So I was looking through the documents on my computer the other day and I found this oneshot which I wrote just after the finale and I figured why not post it and see what you guys think?


When Spike, Winnie and Dean arrived at the hospital and were pointed in the right direction by the receptionist, they walked into the waiting room which was situated right outside the room where Greg was being treated. The room was full of Greg Parker's family, all still in their uniform, none of them wanting to leave to go and change. Ed should have been taken to SIU but considering the fragile state of the city, they hadn't even bothered asking, he would only have refused anyway, with both his son and his best friend in the hospital. Sam, Jules and Leah had followed the ambulance to the hospital and Sam had immediately taken Jules to have her leg bandaged and to check on the baby, both mother and baby were fine. Wordy had been helping with triage at one of the bombsites and had gotten to the hospital as soon as possible after he heard about Greg. Marina had yet to arrive, she had been out of town on business and it would take her a couple of hours to drive back to Toronto. Spike and Winnie took seats next to Sam and waited for news of Greg

Soon after, a doctor came out of Greg's room enquiring "Family of Greg Parker?" Everyone in the room stood up at once, a flash of realisation hit the doctor, he understood the close relationships of a team such as the SRU. He had no qualms about informing the entire room of Greg's current situation. "Right, well Sergeant Parker has sustained a severe injury to his leg, we have managed to remove the bullet and we'll be taking him for an x-ray to see what damage it caused. The bullets that hit his vest have fractured a couple of his ribs and he has lost a lot of blood, however we have been able to stitch him up and we are certain he's out of the worst."

One huge sigh of relief seemed to circle around the room as everyone was informed of what, in their minds, they already knew; Greg was a fighter, he wasn't going to let a few bullets get him down.

"Excuse me Doc, I'm Dean Parker…Sergeant Parker's son, will I be able to see him?"

"He's sedated at the minute but yes you can go in" The doctor smiled.

Time passed quickly after that, it was late and everyone was beginning to leave. Sophie had taken Izzy home to bed so Ed was sitting with Clark somewhere else in the hospital. Wordy had gone home to Shelley and his daughters, asking to be called if anything changed during the night. Sam was visibly eager to get Jules home to rest, concerned about his new wife and their baby after the stressful day they had all had. Spike and Winnie had waited with Dean until Marina had arrived but now it was late and they were both exhausted, Winnie let out a yawn before turning to Spike;

"Spike…will you drive me home?"

"Sure"

The drive to Winnie's house was silent, not an uncomfortable silence but one filled with the emotions of the day, the mourning of all the people who had lost their lives today, and for Greg and Clark, still in the hospital with good chances of making full recoveries. Before they both knew it Spike was pulling up outside Winnie's apartment block and walking round to her side of the car to walk her to her door.

"Do you think Sarge will pull through?" Winnie asked worriedly.

Spike pondered for a moment before answering "Greg is tough, he'll pull through, we won't lose him."

They had reached the door and were standing in front on one another when Winnie looked up into his eyes and said "I could have lost you today."

"But you didn't…like I said, I'm always careful"

"Today…did it remind you of…?

"I miss him every day Win"

"I know." Winnie looked down at the ground, tears in her eyes.

Spike placed a gentle finger beneath her chin and tilted her face to look back at him, "What's wrong?"

"I just felt so helpless today…all of you out there in the city and all I could do was sit at my desk listening on the headset."

