This massive AU plot bunny bothered me for quite a while. I think most of the universe is self-explanatory. It's mostly based on Librarian!Jake universe in And the Loom of Fate, only in this one Eve never got an envelope from the Library. The rest is explained as the fic goes on.
Warnings: Major character deaths (not all of them off-screen), angst, angst, angst, some mild sexual scenes, mentions of mental illness.
Enjoy!
Eve had seen this moment in her dreams every couple of months since she was a child. She was laying on her back in a shallow stream, looking at her fingers stained with red. Now, when it was actually happening, she couldn't believe it at first. But the pain in her leg was real and so were the shouts of the Brotherhood soldiers searching for her.
She tried to get the facts straight. First the past. She had escaped captivity, fifteen minutes ago she was shot on the run and since then she had forced her injured leg to carry her as she stumbled through the forest. Moments ago she had slipped on the long grass on the bank of the stream and fell.
Second, what was happening right now. Her leg was throbbing and she was shaking, a little from the cold, but mostly from the pain and exhaustion. She had lost a lot of blood and could barely move. The shouting was drawing closer.
It's over, she thought. All those times I wondered how it was going to end, I have never thought it would be exactly like the dream.
The change in the intonation of the shouts told her that she had been spotted. In last desperate effort she tried to move, but fell back in the stream, her muscles screaming in protest. A male face, twisted with the excitement of the hunt, appeared above her, gloating. Then two strong hands pulled him from her view. The tone of the shouts changed from victorious to angry and she heard a dog growling.
Moments later the shouts died out and it was quiet. This is nice, she thought, looking at the blue sky and green trees. I don't mind this being the last thing I see.
Unfortunately, another person bent over her and his hands were examining the wound on her leg. Her vision was rapidly fading and she was welcoming the unconsciousness. She felt being lifted off the ground, but wasn't sure whether it was for real or a hallucination.
The last thing she heard was, in distinctive Southern accent:
"Damn, you're heavy."