This little story is a collaborative effort between myself and Catlover5040 (who was just fantastic to write with!).

Disclaimer: Not ours!

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All these years, her entire career as a police officer and detective had trained her for this very moment.

Juliet's expression was emotionless as she held her gun on Alan Gray, a sociopath she and Lassiter had been chasing for weeks. He had killed several women and taunted them relentlessly with clues before setting his sights on Juliet herself. Lassiter had almost lost his mind at that point, going as far as to having Vick take Juliet off the case and staying at her house to protect her. Everything had come down to this moment and Juliet's realization that Gray didn't want to kill her before inflicting the most devastating emotional distress on her first.

"What are you going to do, Detective?" Gray taunted her.

Her world kaleidoscoped, swirling round and round in a pool of colors. Gray had his left hand firmly gripping the back of Carlton's neck as they stood on the beach's pier. The roar of the waves hitting the shore was barely audible to Juliet. All she could see was Carlton's face, and the calm acceptance in his beautiful blue eyes.

No.

She wasn't going to lose him.

Her grip tightened on the gun. "Let him go, Gray!" she yelled, her eyes narrowing. "This is your last chance!"

"Oh, I don't think so, sweetheart. It was yours." And before she could blink, several things happened at once. Several guns went off all around her; one from Gray's gun found a target in Carlton a split-second before he fell into the water below.

"Carlton!"

There was no hesitation as Juliet dove into the water and swam below the ocean's frothy surface.

She would not lose him.

The harsh, stinging impact of the waves slapping his body and the red-hot pain that shot up through his left leg as his ankle twisted made it impossible to tell whether or not the bullet actually hit him. The endless pain made him want to die, made him want everything to end right then and there...

And then he remembered O'Hara. Every line on her face had been hard and set as she stared the sociopath down, but he had looked her in the eye. Her eyes, they always gave her away, if only to Carlton. For a split second, her eyes had shown him the pain and fear inside. That split second right before he was shot down. He had to live for her.

But how?

What had once been tiny black spots in his vision had now expanded, and he couldn't see a thing. He felt the midnight waters pushing him down towards the bottom of the sandy ocean, drowning him, killing him, shutting him out from the world above.

With a dull sort of thump, he hit the bottom. Pain shot through him again as his whole body shook against the coarse, sandy floor of the ocean. He tried with all his willpower to sit up, but the feeble messages his brain sent to his legs fizzled and died somewhere, not producing so much as a twitch. It was a terrible sensation, not being able to control your body when you needed to most.

Just then, a hand grasped his shoulder. Some strong force pulled him up, and then he was gliding through the ocean. He was in the fold of someone's arm, and that someone was lifting him up through the dark, cruel waters and doing what he couldn't do for himself.

He knew who it was.

He knew what was going to happen.

Carlton Lassiter was not afraid.

Juliet felt him go limp against her moments before they broke the ocean's surface, and she panicked, willing her legs to kick harder and harder. They exploded from the water and she sucked in a breath as she watched Carlton's face. His skin was pale and she couldn't hear him drawing a breath. Angling her head, she finally spotted the shore and she began pulling him in that direction, pleading with him to stay with her.

When they were almost at the beach's shore, McNab waded into the water and slid his hands under Carlton's arms, helping Juliet support her partner's weight. They pulled him onto the warm sand a safe distance from the water and rolled him onto his back before Juliet flung herself over him.

"Come on, Carlton!" she begged, removing his tie and unbuttoning his shirt. She lowered her head and rested her ear over his heart.

He wasn't breathing.

Instinct took over her movements. Pinching two fingers over his nose, she covered her mouth with his and blew a breath into his lungs. Then she began chest compression. Their fellow officers began gathering around them, forming a protective circle, but Juliet couldn't find it in her to care.

One, two, three...

Her hands shook violently as she repeated the process again and again.

She would not give up on him.

She couldn't.

Someone called her name, but she didn't hear it, nor did she notice Shawn standing across from her, his brow furrowed with worry.