"Winnie, none of us would have been able to do it without you. I couldn't have done it without you. And I would hate it if you hadn't have been there in my ear…cause it reminded me that you were safe…"

"Spike…will you stay with me tonight? I don't wanna be alone"

"Of course I will! I'll take the couch"

After Winnie had found some spare sheets for Spike, they both went to try and get some sleep, although they knew they probably wouldn't be able to.
"Right, I'm going to bed, I should try and get some sleep before tomorrow's shift"
"Yeah…I'm right here if you need me Winnie"
"Thanks Spike, thanks for being here for me…and thanks for being careful today, I'm glad you're OK"
"Same goes for you, were the lucky ones today Win"
"I know…I can't help but think of all those families that have lost a loved one today, or are currently sat in the hospital waiting for news. I wish there was something more we could've done."
"We did everything we could Winnie, we did our best and yes sometimes our best isn't good enough but we have to do what we can."
"You're right, you were brilliant today, I hate to think how many more of those bombs would have gone off if we weren't lucky enough to have you on our team."
"I would never have forgiven myself if something had happened to Sam, or any of the team for that matter. It's bad enough that we had to lose two excellent SRU officers, if I'd have gotten to the lab faster…"
"Don't do that to yourself Spike, what happened to Donna and Jimmy was not your fault…you said yourself, we did everything we could. Now we really should get some rest…goodnight Spike"
"Goodnight Winnie"

Winnie made her way to her bedroom, just down the hall from the living room where Spike was sleeping, she got into bed and said a silent prayer to all the families who hadn't been so lucky today, who had lost someone they cared about, someone they loved. She said a prayer for Greg and Clark fighting for their lives in hospital beds and she said thank you for the rest of the team getting back safely. Suddenly she felt very tired and not even bothering to resist, she closed her eyes and was asleep in seconds.

Spike didn't manage sleep so easy, he lay awake for hours thinking about all the things that could have gone wrong today, and all the things that did go wrong, he blamed himself for what happened to Donna even though he knew there was nothing he could have done. He would never have forgiven himself had something happened to Sam, it would have been his fault for losing focus, thinking about what had happened with Lou, he could have been the reason for Jules becoming a widow on the same day she became a wife. Spike eventually felt his eyes begin to droop from pure exhaustion when all of a sudden he heard Winnie scream.

He was on his feet at once, wanting and needing to make sure she was OK. He ran to her bedroom, and threw open the door, Winnie was sat up in her bed with her head in her hands, she was panting, struggling for breath, she didn't even hear Spike enter her room. Spike hurried over and crouched down next to the bed and lifted her head up out of her hands so he could look at her, she had tears streaming down her face, her eyes red and puffy, she suddenly seemed to realize that Spike was right there with her and she immediately threw her arms around his neck as if she had no intentions of ever letting go.

"Please…please…don't ever… leave me…Spike" She managed to get out in between her sobs.

Spike could feel himself choking up but held back the tears, knowing Winnie needed him to be strong . He continued to hold her and said "I'm not going anywhere Winnie, I'm right here"

Winnie pulled her arms away from Spike's neck and looked down at her lap "It was so horrible Spike, I keep hearing the screams of the children in the daycare, so terrified for their lives, and I saw the faces of all the people we didn't get to in time." She looked back up into his eyes "You weren't there with me Spike, you were in the city and I didn't know if you were coming back to me, I was so scared to lose you, please don't ever leave me again."

Spike stood up and motioned for Winnie to move along the bed so that he could sit down next to her, he moved to the top of the bed and leaned back, as soon as she saw that he was settled she edged up the bed and wrapped her arms around his waist and burrowed her face into his chest.
"I'm so glad you're here Spike…please don't leave me" Winnie continued to mumble, tears still running down her face.

Spike reached down to pull her face towards his "Winnie, look at me, I'm right here, I'm OK, you're OK and I'm not going anywhere, I'll stay right here with you for as long as you need, please don't think that I would ever leave you." Winnie nodded slightly, satisfied that he wasn't going to leave before resting her head back on his chest.

Spike gently rubbed her back to soothe her and said "It's gonna be OK." Spike echoed Lou's last words and a tear fell down his cheek, he quickly wiped it away, not wanting Winnie to see him cry when she needed him to be strong.

They laid there for what seemed like hours, but was really only minutes before Spike realised Winnie had fallen back to sleep, seeing her settled made him feel at ease and so he put shuffled down the bed a little, as far as he could without disturbing her, leaned his head back, closed his eyes and was soon asleep.