AN: So a question to all my readers. I've been working on two other Haven AUs and I want to know which one you're more interested in reading. First is a Haven version of Beauty and the Beast, set in WWII London. The second is a modern day Haven version of Pride and Prejudice. (I know, oddball choices, right? But they're both fun and I just want to know where to focus my attention first.) Vote in reviews or the poll on my bio page!

Chapter Twenty-Three

NATHAN

Falling is a new sensation for me and I have to say, there's something almost euphoric about it. The complete lack of gravity, like I'm floating freely in water. Only it's even better than that because Audrey is wrapped up securely in my arms, her hands fisted in my shirt and her head tucked in beneath my chin. So much touch, so much warmth. It's like heaven.

And then we hit the water.

I knew that the moment was coming - I had been aiming for the courtyard pool when I threw us off of the balcony, obviously - but that didn't prepare me for the actual moment of impact. I don't need to breathe in the first place, but the shock of my body striking flat against the water still manages to make me gasp. As we sink under the surface water rushes into my lungs and fills me completely. It almost hurts.

The force of the fall drives us downward and as I watch the rippling surface get further away, the back of my head hits the concrete bottom of the pool and the world snaps to black.

AUDREY

I had been so sure that I was plummeting to my death that the rush of water stuns me. When we finally stop falling it takes me a minute before I remember that I can move. I instantly propel myself up, gasping in air to fill my aching, empty lungs. I comb my hair back off my face and wipe the water away so I can see.

We fell into a large pool that looks like it might've been a fountain at some point Before, sitting in the courtyard in front of the stadium's official entrance. It's only chest-deep and the water is stale and stagnant, littered with leaves and other bits of debris. The water is lapping and splashing at the sides from the ripples of our landing.

It's then that I realise I'm standing alone in the pool. Nathan hasn't come up yet. My eyes flick downward and I see his fractured image through the waves of water, lying still as death on the bottom of the pool. "Nathan!" I shout in alarm. I dive under the water and grab him by the front of his jacket, dragging the heavy, dead weight of his body up to the surface.

"Nathan, Nathan wake up!" I plead, clutching his jacket with one fist and tapping the side of his face with the other. "Please, Nathan, please be okay. Wake up!"

Nathan's eyes snap open and he sputters, coughing out a mouthful of dirty water. He finds his own legs and stands up, towering over me as he swipes his fringe back off his forehead. Frowning, he prods the back of his head where it must have struck the floor. My heart leaps at the familiar pout on his lips.

"Thank God you're alright," I say and throw my arms around his neck. Nathan returns the embrace after a moment of surprised stillness, and he nuzzles his head into the curve of my neck as he pulls me close.

It feels good, better than I ever imagined it could. We're practically the same temperature now because of the cold water. I never really realised before just how much taller he is than me but I'm hyper-aware of it now as he envelopes me in his arms. There are so many emotions running through me - happiness, gratitude, relief, affection - and I try to pour it all out through the hug.

We stand there long enough that I've started shivering before we finally draw back from each other. I glance up and meet his storm-coloured gaze and I feel a strange leaping in my chest. The sort of feeling I've gotten used to feeling around him, the same way I had felt when he had appeared there below the balcony in Haven. Before I even realise what I'm doing - before I can think and overanalyze and talk myself out of it - I stand on my toes and press my lips against Nathan's.

I lower myself back down and meet Nathan's eyes, wondering what he is thinking. His eyes are always so expressive, telling his every emotion like the pages of a book. In them I see awe, fascination, wonder - love. "Wow," he breathes softly and I grin in reply.

This time Nathan is the one to make the first move. He cups a hand over the back of my neck and pulls me up to him, crushing our lips together eagerly. I grab onto the lapels of his jacket and drag myself closer, returning the kiss enthusiastically. I don't think about the fact that I'm a human and he's a Corpse, that I'm alive and he's dead. I just think about Nathan - calm, patient, determined Nathan - and how much I've grown to rely on his presence over the last few days. How much I need him in my life.

How much I love him.

When we finally part for air my head is spinning. I smile up at Nathan, ready to tell him just what I've realised, but something catches my attention and stops the words on my tongue. There are needles of blue shooting through the irises of his eyes, widening and spreading and chasing away the gray. In a split second his eyes are the deep cobalt blue of the ocean in summer.

"Wow, Nathan, you-"

NATHAN

I don't hear the rest of her sentence because it suddenly feels like something has exploded inside of my chest. It's the same sporadic pain I've been feeling off and on all week, only stronger. Just like before, the pain is gone as quick as it came.

"Nathan?" It's only as Audrey speaks that I realise I'm bent over so far my face is nearly in the water, clutching at my chest with white knuckles. I open my mouth to tell her that I'm fine but then the pain strikes again. It ebbs and flows, knocking my breath away the moment I've caught it.

Wait... my breath?

I suck in air and it eases the spinning in my head slightly. It takes three more consecutive breaths before the reality sets in. I'm breathing. Like, properly breathing. A steady in and out of oxygen filling and deflating my lungs. But Corpses don't breathe.

And what is this throbbing in my chest? It's feeling less painful and it seems to have settled into a steady rhythm now, slightly slower than the breaths that I'm taking but getting progressively faster. I've never felt anything like this before.

