His Name, Her Lips.
This is my first attempt at fanfiction, ever. Any feedback is greatly appreciated, seriously. If it's shit then please let me know.
I own nothing.
Song inspiration: Streets by Olafur Arnalds and End Credits by Chase & Status
Everything happened so fast, all in a blur; and yet time seemed to slow.
He said her name, "Lizzie" pleading, begging for her to just give him a chance to explain. His attempt was futile, he turned to leave and then it came. He didn't hear it but he sure as hell felt it. Weightless, he crumbled to the hard and cold ground. He couldn't catch a breath, it felt like his chest was being crushed by an enormous weight - too much for him to handle. Suddenly he was moving as Dembe dragged along the road and that is when the pain truly hit him, searing through his right side. She appeared then at his side, he could hear her, feel her presence. He was blinded- luckily unable to open his eyes to see the concern and anguish across the faces of those who cared most about this flawed man; this 'monster'.
Once the shots stopped they grabbed him and rushed to the relative safety of the car. She jumped in beside him, kneeling on the floor of the Mercedes. Her scarf was now crimson she noticed as she pushed down on his chest as hard as her shaking hands could muster.
"Where are you going? We need to get him hospital or he's going to bleed out" she screamed to Dembe, she got no reply as he was busy trying to concentrate on the road and dial the number he knew by heart for situations such as this. Finally, she picked up. "Mr Kaplan, we have a code zero. GSW to the chest, right side. We are en route to the containment unit, send the team immediately." He tried his hardest to appear calm for both Lizzie's sake and Red's - if he could hear them - yet his voice betrayed him, trembling as he described the situation.
She didn't speak a word to Red, she couldn't decide whether to scream at him in anger or plead with him just to hold on. Instead she studied his features, voiced her deepest fears and wishes in her head. He was unconscious now, limp and pale and unaware of his surroundings. She kept her free hand at his neck, his weak pulse reassuring her that all hope was not lost.
The journey took around twenty minutes yet it simultaneously felt like a minute and and an hour. Men she had never set eyes on before teared open the car door and hauled him out onto a waiting stretcher. She clamoured out, rushing to his side and still holding that once cream scarf to his wound. As they entered she noticed Mr Kaplan frozen still and in that moment he was whisked into a makeshift medical room, leaving her to stand and watch. It was then that she noted her hands. Stained. Tattooed in red - Red's blood. Mr Kaplan appeared at her side then, grabbing her wrist and attempting to bring her out of her shocked state. Mr Kaplan had seen this unfold before, Lizzie was sure of it, yet she understood that it didn't matter how many times this group had been exposed to the grave situations Red managed to get himself involved in; they still felt concerned. After all, how many lives can one man have?
"Go to him Lizzie, he needs to hear your voice" Mr Kaplan whispered soothingly. Lizzie cautiously entered the area, half a dozen men and women in scrubs surrounding her - what? What was he to her? Surely CI wasn't an accurate enough description? No, he was so much more than that. She squeezed in at his left side, one hand grasping his upper arm.
"Redding..." her voice came to a halt. A moment passed, she swallowed her emotion as best she could.
"Raymond" she pleaded, her face near his own.
Suddenly, for the first time since she left him standing there in street, he looked her in the eye. His eyelids fluttered before finally opening, albeit rather reluctantly. Unfocused and unquestionably against his body's wishes, he stared deep into her eyes; studying them like it was the last thing he would ever see on this earth. It began to feel as though it were just the two of them here, in this makeshift room. She said it over and over and over without even thinking.
"Raymond."
It wasn't a question, it was a statement. A declaration of will, of concern, of love.
"Please... Just... Hold on. Just hold on, for me. I can't lose you. You're all I have left."
He almost forgot about the pain, he had a moment of relief as her words sank in to his heart. That was until the flood came rising up his throat, drowning him from the inside. He knew he was bleeding internally, he could taste the copper in his mouth ever since he felt the impact of the bullet now lodged in his chest. However this was different; this he knew was too much for his battered body to handle. He tried to speak, tried to tell her everything. What he felt, thought and understood about her. He tried to tell her the truth, the whole truth. She saw him sputtering, as if trying to communicate something, anything to her. The blood now flowing like a river out of his mouth.
And then, nothing. She saw the light leave his eyes, the look of calm take over his face. Time stopped. Everything was silent, unable to hear herself screaming in anguish.
She felt herself being dragged away from Red's side, unwillingly.
He can't be gone, he can't leave her like this. The moment she realised how she truly felt about him is the moment she believes she lost him.
If only she had listened to his explanation about Tom. If only she had given him the fulcrum when he asked. If only his name had came from her lips earlier than minutes before his last breaths.
If only.