Chapter 7

When they got back to the hotel room Fred and Russ still had plenty of energy left, unlike Angel and Cordy who had both retired to different rooms to get some mental and physical rest. Fred walked out onto the balcony which had been used many times that night. She leaned over the rail and stared out into the night. There was a full moon and the beautiful view was brightly lit, spread before the two of them.

Russ joined her leaning against the rail and turned to face her. She spoke whilst still looking at the beautiful view stretched before the two of them.

"It's really beautiful," Fred turned to Russ who was looking at her, "Don't you think?" At this question Russ seemed to wake up and stopped gazing at Fred with a far off expression on his face.

"Most beautiful thing in the world." But instead of looking at the view he just continued looking at Fred. Fred noticed this and glanced back at Russ before a slight blush crept onto her cheeks. Fred breathed in before turning back to Russ and starting,

"Russ, ah think you're…" There was a rumble and the ground shook. Fred shrieked as the ground beneath her fell away from where Russ was standing. Russ fell apart from her and fell onto the ground far from Fred. When the rumbling finally stopped Russ got up to see Fred lying on a part of the balcony that had collapsed onto the level below, and had caused that one to be hanging on by just a few inches.

Russ rushed over to it and tried to reach down to Fred but she was too far for him. Angel and Cordy ran up behind him and tried to help by reaching for Fred but neither of them could reach. Russ rushed back into the hotel room and a sad look came over Fred's features but it quickly disappeared when he appeared again. He was holding some thick rope and he quickly handed one end to Angel.

"I'll go." Angel said as Russ handed him the rope. Russ shook his head.

"Let me go Angel."

"But it'll be easier for me to carry her up and…"

"Let me do this one thing Angel. You've always been the big hero and the saviour. Just this once, I want to save the woman I love." Angel bowed his head and accepted this answer. He tied it to the thick rail on the part of the balcony still secure and held it as well, to ensure it was okay.

Cordy stopped Russ with a hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and she said,

"Be careful." Russ nodded solemnly and then got a mischievous grin on his face and turned to Angel, deciding to push it a little bit.

"Besides, if you want a job done right you have to do it yourself. Right?" Then without waiting for an answer he started his climb down the rope to Fred lying below. When he got to Fred he checked her over for injuries.

"Are you okay?"

"Ah think my wrist's sprained." Fred said while wincing from the pain.

"Okay, I'll carry you up." Russ said after thinking for, well, a millisecond. Russ picked up Fred and wrapped she wrapped her arms around him (not too easy but she gripped hard with her good hand) and she wrapped her legs around his. Their faces were almost touching and in any other situation this could've been a lover's clinch but Russ couldn't exactly think about that now. He just had to hope that the rope wouldn't break. (Okay so it would require tremendous upper body strength for him to go back up the rope only using his arms whilst Fred is hanging on but she's thin and he's strong.)

When Russ got to the top he gripped at the edge with his fingers before manoeuvring himself so that his back was to the balcony so that Angel could reach down to help Fred up. Russ let himself hang for a minute after Fred had been lifted up. He tried to turn back to the balcony but it was harder than the first time. He winced as he had to practically twist his wrist in an attempt to turn his body.

Then there was another rumble. One of those aftershocks after a big earthquake. Well anyway. Russ winced and then got shook loose from the balcony and fell yelling down to the eleventh floor and then the balcony that he landed on fell onto the one below. When Russ disappeared from the ledge Fred leant over and yelled his name.

Everyone peered over the edge to see Russ' bloodied body all mangled two levels down. Angel jumped down because the balcony was one of the few that were stable. After he quickly checked Russ, and Fred held her breath, he sighed heavily. Neither of the two above him could tell if it was from relief or defeat. He looked up at the two above him and yelled up,

"We need to get him to a hospital."

"Okay, you jump down and take your car and we'll meet you there." Cordy shouted back down, being the other level headed person in this emergency. Angel nodded and proceeded to jump down many, many storeys whilst keeping Russ from getting any other injuries. (I know that's pretty impossible but stick with me here.)

Cordy and Fred ran into the hospital with Fred ahead and powering on at full speed. After pausing for a second to consult one of the nurses they both rushed through the hospital to the room in which Russ was being kept. Fred, in her big rush, almost knocked over a doctor on her way in. Apparently it was Russ' doctor and he gave her an immensely apologetic look. And Fred had a feeling that it wasn't about her running into him.

