A/N Yes, I know we are all reeling after Sunday's episode. But we have to be optimistic, people! Now, I was exchanging messages with one of my lovely reviewers over on 'Somebody Like Us', and we were talking about Long Blue Line, and she said that I should write a oneshot, if I was in the mood. Voila! I just need to make one thing clear. All ideas about the afterlife, and any form it takes, are my own. I have no evidence to support what I believe, or don't believe. I just wanted to make that clear. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Nope. Still not mine, but BOY do I wish I did!

It was as if God had given him wings to fly down the slope. Engine running, door wide open, keys in the ignition, but he doesn't care.

Scotty never questioned how she'd ended up on the muddy river banks. He is just thankful that she had. Grabbing her limp body, he pulls with all his strength, and with a cry of frustration and fear, manages to drag his partner further onto dry land.

"Lil!"

And he's so relieved that he's found her. For a moment he can think of nothing else, just that devastating relief spreading through him. He cradles her in his arms, and for that one tiny moment, pretends that she's his, and he can hold her like this, and he can press a kiss to her wet forehead.

It's déjà vu, he thinks. Holding her close to him, fighting off tears, hoping, praying to God that he'd got there on time.

"Help!" he yells, clinging to the off-chance that someone was nearby.

No reply.

"Come on, Lil!" he cried, kneeling in the mud beside her and shaking her gently. His trembling fingers find the cell phone at his waist. The cell phone, he thinks, that was to blame for the whole messed up situation. If only he had picked up sooner...

But he's picking up now, and in a voice that doesn't sound like his own he calls the ambulance. And then he realizes she's not breathing.

"Fuck! No, Lilly, please!"

The police officer inside him starts compressions, the hands of his body moving automatically. The terrified man inside him remains motionless. Now was it 30 compressions to two breaths, or fifteen breaths to two compressions? One breath? Fifteen compressions?

This time, he doesn't bother trying to control his tears.

"Shit!" he sobs, "Lilly, please! Don't do this to me again!"

And he keeps going. He has to, because without her, he's nothing. So he keeps counting, one two three four and keeps breathing and desperately tries to cling on to that rapidly fading hope he was so fond of.

She's been here before. The long hallway with the shining door at the end. Stay away from the light. There's a white noise in her ears, so quiet it's almost deafening, and there's fear. Fear so intense, but it's covered by something so much more terrifying. Love.

Someone's pounding on her chest. It doesn't hurt. She's been here before. Scotty...why is it raining? She's inside. The door gets closer, and a warmth begins to spread from her lips down.

The door starts to fade. She frowns, reaching out towards it. The noise in her ears is clearer now, and it's water, she realizes. Someone's still pounding on her chest. It hurts. It's not supposed to hurt here.

When she looks again, the door is gone.

It's his name he hears first. Anyone else would have missed it, but it's him, and it's her, and even though it's nothing more than a gasped whisper, it's the best thing he's ever heard.

He strips off his jacket, folding it around her as she coughs and gasps.

"It's OK," he says. Neither of them knows who he's talking to. She's freezing, and he wonders why he never noticed before.

And suddenly he doesn't care, because she's alive. So he crushes his lips to hers, giving her his air, his life, for no other reason than because he can. Because she's alive and he's alive and even though he knows that this will be another mountain to climb for her, he just doesn't care.

So there they are, two alive people, sitting in the mud, just...being. Being more than they should, not quite being enough, just sitting until they finally hear the sirens approaching.

Her cold hand finds his, clutching it tightly to her cheek.

He smiles.

Short, I know, but this was the product of my break, so I decided to post it straight away! If you've got a spare moment, please leave me a review.