A/N: For those of you who have read this before, I combined parts IV and V because they were so short. So no I am not missing a part. Carry on!

Paradise Stars

Damian felt his knees go weak. He collapsed into the nearest chair, his hands still clenching tightly to the letter. The tears stopped and he looked up at Cameron's parents. Their expressions were a mix of shock and anger.

"You had no idea?" Cameron's mom whispered.

Damian shook his head. "Dammit, I knew we shouldn't have shown him," Preston said more to himself than his wife.

"So this is why you wouldn't let me see him? This is why I've been sitting at home depressed for months? Because you couldn't accept who your son loves?" no one replied. Preston held his head up high and avoided Damian's red hot glare.

"Get out," Damian whispered menacingly.

"Excuse me?" Cameron's father spat back.

"I said, get. The. Fuck. Out," Damian stood up with clenched fists, ready to hurt Cameron's dad in any way possible.

"Sweetie," Cameron's mom pulled on Preston's sleeve. "Let's just go for a while. We need to speak anyways," she could see the pure rage in Damian's eyes. "Let's go."

"Fine," Preston pointed a finger in Damian's face. "But you better be gone when we get back."

Damian swatted his hand away, disgusted. When the door closed, Damian fell onto Cameron's bed with shaking shoulders. He read the letter again and took a deep breath in a weak attempt to calm himself. He didn't mean to explode at Cameron's parents but he was just so frustrated, with everything. What if that car had never hit Cameron? They would probably be happily dating by now, holding hands and going to the movies, kissing each other goodnight.

Damian read the part of the letter that really killed him. 'I love you with all my heart and until the second I stop breathing, that will never change.' Damian held back a sob and clutched Cameron's hand tightly. If Cameron's parents pulled the plug, Cameron would stop breathing. Damian would never get to tell him that he loved him too. And what was he supposed to do? Move on as if nothing ever happened? "Cam, I know you're in there. Please wake up. Please." He closed his eyes and prayed that when he opened them, Cameron would be awake. He opened them, expecting the best but found the worst.

He took a shuddering breath and leaned his forehead against Cameron's hand. He kissed it softly. "I love you, Cam. I always will. And I'm not giving up on you. I never will. I promise you."

Damian stood and found a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a short note to Cameron's parents, apologizing and begging them to wait. He asked them to call Damian before they made their decision. He knew it probably wasn't a good idea to be in the room when they got back so he picked up his coat, glanced at Cameron's face once more, and slipped out the door with hope pounding through his chest.

The next few days passed in a haze. Damian spent all his time researching ways to wake up people from comas. He read every detail of dozens of reports on cases where people woke up but they hardly ever had any concrete way of waking people up from the constant sleep. Some experimental studies said that familiar things from their lives would wake patients up but Damian didn't know what he could do for Cameron that was strong enough.

He slammed his laptop shut in anger and picked up his phone. He called the hospital for the hundredth time to make sure Cameron's parents hadn't pulled the plug yet. They hadn't and Damian relaxed a little. But his hope was slipping away and he was sure Cameron's parents wouldn't wait much longer. He picked up the most promising article he had found about a boy who woke up from a yearlong coma when his parents played him his favorite song. The story was short and had no scientific proof but it was all Damian had to go on.

Damian decided that if Cameron were to wake up, it was going to be tonight. If he didn't, Damian would just have to let go and say goodbye. Damian got up from the couch, crumbs from the chips he'd been living off of fell to the floor. He glanced in a mirror on the wall and saw a ghost of himself. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy from crying and his hair fell in greasy strands around his face. Stubble shadowed his sallow cheeks. A stranger was famed in the mirror, someone he didn't know. Without Cameron, he was nothing.

He made his way into the bathroom and flipped on the shower. The hot mist cleansed his face while he scrubbed shampoo through his scalp. He allowed his mind to wander for a minute and he recollected the first time he saw Cameron. They bumped into each other at callbacks. Their eyes met. Now that Damian thought about it, he understood what Cameron said in his letter about him falling in love the moment their eyes met. In truth, Damian had too; he just didn't realize it until now. And what terrible timing it was. Damian hopped out of the shower and dried off meticulously He wanted to be as prepared for tonight as he could.

A half an hour later, Damian found himself outside Cameron's hospital door with his guitar case in hand. The one productive thing that Damian did over the months was learn how to play guitar. He did it so he could maybe feel closer to Cameron while he was gone. Tonight it was going to be his last hope in waking Cameron up.

He strode in with his head held high. Cameron's mom started in her seat next to Cameron's bed. "Oh, Damian, you scared me," Preston was nowhere to be found.

"Thank you," Damian wanted to get this out of the way.

"What?"

"Thank you. For not killing your son yet."

"Yes, well, his brain activity rose quite a bit while you've been gone."

She was being uncharacteristically nice. "Good. That's good… Look, Mrs. Mitchell, can I have a moment in here? I wanted to play him something," he motioned to the guitar at his side.

"You know he can't hear you, right?"

"No, I don't know that," he was being harsh and he knew it but he just wanted to see if this would work so he could move on.

"Right well I'll leave you to it," she shut the door behind her quietly.

Damian unclasped the case of Cameron's guitar and slung the strap across his shoulder. He played a few chords to get his fingers warmed up, still not looking at Cameron. When he felt ready, Damian turned around and stood above Cameron's bed to stare at the angelic face that had swum in his dreams for so long. His fingers ran down the scar again and Damian felt his fingertips tingle. "This is it, Cam. It's now or never."

He took in a slow, steady breath and began the chords that rang so true to his past. Night after night, Damian would hear Cameron playing this in his room. He never understood why, it was such a somber love song and Cameron was supposedly happy with Macy. But Damian knew now, Cameron had been singing it to him.

Come on, skinny love, just last the year…

Damian lost himself in the song. He didn't hear himself playing it, instead he heard Cameron's voice in his head. He used to sit in the hall outside Cameron's door, just listening to him sing the song with a pain so tangible it hurt Damian's heart. And now he was singing it to Cameron to keep him alive.

Who will love you?

Who will fight?

Who will fall, far behind?

A tear dropped from Damian's cheek. The song was almost over. He willed Cameron to wake up, to move a finger, anything. He played the last note, holding it out as long as possible. Nothing happened. Cameron was gone forever. Damian knew in his heart that there was nothing left to do. With unsteady hands, Damian packed up the guitar, setting it next to the bed. He gazed at Cameron's pale face for a few minutes longer, wishing he could see his eyes one last time. He would have kissed Cameron, just to see if it would wake him up like in the movies but the one tube keeping him alive was the tube trailing from his mouth. Damian sighed and pressed his lips to Cameron's forehead.

"Goodbye, Cam. I'll love you until the day I stop breathing." Tears streamed as Damian turned his back on his best friend and walked in a daze out of the room.

If he had waited two more seconds, Damian would have seen Cameron's pinky twitch, just a tiny movement in the direction that Damian had been sitting.