Disclaimer: Writing this gets tiresome, but I don't own the characters.

Authors Notes: Thanks for all the magnificent reviews; you're so very wonderful. Thanks times infinity. 

cinque

His hand caressed my cheek, so I snuggled into it. Encouraging a brief smile that barely hung to his dimples for a second. He still worried. His eyes never left my face, as he lightly tickled my cheeks or ran his fingers faintly through my hair.  He smiled when I did and talked when I tried to. And he stayed with me for hours and days, his gaze never leaving my face. I doubt it did when I was asleep. He stayed as long as he could, till the nurse's faces became cold as ice. Till one of them threatened to hit him with the broomstick. He didn't go to work regularly. When I questioned him he whispered that Deakin's understood. And that it didn't matter, he needed me more than New York needed him. He would place a kiss on my forehead when he arrived and before he left, gently cementing it with a slight brush of his thumb. And when he would leave, my heart would sink. And that's when I realised it, that I returned his love, and my heart was becoming more and more dependant on him, every second.

And now she would leave, be emancipated from this suffering environment that was suffocating her spirit. Have the liberty to walk away from the reminders of her affliction and return her focus to her life, to her work and maybe him.

He smiled as her gaze shifted from the window to his eyes.

"One day left." Alex said with a slight grin.

He nodded, stroking some hair from her eyes as he sat on the bed, gently leaning over her. "You have to take it easy." He said, his concern hung heavy in his voice.

She raised her eyebrows at his statement. She wriggled into a more comfortable position, lowering her weight into the sheets and her gaze into his eyes.

He picked up her hand and held it on his lap, covering it in his own. He snuck a quick peak at his watch. 7:30. She looked up. "Are you going?"

He shook his head. "I just wanted to see how long I've got until that nurse turns up with her broom."

She grinned until a stabbing pain in her chest punished her. A sharp intense pain that she covered with a slight wince.

He frowned, lowering his brow just slightly and tilting his head down, just till slight shadows met his concern. He brushed his hand through her hair, its mere lightness intriguing his fingertips as he tried to reassure her. "I don't want to go." He chewed his lip, directing his gaze away from her for just a second, denying inevitability.

"I don't think you get a choice." She swallowed hard, as the pain discovered itself again.

He nodded, pausing in his eyes brightening as they discovered the room.

Sharp rays of light filtered through the partings of the curtains, flowing yet stagnant, providing a dreamy emergence for the thousands on dust particles idle in the air. Tiresome beige walls desired to stultify the mood were camouflaged in lush vermilions, ivories and jades of the flowers. White sheets crumpled in emotional urgency and pungent aromas of disinfectant, cold metal and blossom condensed the air. She lay comfortable yet anxious, blending into the sheets the encompassed her.

The last while had remained a perpetual moment exclusively theirs. A moment in time, in space, in a reality that wouldn't always exist, and almost didn't. One of the million that grew seemingly trivial with every generation, sometimes only ever restored in a second of thought provocation, a wild contemplation of loss and value. And he could hold these memories forever, and it would never fade from his mind. Why must it be any less real in the future or past than present? He can perceive her ashen face, her smell, and her heat. Sense the radiating warmth of her presence and tangible glow exuding from her smile, then she will remain forever. A thousand small memories, each of immense significance and together a history defined. If a second could delineate life, create the future, redefine the past, and make people consider the present, it could remain forever, longer than a life, longer than life itself and never diminish in its luminescence or torture.

He returned his eyes to hers and smiled, embracing her face in his mind. He bit his lip and whispered, as he saw the nurse pass by the door.  "Thank you for being okay?"

She tugged at his jacket and pulled his head down hers, her lips embracing his forehead. And she whispered with a slight grin. "Like I had a choice."