Sunday/October4st/Year2004/9:30pm

"Fillmore…." Ingrid's voice called out in the never ending darkness of her subconscious. Her eyes darted back and forward under her eye lids, as if searching for him, his lips mumbling out his name again. She wanted to open her eyes, but she found it impossible, as if they had been stapled shut. Without any response to her cry she wondered what had become of her and her dear Fillmore. Though she was still unconscious her voice sounded more urgent as she slowly started to come back to reality. "Fillmore?"

"I'm here, Ingrid." Said a soothing voice from somewhere around her. She felt the rough but familiar grip of someone she knew on her shoulder. His fingers ran slowly up her neck and planted themselves of her cheek where they gently rubbed, back and forward. "Wake up, Ingrid, please… I'm here with you, so please wake up…"

As Ingrid's mind slowly gained its awareness of the life outside her dark dreamland she felt a surge of pain and a flash of memories rush through her. She let out a gasp, as if the air around her was poison to her. She choked on it; her lungs had been injured in action causing every breath she took in to cause her horribly unbearable pain. Slowly, she was able to open her eyes, and when she did she found herself in a white room, connected to a bunch of machines, and surrounded by nurses and doctors in white cloaks. "… Did the white coats finally catch me?" She asked in a weak, joking voice as she tried to sit up.

A wave of relief rushed through Fillmore when his ears caught her joke, but his hopes dropped again when she let out a slam yell of agony as she tried to sit up. She landed back on the mattress of her hospital bed with a painful thump. Fillmore Instantly took her hand and rubbed it with his own. "You need to lie down for a while, ok?" Fillmore said in a soothing but sad voice. "I need to talk to the doctors quickly, don't give the nurses a hard time, ok?"

Ingrid couldn't help but roll her eyes playfully. "If I was you who…Always gave the nurses a…hard time…" She managed to say with a smile before closing her eyes and unintentionally fell into a deep sleep.

Fillmore stood up and walked out of the room with the doctor close behind him. "Cornelius Fillmore, I don't know how to tell you this in a more mild way, but Ingrid Third doesn't have a very good chance of pulling out of this alive…" The doctor said sympathetically. "The bullet wound hit her at such an angle that it shattered her rib cage, shot through her lung, and lodged itself dangerously close to the heart, we'll need to remove the bullet surgically, and that's when things get complicated."

Fillmore shook his head, his grieved eyes looking at the marble colored floor tiles. "Jesus… How good of a chance does she have?" He asked so quietly that the doctor had to lean forward to hear him.

The doctor cleared his throat and began talking. "A puncture wound to the lung is bad enough, I highly doubt that will be able to heal, so a fake lung may be necessary, that's one of the worse problems. We have a machine helping her breath right now." Explained the doctor, taking a pause before continuing. "Her shattered ribs may be puncturing other organs, but form X-rays that seems to be the least of our worries. The bullet is lodge in a main blood artery, she, at the moment, is facing horrible inner bleeding, and unless we get into surgery quickly that will kill her."

Fillmore got angry; he thought the answer was obvious. "So get her into surgery! Give her a new lung if she needs one, take that bullet out and heal and fix that blood artery! I don't understand your hesitation!" He yelled, knowing every second the doctor stalled, the closer Ingrid was to her premature demise.

"I would have done the surgery right when she came in if I was able to, but she too unstable." Said the doctor, staying calm. "She isn't getting enough air as it is, and I don't know f she would survive going under for the amount of time it would take to complete the surgery. The surgery alone could kill her!"

Fillmore supported himself by leaning on a wall, his hands on his head. His whole world was smothering him at the moment and it was hard for him to think strait. The surgery was the only way to save Ingrid, but it could kill her too. And he wouldn't be able to stand watching her suffer until she died if she didn't have the surgery. Would he ever be able to get over her death if she died without him able to apologize and thank her? "What does Ingrid want?" He asked the doctor, tears in his eyes.

"Before you were allowed to see her we asked her about it, she was pretty out of it but what she wanted was clear." The doctor awkwardly shifted his stance. "She wanted you to make the decision."

"Jesus, Ingrid, are you trying to make me miserable!" He demanded to himself out loud. He placed a hand to his eyes and thought for a few seconds. "Get her into surgery as soon as you can…" He finally decided. "I want her to live, so I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that happens, but if she were to die in surgery, at least she wouldn't be in pain…."

