Down in my mind where I don't care to go
The pain of a lesson is letting me know
If you have love in your heart let it show while you can
-Through My Prayers by The Avett Brothers

Vera walked up with three cups of coffee in hand. She handed a cup to Gladys and Carol as they watched Betty pace back and forth in front of the wooden blockades, her pensive gaze never leaving the factory.

"Enjoy some octane from the Red Cross, they've already set up shop in the parking lot next door. Those gussies don't waste a minute to move in when it comes to catastrophes."

"Thank you," Gladys said, blowing on the steaming liquid. "You know their motto… In war, comes charity, coffee, and donuts."

"I would have brought Betty one, but I think she's jittery enough."

"I just wish she'd stand still, she's making me dizzy," Gladys sighed, clearly worried for her distraught friend.

"I can't blame her though," Carol said, her eyes following the other girl's tireless vigilance. "I'd be the same way if Gladys was still somewhere in that heap."

Gladys smiled kindly at her longtime friend. "Same here, Carol."

Vera sipped her coffee as she watched Betty fret back and forth. They all seemed to be mesmerized by the parade of torment in front of them. No one knew how to comfort her as time slowly ticked on.

"I mean, the way Betty feels about Kate… I feel the exact same way for Gladys," Carol said offhandedly.

Vera suddenly sucked down a mouthful of coffee causing her to choke on the hot liquid. She sputtered and coughed as Gladys and Carol turned to her.

"Sorry," She coughed out, clasping her chest as she tried to control her breathing. "Went down the wrong way, I guess."

"Well, it's any wonder," Carol replied, patting Vera on the back. "With the way you slurp it down like a horse."

"Yeah, Vera," Gladys agreed, trying to hide her knowing smile behind her cup. "Drink. More. Slowly."

Vera narrowed her eyes at Gladys in mock offence and tried biting down her own small smile. Once she regained her composure, silence fell between them again as they turned their attention back to the blonde, who was still lost in the building before them.

"I can't stand here and watch her worry anymore. I'm going to go see if there's been any news on when they can go back in," Gladys said finally.

They watched Gladys disappear through the crowd.

"You know, I'd be upset right now too, if your whereabouts were unknown as well," Carol offered carefully, glancing briefly towards Vera before turning back towards Betty.

"Oh yeah?" Vera smiled at the nice thought.

"Yeah," Carol said sweetly, before adding. "I mean, who else would manhandle the duplicating machine the way you do every week? Certainly not these delicate hands."

Vera laughed out and looped her arm through Carol's.

"Oh, Carol, dear," She smiled. "Don't ever change."

Carol nodded and sighed as they leaned into each other for warmth and comfort and watched Betty's misery march on in front of them.

Kate was sitting by Reggie, holding the pinned girl's free hand and soothingly brushing her hair back. She tried her best to turn the valves off exactly as Reggie had said and spent several agonizing moments trying figure out how to do it since the valves were bent out of proportion. She was finally able to get them to turn with the help of pliers she found in the rubble and she took it as a positive sign when she had not blown them all to kingdom come. Although, really she had no way to tell if she actually turned the toxic fumes off, since the wall where the meters had normally been was no longer there. She prayed she had managed to do the trick for her friends. She hated not knowing how they were. In her mind, she pictured all of them hurting in a thousand different ways. She willed herself not to picture worse.

"At least the dusty haze cleared out," Reggie's said, her voice breaking into images of Betty lying helplessly across the factory floor in Kate's mind.

She noticed that Reggie's voice seemed to be getting weaker as the time crawled by.

"How come there wasn't a fire?" Kate asked, hoping to keep Reggie alert and talking. She had to keep the silence from falling between them.

"These bombs aren't really made to start fires, they're made to annihilate our enemies. Hence all the destruction. Clearly, we're too good at our jobs."

They heard Donald laugh from his spot on the other side of the rubble. Kate had almost forgotten he was still lying over there.

