A/N: I'm about to gain a few enemies...
Enjoy x
It happened on December 21st. It was a Thursday. Nobody had expected it, for it couldn't be expected. But within 30 minutes of it happening, the whole country knew. The press flocked to the scene like moth to a flame, and the story broke almost as quickly as the event itself had happened.
When the news broke at dawn, you could almost hear the American people's hearts breaking. For themselves and for everyone else involved. Nobody knew what to say, except the media.
"Senator Winters killed in mass shooting in Richmond, Virginia."
"Senator shot dead by masked gunman in Virginia."
The headlines were all pretty much the same. But they only told a portion of the story. The American people only knew a fraction of what had happened, but other people knew it all.
"Why exactly are you going into Richmond anyway?" Macey asked, straightening Preston's tie.
"Macey. It's four days before Christmas, and you're asking me why I'm going out into the city. Really?"
"You mean to tell me you haven't bought my present yet?"
"If I'd already bought it, you would have found it. It's one of the drawbacks of having a spy for a wife."
"Oh so there are drawbacks?"
"A few." He laughed, grabbing his keys off of the coffee table and opening the door. "I won't be long."
"The longer you are, the more thought you've put into my present."
"Then I'll probably be there until I die." He laughed, closing the door behind him.
As soon as he was gone, Macey's phone began to ring. It was Cammie.
"Hey Cam"
"Hey Mace, you busy today?"
"No, not really. Preston's out for the day and Isabella's at a friend's house so I'm at home by myself."
"Good."
"Good?"
"Yes, good. I need to go shopping, because otherwise Zach isn't going to have a Christmas present. So you're coming with me."
"Ugh, do I have to?"
"Macey, are you refusing a shopping opportunity?"
"Well I wouldn't usually, but I'm feeling very pregnant today."
"Well if you stay at home, then you'll feel very bored. Come on, I need an expert opinion on what to buy him."
"Fine, if you insist."
"I do, now you better get ready, I'll be round in 5 minutes."
"Cool, see you then." Macey said, and then ended the call.
Exactly 5 minutes later, Cammie's car pulled up outside the house. Macey walked outside and got into the car.
"Hey." Macey smiled
"Hey, you seem happier than when I spoke to you."
"Well, now I don't have to do nothing all day."
"Ah, so this is kind of like a mission."
"Don't even say that word. It reminds me of work, which is somewhere that I'd really like to be right now but..."
"But you're Macey, and you're pregnant so the Secret Service won't let you go back until after the baby is born, right?"
"Precisely. And it's really annoying."
"But it's for your own safety, and for the baby's."
"Yes, that may be so. But it might not be the same case for many innocent Americans."
"Ew, patriotic Macey is my least favourite kind of Macey."
"How about bitchy-because-of-hormones Macey?"
"Now that sounds like a Macey I could work with."
"Good, because you're stuck with her for the rest of the day. Now, where are we going exactly?"
"I was thinking we'd just head straight into the city."
"Fine, but we've gotta avoid all major jewellery stores."
"Why?"
"Preston is shopping. For my Christmas present."
"Well good luck to him." Cammie laughed.
For the rest of the journey, Cammie and Macey talked about various things. It had been just over 4 months since they'd last seen each other so they had a lot to catch up on. Most of Macey's stories were about Isabella, or Preston and most of Cammie's stories were about work. They both spoke about the contact that they'd had with Bex and Liz.
"We should all spend New Years together again, we haven't done that for years." Cammie suggested.
"Not that I can drink like I used to."
"Maybe that's not a bad thing." She laughed.
"But seriously, it sounds like a good idea. We haven't done anything all together since last year."
"I know, it's scary to be honest. At one point, I felt like we were just going to grow apart and lose contact."
"I don't think that could ever happen to us. Our lives are too connected now, there's no escaping each other." Macey laughed.
Soon enough, they arrived in the city centre and began shopping. As they were walking down the street, Macey noticed something that made alarm bells ring in her head.
"Cam." Macey said, in a hushed voice.
"What is it Macey?"
