A/N: The song used is 1,000 Oceans.

1,000 Oceans

Alexandria was sitting by Mariana's bed, holding onto her hand. Her fingers were sticking straight out, and the heart monitor was weighing her pointer finger down a bit. Alexandria started crying softly. The last time Mariana had almost been killed she hadn't been lifeless like this. She had lost consciousness, but she had quickly been revived. She hadn't been lying in a bed in a coma, not able to move, or even hold her fingers straight without someone else holding onto her hand.

"Ana, please. Please come back to us," Alexandria whispered.

~*~*~*~*~

These tears I've cried

I've cried 1,000 oceans.

And it seems I'm floating

in the darkness.

She was all alone. Sitting…somewhere…with her back against…something. No! Wait! She was…lying…somewhere…with her back against…the ground. Tears silently streamed down her face. She suddenly grew scared and quickly pushed herself up into sitting position. A pain shot through her stomach and she looked down. She was covered in blood. Blood from where? Blood from whom? Herself?

She looked for a hole on her abdomen but couldn't find one. She only saw a scar on her stomach. Not a scar from the stab wound, a scar from something else. Something she didn't know. She couldn't remember. So where was the blood coming from? She began looking around and saw where the blood was coming from.

Mitchell!

Her heart leapt into her throat. Her love, her soul mate, lying a few feet away, bleeding. Bleeding all over. The blood covered the floor where Mariana had been lying. But how did she get blood on her stomach? She pulled her shirt around slightly so she could see the back. No blood there. How did that work?

But there was something more important than figuring out how the blood missed staining the back of her shirt but stained the front when she had been lying on her back. She had to check on Mitchell.

"Mitchell?" she whispered. "Mitchell?!"

She stood up, but fell over, more pain shooting through her stomach. Quickly, she began crawling over until she was kneeling beside him. She began to check him, to see where the blood was coming from, her hands turning red. She finally saw a small hole over his heart.

"Mitchell!" she screamed. As she fingered the hole, it closed up and the blood on Mitchell disappeared. He floated up to the ceiling and looked down at her. She looked down at her shirt, the blood had now disappeared. But the blood on her hands was still there. She spit on them and rubbed them together to try to get rid of the blood, but it was if the blood was naturally part of her hands.

Mitchell looked down at her and then said, "Ana, baby, stand up."

"I can't Mitchell. It hurts," she said. "And what happened to you? One minute you were hurt and the next you're fine and…and floating."

Mitchell suddenly landed on the floor, looking down at her. He bent over and grabbed hold of her arms and pulled her up. "You can stand Ana. You can."

And suddenly she realized she could stand up. "You know what happened to me Ana."

"No I don't!" she yelled.

"Then why are you yelling? You want to keep it buried in you so that you don't have to realize it and accept what happened. But you know," he told her.

"No, I don't! I don't know what happened to you!" she yelled again.

Mitchell grabbed her hands and held them. Softly he said, "Ana, you know what happened to me. You're trying to hide from the truth. That's why you're sleeping, so that you don't have to accept it. Because if you accept it, then you have to deal with it."

Mariana started crying again. "Baby, you have to…"

"I know! You told me enough already! But I can't! I can't! I can't face it! Look what I did to you!" she yelled through tears. "I can't face that! I can't face the fact that I killed you!"

Mitchell's eyes widened. "You didn't kill me!"

"Yes I did! It was because of me that Warner was jealous of you! It's because of me that he shot you!" Mariana yelled.

Mitchell felt the dried blood on Ana's hands. He turned them over so that he could look at her palms. "You have my blood on your hands."

"More proof that I killed you!" Ana said.

"No, baby. It's not proof that you killed me. It's only proof that you feel guilty because of my death," he told her. "You're dreaming, baby. Everything is symbolic…not literal."

"The blood won't come off," Mariana whispered as she stopped crying the tears drying on her face.

"Ana, look at her hands," Mitchell whispered and she lowered her gaze to her blood stained hands. "You did not kill me. You did not do anything to hurt me. I love you and I know you love me. Warner was crazy and he had an obsession. That's why I died. And I'm glad I had you while I was still alive. If I had lived a hundred years and not had you as my girlfriend, as someone who loved me more than anything, I would've been the saddest man on the earth. I lived seventeen years, but I had you. And you made my life worth living. I love you. You did nothing to hurt me. You only loved me. That's all I ever wanted from you."

Mariana watched in amazement as the blood on her hand disappeared as he was talking until her hands were clean. "I don't know how I can live without you Mitchell."

"You'll find a way," he whispered as he pulled her closer to him.

"I can just stay here. With you," she whispered back as the sound of soft crying filled the room. "Why are you crying Mitchell?"

"I'm not," he whispered back. "I could never cry in your arms."

"Who else is here?" Mariana asked.

"Alexandria," he told her.

"What's Alexandria doing in this hallway?" she asked.

"We're not in a hallway. We're in your room," Mitchell said.

"My room?"

"Your hospital room."

"We're in the hallway at school. The hallway where you were killed," she told him.