He continued to chuckle.

"It wasn't that funny," Reggie grumbled, looking at Kate as they both wondered what he found so funny.

"No, no," He said in between laughter. "It's just… I dodged the army because I didn't want to get blown to smithereens or die in some dark hole over there."

Reggie and Kate looked at each other, not really knowing how to react.

"What is that called again? You know, what you two smart ones are always going on and on about it with your little books? Irony of fate?"

"Oh God," Reggie laughed. "The world must be ending if Donald Ferguson just used an element of literature in a sentence."

This caused Kate to bust out laughing, which in turn caused Reggie to laugh even more. Soon they were all laughing at the absurdity of it all.

"Talk about an explosive home front effort," Kate laughed out.

"Yeah, next time I'll just join CWAC, maybe I'll see less action," Reggie said, between her own breaths of laughter.

Finally, after a moment of delirious laughter, reality crept its way back in again as Reggie and Kate's laughter died down, but Donald kept on. He seemed to be laughing harder than before.

"Has the fumes gotten to him or has he finally gone bonkers?" Reggie asked with raised eyebrows.

"Alrighty, Donald. That was pretty funny," Kate tried, looking over at the pile where the injured man lay just beyond. "But lets calm down now. You need to stay still as possible, remember?"

"Yeah, you might pop a lung or something," Reggie said when Donald continued to laugh.

Suddenly, Donald's laughter turned into fits of coughing.

"See," Reggie joked, but looked alarmed as his coughing persisted, growing deeper.

"Donald, just breathe deeply," Kate tried, sitting up straighter, looking over at the pile of rubble as if she could see him. "Try breathing rhythmically."

When the sounds of his coughing became more intense and his breath more shallow, Kate hopped up and crawled over to his side of the rubble.

His face was a bright violet color as his coughs continued.

"Just breathe, Donald. You gotta calm down and just breathe."

The larger man began to squirm as his coughing turned deeper and his face began to turn a shade of blue. Kate pulled him up by the lapels of his overalls and pulled him closer to sit him in a reclining position, hoping it would open his airway better, but he continued on.

"Breathe with me Donald!" Kate implored. She took deep breaths in and out, trying to get him back in rhythm. "You gotta work with me, just calm down…"

Suddenly, blood shot out of his mouth and onto Kate's face and chest, causing Kate to jump as the dark crimson fluid sprayed across her. She looked at Donald in shock as he continued to cough up the offending liquid, now coming out in volumes.

"Donald!" Kate pleaded, shaking her head urgently, her brow furrowed in horror. "Hang on!"

He gripped her arm with his one good arm and stared at her in panic as his coughing turned into choking.

"Please…" His voice gurgled. His eyes were wide with fear as he coughed up more blood onto her chest, now leaning heavily on her.

"Stay with me, Donald…" Kate begged, noticing his coughing was becoming more sporadic. "Just listen to my voice and stay with me."

He squeezed her arm once more before falling limply into her chest. His coughing had quieted down as he took small shallow breaths. Finally, his head turned up towards hers as if he wanted to say something, but only a tear rolled down his cheek and his arm fell limply from its grasp on her arm.

Kate watched as he took his last breath and the light in his eyes slipped away.

"Donald!"

She tried shaking him gently, patting his cheeks. "Come on, Donald…"

The gray devoid of his eyes stayed the same. Her shaky, bloodstained hands checked the pulse in his neck.

He was gone.

Kate gently placed him back on the ground and fell backwards heavily. She sat there in shock, staring at his limp form. Here was the man who had held her down, the one she had just held up, hoping desperately to save. She felt like her whole body was shaking.

Reggie's soft voice came out of the darkness.

"…Is he…?"

"…Yeah."

This time Kate let the silence fall heavily between them.

A/N: Thank you for the kind feedback so far for this fic. Each one has meant a great deal to me and made my day every time I've received them!