A/N: Here it is, the finale of the story that was only supposed to be a oneshot. The ending gave me a bit of trouble, but I hope you enjoy the final product :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.

Chapter 3

It's cold and darkness falls.

It's as if you're in the next room, so alive.

-Dave Matthews

As far as escapes went, it wasn't the smoothest in the history of jailbreaks. But when exhaustion seeps into the very marrow of your bones and throughout the sinews of muscle and tendon, smooth goes out the window. At this point, Cassie would have settled for functional escape. Yeah, functional.

Unfortunately, loud blasts tend to attract a lot of attention, reducing the chances from "functional" to "skin of our teeth" escape. The minute Jaime sprung them from their crumbling prison, Cassie felt the familar prickle of adrenaline rushing to her system, her body's last reserve of energy. But it would be enough; it had to be. She gingerly adjusted her grip around Jaime's middle as they stumbled over the rubble, voices shouting nearby in a language that sounded suspiciously like Mandarin.

"Scarab sent out a homing signal," Jaime mumbled tiredly. "He says we have a little over a minute to put some distance between us and this camp before they recapture us."

Cassie sensed the bullet before she heard it, and, with much gratitiude at the fact they left her metal bracelets intact, she knocked the projectile away.

"Less than a minute," Cassie exhaled, her breathing coming out in labored gusts as she called upon the last vestiges of her super strength to lift them both off the ground. More shots were fired, and Cassie had to awkwardly turn Jaime around to deflect them with her one free arm, rising higher and higher into the air as she did.

Next to her, she felt the armor of the scarab warm up and form a weapon around Jaime's arm. "I KNOW, ESE! But we gotta help her," he argued with the voice currently advising him against whatever plan he was about to carry out.

"Blue?" Cassie's voice became strained as it dawned upon her what he was going to do.

"Jaime! NO-" Too late. Jaime used the last bit of his energy to focus and blast the area where the gunfire was originating.

The scream was ripped from her mouth by the heat of the canon. Her partner went limp in her arms, and Cassie wasted no time in flying as fast as she could away from the enemy camp, praying that the homing signal gave their team enough of a heads up that they could find her and Jaime soon.

She pulled the unconscious boy more tightly to her. "Hold on, Jaime. Just...hold on."

Everything was throbbing with a dull ache when his brown eyes finally fluttered open. Blearily, the hispanic teen blinked the sleep from his eyes as his pupils dilated to take in the dark surroundings.

We are inside the med bay, the scarab dutily informed him even as he heard the consistent beeping and flashing of several monitors to his right.

"How long was I out?" Jaime questioned, lifting up his right hand to examine the IV lines, pulse oximeter, and probes attached.

"Two and a half days," came a mumbled response from somewhere by his shoulder.

Jaime didn't need the heart monitor to tell him his pulse rate had just spiked; he could feel its rapid beat through the thin hospital gown as he was acutely aware of a comfortable weight pressed all along his left side.

"Cassie?" he breathed, not daring to believe it. It had to be the pain mediciations they were most likely pushing through his system, causing him to hallucinate. Or maybe he was dreaming again. But she felt so...real. And warm. And full of her own cables and IV lines attached to the arm that was currently drapped across his chest, hand splayed directly over his heart. Jaime picked his head up to glance over the blonde, noting her empty hospital bed with the covers and divider curtain shoved hastily aside. Her dripsets and equipment hummed steadily, a blatent contrast to the haphazard whirring and buzzing emitting from his own machines.

Cassie tilted her face up toward his, her every exhale skimming across his collarbone and sending shockwaves through his nerves, which the erratic noise from the monitors were happily translating. Cobalt eyes shimmered in the darkness, traces of exhaustion tugging at the corners of her lashes. But that didn't stop the small smile making it's way to her lips. She brought her fingers up to his cheek.

"Hey," she murmured. Then, as though realizing her position, snorted and made to remove her hand. "Took you long enough."

Jaime quickly made to keep her hand on his face, placing his on top and preventing her from withdrawing completely. "Sorry to make you wait," he apologized, and the sincerity in his words ran like liquid fire through her body, heating it to the core.

"Just, promise me...promise me you won't ever do something that stupid again," she demanded, propping her head up with her other fist.

"Cass, you know I can't do that," Jaime replied gently, his thumb pressing familiar small circles along the back of Cassie's hand.

"You. Could. Have. Died." She hissed, her own equipment now stuttering out staccato notes as anger overcame the exhaustion in her voice. Jaime felt her fingers tremble beneathe his, eyebrows furrowing together in disbelief.

"I could have died? Cassie, if I hadn't fired my canon, they would have shot us out of the sky, then we'd BOTH be dead," he argued, voice no longer a whisper.

Jaime's hand dropped away from hers, and he made to push himself into a sitting position, but his muscles protested most vehmently. A strangled yelp escaped his mouth as his head fell back onto the pillow.

"Oh, Jaime," her anger vanished instantly as concern became the prominent emotion morphing across her face. "Don't strain yourself. Just...just stay put. I-The team doesn't need you kicking the bucket now after we finally managed to escape." Her smile was strained, tightening the corners of her eyes as though she might start crying if she stopped.

Jaime brought his hand up to her face again, smoothing the worry lines etched in her forehead and in the dip between her eyebrows. His monitors settled back into steady beeping. "Doesn't look like you're gonna give me any other choice," he grinned, voice light with attempted humor. They had been through too much the last several days to keep the mood heavy with the unspoken gravity that they both came so close to death.

Cassie's grin widened into something more genuine, and, with an almost predatory glint to her eyes, she leaned over Jaime fully, her nose centimeters away from his. "You got that right."

His eyelids slowly closed in anticipation, but not before sneaking in one more snark. "So, next time you get to pick your mission partner-"

Cassie never let him finish, and she reveled in his deliciously goofy grin when she got the last word. "I think his name goes without saying," Cassie repoisted, closing the distance between them once again.

In hindsight, both teens should have realized that the clash of musical monitors would cause several of their older teammates to rush into the medical ward to ensure neither one had suddenly gone into cardiac arrest or some other medical emergency as the equipment blaringly seemed to indicate.

A/N: Those two I swear. But here's to keeping the spaceship alive :)