for prior commitments).

alice's note

im just so happy that we're over halfway through and i only have two and a half hours left of work. i just wanna sleep.

[ 12.12.16 ]
edited | 4.1.19