GUYS. I was shook by last week's ep 6x13. Call me sadistic but I loved all the hurt Scott (with worried Malia of course). Hurt/comfort is my JAM and it brought on allll the feels!

So, I actually wrote this right after 6A with hopes that Scalia would become canon. And then they did. Yasss!

This was intended as a prologue for longer fic that I never finished...but after this last ep I'm wondering if Jeff Davis has been spying on me because the similarities between what I wrote and what happened in After Images are So. Dang. Similar. Even some of the dialogue! (Which is sort of amazing actually). So I'm sharing it with you all now as a kind-of episode tag to 6x13.

And thanks to everyone who reviewed or hell even read my other Scalia fic, Recalibrate. Means more than you know!

ANGST ahead. Open-ended one-shot for now.

Fictional

"Scott, stay awake! You have to stay awake!"

Malia had never felt more desperation in her entire life.

She was losing him.

With each second that he wasn't healing, with each beat of his heart slowing down, with each drop of blood pumping out of his body at an alarming rate...he was leaving her.

I can't...I can't lose him...not now...

"I-it's okay..." Scott rasped out weakly, before he was wracked by another wet cough, more blood filling his mouth. "...Malia...it's okay."

"Okay?! No, no, no, this is not okay," Malia choked out in a mixture of anger and fear, her eyes widening incredulously at his words, "nothing about this is okay!"

She tried to force back her tears, failing miserably as they started spilling freely down her cheeks. One fell on Scott's forehead from where he was pulled haphazardly across her lap as she desperately tried to stem the bleeding from the deep wounds in his chest.

He still wasn't healing, and they didn't know why.

And they were all alone. Help wasn't coming.

She had been trying to take his pain, which had seemed to help him at first, but it was getting harder and harder to draw it away from him now, and her heart clenched in terror when she thought about what that meant. She had heard the story of Allison before, what it would mean if she couldn't take his pain anymore.

With a shaking hand, she reached over to brush the tear away from his forehead, accidentally smearing more blood across his face. "How could you even say that?"

He gave her a sad, knowing smile as he looked up at her, and she tried to ignore the black, gharish blood leaking from the corner of his mouth as he struggled to reply between labored breaths.

"...b'cause...you're safe."

Safe. Safe because he had saved her, had taken a hit meant for her.

And now Scott was dying...all because she had been too stupid to get out of the way in time.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Malia bit out, but there was no heat behind it, only guilt and fear, because it shouldn't have been him in his position right now. He shouldn't be the one bleeding out in these God forsaken tunnels.

It should be her.

Scott swallowed thickly around the blood pooling in his mouth before he gave her a strained reply. "Couldn't...let you...g't hurt."

"Damn it Scott," Malia closed her eyes painfully, shaking her head. "You shouldn't have...you don't need to protect me." She paused, staring back down at him through her tears.

"You shouldn't have saved me, because now, now you're..." she trailed off, unable to voice the words out loud, because it was too painful to admit, and she refused to believe that she was going to lose him all because he had sacrificed himself for her.

"...it's okay..." Scott weakly tried to reassure her again, because he barely had the energy to breathe now, let alone talk, but the determined look in his eyes said it all. "Worth...it."

Malia's breath hitched at his words, because she knew Scott meant it, that he'd do it over and over again, would take a hundred more hits for her, if it meant that she was safe from harm.

He was blinking heavily now, trying to stay focused on her face, but it was as if there were lead weights pulling them shut. He struggled for another minute, his gaze glassy and unfocused, before his eyes finally slipped closed.

Malia completely panicked.

"No, no, no, Scott! Open your eyes!" She shook him forcefully in her arms until he finally found the strength to look at her again.

Malia's heart nearly stopped at the look her gave her when he opened his eyes.

He's giving up.

"Scott, look, you can't die, okay? You can't," she demanded him, her eyes flashing blue. "Do you hear me? We need you, all of us, so you don't just get to quit, ok? You can't leave us!"

He opened his mouth to reply, but instead another wet cough shook his entire body as he struggled to breathe, rattling deep in his chest. When he finally caught his breath, he gave her a pained, apologetic look that completely broke her.

"...I'm s'rry," he ground out painfully, fighting against time he didn't have, "...I-I can't. Tell the o-others that...that I..."

"No, Scott, don't," Malia cut him off with a desperate shake of her head, "please. Don't do this. Don't make me say your goodbyes." She paused, taking in a shaky breath to grab on to her rapidly fading composure before she completely broke down.

She looked away as her voice cracked. "Please...don't leave me."

"Malia..." he whispered hoarsely, forcing her to look back at him. Using the last of his fading strength, he reached up with an unsteady hand and cupped her cheek gently, trying to wipe away her tears. She leaned into it, gripping his hand against her face in one of hers and relishing in his touch. More tears fell unabashedly down her cheeks as she looked down at him. His fingers gently brushed against her face before he finally spoke again.

"...'m glad...you're h're."

Malia had to bite back a sob at those words.

He's glad that it's me that's the one here with him when he's DYING.

"Oh God," she breathed, feeling as though her heart was being ripped straight out of her chest, wondering when she became this person for him, hating herself for not realizing it sooner. "Scott..."

"Malia, I...I..." he wheezed, struggling around another shaky inhale, fighting to stay with her even as his body failed him. He looked as though he wanted to say something else, she could see it clearly in his eyes, to tell her one last thing...but he couldn't.

They were out of time.

His eyes slowly slipped closed then, for good this time, his hand falling lax against her face, even as she gripped it tighter. She froze in horror, dropping his hand in shock and letting it fall to the ground with a dull thud.

"Scott, no, you can't," Malia shook him desperately again, but there was no response this time. "You can't do this!"

But he remained still and motionless in her arms, not moving, not responding, not breathing now, despite her frantic pleas for him to hang on.

But it was too late, and she knew it, even though her heart wouldn't believe it, couldn't believe it.

"Scott!" she screamed, crumpling in absolute devastation, but there was no one there to answer her, only her own voice echoing back to her in the dark, empty tunnels.

"No, you can't, I can't...I can't lose you too..." she choked out another sob as she gripped him even tighter in her arms, desperately trying to keep him with her, her heart completely breaking in that moment as she suddenly realized the truth.

I love you...

...continue?