“I just don’t understand why you’re so angry! I didn’t do anything!”Elide and Lorcan were in the kitchen of his small apartment, the latter leaning on the counter with his arms crossed across his chest, while the former had her thin arms braced on the table.“Oh, please,” he spat at her. “This Luca guy wouldn’t continually ask you out for no reason. You’ve never even told him about me, have you?”“Of course I have, Lorcan!” She said, spinning around to look at him. Her arms fell to her sides helplessly. “Every time he asks me to hang out after work, I politely tell him no, because I have you.”He growled, “Maybe I need to tell him, and not so politely.”“What were you even doing there?” She asked.Lorcan ran a frustrated hand through his long hair. “What? Am I not allowed to visit you at your job?”“You are,” she sighed, “But you kind of ambushed me.”“Ambushed you?” He asked, his voice raising. “I was trying to surprise you! I was-.”Cutting him off, she asked incredulously, “Were you checking up on me?”“For the last time, NO!” He roared. “I just wanted to come surprise you. But then I walk up and I see that asshole had his hand on your arm and then you, you actually touched his chest! And I hear him telling you about how he’ll take ‘good care of you’ at the party on Friday night? What party, Elide? Huh?” A humorless laugh left his mouth. “On second thought, maybe I do need to check up on you at work.”“I’m not a child, Lorcan.”“You could’ve fooled me.”“And,” she said, ignoring his comment, “you don’t own me.”With his long legs, it only took three steps until he was standing directly in front of her, towering down over her small frame. He grasped her left hand and held it up, letting the light catch on the diamond ring encircling her finger. “Do you see this, Elide? It means that you are mine, and only mine. You are not my possession, but you are mine, to protect, to care for, to love.” He let go and her hand dropped limply to her side. Turning around he walked to the fridge and opened it, grabbing a beer and popping its lid off.“Baby, I-.”“Just get out, Elide,” he cut her off, not turning around to look at her. “Go home. I need to…think about some things.”Her breath caught in her throat. He’d never asked her to leave. In all the years they’d been together, they always worked their fights out. “Lorcan-.”“Get out.” He growled.Breathlessly, voice shaking, she asked, “What do you need to think about?”“Leave, Elide. Now”Silently, Elide grabbed her keys off of the counter and her purse from the kitchen table. She walked to the door and with a hand on the knob, called to him, “I love you.”Nothing but silence answered her from the kitchen.————————-Lorcan knew he had overreacted.He knew he was an ass and that he should never have asked her to leave. He didn’t need to think about shit. He loved Elide Lochan, and she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. The happiest day of his life was the day she had agreed to marry him.This Luca prick at work was going to have to stop though. He texted her non stop and apparently had been asking Elide out every week without fail. He may need to make a stop in on Elide’s next day off.For the thousandth time that night, he rolled over and looked at her empty side of the bed. By now, her inky black hair would be draped across her pillow. Her clothes would be in a heap at the end of the bed. Her small frame would be curled up against his. He ran an exasperated hand down his face.He fucked up and he knew it. He rolled over and picked his phone up off the nightstand. She hadn’t texted him even once, hadn’t called him. He expected that she would’ve texted as soon as she got home, but she must have been pretty upset with him. She hadn’t tweeted or posted on Facebook or anything, which led him to believe she fell asleep as soon as she walked in the door.He could hear her cries in his head and he felt like a piece of shit for causing her pain. Swallowing his pride, he sent her a text.“I’m sorry. I’m a jealous ass, but I love you more than my own life. Call me in the morning. I love you so much.”He watched the little, blue bubble send off and waited for it to read “Delivered” underneath. Hell, maybe he’d get lucky and it would show up as “Read”. If it did, he’d call her. He’d blow her phone up until she answered and he’d apologize for being the piece of shit fiancé that he was.But it never delivered. The blue bubble turned green as it sent as an old school text message. Lorcan’s eyebrows rose and he decided to call her, to see if he could fix this now. It immediately went to voicemail. Her phone must have died.Sighing, he rolled over and put his phone back on the nightstand. He’d fix this in the morning. He’d go see her in the morning and he’d make everything right. But first, he needed to get some sleep.