As he drifted into the cold water of the harbor the air escaped his lungs making him sink like a rock to the ocean floor. His consciousness fades and all he can hear is that raspy familiar voice echoing in his head: Goodbye, Eddie....

...Molecules of symbiote floating in the crestfallen spray of ocean sea - how does one explain their natural desire to gravitate towards their host despite their demolished state? Damaged so by the fire the organism was no longer considered a candidate for life. Yet still...

The beep of the monitor was the first sound he heard, followed by Anne's distant and harrowed voice "Eddie?!"

Coming to in an ambulance he felt a wave of pain from his chest: broken ribs. A few sharp sudden breaths as he recalled his last moments of consciousness. The fire.

"Everything is going to be okay." Anne reassured, still sounding like a far off drift.

Eddie had that reached in memory the moments just before hitting the water. His symbiote counterpart had sacrificed himself. Not to save the earth. Not to be the hero. But for him.

'Be honest, what changed your mind.'...

Out of love.

A lump grew in his throat and tears sprang to his eyes ... he instinctively thrust an arm up towards his face to shield his pride. True the creature had never said those words to him but he felt it - the love paired with sacrifice.

Anne couldn't see Eddie's eyes but she knew her former lover well enough as he tried to hide his feelings. With compassion she gripped his free hand.

The beeping escalated suddenly to a fast paced rhythm beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep - a broken rib had punctured a lung - "vitals are spiking!" the first responders rushed to Eddie's care. Annie's face wrought with worry she could only watch as Eddie started to slip back into the realm of darkness, perhaps now to never return.

The small growth inside the host now had a purpose and localized quickly to the internal trauma. Up to paramedics alone this rupture may well have taken Eddie's life. Yet so quickly these cells worked to remedy it, and in their work they grew in strength and renowned purpose.

His heart jumped when he heard it: three simple words, so small in their length but so heavy in their meaning.

I've got us.

If he had the strength to smile he would have. His blood loss staggering, the words hung in his mind as he passed out - vitals signs stabilizing.

Y

-End 1-