A/N and trigger warning: Hey, everyone! This is a fairly short chapter but we decided to include a trigger warning that this is a sad and potentially distressing chapter because it includes a death. You have been warned. On that happy note, please read, review, and enjoy! Thanks so much!

Chapter 9: Till Death Do Us Part

Lulu's Perspective

The searing tear of the bullet, the ripping of flesh . . . it never came. I waited patiently, waited for the agony, waited for death. It never came. Fearfully, I opened my eyes just to meet the expression of sheer despair and shock belonging to my captor. Sweat beaded down his face as he clutched his side, crimson pooling into the fabric of his shirt.

He fell to his knees, then to the ground, and his movements stilled. He . . . he was dead.

But there were two bullets, weren't there? Terrified beyond words, my eyes scoped the room. The man named Jack was standing tall with his gun elevated, he had been the one to shoot the man. He looked absolutely stunned, and the blood was draining from everyone's faces as they were looking at me, but not quite at me. They hadn't been shot, nor Cam . . . Cam! I would never forget the expression on her face. Pure, sickening horror . . . but why?

I think that in my heart, I knew. I was just too afraid to allow myself come to that conclusion, come to the conclusion that if they weren't shot, and I wasn't shot, then there was only one person left. . . .

A strangled sigh puffed out near me and I finally shifted my gaze over, finally accepted the truth. It was my mom.

She had been shot right in the chest, right where her beautiful, loving pure heart was. . . . There was so much blood, so, so much blood. . . .

Mom was looking right at me, calmly almost. She was at peace with her decision to take that bullet for me, to save me.

At last, I snapped out of my trance and dove over to her, pushing down on the bullet wound in her chest with all my might but the blood kept gurgling up. "Mom, please!" I didn't even realize I was crying until the sobs nearly overtook me. "Stay with me, Mommy!"

Another pair of hands joined mine, masculine hands. The other man, the man who wasn't Jack, told me gently, "Let me take care of her."

"No!" I shouted. "Stay away from my mom! I don't . . . I don't know you people!" But he was more experienced than me in medical practices I soon realized, so I reluctantly let him take over.

Cam dragged herself next to me, silent tears falling from her eyes. She was barely holding herself up. With a shaky hand, she clutched mine and we looked down in anguish as our mother's breaths became shorter.

"Owen, can you help her? You've got to save her," Cam croaked, rubbing at her throat and shoulder absentmindedly as the strength seeped out of her. She slumped against me, struggling to keep her eyes open, and I propped her up.

"Cam, you know the answer to that," he said, deep sadness in his tone. No, no, no! I thought, unable to find the voice to express my sorrow.

"Use the artifact!" Cam begged of him but something awful occurred to me.

"That's not how it works," I said with as much bitterness as I could muster. "I'm speaking from experience, it only works when the weapon is removed from your body."

The man's dark eyes shadowed over till they were nearly black. "The bullet is lodged inside of your mother's heart. If I tried to remove it, she wouldn't make it until we could connect the artifact to her. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do." Cam cried out in frustration.

Mom told him quietly, since his hands were still pressed against the gaping hole, "Please, let go. I know I'm dying. I can already feel it . . . feel it around me. I just . . . I just need to say a few things."

The man named Owen came over to wrap his arm around Cam's shoulders, supporting her weight almost completely and the other woman sat besides them, but now I was only focused on one person: my mom.

Our mom's eyes flickered back between Cam and I, and it warmed my heart to see the unmistakable gleam of love and pride. "My beautiful, amazing daughters. I am so undeserving of you two, yet you made me feel loved and important everyday even though you were beyond the lives I could give you."

"Mom," Cam said through her tears, her voice strained and dry but she fought with everything to get out every word. "You gave us everything we could need, everything we could want. Never doubt that. You deserve everything in the world and so much more."

"You're the best mom we could have asked for," I sobbed and I felt a strong hand grip my shoulder's: Jack's. My mom feebly lifted up her hands and Cam and I each took one in our own. I kissed it tenderly before gasping, "I'm so sorry, Mommy, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have stolen the artifact, or this wouldn't be happening-"

"Never be sorry, my precious daughter," my mom crooned, her voice, her movements, everything about her weakening. "You are not at fault, don't you dare blame yourself."

I refused to show my doubt in front of her so all I could do was whisper, "I love you so much, Mommy." She squeezed my hand and I cradled it to my chest.

"I love you so much," Cam breathed the same time as me, kissing Mom's other hand.

"I love you both, so much." She smiled warmly then looked past me, right at Jack. "Jack . . . I need you to take care of them. Take care of my babies."

He nodded stoically, but I ignored that interaction. It suddenly occurred to me exactly what was happening. I begged, "Mom, no! Stay with us, please! Please don't leave us, we need you, we love you!" Cam wept into Mom's hand.

"You're both so, so strong." The light began to leave my mom's eyes and she summoned up the last of her energy to say ever so softly, "I love you."

As the words fell from her mouth, her eyes glazed over completely and death embraced her. Jasmine Elizabeth Bennett was gone from this world and onto the next. My mom was dead.