"There is never enough time," thought Liv hysterically as Lowell looked across at her on the roof and tapped his heart. She saw him mouth those three little words and her heart plummeted as she realised exactly what he was about to do. There was no time for regrets. No time to stop it. The gun was already half disassembled and all she could think was, "I'm going to watch him die. He is going to fail and I am going to watch him die."
Her fingers scrabbled for the pieces of the gun, enough sniper brain firing through her synapses to speed up the reassemble. It was taking too long. Blaine blocked Lowell's jab and Liv was fumbling the ammo. She slammed it home as Blaine was raising the gun to Lowell's forehead. She sighted along the barrel, trying to stop panicking but her brain was still screaming, "TOO LATE! TOO LATE!" She wasn't ready to take the shot but she was down to milliseconds and she was not going to lose Lowell, not like this, not ever. She pulled the trigger. She took one breath, two, while she tried to decide if what she had heard had been the echo of her own shot or if Blaine too had pulled the trigger. Two bodies fell to the rooftop. Liv screamed.
She left the gun on the rooftop. It didn't matter if she got caught. She deserved it. She put Lowell in the crosshairs and it would be her fault if she had gotten him killed. The elevator moved too slowly but she couldn't make it faster. Finally she stood at the door to Lowell's rooftop terrace and her brain hysterically giggled at her, "your first crime scene with you on the wrong side."
She couldn't look at Lowell, not at first. No, first she made sure that Blaine was dead. He had one perfect, neat, bloodless hole right between his eyes and the floor behind him was splattered with bits of bone and black, shriveled brain matter from where the bullet had blown the back of his head off. Her hands started shaking and she couldn't look to see if Lowell looked the same.
She took another deep breath and turned. The force of the bullet had spun Lowell around he had fallen on his face. There was no carnage from exploding brain and, for the first time since seeing him fall, Liv allowed herself to hope. What she could see of his face was perfectly intact. There was no blood but there never was any blood. She had never seen a crime scene so clean. Her hands trembling, she knelt by Lowell and felt for a pulse. She couldn't find one but maybe that didn't mean anything. It would be hard to find one if he had just been up and running. She remembered being mesmerized by the slow steady, almost imperceptible beat in his chest when they collapsed to the bed after…after everything she never thought she could never have.
She carefully turned him over and nearly had to turn away and vomit when she finally saw the wound. Blaine must have shot after the bullet hit him because it had not hit him in the forehead but had glanced off his temple, leaving a long, blackened graze along the side of Lowell's head. It hadn't actually penetrated his skull but when she reached down and felt along the wound, she could feel the give of shattered bone.
"Lowell, no," she whispered. "Please don't…"
Her tears fell on his face and he flinched minutely. "Liv," he moaned softly.
Hope hit her like a lightning strike. She had never been so thankful for her Zombie strength as she gathered him into her arms and ran, leaving Blaine's lifeless body behind her.
The journey to the morgue went by in a blur. It was late but she must have somehow called Ravi on the way because he was there, waiting at the door, a table all prepped and waiting.
"I don't know if I can help him, Liv," Ravi spoke apologetically.
"Please, Ravi, if you ever considered yourself my friend, you have to try," Liv sobbed.
"Hey, don't worry, I will. I will do everything in my power. I promise. You just have to promise that you won't go all raging Zombie on me if I can't. You have to be ready. Head shots are kill shots. You know this."
"I promise. Please…just help him."
Liv curled up in a corner for the next two hours, just watching as Ravi cut into her boyfriend's head and removed pieces of fragmented bone. He screwed on a metal plate and carefully sewed Lowell's scalp back over it. She jolted back into awareness when Ravi pulled out some medical restraints and began strapping Lowell to the table.
"What the hell are you doing?" she jumped up and grabbed Ravi's wrist.
"I'm going to try something. I've done all I can structurally but I think if his Zombie constitution was going to bring him back from this, he would have woken up by now. His heart is still beating at half the normal Zombie rate so he isn't gone yet. I have the formula that zombified the rat. I'm going to inject him and hope it will kickstart whatever it is that allows you guys to survive grievous bodily harm. And I'm going to tie him up because if he wakes up in full-on Zombie mode, I don't want him to eat me," Ravi grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back a step or two. "Give me room to work."
"Do you think it will work?" she whispered softly.
"Hell if I know. It's not like I took a course on Zombie resuscitation. But, if it does, then I am a fucking genius."
Liv grabbed his wrist again. "This has to work. I never thought I could have this again. And he told me…and then he went out and proved it…and I never got to tell him…"
Ravi's face became uncharacteristically gentle. "It's ok. I think he knew. Just let me try this because I think he would enjoy hearing it in person."
Ravi checked the restraints one more time before moving Lowell's head to the side and injecting the mixture of utopium and Max Rager directly into his carotid artery.
"How long will it take?" Liv asked a few seconds later.
"I don't know. First time, remember? And I never took Zombie anatomy in med school. His heart is barely beating so it's going to take a while to work its way through his body." Ravi suddenly cocked his head. "Although…maybe if we could get it beating faster. How about you hop up there and do CPR? It will at least cycle the blood through his body."
Liv climbed up on the gurney and straddled Lowell's hips, trying very hard not to think of the last time she had been in this position, placed both hands over his heart and started up a regular rhythm. Minutes later, Liv was beginning to have hope. She had never realized before how pale he was under his fake tan until she could see the blush of blood moving through his body and colouring his lips and cheeks. She continued until her arms were sore, long after she would have given up on any other patient.
Suddenly, there was a slight movement under her hands and a husky voice whispered, "next time, you should try true love's kiss. It's a little less painful."
Liv stopped moving and looked down to see Lowell, his eyes finally opening. She laughed, one hysterical burst of sound before she was sobbing and she couldn't see his face through the tears. She leaned down and kissed him. "Oh my God, Lowell, I thought you were gone. I thought I'd gotten you killed."
"I thought I'D gotten me killed. Hell of a time to stop being a weenie, right?" Lowell smirked.
"But if I had taken the shot…"
"Don't do this to yourself. It's my fight too. I ate Jerome's brain. I saw the vision. I got mad and I'm the moron who took a barbecue fork to a gun fight."
Liv could only kiss him again as Ravi finally came forward to release the restraints.
Lowell pulled away and looked at Ravi, eyes red and glowing. "Back off a minute, mate. I'm starving and I would hate to eat the brains of the man who saved my life. I'm barely holding off from full-on Zombie mode."
"Oh, uh yeah, I'll get right on that. Any preference on the flavour?" Ravi headed for the freezer.
"Someone heterosexual preferably and could you manage natural causes?" Lowell said.
"I've got well-adjusted university student with a healthy sexual appetite. Died in a car accident. How does that grab your fancy?" Ravi pulled it out and microwaved a slice with one of Liv's leftover Cup o' Noodles.
"Sounds significantly better than teenage murder victim," Lowell said seriously.
Ravi brought over the food as soon as it was ready and then stood awkwardly by the gurney. "I'll just go now. I'm sure Liv has got this handled and I don't want to intrude."
Liv looked at Ravi gratefully. "Thank you. I don't know what I would have done."
"Yes, well, this is all getting far too emotional for me but for what it's worth, I've got your six too." Ravi shuffled awkwardly for a moment before grabbing his coat and leaving.
Liv released Lowell. He sat up on the gurney and wolfed down his meal and his eyes slowly returned to their normal colour and Liv could finally believe that he was back.
"So, Liv Moore," Lowell grinned as he set aside the empty dish, "how are we going to celebrate my return to undeath?"
"Well, Lowell Tracey, I'm sure we can think of something."