Title: Heartbeat

Author: dayglo

Author's Notes: Post-ep for "Pay Up", so massive spoilers. Feedback always welcome.

One Heartbeat

Shattered glass, a thousand tiny pin pricks in her face, her hands, her side.

She feels a bullet ruffle her hair as flowing curls follow her to the ground and hopes it has not found another body, another friend.

Her hair falls around her, catching up at last, as the world rains glass.

Two Heartbeats

Shattered glass, unheard by a shattered soul.

Falling, falling, falling.

Screams and curses and glass, over and over again.

He wonders if this was what it was like for Jess, in her end.

He wonders if this is his.

Three Heartbeats

Shattered glass, flinch, cringe, cover head, duck down low.

Growing up with a bully has made his reflexes lightening quick, he hits the floor before the others, watches as they fall around him.

Stay still, stay quiet, stay covered.

Stay alive.

Four Heartbeats

Shattered glass, one chance.

He grabs her on his way down, protecting her as best he can from the glass flying at their backs.

Broken, fragmented thoughts of a little girl with her mother's eyes and her father's smile.

All his dreams for their future rain down with the glass upon them.

Five Heartbeats

Shattered glass, shots ring out, screams reverberate through the air.

Not again, not again. But yes, the same again. Another time, another place.

This time, she is not in the bathroom. This time, her body lies among those of her friends.

She wonders who will be there for her daughter, her parents.

She wonders who will be her witness.

Six Heartbeats

Shattered glass, Marine instincts, grime-covered floor.

He looks up to see bodies falling, hopes they've fallen on their own accord.

Prays they've had no help.

Seven Heartbeats

Shattered glass, spilt liquor all around.

He can smell the alcohol mingling with the smell of gunpowder, of blood, of fear.

"I expect casualties today."

It wasn't supposed to be now, not now.

He was supposed to be outside, so he could help the others.

He's no help to them now.

Eight Heartbeats

Shattered glass, above him, around him, beyond him.

A moment's hesitation, a moment too late.

He falls, his glasses preceding him, a moment too soon.

Shattered glass, above him, around him, beyond him, below him.

Nine Heartbeats

Shattered glass, falling to the ground, atop and around the bodies already there.

Silence.

No more heartbeats.

Finis