————————-There was a pounding on his door. Lorcan sat up and jumped out of bed, grabbing the 9mm he kept on his nightstand, next to his badge. The banging continued. A look at the clock on its surface told him it was just after two in the morning.Popping the safety off and loading one in the chamber, Lorcan crept through his apartment until he got to the door, where the pounding was still happening. A glance at the peephole had him groaning and setting his gun on the small table Elide had distressed and placed by the doorway. He swung open the door to reveal his partner dressed in his blue uniform. “What the hell are you doing here, Whitethorn? It’s two in the gods damned morning.”“Lorcan, we need to go, now.”Immediately, Lorcan was on red alert.“What are you talking about?”The man in front of him, the man he’d known his whole life and worked with on the force for over 4 years, that was pain in his pine green eyes. Pain and pity.“It’s Elide.” His heart stopped. “Lorcan, there’s been an accident.”————————-Rowan was just starting his overnight patrol when he got a call over his radio about an accident involving an overturned vehicle on South Terrasen Rd, headed towards Adarlan. Since he had just made a stop nearby, he radioed that he was close and turned on his lights.As he approached the accident, he turned his spotlight on and his heart dropped into his stomach.An extremely familiar car was wrapped around a tree, upside down.Rowan had pulled over friends and family members in his 4 years with the Erilea Police Department. He’d had to arrest former classmates and people that he knew. He’d even had to escort funerals of people he’d known his entire life. He’d never had a problem putting on the mask that made him “Officer Whitethorn” and staying professional. Until tonight.He jumped out of his patrol car, screaming, “Elide?!”He sprinted towards the wreckage, calling her name, listening for her to reply. He heard nothing.Grabbing his radio at his shoulder, he called out, “This is Officer Whitethorn, I need paramedics to the accident on South Terrasen ASAP.”He reached the car, just as his radio went off. “How many passengers?”He got on his hands and knees to look into the car and almost vomited due to the fear coursing through his veins.Elide was hanging from her seat, held in by her seatbelt, thank the gods. However, her arm was crushed between her body and the door. It was twisted at an unnatural angle and he could see a bone piercing through her forearm. Blood was trickling from her head, originating from a wound he couldn’t see in her hair. She was unconscious. And he couldn’t tell if she was breathing.He radioed back to the dispatcher, “One female passenger, I can’t tell if she’s unconscious or de-.” His voice broke. “Deceased.”The radio clicked back. “Standby.”Grabbing at his shoulder, he called back, “Dispatch, I’m going to attempt to remove her.”Silence met him.“Officer Whitethorn, wait for assistance. Erilea Fire is on the way and-.”“The passenger is Officer Salvaterre’s fiancée.”More silence. A new voice came through the radio.“Are you positive it’s Elide?” The usually confident voice was shaking.“It’s- it’s her, Manon,” he said, wiping the sweat that was starting to appear on his brow.“Did you say deceased?”He closed his eyes. “I- I can’t tell, she’s not in good shape, and I-.” He paused and had to collect himself.“Get her out of that gods damned car, Rowan. I’m calling Aelin.”He took that as permission and sat on the ground, leaning back on his hands. With Elide unconscious, he didn’t have to warn her to look away. Pressing his boots against the passenger window, he brought his legs back and smashed his feet into glass. It shattered, sending shards everywhere in the car. Elide didn’t so much as twitch.“Elide?” He called out, hoping just maybe she would hear him and wake up.Crawling into the wreckage, he reached a shaking hand to her neck and felt for a pulse.He waited, his body going cold.There. There it was.It was weak, so faint that he could barely feel it.“Manon!” He called over his radio.“Go, Whitethorn,” Asterin’s voice called back.“She’s alive, but she’s fading fast.”A silent pause met him. “An ambulance is close, less than a mile away. Can she hold on that long?”“I don’t know,” he replied. “I haven’t even gotten her out of the car yet. I just got her pulse.”“Continue on, keep us updated.”Elide’s left arm was crushed by the door, her right hanging below her body. He had to do this carefully. One wrong move and she would fall from her seat and that could be it. He ran a finger along the seatbelt, and that’s when he noticed blood on her abdomen.A shard of metal from her mangled door was jutting directly into her side.“I can’t get her out,” he said into the radio. “She has a laceration on her left side. Wreckage and shrapnel. I don’t know if it’s hit anything major. I can’t risk cutting her down without an ambulance here.”Manon’s clear voice called back to him. “It’s almost to you. Asterin is tracking them. The EFD should be pulling up any second.”