"I'm sorry Mrs…"

"Ms Burkle." Fred said putting extra emphasis on the 'Ms'.

"I'm really sorry Ms Burkle but there seems to be nothing we can do for Mr Brown. His injuries are too many and too advanced to be treated. At this stage it's lucky that he's still alive. We've given him some morphine but I'm afraid that the only thing that you can do now is wait. I have to tend to other patients from the earthquake." The doctor bowed his head and walked off. Fred looked as if someone had punched her in the gut. Or her closest friend had just back stabbed her.

She walked into the room with this expression and Russ noticed it right away.

"What's with the long face?" Russ asked Fred with a cool exterior. Okay, well cool goofy exterior. Russ is like a human (demon) puppy dog. Then he continued, worried, "How's your wrist?" Fred absentmindedly touched her wrist that Cordy had bandaged up with some bandages from the first aid kit in the bathroom that they had nabbed on the way here.

"Does he know?" Fred asked Angel incredulously, ignoring his question. Her mind was preoccupied, I mean Russ was really raising the bar for people who know they're going to die and are still keeping on a brave face. Russ jumped in before Angel could.

"Yeah, I do know."

"Then why…?" Fred trailed off knowing, or at least hoping, that Russ would understand. He did.

"Because I don't want to bring down the mood any more than it's already been lowered. If these are my last moments I want to be happy rather than grieving for my own death with everyone else." Fred started to cry and Russ opened his arms. Fred walked into them and Russ hugged her to him.

"Hey, hey. It's okay, it's okay Fred. It's okay." He murmured into her hair. Fred withdrew reluctantly from his embrace and asked in a teary voice,

"How can you say that it's okay? You're on your death bed."

"Hey, can't you regenerate?" Cordy cut in on the little couple's moment and offered an apologetic look afterwards as compensation. Russ shook his head.

"No, I don't have enough energy. My last reserves are being spent keeping me alive right now. There's some internal bleeding that's really doing damage and my energy's all being spent on trying to mend that. It won't hold for too much longer." Fred sobbed and Cordy and Angel both thought as one. They both moved to the door, excusing themselves quietly.

"Ah didn't know your last name was Brown." Fred said quietly. Russ chuckled and opened his arms in invitation. Fred took it and lay her head on his chest gently.

"It goes with the Russet. It was my parent's idea of a joke." Russ stroked her hair lovingly with his hand that was less injured than the other. Not saying that it wasn't injured, just saying that it wasn't as injured as the other.

"How do you get your energy? For regenerating and all?"

"I don't know. Usually the Powers give it to me. But I guess I'm too far gone. Even the Powers can't give me the amount of energy required for this much regeneration."

"But you must have the capacity to hold enough energy for this." Fred insisted and Russ agreed.

"I do, but I don't know how to get it. Only that I have to figure it out myself. The Powers gave me one clue but it's pretty cryptic."

"Ah hate cryptic stuff." Fred said bitterly. Russ chuckled and Fred felt it vibrate his chest under her.

"You and me both sugar."

"So what is it?" Fred lifted her head slightly to look at Russ and he smiled at her.

"They said, and I quote, 'This is something you cannot buy. Something that, when you learn it you will discover that it is the best thing in the world.'"

"Maybe it's baton twirling." This made Russ outright laugh. Fred got a little defensive, "What? Ah hear that baton twirling is quite good and relaxing and flashy."

Russ' smile became a mile long and he laughed so hard tears came to his eyes. He swiped them away and then the silence came. You know, the awkward silence that comes when two people realise that this is probably the last time that one of them was going to laugh. Ever in their entire life time.

"Ah'm going to miss you Russ. Ah'm going to miss you so much." Fred became choked up with tears and couldn't talk anymore. Russ just hugged Fred closer and said,

"You and me both sugar. You and me both." They lay like that for a few more minutes before Fred raised her head and looked at Russ. Then, without asking, without thought, almost as if it was a reflex she moved to Russ' lips and kissed them. It was a soft kiss, one of love instead of passion, one of feeling instead of need. The need would come later, as would the passion.

When Fred withdrew she became painfully aware of a constant beep from the monitor next to the bed and the fact that Russ wasn't opening his eyes. Fred shook him slightly but he didn't open his eyes. Then, instead of yelling and screaming as she usually would do she just lay her head back on his chest and said, with tears in her eyes,

"Ah love you Russ."