Eric looked up sharply from the flower decoration he had been inspecting, startling the florist who stood nervously nearby.
Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong.
It took him a few moments to get a fix on Pam's location and less than that to reach her.
He found her in the basement on her knees, hugging herself as she vomited up copious amounts of blood. He paused on the bottom step, seized by a brief moment of helpless panic before he rushed to her side.
"Drink," he ordered brusquely, dropping to his knees beside her and shoving his wrist into her face; confident that his blood would somehow make everything better.
Pam did as she was told, but she had barely taken a mouthful before she pulled abruptly away, vomiting out the blood to one side as she did so. "I can't," she said weakly as she flopped against the table, "I can't," she repeated, closing her eyes against the pain as her body convulsed and she vomited again.
Eric stared at her in horror as he noticed just how much blood surrounded her and how weak she looked. If he didn't know better he would have guessed from her sickly appearance that she hadn't 'eaten' in over a month.
"Pam, what can I do?" he asked, almost desperately as he watched her contort in pain.
"Nothing," she whispered hoarsely as the pain subsided, "there's nothing-" she was cut off as she vomited up more blood.
Eric felt blind panic begin to well up inside of him; he had no idea what he was going to do. No clue as to how to save her.
He hated feeling helpless and, when it came to Pam and her safety, he hated the feeling even more.
"I think…I think I might…" she began, struggling to get the words out.
"No," he barked, rising to his feet, "don't you dare. Don't you dare let this beat you, Pam, I. Will. Not. Allow. It. Losing you is unacceptable, do you understand?" he growled, his anger flaring at his inability to do anything constructive.
She gave a weak nod before grimacing and moving to lie on her side. Eric's demeanour softened as he looked at her, "What can I do?" he repeated in a gentler tone.
"I don't know," was all she said before he felt her slip away.
He punched the wall.
...
A/N: Brief explanation about the "slipped away" thing - given they are technically dead during the day, for the purposes of this story the maker/child bond is also severed at this time. (work with me here, it's fanfiction :P)