"Oh, looks like they're all done. You can see her now if you'd like."
He didn't need to be told twice.
In an instant he sprang from his seat and rushed for the door he saw the doctor exiting, not bothering to acknowledge the nurses as he bustled past their station. When he rounded the door and saw her there, laying on that bed, it was nearly enough to collapse his heart.
She looked so small, so fragile.
And he needed to say the one thing he'd been thinking since he'd first heard her voice that day.
"I love you." The words rushed out of him like a gust of wind and she blinked up at him, her eyes hazy.
"What?" She sounded almost dreamy as she spoke, probably doped up on painkillers, but he didn't care. Hell, he didn't even care if she remembered this tomorrow or an hour from now. He could say it as many times as she would let him.
"I love you," he said again, and this time her eyes widened and gleamed.
"Interesting timing." She offered him a small smile, and he crossed the room until he'd reached her bedside. Taking her hand on her uninjured left side, he squeezed and said, "You scared the shit out of me."
"We're even," she said, and her head lobbed to the side as her gaze met his again.
"No way in hell are we even. Don't ever do that to me again."
"You mean I've gotta quit my weekly 'getting shot' appointment? I think I can manage."
"Jade, I'm serious. You can't-I can't-"
"Shhhh." She hushed him. "Don't you want to know if I love you too?"
"No," he said.
She raised her eyebrows.
"I already know you love me. I knew it even before you did."
Her soft blue eyes appraised him for a moment, then she nodded. "I do. And you did. But I still want to tell you."
"Don't," he urged her.
"And why not?"
"Because it sounds like you're saying goodbye. I don't need the big declarations. This isn't the end. The doctor says-"
"I know what the doctor says. And I'm not making any big declarations. I'm making a small one. I love you." She squeezed his hand gently, "very, very much."
"Jade, I need you to be with me."
"I'm yours." She grinned and he leaned down to place a kiss on her forehead.
"But Derrick?" Her voice caught his attention, and he reeled back.
"What's that?"
"You have to know that this wasn't your fault."
He frowned at her, not sure what to say. In all the time he'd sat in the waiting room, half of it had been spent blaming himself for the way things had gone, for not keeping a closer eye on her. Of course this was his fault. Of course-
"Not any more than Crystal's death was my fault. Or Will's death was yours," she said, and he knitted his brow, focusing on the way she licked her lips before she continued on.
"I've been thinking about it a lot. We have tough jobs, you and me. If we do this, we have to know that this is part of the deal. We're going to be in danger. But that's what makes it exciting. We can't save the world, though. You can't save the world. Or me."
"I'll always want to," he said.
"And that's why I love you." She squeezed his hand again. "But promise to be easy on yourself."
He waited a moment, turning her words over in his mind, then nodded. "Yeah. Okay. I'll try. For you."
"And for yourself."
He nodded again.
"You promise?"
"Promise."
"Then you know what?"
He shook his head.
"I'm ready for a real kiss."
So he bent down and gave her one.
The End