"You see that guy there, with the grey hoodie and his hands in his pockets?"
"Yeah?"
"Is it just me, or does he look kinda suspicious?"
"Kinda." Cammie replied in a tone of voice that told Macey that she was probably overreacting again.
So Macey dismissed what she had suspected, and they continued to walk around for a while. It hadn't been long since they'd first spotted him that they saw the same man again, this time he was standing outside Tiffany's. The man looked up at the building, placed his hand in his pocket and walked inside.
"Cam, I'm serious now. That guy..."
"Was probably nobody. Stop stressing."
"Cammie, he just walked into Tiffany's with something in his pocket."
"When you say something..."
"It looked like a gun."
"Macey, are you sure? Or is this just..."
"Just me overreacting? No, I swear..."
And then a shot rang out.
"Shit" Cammie cursed.
"What do we do?"
A second gunshot rang out.
"We let the cops handle it, Macey. I'm CIA, I can't get involved. I can't be seen here."
"It'll take forever for the cops to get here, by the time they arrive the whole city could be dead."
"We can't just burst in there."
"You mean you can't just burst in there."
"Macey, you're 5 months pregnant, you can't throw yourself in front of bullets."
"It's my job, Cammie!"
Another gunshot.
"Not now it isn't, not today."
"Look, we're not arguing about this."
And another.
"You're right, we're not. Because you're not going in. I can't let you go in."
"You're not gonna stop me though, because you can't be in there." Macey said, dropping her shopping bags at Cammie's feet and running across the road and into the building.
By the time she had gotten inside, Macey had lost count of how many gunshots she had heard. The building was silent, and bodies lay on the floor like fallen dominoes. She couldn't see the gunman, and it made her anxious. As she walked around the corner, she saw a man crouching behind a cabinet. They caught sight of each other at the same time, and he stood up to face her.
"Macey?"
"Preston?"
"You have to get out of here"
"So do you!"
This time the shot was much louder. Much closer. As it rang out, they both looked at each other to check if they'd been hit. But the bullet had just been a warning, as the gunman entered the room.
"Two bullets left." The man said. "How convenient. But which one to shoot first." He laughed to himself. Except it wasn't a laugh, but more of a deranged cackle.
"Macey, go." Preston ordered.
"I'm not leaving." She said, stepping closer to him.
"Macey, for God's sake. I'm not playing games here. Get the hell out, right now." He was scared. Macey could tell from the way that his voice was trembling. It was a sound that she hadn't heard in a long time.
"I'm not leaving." She repeated, standing her ground.
"Why'd you always have to save everyone else, huh? Why can't you just save yourself for once?"
"Because he's only going to shoot one of us first, and we both know which one of us it should be. Now, why don't you leave?"
"Damn it Macey."
What happened next was a blur for Macey. She had turned her head for a second, just a second, and the gunman had pulled the trigger. The bullet hurtled towards Preston at full speed, and hit him directly in the head , he dropped to the floor. If it wasn't for her screams, Macey would've heard the gunman blast the final bullet through his own brain, but she was crying too loud to hear anything else. As Preston dropped to the floor, Macey fell with him. She pulled her jacket off and used it to stop the blood flowing out of his head. He was still slightly conscious when she did this.
"Mace..."
"Don't talk Preston."
"You'll be okay..."
"Don't..."
"I have to..."
"No, don't you dare give me the I'm-gonna-die can't die on me. I need you."
"You don't. You'll be okay."
"I...I love you." And as his eyes shut, her tears continued to fall.
Macey didn't stop crying until much later in the day. She had called Cammie, who had gone back to Roseville and picked Isabella up from her friends. Everyone was back at Gallagher now, anxiously waiting for another call from Macey. But Macey was never going to be ready to make that call.
She had left it until 10pm to call them. All she said was "Get to the hospital" and then she cut off. When everyone arrived at the hospital, Macey was sitting in the waiting room by herself. Her hands were still covered in Preston's blood, as was the jacket that she held tightly. Cammie came to her side.
"Macey..."
