Ripley POV

It turns out when your life flashes before your eyes, it's not necessarily all you that you see. It's the life you belong to, whichever life you call yours.

So naturally I saw Paul. His was the life I belonged to.

I saw our childhood. I saw us finding each other again. I saw our love, and the life we had built.

Most importantly, I saw the things that were yet to come. The things I still wanted to happen for me and for us. I wanted to find what I'd be in life. I wanted to marry the boy whose heart beat echoed in my fist. I wanted to have children. I wanted to share my life with my friends and family. I wanted their lives to mesh with mine, so we all belonged together, without a doubt.

I didn't want this ugliness to be what I was remembered for. I didn't want them to win.

So I fought, and I'd be damned if I didn't win.

I could tell, even in the fog, that I still had a long road ahead of me.

I felt unbelievably tired. The exhaustion didn't cloud the pain though. I had woken up four or five times before, but I couldn't stay awake.

The first time, I saw his eyes staring back at me. He looked like I felt. I remembered trying to reach for him, but not being able to move. I could only keep my eyes open for a moment, but it was enough to scare me.

He looked so sad, and yet hopeful. He needed me. I needed to wake up.

The second time, I wasn't awake long enough to look for Paul. I just saw Maura in her nurse scrubs, hovering over me. She smiled once, and then I was asleep again.

The third time, I didn't remember fully, but remembered enough of the conversation with Carlisle, to know I was hurt badly. It wasn't just a broken bone and bruises this time. Now it was several, with lacerations, contusions, and a stab wound. My personal record for injuries. I must have freaked out when I was told about how I'd need physical therapy and possibly months in the hospital, because next thing I knew, Carlisle had stopped speaking to me, and pressed a button. It must have accelerated my med intake, since I went under again.

I wished they'd stop giving me pain meds, just for a little while. I wanted to see my family. I wanted to test how much I could move and feel. I wanted to know where those animals were, and if they got arrested.

But I couldn't concentrate. I could only sleep.

The fourth or fifth time, I was getting frustrated, and fought to stay awake. I sighed, which was what roused Paul. I regretted that, he needed sleep.

He lifted his head and rubbed his hands over his eyes. I had a hard time regretting waking him when he broke out into a smile.

"Hey." He reached closer to me and took my other hand. I realized he had already been holding the other in his sleep. "How are you feeling?" He asked and then checked me over as if my body would tell him.

"Like I got my ass handed to me." I shifted my head and regretted it. It allowed me to notice him flinching. "Paul, you're going to have to get used to hearing about it, its part of our past now. It'll be over soon."

"What makes you say it's not over already?" His eyes turned dark.

"It won't be until they are gone or behind bars." I met his eyes and felt the strength to finally ask the question I needed to know. "Where are they?"

Paul shook a little but a squeeze from my hand made him stop. "I haven't left here to look for them."

"How long has it been?" I tried to straighten up to look for a clock and felt the room whirl. Paul sat up and laid his hands on my shoulders.

"Don't move please, you need rest."

"I've been resting, damnit. How long?"

"It happened three days ago." He said, and something in my expression must have made him concerned because he gently squeezed my hand with one of his, and with the other he caressed my face. "You had surgery that night, and then the morphine kept you out for a while. You've woken up a few times, but this is the first time you've been this lucid. The other times, you weren't too clear."

"What do you mean? Did I say weird things?"

"Yea, but I understood you for the most part. I usually do." He looked more at ease. "About…who did this to you." His jaw clenched. "I don't want you to worry. The police are involved, which will make the pack, and the Cullen's tracking them down more difficult, but there's nothing for you to worry about. They won't come near you."

"It's not that I'm scared really. I'm just angry."

"What about?"

"I couldn't do anything. I kept trying and it wasn't enough." I felt my own jaw clench. "They weren't even like you. They were human, and I still couldn't fight back. It's pathetic." To my horror I realized my voice had hitched, making me feel even more pathetic. I avoided Paul's glance as my eyes filled, but he didn't allow that.

Instead he took my chin in his hand, so I was forced to face him. I kept my eyes down, making him sigh.

"Look at me," he asked. If he had said it in his usual tone, I might have resisted. But he spoke so softly, that I had to comply. When my eyes met his brown ones, they softened more. "You are not pathetic. It doesn't matter if they were humans, werewolves, or vampires. You impressed everyone. Six men that size against you, you could have easily been killed." He cracked over the word killed, but held on to his composure. "You kept fighting. You didn't give up. There is nothing pathetic about that. I am nothing but proud and impressed by you and what you can do. Being human has nothing to do with it."

"If I was like you, I wouldn't have to be in this position. I wouldn't be stuck in this place for who knows how long. I wouldn't have to rely on you to save me. Do you know that's all I kept thinking. That's why I kept fighting. I knew I just had to hang on, and that you'd get there."

"I didn't as soon as I should have." He said so low and devastatingly, that part of me broke.

I placed my hand over the one he still kept on my chin. "You got to me. That's what matters."

"And you fought it, that's what matters. You don't rely on me as much as you could Ripley. Just because you knew I'd find you, doesn't make you any less strong. What you did, and what I know you'll continue to do, set the bar for the rest of us strength wise. Muscles, abilities…that's not strength. You are. Your mine. Just the idea of the strength you give me is what's been keeping me going through this. I hope I can be even half as strong as you are, and I hope I give you all you've given me."

I felt my eyes fill again, but not from fear or anger. Only from love. "You give me everything." I said and saw him light up. Maybe these were the things I never said enough of. How much he meant to me, or how amazing I thought he was. Everything we do for each other is something most people never dream possible. Yet, it was something we never seemed to say enough. Whether it was from not wanting to be like every other sappy couple, or because after all this time we just skipped that step, I wasn't sure. But I knew I'd make sure I told him that every day from now on.

That would be what would get me through these next hard months of recovering and accepting what happened, and how I couldn't control it. Instead, I'd use the strength Paul was so sure I had, and the strength he himself gave me, and I'd survive.

I reached for him, which made me wince and he growled. "Oh, don't be a brat and hold me will you?"

"You're bossy when you're injured." He said, but went along with it. I think he needed to hold me as much as I needed to be held. He did so gently, and I only felt a few twinges.

I relished in the feeling of his body closer to mine. I breathed him in, and felt relief.

"I love you." He whispered so sincerely I felt all the pain ooze out of me.

I still had fear. I still had anger. But I no longer felt in any way inadequate. How could I, when I belonged to something so strong? A love that hadn't diminished, even when paused.

He didn't give up on me, so I wouldn't give up on the life we had ahead.

I'll fight, and I'll be damned if I don't win.