The seconds ticked by and her own lungs ached, but nothing else mattered when his body suddenly convulsed and water poured out of his mouth and nose. Gentle hands turned him onto his side, toward her, and a tender hand patted his back. His eyes slowly opened, and Juliet was floored by their brilliant shade of blue. "Carlton..." She shoved her hair out of her face and leaned in closer to him. "Carlton, can you hear me?"

"Carlton, can you hear me?"

Those five words broke across through all of the noise and commotion that was trying to shove its way into Carlton's brain. Plaintive, like a child, and full of emotion. Slowly, the black spots cleared and he could see her leaning over him, her hair dripping drops of salty ocean water onto his face.

"O'Hara," he croaked, his chest burning with the pain that it took to say her name. Her face flooded with relief in the same instant that her eyes flooded with tears. He reached out a feeble hand and brushed his fingers against her face.

"Carlton," she whispered, her tears sliding off her face and onto his. "Oh, my gosh, Carlton." She rose slightly and yelled, "McNab! Call 9-1-1!"

McNab nodded fervently and disappeared from the circle of concerned colleagues. Juliet dropped to her knees again and leaned towards him.

"Carlton, what hurts?" She asked, brushing at the tears doggedly.

He opened his mouth, trying to summon enough strength to respond. Finally, he felt a sharp pang in his chest as the word threw itself out of his throat.

"Everything."

She was still for a split second, and then determination joined the glistening tears in her eyes. She ripped her coat off, folded it into a makeshift pillow, and carefully lifted his head up with one hand. He groaned in pain.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," she said soothingly, placing the folded coat under his head. She then ripped her own sleeve off and wadded up the fabric, pressing it against his shoulder. Another burst of pain told him that that was where the bullet wound was.

"It's just a flesh wound," she breathed, looking up to the sky in thanks. "Oh, thank goodness, it's just a flesh wound." She leaned towards him again, and for a second he thought she was going to kiss him.

She didn't. Instead, she gave him very firm instructions.

"Don't sit up," she said gently but firmly. "Don't try to talk too much. Above all, stay calm."

His words came out in short, ragged breaths. "Don't know- if I can- do that, O'Hara."

She laughed bitterly and took his hand with the one that wasn't holding down the shirt-sleeve compress, squeezing it gently. She had stopped crying now, which made him happy- was that the word? Yes, it was. He was happy she was too busy trying to keep him alive to cry.

"O'Hara," he whispered as she looked over her shoulder, flustered. She turned back on him, her eyes bright and wild.

"Carlton?" she demanded.

"Come- come here."

Face confused, eyes incredulous, she leaned even closer to him. He lifted a feeble hand and beckoned towards himself.

"Closer."

She tilted her head slightly, but leaned so close he could hardly breathe(as if he could in the first place). What was the saying? Too close for comfort?

She was close, which gave him comfort. She watched him closely, as he struggled to sit up.

"Carlton, don't-" she contradicted, but he silenced her. Slowly, he pressed his lips to her cheek. She had finally caught on. She put her arms around him, supporting him, and kissed him back.

The kiss seemed to last forever, and at the same time, only a second. It was sweet and soft, desperate and needful. Her hand slid up and stroked his hair just before the kiss ended and his head dropped against her shoulder. She cradled him to herself with ease and was grateful when someone produced a blanket and draped it over him. She maneuvered the blanket around him and rested her head against his. She wasn't sure if he was still awake, but she spoke to him anyway, words she would never repeat to anyone else.

"I've got you now, Carlton. I'm not going to let you go." She continued to stroke his hair, slowly and methodically.

"I'm not going to let you go."

Later that same night, freshly showered and hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, Juliet sat by Carlton's hospital bed. After she had pulled him out of the ocean and they had kissed, she had rode with him to the hospital. The bullet was still lodged in his shoulder, but it was easily removed and he was settled in a private room to sleep off the effects of the anesthesia. Juliet herself had been looked over and diagnosed with a broken wrist and a mild concussion, neither of which she remembered getting. She had been encouraged to go home and rest, which she ignored of course in favor of staying at her partner's side. She only left once, long enough to take a shower and change into clean clothes Vick had so thoughtfully brought for her. Then she was back at his side.

