Okay, so I had the sudden urge to gush over Jack/Carly and I can't even tell you where it came from. Ironic, since they gave me so much trouble in Sunset Horizon. I seem to be fine with writing oneshots about them.

Anyway, so I really needed some J/C in my life tonight, so I decided to write this little drabble. It's kinda-sorta a sequel to The Winner Takes It All, but it's not necessary to read that one first. But if you enjoyed this and want more J/C, that one's sitting around :P

Please enjoy!

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is not mine. I own nothing but these words. The cover art is a fanart I found online amidst random searches. It is not mine and credit goes to the original artist. Image edited and text added by me.

Her hand reached out for his, her fingers curling as she tried in vain to grasp his. How could this be happening? Last she could remember, she was falling out a window to her death. Now, here she was, wrapped in warm arms as a vaguely familiar voice shouted her name, over and over.

Whose voice was that? It sounded so familiar, but why couldn't she place it?

"Carly!"

Was that Jack? Could it really be him? Why did he sound so concerned? More importantly, where was he? Where was she? Why couldn't she see anything? She swallowed the lump in her throat and reached out randomly, whispering, "Jack?"

His voice sounded back, clear and close as his hand squeezed around hers. "I'm here, Carly!"

She inhaled deeply and reached around blindly, finally finding his face and resting her hand against his cheek. She felt so weak. What was happening? "Jack, I… Am I… dying…?"

"No, Carly!" he shouted, almost too quickly. "I won't let you die! Not now!"

Not now? What had happened to make now so much different than before? She struggled to keep breathing as she murmured, "Jack, I… I love you… You need… to know…"

"Carly!" he called again. He really was terrible when it came to situations like this. "Stay with me! I can't lose you now!"

She felt her body grow weaker and weaker until finally she couldn't even hold her own head up. As she slumped down in his arms, she managed to whisper, "Jack, I lo-"

Jumping awake, she looked around the dark room lit only by the moonlight outside. Pressing a hand to her chest, she struggled to catch her breath and stared empty-eyed at the wall across from her. What was that… that… nightmare? It had felt so real, but it couldn't possibly be… Unless…

A pair of warm arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind as a thickly-accented voice murmured, "What's wrong?"

She felt herself relax in his hold as tears started to well in her eyes. Where could she even begin with that horrible dream? "I…"

His arms only pulled more tightly, tugging her from her place in the large bed to sit on his lap. He didn't speak, but waited for her to sort her thoughts as he pressed a kiss to her hair. Snuggling against his chest, she finally felt brave enough to speak and murmured, "I just dreamt that I died."

"Tell me," he murmured, shifting to hold her hand and lace his fingers with hers.

She swallowed and said, "I don't know… Everything was dark. I couldn't see anything, but you were holding me. I asked if I was dying, and you said I couldn't die yet… I think it ended with me dying. Was it… from that time?"

His fingers tightened on her hand, his eyes staring at the diamond ring on her fourth finger. Finally, he gave a slight nod and murmured, "It was."

For the past few weeks, she had been having terrible dreams of a time filled with nothing but shadows. It was dark and dismal, full of pain and foggy bits of a turbo duel against Jack. She didn't know that she had actually died, though. She understood that Jack had avoided telling her about it to spare her feelings and, knowing what she knew now, she was grateful.

She would have been plenty happy without knowing about that time of her life. Or un-life. However one wanted to look at it.

Fighting back the urge to cry, she snuggled against her fiancé's chest further and bit down on her lip. All she wanted was the warm shelter of his embrace and, thankfully, that was something he was happy to give. Though he was still really slow to give comforting words—she figured because he simply didn't know what to say—he was always quick to offer physical support.

Slowly releasing her hand, he moved to envelop her in a tight embrace once again and tucked his chin over her head to comfort her further. It was heaven in his arms and nothing could change her mind on that. His embrace made all of her troubles disappear, from losing a lead on a story to waking up to a horrible truth.

He was her everything and the fact that he loved her in return made undeniably ecstatic. He was bold, rude, proud, gruff, and more than a little condescending, but she loved him all the same. She sometimes found herself wondering why no one asked her why she loved him, but then she remembered that he was the King of Duels and millions would kill to be in her place.

It didn't matter. Superstar or not she loved that man and was grateful to him being in her life.

And, most of all, for assuring her that nightmare was just a dream.

Welp, that helped to get that burst of J/C out of my system. What do you think? Good? Bad?

Please review!

-Valk