Aftermath of the Last Kiss

The years continued to pass, and before he knew it, Legacy was ten years old. She was growing up to be just as beautiful as his beloved Ashes, whom he’d never forgotten, maybe more so since she had his beautiful blue eyes. Even though she should’ve only been in fifth grade, she was in seventh grade because she’d been able to skip a couple more grades because she was so advanced. She was definitely making him proud, and she was sure that wherever his husband had gone after Death, he was watching over and proud of her, too.

Every year since Jon had called about a reunion show on Ash’s birthday as a memorial of him, as well as a tribute to the man and musician he was, they’d held a show on his birthday. As she aged, their daughter joined Andy and the guys on stage, expertly singing her mama’s harmony line as he’d once done with them and hitting every note perfectly. She was quite the musical child, even without his influence, and was already playing guitar as well as her Uncles Jake and Jinxx. Like her parents, she’d taken an interest in bass, and was still working on being able to play that as well as them, but she was pretty good for her age.

Still, he worried about her constantly. Even though the loss of his husband became easier to live with every year that passed, Andy still feared something would happen to her. That fear was confirmed one day when she was nine years old and she was forced to have a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich at school because she’d forgotten her lunch money and that was the only thing they’d give her.

“Hello?” he asked, his phone on speaker as he tried to coordinate the now-annual tribute show for Ash’s birthday.

“Is this Mr. Andrew Biersack?” the caller countered.

“Andy, if you don’t mind,” he answered, now on alert.

“This is the principal at Alfred Bernhard Noble Middle School, Clarissa Shephard.” He’d realized the person was a woman already, but it was nice to know who it was. “You need to get to the school immediately.”

“What’s wrong?” Terror and concern laced his voice, but he didn’t care.

“Your daughter, Legacy, apparently has an allergy to nuts. She was given a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich for lunch because she forgot her lunch money. All the symptoms she’s having point to a nut allergy, and she’s being taken to the hospital by ambulance.”

“Oh, my Godsmack!” Andy jumped up from his chair, uncaring of the Skype call he’d been in the middle of with Jon and the guys. “I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”

They ended their call and he spoke loudly as he ran around his office, telling the guys what was going on. Of course, they all decided to meet him at the hospital, concerned for the girl they considered their niece as much as he was. He thanked them for their support and ran out the door, knowing the call would be ended on his computer after Jinxx, who’d started it, ended it on his.

It didn’t take long for him to reach the middle school his daughter attended, as it was only a block or so away from their house, but he was terrified. She’d never eaten peanut butter or anything with nuts in it, and without a nut allergy of his own, he hadn’t thought to have her tested for one. Andy was absolutely terrified that he was about to lose the only thing that meant as much, maybe more, than his deceased husband, uncaring of the stoplights he ran in his rush to be by her side. He prayed to every deity out there that she’d survive, even praying that his beloved Outlaw could step in and help from wherever his spirit had gone.



Watching his daughter fight to draw a breath was one of the most terrifying things he’d ever done, and yet Ash was having to do so once again. Instead of someone attempting to suffocate her this time, though, she was slowly suffocating due to an allergy to nuts that she’d inherited from him that no one knew about. As her guardian angel, he couldn’t let anything happen to her, especially after he was so tragically ripped away from his love all those years ago, and vowed to do everything he could to help her.

He stayed by her side, although he didn’t alert her to his presence so people wouldn’t think she was crazy, until his husband arrived. Somehow, despite God screaming in his mind that it was her time to go, he managed to use his angelic powers to force the Epi-pen the school nurse had injected her with to work better and faster than anyone would’ve thought. He didn’t care if he was truly labeled as a fallen angel now for disobeying the Top Dog of Heaven; he couldn’t let Andy lose the only thing keeping him sane and going, not after he’d lost the love of his life the way he had.

Just as the man in question screeched to a stop in front of the school, the paramedics were wheeling his daughter out to the ambulance waiting out front. They told him where she was being taken, allowing him to speak to her before they loaded her up, and away they went. Ash still held his breath, a breath he no longer needed, as he waited to see if his stepping in would really help her.

“Ashley Abrocket Purdy,” God’s booming voice echoed in his mind. “I want to see you, front and center, immediately!”

Doing as told this time, he kept part of his attention on his daughter, but still appeared before the aging deity. “Biersack,” he corrected testily. He didn’t care that God hated him for being gay, but he wasn’t going to allow Him to address him by a name he hadn’t borne in years.

