Reunion: The Director's Cut

You'd think that at some point, they'd have given Finn a break.  But no, even still, everyone hated him.

They had these little unofficial reunions every once in a while, when they could actually get more than three people into the same room at once.  With everyone as spread out as they are, and everyone's jobs even more demanding than that dangerous time in their youth, just arranging this get-together was a real challenge.

Finn was up to it this year, and he thought he had a good haul.  Jacob and Ivy never left Oldport, so they inevitably ended up attending whether anyone liked it.  Jacob was the manager of some second-rate hotel along the waterfront.  While he didn't make that much money, he seemed happy to be doing this...doing *something* of his own choice.  Everyone else seemed to mentally note that didn't talk about his mother anymore.  Meanwhile, Ivy dutifully followed in her mother's footsteps.  Hey, she got the summers off.  Not like she had anything better to do.

Mirielle inherited the family bakery, so she was only a ten-minute drive away, but she was inevitably busy.  Very, very busy.  Running a business and taking care of such a large family was something that kind of precluded taking a weekend off just to get drunk and talk with old friends (and "friends").  Besides...when she realized it was Finn calling her up, there was the hint of a knife's edge behind her sweet words.  Not gonna risk it.

Finn only found out who else would show up when he pulled into the parking lot of the meeting hall they rented out, a little old place closer to the outskirts of town that happened to be free that day.  The first and most obvious was the thickly-bearded man who was standing out by the doorstep.  Eric, toothpick *still* poking out from between his mass of facial hair, turned to see the suited form of Flannagan, and he sighed.  "You know, this wasn't supposed to be a formal occassion."

"It's comfortable, believe it or not," Finn said warmly, giving Coulson a measured smile somewhere between 'welcome' and '*smirk*'.  "You wear a suit like I do everyday, and it starts to feel odd when you're not wearing it."

Eric looked the man up and down again, before looking away.  Apparently, the porch's ceiling was a little more interesting.  There was a certain feeling in his gut regarding Finn, and it wasn't just the workplace prejudice.  He had that perfectly manicured look about him, in appearance and action, that nothing but the finest corporate suit would have.  The same kind of people that inevitably represented the engineering conglomerates that his little firm couldn't hope to outperform.  It wasn't just that, but he couldn't put his finger on it...

Finn stepped up across from him, and pulled out his phone long enough to swipe away at some errant notifications before he looked back up at Coulson.  "So, how's business?  I hear, about that third bridge they're building--"

"No.  That won't be us," Eric coldly replied, looking out to the highway and the quiet passing of cars.

There was a healthy period of time before Finn tried to break the ice again.  "You've got any idea who's said they're coming, Eric?  Anyone else already here?"

"Jacob and Ivy are already inside," he replied with a quick nod towards the door, "both got here about 10 minutes before I did.  Benjy's told me he's coming, at least.  Don't know about anyone else."

Another healthy pause.  Finn fiddled with his phone, and enough time passed for him to consider this conversation complete.  "Well, it's hot out here, Eric," he said, putting his phone in his pocket, "you know where our room is?"

"Down the hall, to the left."
----
Finn figured, going by just how musty this building was and how it was designed, that this must've been an old schoolhouse well before any of them attended.  Eric never said which door on the left, there were at least four, but he was able to narrow it down to the only room in the building with lights on.

If this was a schoolhouse, this room would've been the auditorium.  Old, still slightly smoke-colored walls from an earlier time, with intermittently polished wood floors told a story of a building that was well past the age of everyone attending, and just going by how sparse it was, it probably wouldn't be here for much longer.  Sitting somewhat forlornly in this hall was two long tables with about twenty chairs around it.  This was probably well overshooting how many would attend, but it never hurt to prepare for unforeseen consequences.

