It was raining.

There was not a torrential pouring that gave Carson a grand finale. It was not drizzling like a pathetic afterthought. Rather, it was simply raining--enough to drench my hair but not enough to wash away the cadavers.

Reginald was parked a few feet away from the grave on the winding street. I didn't bother with an umbrella (partly because I didn't own one, and partly because I just didn't care). Even though I had gotten to the cemetery a half-hour before twelve, I wasn't the first person there. In fact, I wasn't even the second.

Pierce and Katherine were huddled under an umbrella together, standing over Carson. Pierce had his head down as if he were praying, while Katherine cradled her face in her hands. I saw him lean over and whisper something to her, to which she nodded vigorously and let her hands droop to her sides. Pierce reached out his hand to her. She shook it like the whole meeting was for business rather than to mourn.

"Hi, guys," I greeted. "Didn't think anyone would get here before me."

"Woke up early," Pierce replied.

"Was up all night," Katherine added. Her face was bare of any makeup, and her eyes were wet with tears despite her warm smile. "I'm ready, Avery."

"Ready for what?"

She shared a look with Pierce and whispered, "To get better."

Ignoring my confused expression, Pierce grabbed me by the arm and pulled me under their umbrella. "Hey, kid," he muttered. We three looked down upon Carson Harris's tombstone.

Carson Harris
1998 - 2016
Son and Artist

"I guess...I guess we just wait for everyone?" Katherine offered.

"Yeah, I guess so," I said, though we didn't have to wait long. Landon (who was given permission to leave his facility if an aide came with him) sauntered down to us just ten minutes later. Liam joined us about five minutes after that, Jane absent from his side.

None of us expected Carson's parents to show up, and to our expectations, they didn't.

Landon enveloped me with a warm hug. He was wearing a light blue sweater and a goofy grin. "There she is. I can't believe I'm friends with Sherlock Holmes!" he exclaimed. Katherine shot him some shade, but then giggled at his contagious smile. Only Landon would be able to make light of the situation.

"Hi, Landon," Katherine greeted. Pierce pulled me closer to him and away from Landon. Landon noticed and frowned, still regretting waving the gun around at me.

"Hey, Kattie," Landon replied, patting her on the shoulder.

"You should get under the umbrella," she offered.

Landon replied with a "Psst" and shook his head. "I like the rain. It's soothing." Katherine rolled her eyes and intertwined Landon's fingers within hers. "I can play piano for you later."

"That'd be nice, Landon. That'd be really nice."

I was the only one that smiled when Liam entered the scene. I offered him sympathetic eyes. "Hi, Liam."

"Hi, guys...," he muttered, looking down at the muddy ground. "Jane is at work right now."

"You would know," Landon murmured under his breath. Pierce chuckled to himself.

"Thanks for coming, Liam," I said to break the dour mood.

"Yeah, of course. I mean, he probably wouldn't want me here, but...whatever, I guess." I hated how I still couldn't react happily to his beautiful smile. I still missed him, but I had more worthy things to upset myself over.

"Asshole," Pierce whispered just low enough for Katherine and me to hear him. Katherine giggled. Liam frowned and stood attentively next to Landon, whispering an "I'm sorry" as he walked to his side.

We all turned to face Carson Harris.

"So, um...yeah. I wanted to gather you all here because...because we all needed to say goodbye to him. Either we were strangers with Carson, owed him one, loved him, or even hated him. It doesn't matter." I folded my hands and let them hang down towards my chest. "Carson, one way or another, was there for us. Whether he was going to reveal a lie we told or was saving us without us knowing...or maybe he just wanted to thank us, he matters. Carson is an important person in all of our lives. So...yeah. I didn't write any of this down, so I'm just rambling. Someone else say something." Under my breath I added a single "Please."

"Um...," Landon began, but Katherine cut him off.

