Title: The End of Everything
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Mike Keppler
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1drabble
Prompt: 39, Death
Author's Note: Character death.
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Mike Keppler, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. He refused to believe it.

Greg stood there in the locker room, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps, his mind whirling. He couldn't believe what he'd been told. He didn't want to.

Mike couldn't be dead. The man he loved couldn't be gone, without them ever seeing each other again. He couldn't be lying on a cold hotel room floor after killing someone who had now been proven to be a corrupt cop, someone who had been blackmailing Mike for years.

He couldn't be gone. He couldn't have left Greg alone, taking all the light and joy and happiness from his life. None of this was true. It couldn't be.

It had to be a bad dream. It couldn't be real.

Greg slid down to the floor, burying his face in his shaking hands. His legs would no longer hold him up; he couldn't stay on his feet any longer.

He was trying his best not to scream, not to cry out in despair and anguish. As much as he didn't want to believe what he knew in his heart was true, he could feel that Mike was gone. That presence in his heart was no longer there; it had vanished like a candle being snuffed out.

Mike was gone, lost to him. His love had disappeared from his life, and they would never get married and have the future spread out before them. They would never share a life.

Everything that he had wanted, everything that he had so looked forward to, was gone in the blink of an eye almost as though it had never been.

He had truly believed that nothing could tear the two of them apart -- but he hadn't counted on death taking Mike away from him. He had somehow thought that the two of them would sidestep around that; he hadn't counted on Mike's job being so dangerous that he could die.

It didn't seem real. It still felt as though he was living in a dream world, that the words he'd heard telling him that Mike was gone were a lie, a horrible mistake.

But they weren't. Death had turned his life to ashes.

No one knew what Mike had meant to him. Their engagement wasn't public knowledge yet. But it would be, in the hours to come. He would have to tell people.

But for now, he didn't want to tell anyone anything. He simply wanted to sit here, let the tears flow, and grieve for the man he had loved more than life itself. He just wanted to let this be the end of everything, to forget about going on without Mike, and to be with him again.

Death was swift and merciless, attacking when it was least expected. He'd always known that. But he hadn't thought he would have to deal with it.

And he didn't know how -- of even if -- he was going to make it through.

***