“10/4.”Rowan did the only thing he could think to do. He took Elide’s limp hand in his own and prayed. He prayed to every god and goddess he could think of, regardless of what they were the deity of. After a moment, he heard approaching sirens and crawled out of the car.The engine parked and men jumped out. In the darkness, they all looked the same and he couldn’t point a single one out until he heard “Whitethorn!”Running over to the Captain, he passed the other men and relayed the information he’d discovered to them. As he approached, Chaol grabbed his arm. “Is it really Elide?”Rowan ran a hand through his silver hair. “Yeah, it is. It’s not good, man.”“Have you called Aelin?” Chaol asked.He shook his head. “No, Manon said she would. I need to let Lorcan know though.”Chaol’s chestnut eyes were somber. “Go. Fenrys and Gavriel are on their way.” An ambulance was pulling up and a second patrol car was behind it. “Get out of here. I’ll call you if anything changes.”Rowan clapped the man on the shoulder and ran to his patrol car. Getting in, he dialed the number of his oldest friend, trying to figure out how he was going to tell him what had happened. He didn’t answer. Hanging up, he dialed him again. No answer. He left a voicemail.“Man, I need you to answer or call me back immediately, it’s an emergency.”He sent him a quick text saying the exact same thing.Turning the car on, he tried to dial him one more time. As he pulled away from the accident, glancing at it in his rear view mirror, he sent up one last to prayer to anyone who was listening.————————-By the time Rowan and Lorcan pulled up to the hospital, Manon had called Rowan, letting him know they’d had to cut Elide from car. They’d taken her to the hospital and she’d gone immediately into surgery. Not only had her arm been destroyed, but there was bleeding and swelling on her brain and her common iliac artery had been severed by the wreckage.Lorcan hadn’t said a single word since Rowan appeared at his door and he wasn’t about to push his friend to speak. Had the roles been reversed, Rowan didn’t know what he would’ve done.They sat in a silent waiting room, as one by one their friends filed in, in various states of emotion. Aelin and Lysandra were barely holding it together, where Manon was a stone wall of strength, the only indication of her fear being the vice grip she had on Dorian’s hand.Lorcan’s elbows were braced on his knees, his hands knotted into his long, black hair. Every now and then, his friends would hear a quiet sniff come from him, but for the most part, he was a shell of his normal, sarcastic self.Bits of every conversation floated over to him.“When did it happen?”“I wonder where she was going.”“She got off work at 10:30, I don’t know why she was out so late.”“Why wasn’t she at home?”“Because of me,” he whispered, and the waiting room went silent.“What?” Aedion asked, Lysandra’s hand held tightly in his own.“She wasn’t at home because of me,” he said again, dragging a hand through his dark hair and tying it in a knot at the back of his head. Faint tracks could be seen from tears that had slipped down his face. “We- We had a fight. It was stupid.” He pulled his hand over his face, wiping the tears away, sniffing. “I told her to get out. I made her leave. And now…” He trailed off, and the warrior broke down. No one had ever seen Lorcan cry. Elide was the only who had ever been able to break down his walls.Manon stood up, taking careful steps across the waiting room, and stopped in front of the broken man. He glanced up at her.And a silver tipped hand smacked across his face.The waiting room erupted into chaos. Dorian pulled Manon back across the room as she started to yell at Lorcan, who just sat there, blood pooling from the thin scratches she’d left on his face. Aelin stood up and got in Manon’s face, Rowan quickly grabbing at her to pull her back to her seat. Aedion, Lysandra and Asterin stood back ready to grab someone and drag them out if need be.“Excuse me?!”The group of friends silenced and found a stoic man standing by the entryway to the OR, wearing scrubs.“Which one of you is Mr. Salvaterre?”Lorcan’s head snapped back up and he stood. “I am.”“I need to speak with you.” With that, he walked towards the desk, away from the group.Lorcan watched him walk away and felt a small hand squeeze his own. He looked over to Aelin and nodded, before following the doctor.“How is she?” He asked, stopping in front of the man.“I’m Dr. Emrys Mistland. I’m the chief operating physician tonight.” He held out a hand.Lorcan took his hand and shook it but didn’t say a word, waiting for the man to answer his question.“Sir, were you aware that your fiancée was 7 weeks pregnant?”Lorcan felt like he’d been punched in the gut.