Author's Note: Yeah, I wrote this quickly in an hour. I was listening to Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine while I wrote it. I wish I could just give my plot bunnies to an actual writer who took the time to write, but I'm a bit of a control freak.
Mike lay in the dust grasping his side. Looking down he could see the blood flowing down into the sand from the bullet wound in his side. He had failed and this was the end. There was no backup coming. No way he could reach safety. This was it.
Through the pain Mike tried to focus. An eerie sense of acceptance fell over him. He was going to die. He was going to die and Sid was going to get away. He'd descended so far into hell since he'd come back to Graceland. Graceland. The land of Grace. He thought grimly.
He thought it would all be worth it once he caught Solano. Saved Lina. Ended Sid. Won Paige's heart. None of that was going to happen now. There was no more time.
Mike figured he only had a little while left. A few minutes of life. An hour at most. He could sit and play over in his mind where it all went wrong. He could dwell on every little detail. What he might have done differently. He could torture himself that way, and he probably deserved it. To lie here drowning in blood and memories.
He could still try to think of a way to escape this fate. To rally. To do a little good in the time left. But he knew that was hopeless. This was the end and there was only one thing he wanted to do with the time he had left on earth.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. Every movement hurts, but he grits his teeth through the pain because this is important. With shaking fingers he dials, leaving blood smeared prints across the keypad.
The voice on the other end of the phone doesn't even say hello. She sounds worried and panicked, and Mike's brain is struggling to stay conscious, let alone keep up with her frantic words.
"Mike? Mike? What's going on? Where are you? I can't get a hold of anyone! Charlie, Briggs, Johnny… No one is picking up their phones! What is going on? Has Briggs made the arrest yet? Is Amber in custody? Where are Johnny and Jakes?" Paige's voice demands over the line before he can even get a word in.
Mike squeezed his eyes shut, unable to answer her, as she inadvertently lists all the ways he'd failed. He tried to ignore the pain her words sent through his heart and just focus on her voice. She was alive. She was safe. She was the one thing Mike didn't regret.
"Paige." Mike can only whisper her name. His voice cracks. God he doesn't want her last memories of him to be of him crying.
"Mike?" Paige hears how weak Mike's voice sounds and she gets an inexplicable feeling of dread in her stomach. She suddenly knows something is very, very wrong. "Mike what's wrong? Are you ok?"
"I just… I just had to tell you, and I'm sure you already know, I just… I need you to hear it. From me." Mike's voice is shaking and dammit he didn't want to cry.
Lina… Paige thinks to herself. For all these months she's wanted him to tell her he burned Lina's body, the way she needed to hear him confess, she suddenly doesn't want him to. Even though she knows Lina's gone and Mike lied, she suddenly wants his lies more than the truth.
"Mike. Don't do this. Don't say it." Paige has a sudden feeling of panic. She wants Mike to stop talking. She doesn't know what's going on, but she knows in her gut her world is about to plunge into darkness.
"I have to… I need you to know… Dammit… Didn't want to tell you this way..." Mike's breathing is labored and his words are slurred. He closes his eyes tight, one hand pressed to his wound the other holding his phone tightly, "Paige, I love you."
"Mike, where are you? What's wrong?" Paige needs to find him. Something is wrong, and she's feeling helpless. He wouldn't do this unless… no. It can't be that. Mike Warren is not allowed to die.
"Shhh… It's done. Sid. He got away… Paige, I'm so sorry. I let you down. I never wanted- Paige, I know you must hate me after what I've done, but I need you to do something for me."
"No. It's not done. Stop it. Mike, just tell me where you are!" Paige begs him through the phone.
"I need you to lie to me." Mike gasps, his words coming slow and sluggishly, as if life is draining from his body with the blood. "You're so good Paige. I always believe everything you say. Tell me everything's going to be alright. Tell me I'm one of the good guys, and the good guys always win. Tell me… Tell me you love me too. I want it to be the last thing I hear before I die. Even if I don't deserve it. Even if it's a lie. Please. Paige."
There is a moment of silence over the phone that stretches across the country between them.
"No." Paige says firmly. Mike bites his lip in a pain greater than anything a bullet could cause, as he hears the line go dead and falls over to his side, bleeding onto the sand. Willing death to come claim him faster.