“You defied my orders!” He yelled, clearly enraged.

“You think after you stole me away from Andy the way you did that I was going to let you take Legacy from him, too?” Ash countered, seeing red. “Not on your holy life!”

“It was her time to go, as you well know!”

“No, it wasn’t! You were being unfair…AGAIN!” He’d never raised his voice to God in all the years since he’d died, usually choosing to lay low and do as told, but he wasn’t about to stand for this.

“You are not to question my authority, Mr. Purdy!” God thundered.

“For the love of… It’s BIERSACK! As many years as I’ve been here, you’d think you’d remember it by now!” His eyes flashed an unholy red.

“You are hereby sentenced to life as a fallen angel!” the deity thundered. “If your wings weren’t already black because of your personality, they certainly would be now!”

“Good, because I was a fallen angel in life! Aside from purple, black is my favorite color, so I wear my wings with pride!” Ash snapped. Without waiting for a proper dismissal, he disappeared from the tyrannical deity’s presence, finding himself in his daughter’s hospital room.

Legacy had been stabilized, her stomach pumped of her lunch so she wouldn’t digest any more of the toxin than she already had. She now lay in a bed covered in cheap white sheets, a matching blanket covering her tiny form, sleeping as peacefully as possible. She was wheezing a bit, as if she’d had an asthma attack, but was doing far better than she had been just a short while ago.

Ash sat down by her bed, gently covering her tiny hand with his. Even though he’d been dead for the last eight years, he’d watched her grow into a beautiful young girl, knowing that she was the only thing that kept her daddy together, and couldn’t let God take her from him. Tears welled up in his eyes as he watched her, sensing his husband’s presence outside the door as he told Jake, Jinxx, CC, and their families what’d happened to his baby girl. He knew none of them would see him, although he suspected Jake’s daughters, Katie and Jenni, and Jinxx’s son, Logan, might be able to. Still, he wasn’t allowing that to stop him from being by his own daughter’s side as she recovered from this ordeal.

“M-Mama?” she stuttered softly, her eyes fluttering open.

“It’s me, sugar,” he answered, nodding. “But call me Ash right now. Your daddy still thinks I’m your imaginary friend, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s right.” Legacy’s beautiful blue eyes, the same ones Andy had, were a bit glazed over. “Were you at the school with me when I couldn’t breathe?”

“I was, sugar. I’m the one that made the Epi-pen work better and faster than it normally would,” the bassist answered, nodding. “God was trying to turn you into an angel, too, but I wouldn’t let him. Your daddy needs you as much as you need him.”

“Really?” Her eyes brightened and glittered with anger. “He’s such a tyrannical, hypocritical deity!”

“That’s pretty much what I told him.” Ash felt his eyes glow red again.

“Ash! Your eyes are red!” she gasped.

“Sorry, sugar; I can’t help it. Thinking of how He tried to take you away like He did me…it pisses me off.”

“It’s okay, Ash. Thank you for saving me…again.”

“Legacy, you’re my baby, my pride and joy. I may not be there with you like your daddy is anymore, but I’ll be damned if I let such a hypocrite take you away from him.” He smirked at her. “Actually, I guess I kinda am now.”

“What do you mean?” Legacy asked curiously.

“Well, you remember how I said I was an angel, even though my wings have always been black, right?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, God turned my status into that of a fallen angel for saving you. That’s almost as bad as damning me to the Pits of Hell to live as a demon for eternity.”

“What? You shouldn’t have let Him do that!”

“There was nothing I could do, sugar. I was already in enough trouble for saving you, as well as mouthing off to Him when he kept calling me by the wrong surname.” He grumbled under his breath. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been proud that I was born a Purdy, but I gave up that surname the day I married your daddy. My surname is Biersack now, and has been for longer than you’ve been alive.”

“It is?” she asked.

“Mmm hmm. I dropped my ‘maiden’ name and became Ashley Abrocket Biersack the day your daddy and I got married almost a year before you were born.” Ash nodded.

At that moment, the door to Legacy’s hospital room opened and in walked her daddy, the love of his life, followed closely by their friends and their families. Having used up quite a bit of his energy reserves saving her life and not wanting to be seen by anyone else, he kissed her forehead as he rose. His baby looked like she was going to cry because he was leaving, but he promised her he’d be back. When he told her that he was getting tired and needed to go replenish his energy reserves again, she nodded understandingly, but still looked like she was about to cry.