“She was pregnant?” He stopped. “Wait, was?”The old man looked at him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m afraid there wasn’t much we could do, with it being that early. We had to make the decision to focus on Elide.”“Is she okay?” Lorcan asked. “Is she awake? Can I see her? Can I talk to her?”Dr. Mistland gave him a sad look. “I’m afraid there’s a chance that Ms. Lochan won’t wake up. Not for a while, at least.”The world was falling out from under Lorcan. He was going numb. He listened to the doctor, as he explained Elide’s multitude of injuries, and how they’d stabilized her, but he only heard parts of what the man was saying.His Elide. His fiancée. The mother of his unborn child. When she’d left, she’d told him she loved him and he didn’t say it back.And now he might never have the chance.————————-Four days. It had been four days since he walked into this hospital at 2:30 in the morning. Lorcan hadn’t left once.Aelin and Manon and even Aedion had offered to stay so he could go home and shower, so he could get some good sleep.“I’m not leaving her,” was his response every time.Everyone had come to see her by this point, and with every passing day, more and more flowers were piling up. Cards were dropped off. Through out it all, Lorcan never left her side, never let go of her hand for more than a few minutes.He cradled her left hand so carefully, running his thumb over the empty spot on her finger. His other hand reached up and fingered the mangled engagement ring he had slipped onto his necklace.Standing, he brushed her dark hair back and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. He headed down to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee. He called Rowan to let Aelin know there’d been no change this morning when the nurses came in to check her vitals. Making his way back down the hall, he noticed the door to Elide’s room was cracked open. He knew he had shut it when he had left.Quietly easing the door open, he found a man in his early twenties looking over Elide’s flowers at the window, his back to Lorcan. As he stepped inside, the door creaked and then man whirled, a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a card in the other.“Can I help you?” Lorcan asked, instantly going on his guard.“I, uhm,” the younger man stammered. “I work with Elide. Everyone wanted me to come drop this off.” He held up the card, and set it on the table with all of her flowers, cards and other gifts.“And those?” Lorcan asked, indicating the flowers.“I wanted to drop them off,” he said, blushing. “Are you her brother?”Lorcan was seeing red. This was him. This man was the cause of the whole situation they were in right now. If he would’ve just taken no for an answer the first time, the fight never would have happened, and he never would have asked Elide to leave that night. She never would have wrecked. They never would have lost their baby.In a clipped tone, he said, “I’m her fiancé.”The color bleached from Luca’s face. “Her fiancé? She wasn’t kidding?” He took a step back, away from the man who was almost a foot taller than him. “I thought that was just something she was saying, I never thought she meant it.”Lorcan closed his eyes. He took a few deep breaths. There was nothing that he wanted more than to beat the hell out of the kid standing in front of him, but taking the high road, he said, “I think you need to leave.”“I- Uh.” He looked up into Lorcan’s murderous eyes. “Okay.”Without another word, he dropped the flowers on his chair and left the room.Making his way back over to the chair, he picked the flowers up and carried them across the room, dropping them into the trash can next to the bathroom door.“Surprised you didn’t beat his ass…”He spun around and saw Elide’s dark eyes were opened slightly.“Elide,” he said, his voice cracking, and he ran to her. He carefully placed a hand on either side of her face, resting his forehead against hers. “I thought I lost you,” he cried.“Not that easily,” she said, so quietly he could barely hear her.“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so gods damned sorry, Elide. I never should have told you to leave.”“You did nothing wrong,” she rasped, her good hand coming up to weakly grip his wrist, her thumb stroking the skin there.“I love you so much,” he said, unable to stop the tears at last. “When I found out what happened, the only thing I could think of was the fact that you told me you loved me when you left and I didn’t say it back, and I would never get to tell you how much I loved you again.”“I wouldn’t mind being reminded a little more often,” she joked, and he barked out a broken laugh.“Every single day,” he promised. “Every single hour, every single minute. I’ll make sure you know just how much I love you.”And for the rest of their days, he would.
theartofmadeline
amandla
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
yousharknotpass
