There were many thoughts running through Mouri Ran's head as she sat waiting outside the operating room in Beika General Hospital, but there was one thought in particular that dominated the others.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

Granted, it wasn't really the end— if anything, it was more like the beginning of the end, and there was still a lot more to be done— but it certainly felt like it.
It should have been the end— the end of evil, the end of her worries, the end of Shinichi's involvement in this entire mess— but she knew it wasn't. She knew evil would persist on the shoulders of shady thugs and criminals, she knew her troubles were far from over, and, most of all, she knew Shinichi would stubbornly insist on personally tracking down every last member of the organization, no matter how low-ranking or difficult to find they were.

If Shinichi made it out of his operation alive, that is.

No— she couldn't afford to think like that. Shinichi was strong, Shinichi was stubborn, Shinichi would be perfectly fine. He would come through that door alive and healthy. He'd be smiling, giving her that mystery-loving, self-sacrificing, idiotic grin of his, just like always. She'd smile back, reveling in his presence without a battle blazing around them. They would be silent and tranquil, enjoying the peacefulness until familiar banter began to roll easily off their tongues once more...

Ran bit her lip. She was trying so hard to think positively, yet her mind kept lingering on the picture of his face as he lay in the ambulance— deathly pale, so still amidst the tense commotion of the paramedics and the stark backdrop of blood everywhere— and she couldn't quite make herself believe in something as optimistic as hope anymore.

'You promised, right? That you wouldn't leave me, that I'd never have to be alone...

Shinichi...'