He closed his eyes and imagined the corner of his and Andy’s studio that’d given him energy whenever he needed it ever since his passing. When he opened them again, he was right where he usually hid out when he wasn’t spending time with his daughter or trying to communicate with his Batman. He sensed that Jinxx and CC had seen him by the little girl’s bedside, but knew they wouldn’t say anything.

The rest he got as he hovered in the corner nearest the ceiling diagonally across from Andy’s desk was just what the doctor ordered…for him, at least. He felt his energy reserves restocking themselves, which would give him plenty of energy to go visit his daughter again that night, so long as his beloved husband was asleep. He’d known for years that he couldn’t see, hear, or communicate with him, so he no longer even bothered trying. Only Legacy, and now Jinxx and CC, knew of his presence.

A couple hours after he’d arrived back at his recharging spot of choice, he heard a key in the lock of the front door. Since their daughter was in the hospital, he doubted it was Andy, knowing he’d probably chosen to stay by her side since he definitely feared for her life now. All of their ex-bandmates, the men who were still his lover’s friends, had keys to their house, just as they had since they told them they’d moved into it. He knew it was probably one of the guys, sent to grab an overnight bag for the two he loved most, and continued keeping himself scarce as he recharged himself. He could tell by the extremely light, almost silent, tread that it was Jinxx, and sighed softly.

“Ash?” he heard the multi-instrumentalist call out. “I know you’re here. Andy may not, but I do.”

He waited quietly, trying to decide if he should reveal himself.

“I’m pretty sure you had a hand in saving Legacy—again—and I just wanted to thank you,” Jinxx told him, walking into the office. “You have to know how much she means to Andy, how he needs her as bad as she needs him, and that it would be his end if she were to die, too.”

“I do.” The bassist materialized behind his friend, startling him.

“I knew you were still hanging around here!” he cried, smiling at him.

“I couldn’t bring myself to cross over after I died because of what happened.” He shrugged. “Besides, I wanted to be able to reassure Andy. He seems to think he’s hallucinating every time I try to make my presence known, though.”

“Well, you know how Andy is,” Jinxx soothed him. “Does Legacy know you’re here?”

“Mmm hmm. She’s been aware of my presence since the night after I died.” Ash nodded. “She couldn’t talk to me till she was two or three, but she’s known.”

“Well, at least you can talk to her—and now me,” he chuckled. “I’m pretty sure Chuppy saw you at the hospital, too.”

“So am I,” he agreed. “I left because I needed to recharge. For some reason, that particular corner has given me the most energy besides being in Andy’s arms ever since I died.” He pointed to where he meant.

“Probably because it’s in a place where you can keep an eye on him, and it’s because it’s around musical instruments, particularly your basses.” The multi-instrumentalist looked thoughtful. “That could be why it’s like a phone charger to you.”

“Could be. Anyway, between needing to recharge and not wanting to be around Andy if he didn’t know I was there, I thought it best to leave.”

“Are you going to try telling him you’re still here again?”

“Once he tells Legacy the story of how we met, what kinda man I was, and how I died.” Ash’s eyes darkened and tears welled up. “I don’t think I’ll ever get through to him before he does that.”

“We all miss you.” Jinxx moved to wrap his arms around him, surprised that he actually could. “At least now, though, I can talk to you from beyond your grave.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s a good thing.” He returned the hug, then stepped back and wiped his eyes. “I know you were sent here for overnight bags. Go on and get them before he thinks you died, too, or something. I’ll be here, recharging myself, if you wanna come back by and talk again later.”

“Unfortunately, I have to get back home to my son. He’s with me, not Sammi, this week.”

“I understand. Put your baby first and foremost. Let him know you love him and protect him with your life, like I did for Legacy, if it comes right down to it.”

“You know I will, Ash. It was great seeing you again.”

“I still love ya like a brother, Jinxx. See ya.”

“Same here, bro. See ya ’round.”

Ash grinned at his friend, his eyes twinkling with mirth again, as he dematerialized and went back to his corner to continue recharging. Jinxx’s eyes followed his spirit to where it always rested when it needed recharging, his smile never wavering as he left the room to get the overnight bags he’d been sent here for. Sure, there was a bit of sadness left in his eyes, but at least he had a bit of closure now.

Notes