Brady sat next to Chloe's bed, gently stroking her hair, until she stirred awake. She opened her eyes groggily, and tried to focus on his handsome face. Brady looked back at her, smiling tenderly, taking her hand in his, and lightly kissing her palm, careful not to disturb the IV. The curtains were open and small orange drops of light filtered into the small room. Chloe was framed in the wonderful glow of the sun.

"Don't look at me like that."

"I can't help it, you're just so beautiful."

"Even like this, Brady? Sick, dying, dead," Chloe asked him, tears blurring her vision.

"Shh, don't say things like that. You're not going to die, I won't let you." Brady soothed, going back to, lightly touching her hair.

"I am Brady, we both know it, we have to stop pretending."

"I won't believe it, I don't want to," he told her, turning away from her.

It was true, she was getting weaker, looking paler and it scared him so much. It ripped him apart, every time she opened her eyes and forgot where she was.

"Brady...Brady, please."

He turned to look at her, not being able to deny her anything."I don't think I'll be able to let you go," Brady said, quietly, trying not to let his voice crack.

"You have to," she sighed, tired, more so, than she had ever been in her life. She could feel herself become weaker with every breath.

"How will I go on?"

"In time, you will forget, and I'll just be a memory, a whisper in the wind."

"Do you think I could give up on you that easily? You'll always be in my heart and in my head. I don't want to live without you, it's not fair."

Chloe gasped for a breath as she tried to speak, and Brady turned to her alarmed. "I'm fine," she told him.

"Chloe...," he said, numbly.

"I know."

He touched the side of her hollowed, white cheek, it was cool and soft. She closed her eyes, letting the tears flow slowly down her cheek and run into the fabric of the pillow.

Her chest stop moving, her eyes stayed closed, she was gone.

Brady laid his head against her limp body, and let the tears rack his once strong, frame. It was over, after everything they had been through, she hadn't survived and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

He wanted to scream and yell and throw things across the room, but he didn't. He simply pulled back the covers from her sterile hospital bed, and tenderly climbed in next to her, holding her once virile, teenage body in his arms. Brady let the tears devour him, they wracked, his body hard and he saw no end. He held his diva, his one true love against him, while he rocked back and forth.

"Why?" He asked in a small insecure voice, as he looked at the ceiling, and the tears fell from his jaw into her hair. The light had faded and all that was left was darkness.

The End

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