"Nathan, what's wrong?" Audrey asks, panicked.

I'm suddenly acutely aware of every inch of my body, inside and out. My skin is overflowing with sensations; the cold and moisture of the water, the scratch of fabric from my clothes, burning pains at random points all over my body. My stomach is curling and twisting, the muscle spasming. And there's a warming thrum all throughout my body. It moves in time with the pains in my chest.

I clutch at Audrey's arms to keep myself from doubling over completely, and as I do I notice something. There's a point inside of my wrist, one of those faint blue lines, that is throbbing in tandem with the pulsation in my chest. Pulsation...

And all at once the truth hits me, making my world tilt on its axis.

"Audrey," I gasp out, looking up to meet her bewildered gaze excitedly. "I-"

Fire erupts in my shoulder, just below the collarbone, and I choke on a shout. The world is swirling in front of my eyes but I see Audrey spin on her heel, placing herself between me and danger. There is a cluster of soldiers gathered around the edge of the pool and there in front, a handgun raised, is the man from the Compound. Vince.

"The next one's the head," Vince growls dangerously. "Audrey, get out of the way."

"No," Audrey says firmly, holding out her arms to further shield me from the guns. "No, please, Vince, he's different. You have to listen to me."

"Move, Audrey," Vince says again, pulling back the hammer with his thumb.

My chest is still thrumming in a pattern but suddenly there are other things catching my attention. Pain - real, burning, agonising pain - is cropping up all over. My arms, my chest, my stomach, my legs, my back. Thick knots of white-hot aching in my muscles. There are spots of glimmering torment everywhere. The world starts to sway in front of my eyes again and it's all I can do to stay on my feet as I press my palm into the bullet wound in my shoulder.

"Please," Audrey says, not budging from in front of me. "We can fix all of this, Vince. We can make things better. They need us. They need our help. They're changing. Look, he's changing. He's - " Audrey turns back to look at me and stops midsentence. She grabs the hand over my shoulder and lifts it, staring at my palm. It takes me a moment to realise why.

It's covered in blood.

But not the brown, thick, tar-like blood that I am used to having stalled in my veins. No, this blood is dark maroon and watery, spilling out of my shoulder and spreading out into great flowers of red in the water between Audrey and I.

"He's bleeding," Audrey breathes in awe. Her eyes flick up to mine and I can see the same wonder there that I'm feeling. "Nathan, you're bleeding. You're alive?"

"Y-yeah," I stammer out. Because that's what the pulsing pain in my chest is: it's my long-dormant heart stuttering into life again. It's slow, still not moving at the sort of pace it should be, but it's beating. My heart is beating, pushing blood through my veins and bringing warmth and life to a body that's been dead for so long.

I'm alive.

Audrey looks back at the men on the edge of the pool and raises her voice. "He's bleeding," she tells them, stepping sideways to show them the scarlet-tinged water. "Look, he's bleeding. Corpses don't bleed."

Vince's hand wavers and he lowers the gun ever so slightly. Behind him several of the soldiers drop their guns in surprise, glancing from me to Vince. Awaiting orders. "Sir," a large man with a blond ponytail prompts. I recognise him distantly but my vision is slipping out of focus so it's hard to remember just where I know him from. When Vince doesn't respond, the blond says again, "Sir?"

For a moment Vince and I just stare each other down. And then Vince slowly lowers his gun.

In a flash the blond has stepped up to the edge of the pool and he's gesturing for us to come closer. "C'mon, Nathan," Audrey says, taking my arm and pulling me forward. I try to step but my leg gives out beneath me.

I slip down beneath the surface of the water and as I do I can see that there's so much blood, way more than there should be. It's coming not just from the shot today, but from the bullet hole in my other shoulder where Chris shot me and the knife wound in my sternum from Audrey and a dozen other places. Every unhealed wound that I've gotten since becoming a Corpse is dripping now that I have circulation again and my traitorous heart is pulsing it out of my body with each beat. I'm only just alive and already it's trying to kill me again.

My mind barely registers the fact that I'm above the water, that I can breathe. The large blond man is dragging me up out of the pool and onto the pavement. I can hear Audrey's voice, high and panicked, darting around my head. Yes, there, that warmth on my cheek, that's her. I would recognise her touch anywhere.

"Nathan," Audrey says, leaning in and pressing her forehead to mine. "Please, Nathan, hold on. I can't lose you now. Not like this. Just hang in there. Please. For me."

Darkness has taken over my vision and I can feel myself losing consciousness. Panic wells in me when I realise I've never told her. Never told her what made me save her life that day in the hospital, what drove me to protect her all this way, what brought me to Haven when I knew she was in trouble. What made me take a leap of faith off the side of a building on the chance of keeping her safe. What brought me back to life.

"'Dree." My voice is a weak slur because I can't seem to get my tongue to cooperate.

"I'm here Nathan," she says, stroking my cheek gently. Hmm, that feels nice.

"Dree," I say again because I know I've only got seconds left. "L-love, you."

There's a strangled sob and I feel a press of lips against my forehead. "I love you too, Nathan." And I smile as my last thread of consciousness unravels out of existence.