"No news." Macey said, her eyes fixed on the floor.
"We left Isabella with Mom and Joe. She was asleep, and we didn't want to wake her. They said they'd stay with her."
Macey just nodded slightly. Cammie didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to say. She looked over at Bex and Liz, who just shook their head.
"Macey." Abby said, sitting down in the seat next to her. Macey lifted her head a little, but didn't make eye contact with Abby. "Have you eaten, or at least had a drink?"
Macey shook her head.
"Did you want to go get something?"
"The doctors. They might come out."
"We'll go then." Cammie said. "We'll all go and get something, and that'll give you some space." She smiled slightly as she walked off with Bex,Grant,Zach,Jonas and Liz. Townsend stayed behind, and sat on the chair next to Abby.
"He's not going to survive this." Macey stated.
"You don't know that." Abby replied.
"Yes I do. After I got shot, I knew that I'd be okay. But he won't be okay."
"He might be. People have been known to survive gunshot wounds to the head before." Townsend added.
"It's my fault." Macey whispered, but Abby heard it and it caught her attention.
"Don't you dare..."
"But it is. I was in the building with him, I had time to jump in front of the bullet."
"He would never have forgiven you for that."
"He'll never be able to forgive me now. I did this to him."
"No you didn't. I know that you're upset, but I'm still willing to kick your ass if you don't stop with this self-deprecation."
Macey just looked up at Abby, then at Townsend and sighed deeply.
"You're tired." Abby stated.
"No, I'm not."
"Macey, close your eyes."
"I can't sleep now."
"Yes you can."
And then Macey didn't protest anymore. She closed her eyes, and her head rested on Abby's shoulder. She could've only been asleep for half an hour when a surgeon walked towards them all, asking for Macey.
"Macey..." Abby called out, waking Macey gently.
"Yeah?" She asked, blinking to open her eyes.
"The doctor's are out, they want to talk to you."
Macey got up out of the chair, and walked to one side with the surgeon.
"Mrs Winters, I'm so sorry."
"He's dead, isn't he?"
"We did everything we could. But your husband is brain-dead. We have him on life support, so you and your family can say goodbye. I'm sorry for your loss." The surgeon finished what she was saying, and left Macey alone. As she walked back towards them, everyone looked up at her.
"Macey, what did they say?" Zach asked. But she just stood there.
"Mace?" Liz tried to get her to talk. But nothing.
"Macey just say something...anything" Cammie said, but still Macey stood there in silence. Then all of a sudden, she ran into the bathroom. She stood in front of the sink, coughing and crying. At first she stood up, holding onto the side but her legs went weak and she couldn't stand any longer so she fell to the ground in a heap of tears.
Then one by one, Cammie, Bex, and Liz came in. They sat down next to Macey and hugged her until she had stopped crying. It had taken nearly 25 minutes, but Macey finally stood up and walked out of the bathroom with Cammie, Bex and Liz by her side. As they walked out, the others looked up. Macey stood up in front of everybody and cleared her throat.
"He's brain-dead, but still on life support. We can say goodbye, but then we have to switch the machine off." She breathed, sitting back down in the chair.
Slowly, one by one, each person went in to say goodbye to Preston. Afterwards, most of them went home until only Macey, Cammie, Zach,Townsend and Abby were left in the waiting room. Cammie and Abby had gone to get drinks and Townsend was in the bathroom.
Macey sat there in silence and looked over at Zach.
"Why haven't you gone in yet?" She asked quietly, her throat dry from all the crying.
"I can't yet. I can't say goodbye to him yet."
"I know." She looked at him sympathetically for a moment, but then she realised that that was the way that everybody had been looking at her for the past few hours and decided to stop it. "And I'm going to have to deal with a crapload of reporters."
"Not yet you don't."
"I can't avoid them forever."
"You can avoid them for now."
"I'm sorry, Zach."
"Why?"
"I didn't save him, and I could've."
"You saved yourself. That's good enough for any of us."
"You mean that?"
"I do. And besides, if you had saved Preston then he'd never forgive you. He would've blamed himself for the rest of eternity, but he would've been angry at you too."