The doctor nodded and allowed him to see her quickly before they put her under for the surgery. He sat next to her as they were preparing her. "Ingrid, wake up please…." He said, his eyes worried.

Ingrid, who was still pretty out of it, looked up at him. "Fillmore, hi, tell me…" She said, letting out a cough. "Did we get that bastard?"

Fillmore smiled and took her hand. "Yes, someone rescued us…." He said with a smile. "He's dead, and out of our lives forever."

Ingrid looked disappointed. "Damn, I wanted to be the one to nail him…" She said quietly.

Fillmore chuckled sadly. "You did, you put together all the clues, you took all the risks necessary to get tot hat house and save that girl. In fact, when you told that girl to run, she came back, she was the one who shot Seth, so at least you didn't loose to the cops, eh?"

Ingrid smiled. "Yeah, I guess so." She said with a smile looking up at him. "So, am I going into surgery?" She asked, pretty confused and disoriented from all the commotion. Fillmore nodded. "Good, because that means, if you're willing to take the risk there must still be hope…" She let out a sigh and closed her eyes. "Tell me Fillmore, what's going to happen when I wake up? What path are we going to take when I'm released from this white dungeon of health?"

Ingrid hope made him smile. Fillmore stroked her hand and began talking to her as they got ready to put her under. "Well, the first thing I'm going to do when you come out of this place is take you on a trip." He said with a smile, his eyes watching her face. "We'll go to the mountains and climb to the highest peek to watch the sunset. We'll talk about how beautiful it is, and I'll hold you close in my arms and kiss you…" He saw Ingrid smile and he smiled too before continuing. "Then, I'll tell you how much I love you and propose to you as the horizon turns a beautiful scarlet color."

Ingrid smiled, a tear rolling down her cheek. "And I'll say yes…" She said, opening her eyes to look at him.

Fillmore smiled and gulped down his nervous tears. "And then we'll live happily ever after, partners till the very end." He said with a smile.

Just before Ingrid fell into her drugged sleep she smiled and whispered to him. "It sounds wonderful…. I love you Fillmore…" She said before falling asleep. "And I forgive you…."

Fillmore bent over and kissed her on the lips before letting a single tear run down his face and drop onto her lips. "I love you too, Ingrid." He said, before walking out of the operating room to wait for news he hopped would be good, but knew would be bad….

Sunday/October23st/Year2004/5:00pm

Slowly, Fillmore climbed up the steep rocks of the most challenging climb of his life. His hands gripped every stone as he rose higher and higher into the atmosphere. His heart was racing, but he wasn't about to give up. He had to reach the peak that taunted him so devilishly up ahead. He had to reach it before the sun had set. Faster he climbed, his face had a red tint to hit as he made a huge effort to climb only faster, not ever daring to slow in fear he might miss what he had promised to do.

Finally, after a desperate struggle, he was there, over looking the most beautiful view he had ever witnessed in his entire life. He was so high up he swore he could see the earths dome like structure. And silently his stood, his breath the only noise hearable as he waited patiently for the sun set.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as the sky began to turn a purple scarlet color as the day was just beginning to make way for the night. He stood on that peek alone that evening, his eyes never leaving the horizon that haunted him so much it made him sick, but this is what he had promised, he knew he had to be there, and he knew she was there with him, invisibly taunting him, tearing at his heart, keeping him company in this chilly autumn evening.

"See Ingrid, I told you…." He said softly, his voice quivering for just a moment. He slowly bent down and set an open case on a rock just close enough to the edge that it could see the whole world, but not so close it would fall. For inside that box was a beautiful ring of emeralds, the color of her eyes. Slowly, Fillmore raised himself up again, his eyes looking at the sun that was so close to vanishing. He never remembered seeing such a spectacular sight. "I told you it would be beautiful…."

Well, there it is, a good ending, tragic, yes, but tragedy is necessary sometimes. Don't think of me as a bad person, it needed to be done. the most amazing thing, I found, when writing this last chapter was I actually cried while writing it. Movies, books, anything fictional never makes me cry, but I cried writing this. I actually had to get away from the computer for a while just to calm myself. I might just be suffering pms mood swings but I seriously did cry. But I think this ending was the best fit… Thank you for reading….