Catch Me Now

Love

Brief author's note:

Thank you all so much for reading. You're incredible. I know it's been more than three years since I wrote this - but here is the final chapter. Those of you who commented... You have no idea how much of an impact you have. Thank you. It means the world.

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"Mike!"

He froze, his eyes darted up to me, he stopped with the cutters in his hand and we were silent for that small moment in time - stuck, staring at each other, the vest tight around me and my hands grasping his like my life depended on it.

"Which one do I cut, Ella?" he mumbled desperately, his team still fighting back and forth over the radio loud enough for me to hear. I shook my head. I don't know. "What do I do?"

"H-How much time is left?" I asked in a whisper, my entire body shaking, my heart pounding so heavily in my chest that it felt like a god awful weight was going to send me tumbling to the floor with every beat. He slumped down where he knelt, his head hanging.

"Three and a half minutes. We have three minutes, and thirty seconds."

I couldn't let this be it for him. I grabbed his face and I made him look at me. "Get out of here," I begged through gritted teeth, my eyes welling up. "I know I said we could figure this out, I know I did, but I changed my mind. I changed my mind, Mikey."

He grabbed my hands where they rested on his cheeks. "No, no, I'm not leaving you here."

"Leave me the cutters, damnit! Leave them with me and tell me over the radio!" I was beyond pleading. Mike had life that he could still live, he deserved to live it, to keep going. I loved him, I knew that, deep down, I knew that. And above all, he wasn't strapped to this thing - I was.

"Three minutes, Spike! Jules, Ed, get me those damn schematics!" I could hear Greg's voice growing louder and more terrified over Mike's radio, but my eyes were glued to his.

I slowly slipped off the chair, never leaving his eyes with mine, pushing the chair away from me. He was shaking so hard that our hands could barely stay together. I knelt in front of him, the bomb growing tighter around my middle. We were close, the air between us was thick, and the time we had was ticking away. Seconds moved faster and faster. "Please, Mikey. I can't let you die. You can't be h-here." I'd never fought so hard in my life not to burst into sobs. "Please."

He shook his head, his hand slowly lowering the cutters to the floor. That was it. This was it. Two minutes, forty five seconds. "Ella... Th-There's no place in the whole world that I would rather be. I'm here with you. I'm not going anywhere."

His hand moved forward, to the side of my neck. The touch alone told me everything I'd ever wanted to know. But with his words, my eyes closed, tears forcing their way down my cheeks, harder than before. I leaned my forehead to his. I could feel his shoulders shake, we were crying together. Our time was up. We both knew that without a map, without a way, there was no diffusing this bomb.

"Mike," my voice was trembling, "I love you." His lungs took in a sharp breath. We cried harder. Two minutes, thirty seconds.

"God, Ella," he mumbled, pulling me into him and wrapping his arms tightly around me, "I love you." The crying wasn't stopping. "I love you, I h-have always.. loved you." I knew that his team could hear us, because I could hear Greg shouting through to him. It's not over, Spike, it's not over! Stay with us! It's not over, we can still stop this! Stay with us, Spike! Spike! He was screaming like Mike was his son, he had utterly lost control, and I could hear him.