"Cath?" Noah said as he moved back to her side once more, kneeling next to her and taking her hand in his, feeling her pulse as he did. He fought down a wave of fear as he checked it. Way too fast and he thought a bit worse than the last time. He had to get them out of there and get her to a hospital soon.
Catherine smiled weakly at the sight of the young man leaning over her, his expression reassuring but worry written in his eyes. She hesitated for a moment not trusting herself to speak. She didn't want to go out like this, leave now. She wanted to be there to see the expression on Sam's face when he saw Noah restored to them by some miracle, wanted to be able to hold Sam in her arms and have things right between them again.... That wasn't so much to ask for, was it? Another look at Noah steeled her resolve though. She couldn't take any chances of something happening to that poor, sweet boy.
"Noah, you just sit right here with me, okay?" she told him as she gently squeezed his hand. "There isn't any reason for you to keep working on that stuff. Someone will be along to get you out of here shortly."
"Cath?" A cold feeling ran through his body as he quickly realized what was going on. "Catherine, you're going to be alright. Please don't give up now. I promise that there isn't much more to get out of the way and we'll be out of here." He started to stand and move back to the pile to show her. If she gave up.... He couldn't lose her now!
"Noah, it doesn't matter," Catherine whispered, her words startling him and stopping him from going anywhere. She weakly motioned for him to sit down beside her and smiled up at him once more. She knew he would be upset, he was so like Sam, but she couldn't let him risk himself. "It's been over an hour, hasn't it? You know what my chances are like after an hour." She didn't know exactly what she had injured, how severe it was, but she could make a pretty good guess from the worried expression on Noah's face and the slowly building pain in her stomach.
"Just because it's a few minutes over an hour doesn't mean that you suddenly have no chance," Noah said in an insistant tone. No way was he letting her do this. "Cath, you aren't hurt as bad as I was and I lived. You're going to be fine. Just let me see about getting us out of here."
"Noah, what did happen?" she asked. Distracting him for a bit might work. "Sam... he saw you die, Noah. How...."
"Lucky more than anything, least that's what I kept hearing. Right doctor was bringing some students through the ER at the right time. A lot of what they said went over my head. Little distracting when you wake up from a coma and can't even remember your name. Of course, the hospital beaurocrats were a bit more concerned that I couldn't remember what insurance company they could bill. Apparently whatever they had to do to patch up the damage was kind of expensive."
"Oh, Noah...." Catherine whispered as she reached up, gently touching his face for a moment, reassured that she was doing the right thing.
"Cath, it's okay. I'm fine now. Catherine, I swear to you that I'm fine." he said in an insistant tone. "I've just spent the last three years cleaning up after a hoard of adolescents that I think would frighten even Sam. If I can manage that, I think I'm probably in good enough shape to get a little debris out of the way so we can get out of here."
"Noah, if anything happened to you...." Catherine closed her eyes for a moment and he froze in fear, worried she was slipping away. He gently reached out and touched her cheek causing her eyes to blink open again. "Noah, it would break Sam's heart to lose both of us. Honey, I'm dying. You know it and I know it. Don't risk yourself for nothing. Just sit here with me, okay?" Tears started to run down her cheeks. Despite knowing intellectually that she was dying and that she was making the right decision to protect Noah, she was afraid. To never see Sam again, to never have him hold her, kiss her....
"Cath," Noah hesitated for a moment before laying down next to her again and cuddling as close to her as he could. He knew that time was of the essence if he was going to get them out of there but at the same time he knew he couldn't just leave Catherine this upset and frightened. That might end up killing her quicker than any delays. "Catherine, if Sam was here, would you trust him if he said you weren't going to die? If you would trust Sam, please trust me. I'm not going to let you die, Catherine. I swear I'm not."
"If anything happened to you, Sam...."
"If I sit here and let you die without at least trying to get us out of here, Cath, I won't ever be able to look Sam in the face again. You want me to get in that much trouble with Sam?"
"He wouldn't blame you. He loves you, Noah." Her hand gently squeezed his again. "Honey, it will be okay. I've had a good life. Sam knows that. You just take care of him for me, okay?"
"Cath, I'll take care of him while you're in the hospital but after that, he's all yours again." Noah said with a slight smile. "Now come on, okay? Let me get back to getting that stuff out of the way. It's been an hour. They've got to be pretty close to finding us. Few more minutes and I'll bet we'll be out of here. Come on, you can give me a few more minutes, right? What's that going to hurt?"
"But...."
"Just a few more minutes." If he had to, he would a few more minutes Cath for the next hour until they were out of there. No matter what, he wasn't going to lose her, not even if he had to fight her every inch of the way to keep her alive. "Few more minutes never hurt anyone. Now, come on. Keep talking to me. Hey's how's Cos's hair looking now? He done anything worse with it since I saw him?"