"Angels shouldn't cry."
Her voice is fading, her eyes fighting to stay open. I shush her, leaning over. I kiss her softly, the taste of my tears salty on her lips. When I pull away her eyes are closed.
Suddenly I'm starting to panic. "Q-Quinn?" My voice cracks, and I lick my lips. "Quinn, honey, can you hear me?" She's unresponsive.
I try again, louder this time. Still nothing. Now I'm calling out her name to the heavens, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, as if to wake her up. I stop, worried that she might have internal damage.
Cursing, my hands hover over her, not knowing what to do. Desperate, I lean over her again, my ear at her chest. Thought too faint, though much too slow, it was there. A heartbeat.
It was the most beautiful sound in the world.
Only then did I hear movement all around me. Only then did I realize that there were several cars around; men looking at me sympathetically, women hiding their children's faces from the wreckage.
Someone tells me that an ambulance is on the way, it should be here soon. I hear the sirens. Normally, I wouldn't have given them a second thought. But now, when the woman that was my life depended on those sirens? Such a dreadful sound.
I hear doors slamming, and there are paramedics trying to pull me away. I fight back with a strength I didn't know I possessed, bucking against them. I throw myself over her, shielding her from the world.
"You can't leave me," I hear my strangled voice demand. As if it were someone else speaking. As if she could hear me.
Now I'm sobbing like a child. "I won't…let you…leave."
Again, there's someone behind me, gently pulling me upright. Suddenly weak, I succumb, standing erect as I stare down at her helpless body. The woman I love.
As they swiftly place her on the gurney and start to roll her into the back of the ambulance, I'm overcome with the fierce desire to be at her side, to see that she will be alright. Not caring for my stunned audience—or any other earthly reason, for that matter—I act without thinking.
When she's safely strapped in, I step swiftly towards the closest paramedic. I shove him brutally into the open backdoor, pinning him against the hard surface. My crazed eyes boring into his, I growl through gritted teeth, enunciating every syllable.
"You…have…to…save her. Do you understand me?" He eyes me cautiously before nodding deafly. I feel my face crumple. "Can I stay with her?" My voice cracks, thick with emotion. Again, that imperceptible nod.
I lurch myself up into the ambulance in one swift movement. At once I'm at her side. I hear my name spoken, or maybe it was just my fevered imagination. I'm grabbing her hand, chanting her name over and over. Her eyes flutter open.
Then she smiled at me, so sweetly, so serene, that I thought my heart would burst at that moment. Nothing else mattered in the world but that smile. Her lips barely moved, but there was no mistaking her words.
"You're all I ever think about, Rachel."
