Out of Focus #SYTYCW15 Top10 Finalist! [COMPLETED]

35| The End

Choking. Salt and water, lungs screaming for air.

Heavy. Pounding. Splitting scream in her legs. The wail of broken bones.

Choking.

Flashes in and out. The cold rush of wind. Muted voices clashing around her. Touching. Pulling.

A sharp pinch. And it's black.

All black.

Beep. Beep. Beep...

Eva opened her eyes. Winced against the glare of fluorescent. And with the waking came the growing rush of feeling. Everywhere hurt. Right down to her fucking eye lashes.

The weight of them when she blinked was brutal. Turning her head was a study in hell, but she managed in slow, halting increments. Marshall was slumped at her side, head resting by her arm, his hand on hers. Lottie lay curled up in a chair by her the hospital bed, knitting needles clicking with furious movements.

Lottie only knitted when her nerves were shot.

Eva opened her mouth, tried to make a sound but it came out as a wheeze. Marshall's head shot up, those needles stopped clacking.

"She's awake. Eva!" Crushing her hand in his, Marshall kissed her palm, eyes watering with relief. "Baby, I'm here. Can you talk?" Beyond them, Lottie rose, rushing out of the room with cries of 'she's awake'.

"Yes." Though the croak was dry as dust. "Hail?"

"Fine. She's fine." He stroked a hand over her head, unable to stop touching her. "A few stitches to close the cut, but she's okay. Mom and Jenelle are taking rotations with the girls. We thought it wasn't a good idea for them to come to the hospital and...God dammit, Eva, what the hell were you thinking?"

Eva tried to shrug but the pain that greeted her made her rethink moving just about anything. "Had to. My girls. My responsibility."

Marshall bit down hard on his lip, shook his head. "You scared the life out of me. When I saw you go over..."

He brought a cup of water to her lips and Eva swallowed, desperately trying to moisten her throat. "Dead?" she asked.

He nodded, expression grave. "Took three hours to find the body, pull him out. Paramedics say he was pinned beneath you when you took the fall, hit the rocks and buffered you from the worst of it."

Marshall swept his eyes over her, his heart lurching back into his throat. She was mess of black and blue, but aside from a broken leg, bruised ribs and ruptured eye socket, the doctors assured him that it looks far worse than it is.

A childhood spent diving from those cliffs meant he knew how to enter the water safely, but the waves had been strong last night, choppy and dangerous making the rescue a two man job. She had barely been conscious when he and Ethan had dragged her out of the water. The undertow had dragged the killer below, shredding him over the rocks like cheese through a grater.

"You saved me," Eva said, a look in her eyes that said she was only now gaining clarity of preceding events.

"What I did pales in comparison to your own foolish act of bravery," he said, smiling through tears. "Don't ever scare me like that again, or so help me I'll strangle you."

"Careful, I'd hate to have to arrest the hero of the hour for making idle threats." Jerry stood in the doorway, wearing a dark coat with FBI emblazoned on the front in bold, white letters. His teasing smile faded as his gaze fell on Eva. "Can ya give us a sec, boy-o? We've got some discussing to do. Private-like."