"Carson Harris was, at least the way I saw it, the love of my life. He was taken down before he could do what he really wanted, but he wasn't killed before he affected me greatly. He...he saved my life. He made me better. There wasn't a single bad bone in his body. He deserves better than this shit," Katherine muttered. I gripped onto her hand to console her. "And I'll always miss him and never forget him..."

There was silence for a few brief moments until Landon began to speak. "I guess Carson saved me, because without his pictures, Avery never would've gotten me to go get help. I will forever owe him. His pictures were really good, too." Landon coughed into his sleeve to conclude his eulogy.

Liam waited an awkwardly long time before speaking. "I know that none of you want me here."

"Right," all three of my friends said in unison.

"But, I am here. I messed up." Liam folded his arms and said, "I know that I was with Jane, but I never pointed a gun at her"—Landon frowned—"or accused her of murder"—Katherine shifted tensely—"or forced her to lie to everyone in Eldbourne"—Pierce shrugged nonchalantly—"but Carson caught me messing up. Avery caught me messing up. I don't really deserve to be here with you all to mourn him. I don't know what any of us did to deserve to mourn him. Carson deserves to be standing up here right along with us. I'm...yeah...yeah, I guess that's it."

"Beautiful," Pierce remarked. "You should publish that and send it to the Times." I elbowed him in the side. "What?" I offered him a tiny grin, to which he beamed at. "Ah, Carson Harris. Your case was one big fucking mess, and that's the way I like my cases. Gives me a challenge. You really hit it out of the park, kid. But I can't help thinking that I fucked up. Maybe if I lost one case in my life, you'd be in jail instead of six feet under. But without you, I wouldn't have met this one kid, and then I'd be right under there with ya. So, here's to you, Carson." Pierce withdrew a flask from his suit pocket. I eyed it suspiciously as Pierce swigged the whole thing down. He noticed my look of worry, so he leaned down and whispered, "It's Mountain Dew. Tastes awful."

I rolled my eyes but smiled anyway. Looking side to side, I realized that all four of the people next to me had lied to me. Sometimes to protect me, sometimes to save themselves. But in that moment, I couldn't care less.

I wasn't just surviving. I was alive. Alive with friends and family who, despite being liars, cared about me.

Maybe in ten years, I wouldn't be talking to Liam anymore. Maybe I would've cut off ties with an addicted Landon. Maybe Katherine would be too busy to talk. Maybe Pierce would be gone.

But we had today. We had that very moment in which we stood over Carson Harris's grave and mourned and prayed and smiled. We had the pictures that Carson took of us, the beautiful, ugly photos that wove us all together. We had our hands to hold and tears to cry. We were fine.

I didn't need to remind myself to calm down and breathe. I just needed to remind myself to grip onto Katherine's hand tighter, laugh at Pierce's dumb jokes, smile along with Landon, and be kind to Liam. I just needed to remind myself that even though Johanna betrayed me, Dakota Roberts had given me some of the best memories of my life.

If I closed my eyes long enough, Carson appeared in front of me. His hoodie was tattered and his gut was bleeding, but despite all of that, he smiled.

See ya, Carson. Thanks for everything.

The clouds began to clear.

Liam left first. He had told me that he was sorry for everything he had done. I hadn't asked him why had he cheated. I didn't care anymore. "Bye, Liam," I had said, "Thank you for everything."

When he turned away, I wasn't sure if I was ever gonna see him again. But that was okay. I would always be there for him, even when he wasn't for me.

Landon's aide (who had actually stood several yards away, unnoticed) beckoned him over. It was time to get back to rehab. He gave me one long, yearning smile, his eyes glistening. "I told you that you'd get her, Avery," he said as he hugged me. "Call me later, okay?"

"Okay, Landon. I promise." He waved to us three as he turned away to go heal himself.

Katherine, Pierce and I waited for the Sun to finally usher in rays of light before we said goodbye to each other. "Avery, could you drive me home?" Katherine asked.

"Yeah, of course," I replied. "How'd you even get here?"

"I walked."

"In the rain?"