"I don't know how I'm going to do this. I can't raise two kids without him."
"You've got the rest of us. It'll be alright Macey."
"You don't know that."
"That's true. But it's what people say, so surely if they say it there must be some truth to it, right?"
"I'd like to believe so."
"So would I, Mace, so would I."
An hour later, only Macey and Abby remained in the waiting room. Cammie, Zach and Townsend were outside getting some air.
"Everyone's been in to see him, right?"
"Everyone but you." Abby replied.
"I should go, tell them to switch it all off."
"You need to say goodbye, Macey."
"I can't."
"I can go, if you need me to."
"No, it's okay."
"I'll wait out here, come get us all when you're ready."
"Okay." Macey said, getting up out of the chair and walking into the side room where Preston was laying on life support. She walked over to the bed, and sat on the edge.
"I don't really know what to say to you to be honest. I don't even know if you can hear me, but I hope you can. I think you can anyway. You told me that I'd be okay without you, that I don't need you. And for once, I really hope you're right. Because if I need you as much as I think, and as much as I've thought for my whole life, then I'm going to be completely lost. Since I believe that you can hear me, I need to tell you how hard this is for me. In a few minutes, I have to go out there and tell the nurses to switch your life support machine off. I have to tell them to stop you from staying alive. I don't know how I'm going to do it, or where I'm going to find the strength to do it from. But you said I'd be okay. And I trust you. I trust that you said I'll be okay, knowing what I'm capable of. The thing is, it's not exactly fair to force you to stay. Your body has pretty much shut down, and it wants to go. So I'm letting you go, once and for all this time and with the knowledge that I can never get you back. I'm sorry I couldn't save you, and I'm sorry you wouldn't have let me. And I love you, but you know that. You always did." Macey sighed, as tears began to roll down her cheeks once again.
She walked out of the room, and saw Cammie, Zach, Abby and Townsend still sitting in the waiting room.
"Macey?" Cammie said, looking up at her.
"Help me let him go. All of you, please." She pleaded, tears running down her cheeks faster and faster.
Cammie and Zach walked into the room hand in hand, as did Abby and Townsend. Abby wrapped her arm around Macey's shoulder and Cammie grabbed hold of her hand. They stood and watched as the machine was switched off, and they let Preston go. For good.
"It has been confirmed that Senator Preston Winters was shot dead in Richmond, Virginia today at 12:46pm. The attack was unplanned, and 11 other people were killed. The gunman has not yet been identified, but it has also been confirmed that he shot himself through the head after carrying out the attack. Preston's wife, Macey is to make an official speech on the matter momentarily." The reporter said as Macey began to walk out of the hospital entrance. Cammie stopped her just a second before she walked outside.
"You want me to come with you?" She asked.
"Thanks, but I think I better do this one alone." Macey smiled slightly as she walked out and stood in front of hundreds of other press reporters. She cleared her throat, and started to speak.
"As I stand here tonight outside this hospital, I have very little to say. You'll have to excuse my brevity, but I am exhausted and overwhelmed by the whole situation. My husband was killed today, by an unknown man for an unknown reason. I ask one thing of the media and the rest of the American people, and that is to give myself, my family and my friends the time and space that we need to grieve. I have a one year old daughter, who I have to go home to and explain how her father is never coming back. I have a mother in-law, who has lost her only son. And then there is myself. As of today, my whole world has crumbled into pieces that I don't know how to fix. So please, give us time. Thank you."
For the first time in Macey's life, she saw the press reporters put down their cameras. They stopped taking pictures for a moment, and they let her breathe. She smiled again briefly, then turned away from everyone and walked back into the hospital.
She was was okay. She was putting one foot in front of the other, she was walking, she was then she felt disorientated, and dizzy. The room was spinning, and her ears were ringing. She could see Cammie and Zach calling something out to her, but she couldn't make sense of what the words were. She couldn't make sense of anything. Then she fell to the floor, and everything faded from grey to black.
...Thank you for reading :) x