When he finally showed signs of stirring, Juliet was elated. She knew he was going to be okay, but something inside of her cried out to see his eyes, to hear him tell her he was still with her, that he always would be. She leaned over in the chair and laid a protective hand on his arm. "Everything's okay, Carlton," she murmured, her thumb absently rubbing his skin. "Come back to me."

Consciousness drifted back to him sometime around midnight. He sat up with a shudder, plunging into the icy mess of the waking world just as Gray had sent him into the appropriately grey waters of the ocean any number of hours before. He looked wildly around, even though he couldn't see at first, and spoke the first name that came to his lips.

"O'Hara!"

"Carlton?" He heard her start in the chair next to him and felt her hand on his shoulder. "Carlton, what is it? What's wrong?"

His vision slowly came back to him, and his first impression was that of an angel leaning over him. Her blue eyes, full of panic and concern, shone down on him and her golden hair fell around her face, creating a strange sort of halo.

She was here.

Everything was going to be fine.

He held her terrified gaze for a few seconds before responding, and realized with a wave of mixed emotions that they were holding hands. "Nothing," he murmured, taking in her appearance.

Her shoulders relaxed and she smiled uneasily. She sat back in her chair, still not taking her eyes off him.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at her steadily.

Her brow furrowed with confusion. "You mean you don't remember?"

He closed his eyes. "I remember being on the pier with Gray. I remember him shooting me, and I remember... kissing you." He said the words in a rush. "But I don't remember who rescued me."

"Oh." She smiled a tentative half-smile. "That was me."

"That was you?" he looked at her incredulously.

"No need to sound so surprised," she said, sounding hurt.

"I didn't mean-" he began hastily, and changed course mid-sentence. "I just didn't realize you were so willing to put your life on the line for someone like me."

She yanked her hand away and rose to her feet abruptly, looking even more upset than she had been before. "Willing to put my life on the line? Carlton, you are my life! I never would've been able to move on without you. I would've never been able to live with myself, knowing that I could've done something and I didn't."

It took him a second to notice there were tears in her eyes. Her eyes told him everything he needed to know in that moment. With resolve, he sat up, ignoring the pain in his head, and took her both of her hands in his.

"Hey," he said consolingly, "it's okay... I'm fine... you're fine..."

Her lip trembled and she fell onto the edge of the bed, crying softly into his shoulder. "I was just- so scared," she whispered, wiping tears off her face. "I knew I had to be strong, I knew if I showed any emotion Gray would've known that he had won... and I couldn't let that happen, Carlton!"

"I know," he soothed, wrapping his arms around her. "And you were strong. You didn't let him win. You won, Juliet."

"But he got away," she said softly.

"But that doesn't matter, does it?" he reminded her. "You evaluated what was most important to you and acted on it. You followed your heart, and not a lot of cops can do that, including me. Whether we caught Gray or not doesn't matter, not if you did what was important to you."

"I know," she said quietly. "This whole thing just made me think, though. I mean, I've been doing this detective thing for years, but I'm still not sure if I can do it much longer. I'm always expected to be the strong one, always. I'm... I'm only human," she added as fresh tears started to roll down her cheeks. "I can't always be strong, and I'm worried that I won't be able to right when it matters most."

"You were strong right when it mattered," he said firmly. "You saved me. We're okay now. Everything's going to be okay."

He pulled her close to him and looked up at the ceiling, listening to her gentle tears which slowly subsided into sniffs as she buried her head into his shoulder. He had been shot hours earlier, sure, but now he knew he would be okay.

He finally heard Juliet's sniffs turn into quiet breathing. With all the strength he could muster, he rolled her gently off the bed and onto the chair beside him. Her tears told him just how much she cared about him- how scared she had been to lose him. And, really, that knowledge healed him more than any medicine could.

Finis.

A/N: We hoped everyone enjoyed reading this. Thanks for reading, and please remember to review!