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“Why wouldn’t I love you?”

She tried to pull her chin away from my hand, but I refused to let her go.

“You’re everything to me and my team. Funny, smart, insane.” I smirked at the last word, and she rolled her eyes. “I will never get tired of listening to your inner-ramblings. Or your stupid, perverted jokes. What makes it even funnier is the fact that you don’t know they’re perverted. I love you because you’re too pure for this world, too good for someone like me, but yet you don’t see that. You don’t see the flaws in a person, only the good. You don’t see what a fuck-up I am, what a fuck-up we all are. How could I not love you?”

Her lower lip quivered, and fresh tears sprang to her eyes. When the first tear fell, I leaned forward to catch it in my mouth. She shivered delicately beneath me, and that shiver gave me the courage to rewrap my arms around her and position her securely on my lap. She nuzzled the side of my face, her warm breath stirring the hair on my neck.

“I love you too.”

It was the first time she had spoken those words aloud, and my insides tightened. Fucking butterflies fluttered, demanding release. Before I could stop myself, I tilted her head up and pressed my lips against her own. She yielded immediately, her tongue slipping out to coax my own into submission. Licks of fire ran down my spine, from my fingers to my toes. My hands tangled in her brown tresses, pulling her closer. I needed her closer as much as I needed air to breathe.

Her hands grabbed eagerly at my shirt, pulling it up so we could be skin to skin. I groaned low in my throat. With a reverence I wasn’t used to, she began to trace the dips and curves of my abs. The prominent V leading down my pants. Down and down.

Her hands were so cold, almost unhealthily so. It felt as if I was being touched by an icicle.

“Addie…” I murmured, pulling away. She needed to get warmed up. Perhaps I could start a fire…

Her face was pale, the shadows beneath her eyes pronounced. As I watched, horrified, blood dripped from her nose. Her ears. Her eyes. I screamed helplessly.

Where was Sarge?

Calax?

Ryder?

Why was I all alone?

A sob broke free as I held her dying form. Her head lolled to the side, the light leaving her eyes.

“No…” I whispered. “No. No.”

“NO!”

I woke up with the word on my lips. Sweat drenched my skin and ran down my face.

Just a dream.

Just a bad fucking dream.

Gasping, I bolted upright and glanced around the darkened room. My heart was hammering, and my hands were shaking. Fear clamped my throat closed, strangling me. It had felt so real.

Her dying in my arms…

Shivers of revulsions rocked my body forward. I rubbed at the skin of my arms as if that gesture could somehow wipe away the remnants of blood from my dream. I yawned, stretching my taut muscles as sleep threatened once again to claim me.

Shouting from down the hall roused me further from my slumber. With a speed I didn’t know I possessed, I jumped from my bed and hurried out of my room. I barely noticed that I was completely naked. No time for me to put on shorts.

I barreled through the door of Addie’s room, fear snaking around my throat like an iron clamp.

“What’s happening?” Calax was screaming when I entered. Tamson stood, pale-faced, by the door. Doc was standing over Adelaide, his hands on her chest at he began compressions. Her face was pale - as pale as it was in my dream.

“No,” I whispered.

Briefly, my mind flickered back to that old nursery rhyme I was told as a kid. Humpty Dumpty or whatever. But it was the equivalent to a fairytale. It never reflected reality.

No amount of horses or men…

...would put Addie back together again.