Thank you people so much for your reviews. They made me so happy, that I, despite feeling like crap, got my ass out off bed and finished Chapter Seven for you.

I have, for everyone who may have not noticed, after all it was marked 'complete' from the begining, updated a second chapter to my story 'The Monarch'. I'm not fishing for reviews here, just thought I let people who like to read it but may not have seen it, know :D

Chapter Seven

She thought getting shot hurt like hell. She honestly can't describe what this feels like. Definitively worse, but still, even if she was able to in her current state, she could not find the appropriate words.

She tries to wake up, tries to tell him something is wrong, but she can't. Her eyelids are too heavy, wouldn't move and she is just too tired to do anything else. She feels incredible pain from the right side of her body spreading through her. She can't quite say for certain if it is coming from her shoulder, though where else could it be coming from?! Then the shaking starts and she can't breathe. She vaguely remembers the sensation from last time but she had been unconscious before somebody, presumably Barbie, found her.

She's not this time. Can feel every bit of pain, can hear every noise around her (The kids and Barbie are all sound asleep), experiencing the horrible feeling of suffocating she, just hours ago, so desperately wanted to feel. But she doesn't anymore. He is safe now, the kids are safe now.

They are safe now.

Apart from the fact that she can feel her life drain out off her slowly.

He moves beside her, the shift in his breathing undoubtedly indicating he's awake. He must be noticing her shivering, is going to help her. He pulls the blanket tighter around her, wraps her in his, too. He holds her, trying to warm her up and the pain just keeps getting worse and worse. She wants to scream, both because it hurt and because she isn't freezing, why can't he see that!? But she can't.

She hears him talking to her, wants to answer him, needs to answer him. But she can't.

She begs to anyone who can hear her, that he recognizes her barely there heart beat when his hand travels up her chest.

He does.

Then everything happens fast. Something presses on her injured shoulder, worsening the pain even more. She lets out a whimper, can hear herself in the stillness of the bomb shelter. Somewhere in the back of her mind she hears him screaming her name, begging with her, but the pain is the only clear thing in her head right now.

Angie is taking charge. There is a reason we don't let loved ones in the OR and Julia is experiencing that first hand right now. She never would blame Barbie if she died right here, wouldn't know if she could put him back together. Even with all the medical knowledge in the world.

Julia is no doctor and in no condition to think right now but what Angie is saying about her pulse not getting weaker at least means she's not dead yet. The shaking however seems to get worse each second.

She feels cold now, like ice being pushed through her veins and she wishes she would just give into the pain. Not dying, no because she does not want that anymore, but blacking out would be pretty good right about now.

Angie is still talking but she doesn't hear any of that. She is focused on his voice that keeps whispering her name over and over again, telling her he needs her, telling her he loves her. That's what she is holding on to through the pain. She doesn't want to die without him knowing that she loves him back.

She doesn't know how much of this she actually remembers when (if) she wakes up but knowing it now, is reason enough for her to fight.

Someone is doing something on her right shoulder, she could feel as much but awake or not, she probably wouldn't want to know what that something is. The feeling alternates between little stitches and the excruciating pressure she felt before.

And then, something sharp penetrates her skin, setting it on fire and she wants to scream, wants to hit something. Wants to scream at him, to hit him, for causing her all that pain.

She doesn't stop shaking when he's finally done but she eventually falls unconscious.

She wakes up in the dark, isn't quite sure where she is. She ponders being dead but her wound hurt very badly. She hasn't been dead before but she is sure dead people don't hurt. Then she feels him arm around her stomach, his head pressed into her red locks, breathing onto her neck. He had shifted sides some time during the night, sleeping on her left side now, probably so he wouldn't cause her pain.

She tries to sit up, but she's too tired and drowsy and weak to even lift her arms. She turns her head, looks at him, her eyes tracing the outline of his face without actually seeing him. She had done this far too often for the short amount of time they've known each other. She can point out every scar, every mole, every unique feature without a moment's hesitation.

So she opts for staying where she is, better for her shoulder anyway, and watches him sleep. She wants to wake him, wants to show him she's okay but she figures he needs his sleep. She doesn't know about him but if it had been Barbie, she would have stayed awake until the last possible moment, hoping he'd wake up. Angie, Joe and Norrie are asleep, too. As her sight adjusts to the darkness of the room, she can make out a lone figure on the top bunk opposite her and two on the bottom one.

She smiles, stops thinking about almost dying and herself and Barbie for a moment. She knows Joe since she moved to Chester's Mill, met Norrie sometime after the Dome came down. She likes those kids, and despite her being an adult (teenagers that age don't really want to get along with them) they seem to like her, too. She can't say if it had something to do with them all being some kind of linked or if they actually like her but if she and Barbie aren't alone in this, then she doesn't really care.

She wonders if they know how obviously in love they are, wonders if she and Barbie were that obviously in love. In a town, where she, three days ago, technically still had been married. In a town, where she, now, was on the run with her husband's murderer.

He stirs beside her and she is glad for the distraction. She doesn't want to think about her husband or what could have been, if the children had been too late. She doesn't want to think about what is going on outside their safe place down here. She doesn't want to think about what will happen, if they are found.

What she wants to do is think about Barbie and Joe and Angie and Norrie. What she wants to do is think about how to survive in here for as long as possible, how to spend their days down here. What she wants to do is think about being with the only friends and family she has right now.

His breathing shifts, his arm tightens around her stomach and his lashes tickle her throat as he opens his eyes.

"I love you, too, you know"