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Disclaimer: I don't own anything, I'm just borrowing things for a while and I promise I'll put everything back exactly how I found it when I've finished. Well, almost exactly how I found it. ;)
AK-FP-AK-FP-AK-FP
Commencement, the end of one thing, the start of something else. It did not, he decided bitterly, feel like much of a start. Or an end, for that matter. It felt like he was suspended in midair, unable to go forwards or backwards, unable to see anything around him but darkness. And the pain…it was like nothing he had ever felt before, which was a feat in itself. After everything they had been through, she was still only barely alive. Guilt gnawed at his gut, telling him it was all his fault, though he knew nothing could be further from the truth. What had happened was nothing more than coincidence, but that did not, *could* not, ease his anguish.
Looking down at the woman in his arms, Andrew felt as though *his* heart was breaking. Tentatively, he touched her cheek, begged her to stay with him. But it was just his words that reached out to Frankie; Andrew felt as though his soul was stretching towards hers. Her eyes flickered, her fingers found his face. Her touch was cold, but it was the chill of death, a feeling that worked its way through his skin and froze his heart.
Wanting, needing her to know what she meant to him, how he felt about her, he kissed her. It was gentle, but full of sorrow, of grief over what was to come. But it wasn't just the inevitable loss of Frankie that was causing Andrew to suffer; his whole life had been turned upside down, his illusions about the Church completely shattered. One life had ended, another would now begin, but for now, there was nothing but the in between, and it felt as though it was killing him.
This was not how he wanted things to happen, not that his desires were important, especially not to a man in his position. But Andrew allowed himself that brief selfish thought; he wanted Frankie. He wanted her to stay with him, be happy with him, love him, and allow him to love her in return. His old life had ended, but so had hers. Together, they could start a new one…if they could break out of the in between place they had found themselves, the place where Frankie's life hovered in the balance, and with it, Andrew's heart.
Frankie sighed and her head fell to his shoulder. Andrew dared not breathe, dared not think about the end, but he knew…he knew he had to check. He had to *know.* And with surprisingly steady hands, he pulled the sheet Frankie was wrapped in until it was taut, and then he glanced down at her side. For what seemed like an eternity, an infinitive amount of in betweens, Andrew stared, waiting, expecting the bright white sheet to be stained crimson with blood; Frankie's blood, Almeida's blood…Jesus' blood. But nothing happened. Blinking back tears of astonishment, Andrew felt his hands slip away as Frankie stirred in his lap and opened her eyes, staring at him with love. She got to her feet and slowly looked around in wonder, as though she was seeing the world properly for the first time. Doves circled her, then came down and landed in her cupped hands, and all Andrew could do was watch, his heart fit to bursting with love for Frankie.
Then he swallowed, clasped his hands together, and looked up, saying a silent prayer to whoever might be listening, thanking them for his…*their* new beginning. And he vowed, as he watched Frankie walk through the garden, that any endings would be joyful ones, any beginnings blissful. Neither of them would know the unspeakable and heartbreaking pain of the in between ever again.
FIN