Toasty here,

Well this is (maybe) the penultimate chapter! I hope it lives up to expectation, I know It's been ages since I last updated and that it's slightly infuriating when an author does this but I have been busy… though that really isn't a proper excuse.

Well, if you are interested I've listed my writing soundtrack but you might just not care so skip ahead in that case:

New York City serenade- Bruce Springsteen

Telegraph road- Dire Straits

As long as you're mine- Wicked Original Cast

Romeo and Juliet- Dire Straits

Jungleland- Bruce Springsteen

I wanna marry you- Bruce Springsteen

She's always a woman- Billy Joel

Love over gold- Dire Straits

America- Razorlight

The Angel- Bruce Springsteen

Baba O'reilly – The Who

Won't get fooled again- The Who

Time- Inception sound track

If you're interested, type them into YouTube- they're fantastic songs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jess wriggled slightly in the ropes that tied her- they were slightly too tight for comfort and had been cutting into her wrists and stomach for the last day… or they could have been days she had no way to tell. There was no light, no window and no way to tell how fast or slow time was passing.

All she knew was she missed Don, it hurt more then anything she'd felt before. It was like a gaping abyss where her heart should be, left with nothing but sorrow and anxiety there to float in her subconscious like some kind of plague. A plague of the heart- if she had one left. She found herself slipping again, gently sliding into unconsciousness, it wasn't like sleep. No, sleep would be comfort- a safe haven. No, it was her body shutting down on itself in order to function and keep breathing, her body closing down for restoration before she'd open her eyes and be locked tightly up all over again.

She knew, somewhere in her mind, it wasn't a good idea to succumb to this 'shut down' but every time she tried to will herself awake she would eventually slip. Holding onto consciousness was like trying to hold onto falling sand, it was forever slipping through her fingers and falling away from her. Slipping into a lake of liquid onyx, it was so peaceful and so… overpowering.

She knew at that moment she was falling again but the will to even try to remain awake had left her long ago… or it may have been minutes ago -she didn't know.

A wailing siren filled her mind, almost like a background noise it buzzed around her head but instead of pulling her out, it lulled Jess further into the slippery clutches of her subconscious. Faintly she could recognize it was getting louder, but that fact seemed so unimportant her mind dismissed it without any thought. A car screeched, voices could be heard… but none of it seemed to matter… it all seemed so unrealistic and lucid… so far away.

Time slowly passed- though Jess wasn't sure it passed at all, lying on the cold stone, buried in a room under the earth. Footsteps echoed above, clear heavy footsteps. Jess couldn't help but jerk herself awake, her eyes blurry as she struggled furiously with the ropes that bound her. It could have been her imagination playing tricks on her, making her fall into a false sense of hope only to crush her further, yet she tried so hard to ignore this thought. If it was just a dream, then she didn't want to wake up, just stay there forever. Because the dream was better than reality, being in a world that just didn't exist but brought her a little happiness, well it was better then really living.

"Mac, we have to look properly!" Jess knew that voice, god she knew it. Tears welled in her eyes and the silver ring throbbed on her head, he was so close to her. Don was so close, yet so far away he might never know she was there. Jess swallowed hard, trying desperately to build up her voice so that she might shout, yet her throat was so dry and rough. Not a sound could be conjured from it, though she tried so hard it caused tears to pour down her face and splatter the concrete floor. Silent sobs shook her entire body as she tried to scream, tried to do anything but nothing came.

"Mac… what does this look like to you?" Hearing his voice drove her crazy, so badly she couldn't even hear what it was he was saying… just the sound of his voice so smooth like hunny dripping from a spoon. Such a beautiful voice, she tried to capture it in her head, knowing it was all she wanted to hear while she died- already buried. He was so close but she'd never see him again.

Without any warning their time together flashed before her eyes, as all the cliché stories told it to be. The first time she had met him, dressed in her hideous jumper… what his smile had done to her even then. She remembered kissing him for the first time, feeling his lips moving against her own with a rhythm neither of them could fathom but both of them loved. The moment he told he loved her, when she thought she had lost him… god it swarmed and haunted her… though she didn't move an inch.

Jess shut her eyes tightly, as if trying to block away the images flashing through her head… the pain they brought. The gut wrenching pain that this was it, the last time she'd hear his voice ever again.

"I love you," It was a whisper, the faintest of whispers. It wasn't to a volume of which he could hear her, but somehow she hoped he knew. In some way, in some mysterious way she hoped he knew she loved him- that he hadn't and wouldn't forget how much she loved him.

"Mac! I found something!" Slipping, she was slipping again. The smooth black water of her lake was pulling her under, caressing her skin and tugging her ankles into the deep dark depths. Scuffling noises were above, a few pieces of dirt flew down from the roof and sprinkled themselves over her body but she was gone. Jess's chest moved steadily with her breathing and her eyes were fluttered softly closed. Light streamed in from above, sound blared in, oxygen rushed into the small space which had been full of stale air previously.

"No… no!" A single tear fell down and landed gently on Jess's sleeping cheek.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What is it doc? What's happened? Is she gonna be ok?" Don's head was reeling and his head was hammering and throbbing with pain. The flickering hospital lights didn't help much either… yet they calmed him in a strange way. They were spontaneous… there was no pattern to when they would flash off next, it was a calming but headache inducing motion.

A nurse walked up to him… one with a big smile and smile wrinkles around her eyes. Her smile alone brightened the corridor and Don vaguely remembered her from before… as if from a dream somewhere.

"Well if it isn't you again… she's been asking for you," Suddenly… nothing else seemed to matter.

Toasty here,

WELL WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT? Yeah… I hope it was ok! Probably the most descriptive chapter I've ever written… review and let me know what you think!