A/N: This is my first english one-shot and I can't guarantee a perfect vocabulary. Tho' I still hope you like it ;)
The inspiration for this came from a sentence of another great Fanfic wrote by brawlingwolf called TH: The Brink of Change. (read it, it's great)
It was the sound of a door crashing open which startled Barbara Lake quite a lot. She jumped from the couch where she was resting and hurtled to the front door, just to find it closed.
Suddenly she heard a silent word that made her heart almost skip a beat. Fear flooded her mind as she recognized the broken and hoarse voice of her son calling out to her in pain.
She spun around and ran to the kitchen, just to get her worst nightmares confirmed.
There he was, cowered at the backyard door, covered in blood from head to toe. Her beloved son, Jim.
His once shining Armour was stained, leaving dark red drops of blood on the floor beneath him. Dirt covered his face and his hair, that had been this wonderful dark tone, now held the gut-wrenching color she was actually used to see...but not on him.
"Mom...help..." Jim whispered, his voice cracked as he stumbled forward, losing the rest of his strength that kept him on his feet this long and he fell to the ground, barely conscious.
Barbara was in shock. She knew about her Son's activities, about his troll hunting and she always feared for his safety that he might get hurt, but she had never imagined something like this would ever happen.
"JIM!" she cried out, tears of fear in her eyes and with a quick leap she covered the rest distance between them and flung herself next to the boy's side. "Jim! It's okay, I'm here, I'm here. I'm not gonna let you die, I promise! You hear me?!" over and over she repeated it, not just for him but also for herself.
As she turned him over, face up, the Armour of Daylight disintegrated into blue dust and the amulet fell to the Ground.
It was then when she saw the fatal injury that even the Armour couldn't fend off. There was a large slashing wound across Jim's chest, from his left shoulder all the way down to his right side.
Barbara gasped, unwillingly to accept the fact, that her own son, might be beyond her help.
No! Damn it! If anyone could help him, it was her!
Her instinct as a Doctor finally kicked in and she opened the red stained Jacket of her Son. She didn't hesitate to pull up the once pure white shirt as well, but as she saw what lied underneath, she stopped in her movements, terrified at the sight.
The wound was deep...too deep. She could see the white of his rips shimmering through all that blood and even parts of the organs beneath them. She knew immediately, from her experience in the hospital, that not many survive a severe injury like this one. But she'd never give up! Not on Jim! Not now!
"Hang in there, Kiddo! I know you can do it! Fight!"
She frantically jumped to her feet again. She had to hurry, there was no time to lose.
At full speed, Barbara rushed upstairs into the bathroom, grabbing a few clean towels and all she needed to patch him up and got back downstairs within no time. She didn't even bother that she was panting fiercely, as she dropped to her knees next to Jim again and pressed the first towel onto his chest in an attempt to somehow stop the bleeding. But as the towel turned red within seconds she knew this wouldn't work. Barbara looked around, panic-stricken. It was one thing seeing a stranger bleeding but seeing her own son, lying in front of her, getting weaker and weaker within seconds, it was the most terrifying Moment in her entire life.
"Come now, kiddo! I know you're strong. Stronger than anyone. Keep fighting! You can't give up!" she swallowed the upcoming tears down. Her heart was racing way to fast, but she didn't even care about it.
As she tried to press another towel onto his bleeding wound, she noticed his breathing got dangerously slow and flat. She gulped.
"We all need you, Jim! Don't leave us!" her pretended calm vanished with the last sentence as she nearly screamed. She can't lose him. She already lost one man in her family, she won't lose him, too!
Frantically, she pressed the blood soaked towels onto Jim's chest when she heard him say something under heavy breathing, stopping her in her movement again.
It was nothing more than a faint whisper, but she could hear it clearly. And it broke something inside her.
"I...love you...Mom..." it wasn't what he said, that wrenched everything inside her but the fact how he said it. Jim seemed to know that he would die, even tho' Barbara tried everything to save him. He knew these would be his last words to his mother, and he still said it with a strained smile.
Barbara could see his gaze fading slowly until he stopped breathing.