By the time Finn saw them, only one was sitting down.  Walking over to greet him was the only genuine smile that Finn would get today, and it belonged to Jacob Miller.  He honestly didn't look much like the strange kid he met back in High School.  Something that was a real surprise for everyone was how he was almost entirely balded by the time they had their first reunion, and now his hair was greying to match.  Jacob had put on some appreciable weight, too, but not an exorbitant amount.  More noticeable than anything were those laugh lines, something that Finn would never imagine Jacob of all people developing.

"Flannagan, how's it been!"  He walked up to him, and briefly motioned as if he was going to go for a backpat, but slickly reversed it into just an enthusiastic handshake.  "You haven't been here since the...what, the 10th?"

"15th," Finn replied, and this time he went for the firm pat.  Jacob shrinked a little at that unplanned touch, but he still seemed genuinely happy to see him.  "Glad to see you're doing okay."

"I believe I'm doing better than okay, but look at you, Finn.  You're making how much now?"

"...I'd rather not talk about my firm," he replied, going for another pat just to make sure he'd shut up.  "Let's just keep this about everyone else, for once."

"Fine, that's okay," Jacob pulled away from the handshake, not losing much enthusiasm, and motioned over to the other person in the hall.  "Ivy's been doing well.  I've gotten acquainted with her well enough...again."

There were only a few minor differences there.  Her hair had lost its shine, her glasses seemed a little stronger, and there were a few extra lines on her forehead, but Ivy was almost the same person they all met back then.  The biggest difference was how she had abandoned the winter-all-year stylings, and now how she spoke.  Clearly, and fully enunciated.  "Finn.  Happy to see you made it fine."
----
Others had made it in time, if relatively unannounced.  Finn had sent out invites to just about everyone he could get a hold of, though a number of them were met with outright "no, I'll be too busy" notices.  Some lived on the other coast now, and some lived out of country, so it made sense.

Benjy was probably the second-most successful of the Oldport Group.  Up in New York, where he had moved his family's practice after his mother had passed, had simply been consistently getting the patients it needed to make him rich.  Not exactly Finn-Rich and *certainly* not Benedict-Rich, though.  He aged gracefully, and still had a certain spark in his eyes from his youth.  Time was kind to him.

Melissa...not as much.  Ever since Daigo had passed, life hadn't been the same, and after a spiritual crisis of sorts she essentially devoted her life to helping out inner-city youth in Boston.  She was the one who singularly encapsulated the look of "mid-life crisis" in the group the most, and while she was certainly much more pleasant than the girl she was in her teens, nobody could really say that this was the same person in any way.

Hyeon appeared in a video call, briefly.  Busy, doin' fine, catch ya at the next one.  That's about what he always said when it came to these reunions.

Eric didn't seem that comfortable sitting down, so he spent a lot of his time there looking out the window as the rest had their smalltalk.  Occassionally he'd offer his own viewpoint, but his contribution was limited...until he saw a well-worn, but still running, van pull into the lot.  With the branding on the side advertising a little shop somewhere in downtown Oldport, it wasn't a surprise to see who stepped out of it.  He turned around, and with the most real enthusiasm he had all day, he announced "Guys, Miri and Simon are here!"

This prompted a rush from the group, as they all started to walk out the door and down the hallway.  Finn lagged behind a little, if only because he didn't feel like ruining this quaint little reunion by being there...but he could feel a pair of holes being bored into the back of his head.

He turned around.  Ivy was still sitting there, and she hadn't moved an inch.  "Finn...sit down."

Already he could hear the noise of Mirielle's bright voice down the hall from here, calling out names, saying niceties.  Ivy...he could listen to her for once.

"...Alright."  He took up a chair across from her, his back turned to the door.  "So...can't say I've heard a lot from you today."

"Everything's normal."

A pause.  Ivy was still staring at him.  The lovefest outside didn't seem to be stopping, so Finn brought out a topic he always knew was relevant to her.

"Hey, I didn't hear from Luna when I was sending out invites.  Is she doing alright?  Do you two still--"

"We...we don't.  Finn, I was hoping you'd...h-hoping, you would bring that up," Ivy said.  She finally started to look away from him, turning her head down to the table.  "I...had a question to ask."

