Author's note- I know this one is sad but I got the idea and went with it. I think it does so intense love and loyalty between them even till the end.

There are two short chapters after this.

Chapter 2

I sit back up and raise his hand to my lips. I kiss it tenderly.

Over the last few days everyone has come. And on the faces of his mother, sister, and friends I see grief so stark I lose my breath. But not my mind. I will bare this, I must.

"Love you always," I promise him. And there are no tears. I cry alone now. Jason should not have to comfort me.

"Love...yeah..." he groans in pain. His body convulses for a moment.

I start to shake, too, and wish I took Robin's advice about the morphine drip. Jason said the shots were enough to dull his pain. They aren't.

Somehow I know that it is coming soon. This time is not like the other close calls, he is leaving me. The room is dark but even in the pale light of the evening sun I see his fingers turning blue.

And all I want, all I want so damn bad, is to be able to make this not be happening. To save him. He saved me so I should be able to do that for him. But all I can do is be here.

"This sucks." he says right before he starts coughing

"It sure does."

He pushes the words out, "Hate knowing...the ending."

He's right.

That is the worst part really. To know the full scope of what your life has been.

That must be why the teen years are sometimes referred to as the best years. Because that is when you have the most precious thing life has to

offer, after love because love must always come first, hope. And possibilities. Endless sweet possibilities. What I would give for Jason to feel like that now.

I sigh thinking of me and him back when we didn't know how it would end up. And didn't care. And couldn't be bothered to think that far ahead.

"This isn't the end of anything, Jason. I will see you again."

His eyes, so tortured, fill with worry for me. "Not ...soon. Long time."

"Not that long."

"Long...time."

"Wait for me." I plead and, surprising myself, there are tears left to cry. I thought I had mastered this one thing, not crying in front of him.

"Carly..." the word is light as air and drags on and on. And then a single syllable escapes him, so thin is the sound and I have to wonder if I imagined it, I hear:

"Jake's."

His eyelids start to drift the last small inch until they are closed. His blue eyes lost to me forever.

I throw myself on his chest then. It rises, it falls. He is still here.

"Jason, Jase, oh...my love...stay, stay."

Long minutes past and I know he has said all he ever will ever say to me. He breathing is so shallow now, it seems to stop at times and start again much later.

I should call someone. Robin, Liz or Emily would know what to do for him medically. If there was anything. But there is not, they have told me already.

So I hold him. I lay down next to him and cling to this man I have loved so long that time stops having any meaning. I have loved him for one million years, at least.

And I will love him for millions more.