Disclaimer: All recognisable stuff belongs to Stephenie. I just like hurting her characters. Original plot is mine.

Thanks: To tjbaby, venis-envy, VanPireNZ, and kuroiBlackNightingale. Couldn't do it without you girls. ILYSFM.

A/N: Tissue and slash warnings. This is 18+ girls and boys. If you're not old enough to drink (in New Zealand :p ), you shouldn't be reading this stuff.

The headstone was new. Under his name, and the dates of his birth and death, were the words:

Beloved son, brother, lover and friend.

Taken from us suddenly and tragically aged 22 years.

"I'll always be with you."

The last time I'd stood in this spot, it had rained. Now the sun shone down cheerfully, and it seemed appropriate somehow. As I looked out over the park-like grounds, I thought of Alec falling on his butt in the grass; laughing, cursing, being himself. We watched that video a lot, Seth and I. I slipped my hand into the hand of the man who stood beside me, and leaned into his comforting presence.

Alec had been dead over a year now, and I hadn't been back to London since I'd cleaned out our flat. Seth and I were both on summer vacation. I'd promised Alec I'd come back every year, and this was the first. Seth wanted to come with me, and I wanted him here and it made sense. Even though they'd never met, Alec was a part of both of our lives. We talked about him everyday, and I felt sure that if he'd known him, Alec would have loved Seth as much as I did.

It seemed a strange sort of thing to other people sometimes, that I should have pictures in my apartment of Alec and I together right beside the ones of Seth and I. But it was normal for us. So far the third person in our relationship had not caused any problems. Only time would tell what the future would hold for us. I hoped that if any problems ever arose, we could deal with them.

I, for one, could never believe my luck. I'd managed to find not one, but two people who loved me completely, who were right for me, though in very different ways.

Alec's family loved Seth, and for that, I was thankful. Of course they'd known I had a new boyfriend, and they'd known that I was bringing him with me, but I think they had been surprised at how happy he had been to hear their stories about Alec, and especially the ones about he and I while we'd been together.

Seth, himself, was particularly affected by Jane. I'd teared up when I saw her again, I think her uncanny resemblance to her brother always would affect me in that way. But Seth seemed to be simply fascinated by her. He would touch her all the time; her skin, her hair, and just sit and watch her as she spoke or moved. "She's not like him, is she?" he'd asked me. They had looked so similar, but she was subdued and quiet where Alec was larger than life. Like two equal yet opposite halves of a whole.

He was unique, and would never ever be replaced, by any of those who loved him. His parents had lost their only son, Jane her brother, her balance, and I had lost my lover, the man I was supposed to grow old with. None of us would ever be the same again.

It was three years to the day that Alec and I had met. "Happy anniversary, love," I whispered. Seth squeezed my hand. By an ironic twist of fate, it was also exactly a year since I'd surrendered to my need to have him in my life.

He wasn't a replacement or a substitute. He was so different to Alec in every way. And it may have taken me a little time to accept it, but I loved Seth. I needed him, and now I was going to grow old with him.

However, if anyone had ever said 'it was meant to be', I could not have agreed with them. I would not be with Seth if Alec had not died. If I was offered the chance to go back, and change that one fateful night, I would change it in a heartbeat, just to have Alec live.

~oOo~

"Oh come on, love, just a couple of pints."

I lifted one eyebrow at Alec and he grinned hopefully. I shook my head. "I've worked five nights this week, this is my first night off, I've only just come from the pub, I'm tired and I just want to sit here on my ass and read. You go. Have one for me, and if you come home at a decent hour I'll make it worth your while." I looked back down at my book.

"Yeah? Alright then, love, I'll be home early. You'd better be naked." He winked at me, but I pretended not to see it, hiding my smile behind my book.

He pressed play on the stereo, turning the volume up high and I rolled my eyes. "Trying to read here, baby," I reminded.

He poked out his tongue and then slipped his old jacket off his shoulders and slung it towards me to land on the back of the couch I was stretched out on. He pulled on a black fitted wool coat that ended just below his ass. Since I couldn't read, I had been enjoying the view, and I pouted. He saw it, and licked his lower lip suggestively. "You keep doing that, and I won't let you leave," I warned.

He walked over to the couch and took the book off me, placing it face down on the coffee table. Then he swung one leg over me and straddled my hips, rocking against me as he came down for a kiss.

When he pulled away, he slid his hand between us to rub against me through my jeans. "Save this for me, yeah?"

"Only you, baby. I love you."

"Love you too, Edward." He gazed down at me with so much love in his eyes that I couldn't help thinking, as I always did, how I ever got so lucky as to have met him. What were the chances of finding the one person who was meant for you in the whole world?

I'd had to come half way across the planet to find the love of my life.

A/N: The end. I hope you're not disappointed at the length of this final chapter, but I'd said everything I needed to say, and I'm not one for adding words just for the hell of it. Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me this long, everyone who has reviewed every chapter, and even if you haven't, thanks for reading, alerting, and faveing Say Something Else. Don't forget to author alert me so you don't miss the outtakes I have planned, and the likely sequel.

One of those outtakes will be in the Fics for Nashville compilation. Seth POV. So make your donation so you can get hold of it, and a ton of other great fics! I'm also putting a couple of other things in, a dark Jakeward AU one-shot, and the first part of a E/J AH multi-shot.

I have a blog post planned, a kind of summation of Say Something Else if you will, so check out my blog a few days after this chapter has been posted. Link is on my profile.

And, pretty please, review ;) I'm hoping to make the big 400. Le Sigh. I'm a h00r. And we come full circle ;)