Every Rose

7

It felt like a punch to the chest, and when the sirens began to wail in the background, I felt relieved. Somehow, I was still on my feet, by some miracle of whatever was out there in the universe.

"If you don't run now, they're going to arrest you and Sylvie will..." I manage to get out, but I feel the urge to cough. I know I shouldn't, do I stop to take a deep breath before touching my hand off of the bullet wound to feel my own blood pouring out.

It had all happened so quickly, I wasn't sure where my mind was, but I knew where my heart was.

With her.

"Amelia oh my God, oh my God" Arizona screamed, as I crumpled to the ground, my own blood slick and hot on my fingertips as I held my chest, trying to just breathe.

He ran off, still holding the gun, getting a head start on the cops, but thankfully leaving Arizona alive and uninjured.

Arizona rushed towards me, dropping to her knees next to me as she shrugged off her jacket to press against my chest in an attempt to control the bleeding.

"You're going to be okay" she said, convinced as her shaking hands brushed the hair from my face "you're going to be okay, Amelia. You have to be" as my vision became more and more clouded, and as my eyesight began fading in and out, I could only see her.

"I love you" I murmur, smiling despite it all. "I really really do" I caught myself wondering if I was dying, because she was an angel and heaven would always be a place on earth with her by my side.

"No no no" she says, tears running down her face as she sits and holds me and tries not to fall apart "you're going to be okay. We're supposed to spend the rest of our lives together" I can see the frustration on her face, and all I want to do is take that away from her.

"We are, huh?" I say, coughing slightly with the effort it took to speak. "Well, I might have to live just to cash in on that" even though I was panicking, I knew she was even more terrified. I had to keep it together for her.

"Amelia" she says, holding my hands in her own desperately "when this is over, when you survive" because there was no question; I had to survive, in her mind, the world couldn't keep on going without me in it.

"Will you marry me?" Her voice was laced with fear; fear that I'd die, fear that I'd say no, fear of the unknown.

A thought flashed through my brain, the thought of being her wife and loving her and having children with her, and I realized that's what I wanted.

It's all I wanted to live for.

I smiled, looking at her eyes and praying to god that I didn't die. I wanted more than anything to cash in on that one.

"I was supposed to ask you"

And that's all I manage to get out, because the world was fading in and out, my eyes fluttering with the effort it took to keep them open.

That's when I blacked out.

~

Arizona's POV:

I didn't know what to do; Amelia was still breathing, but she was bleeding a lot, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get her to the ER without some help. Not comfortably.