Summary: The world was ending - Jesse didn't care at all. He had seen empires fall and wars end - what difference was the world? (One-shot)

Disclaimer: Based on Tuck Everlasting movie, I guess, because includes that lovely quote from it. Therefore, I don't own it.

A/N: So, apparently my lj is like a gold mine because this isn't half bad and was written in 2005 – hella young. FIFTEEN! WOW.

This Pledge

The world was ending - Jesse didn't care at all. He had seen empires fall and wars end - what difference was the world? The rest of the planet was panicking; hysterical screams filled his ears, fires burned, and explosions went off. The city was thrown into chaos, and no one noticed the eerily calm boy standing on the corner of the street.

He had gotten a call from Tuck earlier, and Mae. They exchanged, "it's time" and declarations of love, things common during a crisis as great as this one, except their voices weren't urgent or scared, they spoke with the same pace they always did. The Tucks found after several centuries of stopped time, fear had been drained out of them. Anticipation was all they had left for death.

Is it the end? Yes, please.

None of the Tucks voiced this aloud, but their very bones rang with it.

When they made the announcement that the world was ending, Jesse didn't make his way towards his parents like his brother had done, rather he found himself making his way to Tree Gap.

He hadn't headed to Winnie's grave just yet; he had to prove to himself that he hadn't needed her, that he hadn't loved her. That he didn't need to see her grave before the end - even if the Tucks didn't know whether or not they'd die if their bodies were completely obliterated.

But Jesse Tuck was an honest man, and lying something so great and important that had shaped him for the rest of his life hurt him.

He was in love with Winnie Foster still. He carried her portrait in his heart and her smile in his eyes. Jesse Tuck could never get rid of her.

He found himself making the long trek to her gravesite (finally). He ignored the burning trees and sounds of bombs erupting in the distance.

He drank in the sight of it - the tall foreboding monument which always seemed improper for a girl with such a happy nature - she never wanted anything associated with her to be foreboding. He didn't speak a word, didn't spout words of love - what good would they do? She was dead. He was not. He hoped he would be soon.

He had been raised to believe in a god, and a heaven. His immortality had led him to disregard it. But now? He hoped that there was a heaven, if he were to die today, because if there were, surely he'd meet Winnie Foster there. And that alone could make him happily wait as the world ended.

He sprawled across the ground, where he knew, six feet under, lay a coffin with a decaying body. He watched the sky, barely blinking when he saw another missile launched. One headed towards Tree Gap.

He heard Winnie's laughter in the breeze, and then there was nothing.

"Winnie Foster, I will love you till the day I die."