"Well, shoot.  I don't think there's anything I wouldn't mind sharing at this point."

"Luna died two months ago."

There already was a certain gravity in the room, but even Finn could feel a pit in his stomach.

"...I'm very sorry to hear that," he politely, reservedly, answered.

"B-B...brain c-c-c-cancer," Ivy added.  Suddenly, the even tone and enunciation that Ivy had seemed to disappear.  "She d-didn't tell anyone outside of her f-family, a-and me...she didn't want to f-feel like anything was wrong.  You're the first person here to he--know..."

"I...I know she meant a lot to you, Ivy.  I really do."

"Yes.  Finn, that question.  W-Why..."  She looked up from the table, and now in the dim lights of the lamp above the table, Finn could see the tears streaming down her face.  "Why did you give up our powers?"

"That was 25 years ago," Finn firmly replied without a second thought, instantly dropping the kind exterior he had worked on.  "I've explained this so many times, now.  If we didn't think of all the damage that would've--"

"Th-th-think of all the things we could've done!"  Ivy slammed her hands on the table and stood up above Finn, suddenly angry...furious, even, in a way that he hadn't seen in decades.  "There's so many things we could've d-d-done with our powers!"

"I did it so we wouldn't *have* to make the decision of what to do with our powers.  I was already that close to royally screwing everyone back then just by myself, and I didn't want anyone else to have the option to make the same mistakes I did."

"R-Royally--Finn, just because YOU f-f-f-fffFUCKED UP, doesn't mean we would!"

"...You know what I could do.  I saw the future.  That was the only way I could see where people didn't die."

"You c-couldn't see THIS future?  People died here, and you didn't tell them!  It was okay when Daigo died of an overdose, who cares, but then when Jessica died in a c-c-car crash, and Luna...Luna dying in the most p-pathetic way..."

Ivy slowly started to sit back down, the fire in her voice disappating.  "We had so many ways to f-fix it.  M-M-Miri and...Ivan, and...you..."

"...M-me.  Me.  I could've...done *so many th-things*..."

Ivy, almost autonomously, pulled up her glasses to wipe away at her tears with the sleeve of her shirt.  In just a few seconds, she had gone from sobbing back to a complete baseline, almost as still as a rock.  She had that same dead stare pointed back at the table that he recognized from high school, one that he hadn't seen since then, but now instead of terrified, she just seemed...tired.

Soon, the rest of the reunion came back in, already laughing and enjoying themselves.  Apparently another major surprise had shown up since then, as Benedict was there with his perfectly manicured hair and perfectly old-wealthy ascot, which explained why it took that long for them to get back inside.  Jacob had quickly noticed that something had gone on between the two people already there, but he wouldn't comment.  Nobody commented, in fact.
----
A month later, and Finn had in his hands an envelope from some photography company he had never heard of.  Especially rare for him to receive snail-mail nowadays, so he was able to make the connection quick enough.  He had always asked for a physical copy of these kinds of things.

Up on the wall to the left of his office desk was essentially the dedicated photo wall.  All below his law degree and certification was the grand amassment of photos he had, in mostly chronological order, left to right.  Not a single one of them those digital frames that had usurped physical ones recently, which made sense.  Photography was Amy's passion, and you could tell if only because she had taken a majority of these pictures.

Along the top was the yardstick he used to measure himself in a certain way.  All of the reunion photos, from oldest to newest, lined up and doing a great job at showing how he aged.  There were less and less people to mirror the progression of time as well, even if most of them hadn't departed in the truest sense.  Most just wanted to move on.

In the photo that Finn held in his hands, he noticed one thing immediately.  Ivy wasn't in it.  If she had left the room that night, only now was Finn noticing.  Unfortunately, for a man who enjoyed recording his memories into photographs, Ivy wouldn't show up for another reunion photo ever again.