"Yeah, of course. It was important, y'know?" she said with a smile. She patted me on the shoulder and then looked at Pierce. "Bye, Mr. Prescott. I'm...I'm glad we talked."

"See you, Miss Summers. Oh, by the way," Pierce drawled, arching his back and cracking his knuckles, "Tell your father that he's not getting sued. That should probably make his life a lot easier."

Katherine nodded obediently and grinned joyfully as she made her way to Reginald. And then there were two.

"Well, if it isn't the sick son of a bitch that started all of this with me?" I reflected. Pierce laughed.

"Well, if it isn't the scared little sobbing girl in my office all that long ago?" he retorted with a coy smile. Scratching the back of his neck, he continued, "Avery, I'm gonna be real, being sober fucking sucks, but man, do I feel alive!"

"I'm really happy for you, Pierce," I replied. "It's really good that you're doing this."

"Yeah, I know. Just glad I got off of my sorry ass and actually did something about this." His eyes fell upon Carson's name. "Y'know, I'm a real idiot."

"Well, duh."

"No, seriously. Johanna was in the car with us, and I didn't say a thing. Kid, my head was so clouded I barely fucking recognized her. I thought, 'Hey, haven't I seen her somewhere?' and didn't say shit. Assuming everyone was guilty and I couldn't even pin the actual culprit."

"Hey, it's okay. We got her, Pierce."

"You almost died, Avery. Y'know how fucked that would've been? Would've been my fault."

"No, it wouldn't have. None of this was your fault."

"Keeping Carson out of jail got him killed. Seems like a snowball effect to me."

"Well, then you can trace that back to Carson getting drunk, and then that back to the Creontes deciding to drive where they were, and then that back to them ever getting together, and then that--"

Pierce flicked me on the shoulder and cut me off with, "Yeah, I get it, I get it." He whistled as he looked at the radiant Sun. "Y'know, she would've been just around the same age as you. Eighteen years young."

"How old was she when--"

"Ten."

I nodded. "Pierce, I swear to God, if you ever try and pull any shit like you tried to before, I'll bring you back to life and beat the crap outta you."

"What if I want my ghost to haunt Yancey?" he pouted.

"You drive a hard bargain," I replied, "but no dice."

"Damn." When he observed my upset demeanor, he held up his hands in defeat. "Kidding, kidding! I already told you, Avery, I'm gonna be better. Thanks to you and Carson," he replied, gesturing down to the grave below us.

"You're gonna have to tell me about Carson's case sometime," I remarked.

"Oh, won't that be a tale. I'll have to break out the Mountain Dew to celebrate."

"Only the finest for your favorite client," I chuckled. "Y'know, when I first met you, I thought that you were Carson's family's lawyer. Guess I was kinda right."

"Yeah, just kinda right," he concurred. He took another sip of his flask and then grimaced. "Whelp, kid, I'll see you around."

"Where are you going?"

"Gonna go visit my Rosemary. I'll tell her you said hi." He patted me on the shoulder as he turned away to go announce himself to his daughter. "I'd say see you later, but I've got a hot date tonight, and then I've gotta go check up on Xander's progress with that essay."

"Don't let this one get away, Pierce," I warned, shaking my finger at him.

"Don't plan on it, kid." He waved to me behind his back, trekking towards his daughter. He stopped in his tracks, cocked his head to the side, and called out, "You know, I'm not legally obligated to say this, but...thanks, Avery." He whistled a tune to himself as he disappeared in the sunlight, snapping his fingers as he meandered away.

Taking a deep breath, I placed my hand on Carson's tombstone and patted it gently. "I'll come visit you again sometime, Carson." I laughed for the both of us. "Maybe we'll become great friends."

I liked to imagine that he replied with a bright smile.

I shut the door behind me. Katherine reached out for my hand, so I desperately took hers in mine as we drove off. "Ready for the next chapter of our lives, Avery Carter?" she asked, huffing her chest as she stared forward.

I nodded.

"As long as I've got you, Katherine Summers, I'm ready," I replied.

I grinned and charged forward into the unknown.