Author’s Notes: This is a deleted scene from my epic. I’m actually doing the wrong thing and posting this before the chapter in which it would have been in was completely written and posted. I kind of work like that. I’ve written a lot more than what I’ve posted and it’s all just pieces of a puzzle I’m trying to put together.

It’s just been a while since I posted something related to this story that I wanted to refresh the collective memory. It’s vague enough so that there aren’t any major spoilers. The only thing here that could be considered a spoiler is more of a foregone conclusion, IMHO.

As some of you may know, I’m a big SIX FEET UNDER fan. And for this story in particular, I actually took more cues from that series than FIREFLY in developing a more personal and emotional story, as opposed to your typical fan-fic. And one thing that I toyed with is including this scene in the story that a direct homage/rip-off of SIX. This scene takes place after the funeral and it focuses on Gabriel, who’s the last to leave the gravesite. As he’s by himself, he talks to Regan about the funeral and all that’s happened. Anyone whose seen SIX knows that when a character talks to a dead person on the show, he or she isn’t talking to the actual ghost of the deceased, but to a representation of an aspect of their sub-conscious, which is why Regan here is vastly different from the rest of the story.

just to be clear, this is NOT Regan he's talking too. This is all his doubts and insecurities and fears rearing their ugly head in an attempt to push him over the edge.

This isn’t officially part of the story. But I just had to get it out of me. If you don’t want to read this until the correlating chapter is posted, then look away. If not, enjoy.

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Gabriel was kneeling on his wife’s grave. After when everyone left to go back to the various modes of transport, the caretakers of the cemetery came in and filled in the grave and lain in fresh grass that blended in perfectly with t