Time
- Minutes -
The minutes were going by so slowly that time almost seemed to be going backwards. He had covered her hands with his, helping her. She had carried on talking to him, words coming out faster than she could think.
"Jethro...talk to me." She called, her face inches from his, he grimaced. She desperately wanted to touch him, to feel his heartbeat and his skin beneath her fingers, to feel that he was alive but she had to hold on, had to keep pressure on the wound that seemed to be threatening his very existence.
He was so tired, exhaustion seeped over him and he closed his eyes.
"No, no, no, Jethro, open your eyes, look at me...please." He snapped his eyes open at the desperation in her voice and found her gaze, for a second wondering why she looked so worried until he remembered the gun shot to his stomach.
"You were wrong Jen." He whispered again. She shook her head, glancing down at her watch, noting that 3 minutes had gone by.
"The hell I was, Jethro...this is not going to end like this, you hear me?" She said, frantically searching the horizon for the ambulance which had been called by a bystander when she had hurled her cell phone at them. "Where the hell are they?" She asked, under her breath.
"I thought it was you." He said. She looked confused for a second, "I thought you were bleeding."
"No." She said simply, "You stupid bastard, you got in the way." She tried to smile at the same time as he tried to laugh.
Her fingers were wet with his blood and she tried to ignore the heat that was seeping into her hands, she had always hated the fact that blood was so warm, it seemed wrong. Why was the time going so slowly? She wanted to scream, he was lying here, slowly dying and the minutes were dragging like hours.
She glanced at her watch again; 4 minutes had gone past since everything had stopped. 4 minutes ago, everything was normal, they were walking, laughing, her hand was in his and she was happy...now, the world had been flipped upside down, and she was struggling, struggling to keep the blood from pouring out, struggling to keep his eyes focused on her, struggling to keep the panic, that was rising at the back of her throat like bile, down.
"Remember Positano?" She asked, desperate to keep him awake, "Well, remember how I took care of you?" He graced her with a sly smile through his pain, "It's going to be the same this time, ok? You will be up in no time and I'll be complaining that you have no stamina...Jethro?" He had shut his eyes again.
"Jethro...open your eyes." He opened them slowly and lifted a weak hand to her face.
"Hey," He rasped, "I give...the orders...around here." He tried to smile and she let out a sad laugh.
She leant down and pressed her lips to his, "You just stay with me, ok?"
"Yes Ma'am."
She closed her eyes and concentrated on his breathing that was getting shallower by the second.
She heard the ambulance before she saw it, and heaved a sigh of relief.
"Oh thank God...Jethro...Jethro...wake up," His eyes snapped open as she pushed a little too hard down on his stomach, hoping the pain would wake him up.
His hands tightened slightly over hers, almost as if he was lending her what little strength he had, although why he felt she needed strength, she would never know. She leant down again, kissing him, praying to whoever was listening that it wasn't going to be the last time.
"It's gonna be...ok Jen." He said, so quietly that she had to strain to hear him. She looked at his blue eyes which were dimming.
"God I hope you're right Jethro." She said, squeezing her eyes shut, furious with herself as one tear escaped and landed on the back of his hand.
"I'm always...right." He said as the paramedics pulled her away.
She watched, wide eyed, as he was loaded into the back of the ambulance, watched as he was hooked up to drips, never taking her eyes of him as she climbed in after him, taking his hand and whispering to him as the paramedic struggled to save his life.
It was only when he flat lined that she allowed the tears to fall.
"Stay with me."