Twenty-fours hours earlier….

Frank had his back turned when the gun when off. It wasn't intentional; he'd gotten knocked to the side a minute beforehand. But he hadn't worried too much, since Nancy would easily be able to hold her own in the few seconds before he rejoined the action. But then the gun went off.

At first, he didn't understand. The gun had been knocked to the floor – he saw it there still. So what was going on? Had the police arrived?

And then Nancy collapsed. And he saw another gun in their kidnapper's hand. His eyesight mysteriously began to blur as he looked at his friend.

"Oh god….Nancy!" He forgot about the man with the gun, forgot about the risk to his own life, he just got to her side as fast as he could. "Nancy, ohmigod, oh no, no…"

The blood was already emerging, crimson against the white blouse she was wearing. He frantically ripped a strip of cloth from his own shirt and pressed it to her, trying to staunch the blood.

"Nancy…." The tears were running freely down his cheeks now. "Nancy, fight, c'mon, you'll be okay, I'll get you out of here…"

"Frank," she said softly, to get his attention. He gazed at her sadly. "Frank, go after him."

"Nancy, I can't. You've lost so much blood already, I need to help you, the police can get him later, I-" He was babbling, almost incoherently,

"Frank." Her voice was oddly calm. Her expression was pained and afraid, but yet her voice was calm, to soothe him. He didn't know how she managed that. Aquamarine eyes stared into his own brown ones, forcing him to focus on her. For a single moment, their gazes locked, and he actually did feel calmer. But then her eyes closed.

"No, Nancy…don't do this, c'mon…" He checked for the pulse, checked for breathing. Barely there and then not there at all. "Don't leave me, Nancy, c'mon…" He tried CPR, then frantically looked for a phone. Their kidnapper had used a cell phone to make the ransom call, and that appeared to be gone. Where the hell were phones when you needed them? Finally, he had to admit he needed to leave her side, find a phone somewhere. But he didn't want to leave. They were in a mostly abandoned district, not likely to be in reach of a phone.

He ran two blocks before finding a payphone. Two blocks that took him away from her, away from keeping her alive. He rushed through the 911 call, broke protocol and hung up after the ambulance was dispatched, and ran back to her.

The medics had to pry Frank away from doing CPR when they arrived. Nancy was loaded onto a stretcher, and her face left uncovered, because he went hysterical when they tried to place the sheet over her head.

"She's not dead," he kept protesting. "She can't be dead. She just can't be." He was placed in another ambulance, and both rushed to the hospital. It was no good.

Nancy was pronounced dead on arrival, and Frank's world collapsed.