𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙎𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙀𝙉
—𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘪 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳—

     𝙄𝙏 𝙃𝘼𝘿 𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙉 a week since Danny left Bryce, and a week since she had been able to eat. It wasn't just the short-mounted sorrow that made the woman lose her appetite, but the constant searing in her abdomen that almost made her vomit at the mere thought of choking something down. Amberley and Evelyn had to feed her through an IV three times a day, all the while Bryce sat back and stared at the wilting roses on her bedside table. The hospital was exactly the same every day— she saw the same nurses, the same styrofoam cups of water, the same full ceiling, everything. She missed being home.

She missed work, and looking forward to Danny ditching with her. She missed Evelyn's sweets, nights out with the girls, and her nonstop bickering with Rafe. She missed eating potato chips with Danny and telling him how her day with. She missed living— it was as if she were in an alternate universe.

She had no letters from Danny yet, and that worries her even more. What if something had happened? She couldn't bare the thought. All of the stress on her shoulders was becoming too much, and she just wanted to be free of it all.

And now, she would have to face her biggest fear.

"How are you doing this afternoon?" Amberley steps inside the room with her clipboard, dressed in her usual uniform. "Having any chest pains? Back problems?"

"My heart hurts." Bryce says, her voice soft. "I feel like I can't breathe, but I don't want to move."

With furrowed eyebrows, Amberley moves quickly to check Bryce's vitals. "Everything looks fine . . . do you need me to go get the doctor? How bad is it?"

"Not unbearable, but I want you to get Evelyn." Bryce licks her lips, clenching her eyes shut. "Please."

Something wasn't quite right, and Bryce could feel it deep down in her chest. It was more than just her heart pains; it was the feeling that something was about to go wrong. But not only with herself— with someone else, and she could only assume it was Danny. Evelyn races into the room, grasping the bed railing while out of breath.

"Amberley said you can't breathe properly," Evelyn manages, frantically looking over her best friend. "Please tell me you're okay, Bryce."

"Something is wrong with my heart," the raven-haired girl shakes her head, tears leaking from her eyes. "There's pressure building up around it, and I have a terrible feeling about this, Evelyn."

"Hey, just look at me, okay?" The brunette says quickly, meeting Bryce's eyes. "I'll go get the doctor and we can figure this out. Everything is—"

"No, it's not," Bryce cuts her off, shaking her head. "Just sit with me, Evelyn. Hold my hand."

Bryce never really put much thought into how she was going to die. Maybe it was because she thought the moment was too far away to even think about, or maybe it was just because she was scared to. She had always hoped, though, that it would be quick and painless; perhaps her heart failing while she slept, so she didn't see it coming. But now that she was in this position, her lungs on fire, she felt as if this might be the worst way to go.

It was a weird feeling; somehow knowing that her heart was failing, but not knowing for what reasons. The others around her might not have known that she was actually going to die, but Bryce did know. And it was important for her to spend those last few moments with someone she loved with all of her heart.

"Bryce, please don't talk like that, you're okay," Evelyn forces out, scanning the woman's body. "You're just in some pain right now, and I need to get you morphine. Just give me a second and I'll be right back."

"Do you remember when I bumped into you on my first day at the hospital back home?" Bryce asks, her hand clutched into Evelyn's. "You dropped your clipboard, then I tripped on it. You apologized until I started laughing, and then you started laughing too."

Evelyn, with sobs leaving her lips, sits down and cradles Bryce's arm into her chest. "O-of course I do, that was one of the greatest days of my life."

It was silent for a moment, Bryce listening to Evelyn cry as she tries not to move. There was a blazing fire in the pit of the stomach, and it spread to her chest. Her lungs weren't quite working right, and she struggled to breathe.

"I always imagined what it would be like to have a family, and live my life like I didn't have anything to lose," Bryce chuckles through her own tears. "But I don't think I ever really knew what my future would be like until I met Danny. He's so different from every person I've ever met . . . he's absolutely perfect.

"I—I want you to tell him that I was happy," Bryce turns her head to look into Evelyn's eyes. "The happiest I've ever been, because there's not a day that goes by that I don't love him more than I did the day before. He was my angel, Evelyn, and now it's my turn to be his."