Mitchell pulled back. "We're not at school. I followed you to the hospital. Remember? And when I saw that they were working hard on you I started to leave. And you followed me."

"And you told me to go back," she whispered.

"I stayed with you for awhile longer. I waited until you stopped crying so that I could talk to you. You finally stopped," he told her.

"So why is Alexandria crying?" Mariana asked, her protective twin instincts starting to take over her own grief.

"Look," Mitchell pointed over her shoulder. She turned around and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

She saw herself in a bed, hooked up to machines. And her sister beside her bed holding her hand, crying.

"She needs you Ana. She needs you more than I do. I'll be fine where I'm going. But she needs her twin sister on earth with her. And your niece or nephew needs its aunt," Mitchell whispered in her ear. "Don't you want to be with your sister?"

Mariana nodded. "Of course I do. She's been with me through a lot of hard times in my life; I want to be there with her through hers. But I don't know how I can live without you."

"You won't live without me. I'll always be with you. I'll always be in your heart," he whispered in her ear.

"I don't just want you in my heart, I want you where I can see you and talk to you," she told him.

"I wish I could be Ana. You don't know how much I wish I could be here with you, and graduate with you, and marry you. I wish you and I could children together…I know you don't want any, but someday I think you will," he told her and she smiled at the thought. "But you know what, I'm just fine here too. The only bad thing is I don't have you."

Mariana turned around to face him. "Then let me come with you!"

"You can't Ana," he said.

"Why not?" she asked him.

"Because I want you to live a long life. And, because you only have me here. There you have that," he said, turning her back around.

"Ana, please. Please come back to us," Alexandria whispered.

~*~*~*~*~

There was a slight knock on the door. Luka and Abby opened up the door and walked in. "How are you Alexandria?" Luka asked.

"Why won't she listen?" Alexandria asked him.

"What?" he asked confused.

Alexandria dropped Mariana's hand and jumped out of the chair she was sitting in. "I know that Ana can hear me in there. Why isn't she listening? Why won't she come back? I keep asking her to come back! I know she can hear me! Why won't she? Why isn't she listening? I need her! I can't live without her!"

"Alexandria, maybe, maybe she can't come back. Maybe her body isn't strong enough to live. Or…"

"Or?" Alexandria whispered.

"Nothing," he said softly.

"Or what?" she yelled.

"Or maybe she doesn't want to come back."

"How can she not want to come back?" Alexandria shouted.

"She has to live without Mitchell if she comes back. She has to live with the pain of not only having been shot, but she has to live without Mitchell. She was always at Mitchell's when she needed someone who would just sit there and comfort her. Without him here, who does she go to with that comfort?"

"Me," Alexandria said. "She comes to me anyway; she'll just come to me all the time."

"It's not the same to go to you," Luka said.

"What do you mean? I'm not as good as Mitchell!? I can't help her through tough situations as well!?" she yelled.

"No. Not that. It's just that, you're going through the same things she's going through. She needs someone who isn't going through the same things to be there for her too. You have Michael and Carter. Ana had Mitchell. And now, Mitchell is gone," Luka explained.

"I just…I can't live without her! I can't raise this baby without her!" Alexandria yelled. Then she turned to look at her sister and broke into tears. She ran over to her sister and grabbed her hand. Crying into it she whispered, "I'm sorry, Ana. I'm sorry I was so mad at you. I just need you here. I need you to come back. Come back!"

Luka came over and patted her shoulder, "Alexandria, I think you need a break."

"No!" Alexandria yelled at him. Then at her sister she yelled, "COME BACK!!"

A nurse rushed into the room. "Alexandria. Let Luka and Abby take you down to the cafeteria for a little while. Or go home and get some sleep."

"No!"

"Alexandria, it'll be best for you…and for her…if you leave and cool down for awhile," the nurse said.

"It'll be better for Ana if I leave for awhile?" Alexandria whispered.

"Yes, it will."

Alexandria nodded. "Maybe I should go home and get some sleep."

The nurse nodded, smiling. She followed Luka, Alexandria and Abby out the door. "Yes, I think that's a good idea. I'll call Dave," she said as the door slammed shut behind her.

~*~*~*~*~

Well, I can't believe that I would keep,

keep you from flying

"I can't leave her," Ana whispered. "I can't, and I don't want too."

Mitchell nodded. "I'm glad you see it the way I do. I think I should go. You'll be more willing to return if I'm not here."

"No! Don't go yet! I can't lose you yet! Not yet!" Mariana yelled, tears streaming down her face.

Mitchell smiled at her. "I can stay for a little while longer, baby."

They both sat down, Mitchell wrapping his arms around Ana. "I'm still here," he whispered.

And I would cry 1,000 more if that's

what it takes to sail you home

sail you home,

sail you home.

~*~*~*~*~

Alexandria was lying on her bed, her hands on her stomach over her baby. She was listening to her country music when "Lets Make Love" by Faith Hill came on. As she listened to the song a realization hit her...when she got married, would she be able to enjoy making love to her husband after what Sergei had done?

Would she ever be able to get married without Mariana at her side?