Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing!
I know, another one, but I wanted to get as much done as possible before going back to uni on sunday, so just had to post. Besides, is it just me, or is FF being a pain?
You can completely blame Sam1 for this, they made me! Well, not really, they encouraged me! Thank you for all your help and advice with this though, on a serious note, it has been very helpful! Couldn't have done it without you! And for warning me to put a tissue warning on this, so here it is!
Once again, thank you to Silver Bee for being a star and reading over this for me!
One line.
That was all I could see, staring at it as if the rest of the world had vanished. Just me and this line left. Burnt into my mind's eye. The line that said so much, yet so little.
You had always been crossing lines your whole life. Your first steps, your first bid at freedom as you walked unaided from one room to the next, the look of delight on your face as you realised you had crossed the line. You almost sunk back over it once, but against all expectations, you crossed it again, determined that one mere line was not going to hold you back.
Your first word. The word that later came to define you so much more than anything else could do. Your whole existence was summed up in that one word. It was who you were, who you are. Who would have thought when those two syllables came out of your mouth, surprising everyone, quite what that word would mean to you.
That word that went on to make you a winner. You had always been a winner in our eyes, but this was for the whole world to see. The word that became a dream, the dream that became a reality. How many people could cross the line between dreams and real life, and yet you did it. No line was going to stand in your way once you had decided that you were going to cross it. This was no exception.
You crossed the line with the first person you saved. I'll never forget the look on your face as you emerged, the child clutched in your hands, crying out for her mother. The child that, had nature had its way, would have been left the way nature once tried to leave you. But even then you were crossing lines, defying odds. You should have died that day; we heard what the doctors were saying. You had crossed the line, you weren't coming back.
Yet you did. As a family we pulled you back. It wasn't the first time one of us had overstepped it, though. We were always there for each other, waiting, just waiting to be the one to step forward. Stepping up to the line ourselves in order to pull another back. For that line was too dark for one to cross alone, we needed each other. We pulled you back then, we were so sure we would be able to pull you back again.
But this time, you had gone on alone. Crossed the line between duty and recklessness, something we had all done on more than one occasion. And staring at this line now, I knew, we all knew, why that line shouldn't be crossed.
The line was all I could see when I shut my eyes, all I could think about. For the line you had crossed over this time was the one line that we knew we weren't going to be able to get you back from.
What line was it I could not escape from?
The flat line.
The line that had been drawn under your life.