I try to tell her.....God, I want to, I try to move my mouth a little. Jusy enough to get the words out but nothing happens. My body doesn’t listen, mt lips barely twitch, my body is giving up on me and It’s so frustrating, it pisses me off but I don’t have the strength to fight it...Not now my chest feels tight, even breathing feels like work, everythin feels like work.

And then.....i slip again.

....

The next time I come to, it’s louder, not really clear but louder.

There are voices..lots of voices and Movement nd rhe world feels like it’s shifting around me.

I force my eyes open again, slower this time, it takes effort. A lot of it.

The ceiling above me is different, brighter..

That’s when it clicks, I’m in an ambulance.

I’m in an ambulance.

There’s movement around me, hands, pressure and Voices talking over each other.

But the one voice I pick out immediately....is

Hers. Elaine.

She’s arguing....even through the haze, I can hear the edge in her voice. The stubbornness. The refusal.

"She’s not letting them take me alone," my mind supplies, slow but certain. A small smile pulls at my lips. It hurts, but it’s there.

Yeah. That’s my girl

There’s a shift, more movement then suddenly.....She’s there again, muc closer this time. Her hand wrapping around mine, tight, like she’s afraid I’ll disappear if she loosens her grip.

Her skin is warm and familiar. It cuts through the fog more than anything else has. I want to squeeze back.

I try but I don’t know if I do as werything feels distant again.

But then....Her voice changes, it’s softer and quiete and the words she says, they hit me even through all of this.

"I love you..."

For a second, everything else fades. The pain, the noise, the drifting... all of it.

I’ve waited for that, longer than I should admit, longer than I even realized. A weak breath leaves me, something close to a laugh trapped somewhere in my chest.

"Finally," I think, barely holding onto the thought. "Took you long enough..."

I want to say it back. God I really, I want to but the darkness is pulling again, stronger this time and I’m too tired to fight it so I let go for a second, just to rest and everything fades out again.

Elaine’s POV

The ambulance doors burst open before the vehicle even fully stops. Everything happens too fast after tht as the sharp smell of antiseptic hitt me the second the doors swing open.

"Move, move!"

"He’s crashing!"

"Get trauma ready now!"

My entire body jerks at those words...he’s crashig...No.No no no.....i stumble out after them immediately, my legs shaky from adrenaline and exhaustion and fear, but I force myself to keep moving as Zane is wheeled through the hospital doors so quickly I almost lose sight of him.

And God. He looks bad, Veey bad. His skin is terrifyingly pale now, almost gray beneath the harsh hospital lights. There’s blood everywhere. On the stretcher, on the paramedics and on me.

His eyes are closed, too still.

One of the machines beside him lets out rapid beeping sounds that make my heart nearly stop every single time.

"Zane!" I call out desperately, trying to keep up with them.

One of the nurses stops me immediately.

"Ma’am, you can’t come in there."

"No, please, I’m his wife...."

"I need you to stay back."

"But he needs me!"

My voice cracks so badly it barely sounds human anymore but no one listens, they just keep moving.

Doctors swarm him the second they reach the emergency room doors, voices overlapping in rushed medical language I can barely understand. Then the doors slam shut in my face and just like that....He’s gone. The silence afterward feels unbearable.

I stand there frozen, staring at the closed doors like if I look hard enough they’ll open again, like maybe this isn’t real, like maybe I’ll wake up and I’ll still be in bed with him after the hot sex we just had.

But then more movement erupts behind me, on another stretcher is Margaret.

"Oh God..."

She looks so small, Smaller than I’ve ever seen her. Oxygen is strapped over her face now, blood still staining the blankets beneath her as doctors rush her past me too.

Her eyes are closed, I don’t know if she’s conscious and I don’t know if she can hear me

"Margaret..."

My voice breaks all over again as I take one shaky step toward her, but they’re already pushing her through another set of doors.

Another operating room, another pair of doors shutting in my face and suddenly....I’m alone, comompletely alone.

The people I love are behind those doors, bleeding and broken and I can’t do anything. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

My knees almost give out beneath me br I wrap my arms around myself tightly, like maybe I can physically hold myself together if I try hard enough.

The hospital hallway feels freezing now with too much bright light.

Doctors and nurses rush past me constantly, but somehow I feel completely invisible standing there covered in blood that isn’t mine. My hands are still stained red, with Zane’s blood or Margaret’s I don’t know...definitely both though, it’s drying against my skin. I stare at it and suddenly I can’t breathe properly anymore. What if he dies? The thought comes so suddenly and violently that it physically hurts. What if those were the last words he ever hears from me? What if I was too late? What if.....

"Elaine."

I barely register the voice befor stronger arms wrap around me....i breathe in the scent and.....Noah.

The second he pulls me against his chest, something inside me finally snaps. All the fear, the the panic. All the strength I’ve been forcing myself to hold onto since the shooting....Gone.

I break.... A sob rips out of me so hard it actually hurts my chest.