"You can tell him all of those things yourself when he gets back," Evelyn cries. "And you can bully Rafe about his haircut and we can all go on a picnic together and eat potato chips together. Just stay, please."

It was a weird thing; to be trapped in your own body and feel like you're drowning. Bryce's lungs were constricting on their own accord, and she couldn't do anything about it. But then there were memories— like pictures, almost. And they went by fast, but Bryce captured every one of them, and smiled to herself.

Danny showing up at her door with maroon roses, unaware that they were her favorite color; Candice teasing Evelyn about her cupcakes; Rafe showing up, alive, at their back door. It made the burning sensation feel warm. She no longer felt like she was drowning— she was floating. On a cloud, just above the beach where she and Danny had spent the day together. Above the park where he proposed to her.

It was a beautiful thing to see— the memories fading into a place of sweet serenity. It was a scene of brightness, but the soft kind that brushed her face and made her feel at peace.

And at the same time that this was happening, Danny sinks to the Japanese soil, hearing the gunshots that ring out around him. All he could feel were the cold hands of Rafe as his best friend looked over the three bullet wounds in his abdomen. Danny was scared by the rushed chill that made its way up his spine and overtook his entire being.

Red and the other pilots grab their guns, defending themselves against the Japanese troops that began to shoot. But that didn't change the fact that Danny was on the ground, sputtering as blood covered his muddy clothing.

He had saved Rafe, and avenged all of the fallen people at Pearl Harbor. He had completed his mission, so why did he feel as though he had failed? Because he wouldn't be able to fulfil his promise to Bryce. The love of his life was waiting for him, injured, in a hospital bed, and he would never make it home to her.

Danny would never know how it felt to wake up next to her in the morning; to look into her smooth, chocolate eyes that always made him weak in the knees. He wouldn't get to make her breakfast in bed, or come home to find Bryce with a positive pregnancy test in her hand. He wouldn't get to take their children to school, or celebrate with Bryce because she got a promotion. He wouldn't know how it felt to stand at the end of the alter, and watch as she walked down the aisle to meet him.

Because Danny wouldn't ever get the luxury of seeing Bryce Dylan's face again.

"Danny!" Rafe yells, taking the man's face into his hands. "Oh, God." He removes the post that Danny had been strapped to, wincing as Danny yells out in pain. "Hold on, I've got you. You're alright."

Rafe wouldn't admit this— Danny would be perfectly fine. They just needed to patch him up, and everything would be okay until they got him to a doctor. He, too, was as hopeful as Evelyn. But hope couldn't save the dying couple.

"I'm not . . . I'm not gonna make it," Danny's voice shakes as he looks down to his wounds. He cries out, before his eyes meet Rafe's again.

"Oh yes you are. Yes you are, Danny," Rafe states without hesitance, his voice firm. "Look at me."

"Rafe, tell her I love her— please. Just—" he yells out again, tears streaming from his eyes.

"You're not going to die, listen to me!" Rafe chokes. "Danny, you can't die. You wanna know why? You have Bryce back at home, you have your whole life ahead of you."

"Make sure she's happy," Danny finishes, his whole body quaking as he forces his eyes open.

"Bryce, no, don't you dare close your eyes!" Evelyn jumps up from her seat, clutching Bryce's hand in her own. "No, you can't leave— please don't leave me."

"Danny, look at me, keep your eyes open!" Rafe shakes Danny, patting his cheek. "Just focus on me!"

But Danny and Bryce were caught up in the memory of when they first met. It replayed in their heads, every second of it.

"I expect you won't let me down, considering I passed you," Bryce chuckles, stamping the bottom of his chart before glancing up to meet his honey-colored eyes.

"Thank you," he grins, biting his bottom lip. "I'll make you proud— you'll see."

And in the past two months that they had spent together, he had fulfilled his promise. Bryce smiles to herself, all of her pain disappears as she does so. Danny buries his face in Rafe's chest.

"I love you, Danny," Bryce murmurs to herself, hoping that somewhere, somehow, he would be able to hear her.

"I love you sweetheart," Danny says too lowly for Rafe to hear, relaxing into the arms of his best friend.

And then, in that very moment, their fairytale ended; just as Evelyn and Rafe watched the light fade from Bryce and Danny's eyes.

THE END.

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