She paused, looking down at his pale face in shock and disbelieve. "Jim?" she winced, tears in her eyes. No reply. "Honey?" still no answer.
Barbara tore away the towel. Then she saw the lake of blood underneath Jim's body, growing and growing into almost a red ocean, reaching her knees.
"No...No, NO, NOO!" she cried out, panic forced her to act. "Don't you dare, James Lake Jr.! I'm not gonna let my own son die on me!" she screamed as she pressed her hands onto his chest, giving him CPR.
Seconds turned into minutes, while she still tried her hardest to save Jim. The blood flooded parts of the kitchen floor, her hands covered in the red fluid.
But despite all her efforts...nothing worked. Barbara was in some kind of trance, pressing on and on as if she feared the second she stopped, she'd lose him.
But even she had her limits. Slowly, she lifted her hands from the unmoving body and sank back on to her legs, shivering all over.
She looked at Jim's pale face again that was drained of every color.
"Jim?" her voice hushed. Slowly, her hand reached for his cheeks and she almost froze in place. He was cold, lifeless. She realized the blood on her hands and pulled them back immediately, looking down on them in disbelieve. Jim's blood...
Barbara couldn't hold it any longer. She burst into tears, heavy crying and sobbing alongside denial screaming filled the kitchen, as realization started to sink into her.
Her son...was dead. Gone forever.
After all this time, she couldn't save him...she failed her own son after he relied on her the most...
Motherly instinct took over as she grabbed the limp body from the cold ground and pulled him into her arms, tears dripping down to his face. She couldn't believe it. She didn't wanted to.
"You promised you wouldn't leave me like this..." she sobbed into his red-stained hair.
She was all alone. No one there, just her son lying dead in her arms.
With a terrified scream, Barbara jerked up from her sleep. Heavily breathing and panting, she was sitting up straight in her bed and it took her a few seconds to realize where she was.
She wiped the sweat from her face when she suddenly saw light being turned on in the hallway and seconds later her bedroom door was slammed open.
"Mom? Are you alright? I heard you scream?!" it was Jim...and he was alive.
No wound, no blood. Tho' a worried look on his stern face, highly alarmed. She must've woken him.
Barbara took a few deep breaths to calm herself, before she got out of her bed, crossing the short distance between them and pulling her son into a tight hug in which he seemed to be troubled by the loss of air. But he didn't push her away. Instead, he returned the hug gently.
"Mom? You're shivering", he noticed with concern and pulled back to look at her.
"I'm fine, honey. Just a bad dream", she replied with a forced smile, not to worry him, but she knew he would still be.
"Sure? You look terrified", he stated and looked her up. She just nodded slightly.
"Just promise me, to be careful out there." She said in a hushed voice and he seemed to know immediately what she must've dreamed about. "I will," he said briefly with smile.
At that, Barbara gave him a thankful kiss to his forehead before she turned around to get to bed but stopped for a second, thinking.
Slowly she turned back to her son.
"Jim?" she started weakly, unsure how to ask what she had in mind but he stopped in his tracks anyway and turned around, brows furrowed.
"You know...it's been a while...but...do you still remember what we did, when you had nightmares and couldn't get back to sleep?" she looked somewhat ashamed to dare ask this question and what it implied. Her son already turned 16 after all.
But a warm smile found the way onto Jim's lips, as if he figured why she'd asked. "Sure, why not?"
Barbara smiled in relief and crawled back into her bed, lifting the blanked for Jim. He followed after her, huddling his back against her chest when she covered them both.
She pulled him softly into a close hug, feeling his warmth, his breathing.
He was alive. He was with her and she hadn't failed him. It was like a heavy burden fell of her chest, letting her breath lightly again after this horrifying dream.
It was just a nightmare, she repeated in her head over and over, until she finally came to rest.
"I love you, Jim" she murmured into the back of his head. She couldn't see the smile on his face as he returned.
"Love you, too, Mom. Good night."
"Good night."
It wasn't too long, as they both fell asleep again, cuddling together as mother and son. Happy to have each other.
Sooo, I hope you enjoyed this Little one-shot. I'm always happy for any help with my language, so if you find any mistakes, write me :D