Alexandra walked beside David as the EMT's escorted them into the hospital and they were placed into a trauma room. They tried to place them differently, but Alexandra spoke out softly.

"I'm sorry, but you will have to place both of us in the same room. I promised I would stay close to him."

She looked at the nurse with a look that said I will not move from his side. She smiled at David as they left them alone in the room.

"Would you tell me your story?"

From his seat, David leaned over to his bag and unzipped it before rummaging around and removing a small silver flask. Seeing the surprise in Alexandra's face, David smirked.

"It's tea," he said warmly, sipping it. "Anyway..."

He promptly closed the flask and let it rest on his lap. Folding his hands, he searched his memory for some semblance of the details. He closed his eyes and began spouting off in a sort of stream of consciousness.

"Dark night, perfectly dark," he said with a sigh. "The shimmer of her eyes in the passing streetlights, curls in her hair bouncing as we walked, tipsy. Could feel myself stumbling, cradled her shoulder for balance. We moved for the park."

He suddenly came out of his daze, wide-eyed.

"Oh, dear." Came his response to his own oddity. "Well, that was odd. Sorry."

"It's okay. No need to apologize David." She moved to sit next to him, smiling softly. She took his good hand in hers and held it. "Please go on. You are keeping me from crumbling."

She looked into his eyes, my they were beautiful. How would she be able to leave for shove it? And leave him behind like this...

"A crime, it was," he continued, going back into his pseudo-trance. "A crime against nature. The results. Left me questioning what god could allow it. We sat on the hill, hands creeping towards the other. The sky was bright in this perfect darkness, and I pointed it all out to her. I showed her the universe as we could see it -- from our little retreat on the hill, our sanctuary away from the world. Only two weeks from graduation. Fourteen days until we would never see one another again. And there it was. That seething desperation. To tell her everything. To say what had been flowing through my mind every Monday for four years as we studied. And when I turned to say it, she looked away. Something in her motion said it all. A melancholy I couldn't comprehend, like a moat around a castle filled with my only treasure in life. That deep sadness. Mortality. She told me her mortality. Never the prognosis; just the diagnosis. The disease whose name we stole from the stars. Cancer. The crab whose claw carved away at her brain. She said it with that look in her eyes. The fear of dying. And I knew. I knew I could never say it. I could never tell her. And a year later, working in New York, already rooted into my life that would go on in place of hers, I received a letter from her mother -- the mother of perdition. And it told me everything I didn't want to hear. Emily Cantrell. Dead at 22. A life unlived. A love left unloved."

David once again surfaced from his stupor, now red in the face. He gave Alexandra a look of sheer embarrassment.

"That's probably...a lot you didn't want to hear," David admitted with a sheepish shrug. "Just one of the reasons I disconnect from humanity."

He looked down at their interlocked hands and placed his wounded, bandaged hand over Alexandra's.

"The reason I always tried to keep myself distant from you. The fear of it all coming back to me."

Alexandra looked at him, her eyes showed the sympathy she felt for him. She too knew what it was like to lose someone. "I don't mind you sharing things with me. I know how it feels to lose someone you've fallen so deeply for."

She looked down at their hands, placing her other over his. The pain seemed to leave her body when he was close to her. She looked up into his eyes, knowing that he had felt a loss that would change a person forever.

"I'm right here David. I promise you, I won't slip away so easily." She lifted her good hand placing it on the side of his face. "No matter what happens, know that I am always going to be here for you."

He smiled, and looked up to the lights of the room. That same old coping mechanism.

"We live in dangerous times," he replied plainly. "I'm not sure we can make that promise. I mean, look at our hands."

He looked down at their piled hands, two of which were bound in medical wrap, a bit of blood staining their surfaces.

"I guess we're sort of bound in this way. Right through to the blood. Iron and blood. I suppose that sort of says it all. The cold of iron and the warmth of blood. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. But you have an appointment to keep tonight, don't you..."

"They can see me right here. I promised to stay with you. I wont let you go through this alone. You didn't let me go through that alone, and you didn't mess anything up. What's another scar? Add it to the many I have, but to me... this one is special I share it with you. Bound together through anger and lo.."

She had almost said it again when a doctor came in and removed the wrappings from their hands, looking them over closely. Ally wanted to scream out in pain, but she kept ahold of Davids hand with her good one. The she saw the doctor move to his and she froze, hoping Mystica would stay underneath. She looked into his eyes.

As the doctor carefully unwound the wrappings around David's hand, his gaze remained solely fixed upon Alexandra. Here, he thought, is my reason to maintain control. Keep yourself alive and keep the darker things below. The pain swept across his arm like a fire, threatening to burn down his forest of competence, but in that pain, he felt something pure. A reminder that he, the man, was still alive, and very much had something to live for. All the broken down memories flooded him, and the physical pain enveloped itself within the mental pain, wrapping around in a double helix, combining into the purest of all things.

When the doctor had finished examining, cleaning, and stitching close the injury, David gave a slight sigh of relief, looking back to his worried partner and giving her a soft smile of reassurance. When the doctor finally took his leave, David leaned back in his chair and struck a rather relaxed pose. He had won the battle against himself. The god inside still slumbered in an unconscious anger.

"I assure you, luv...I think I'll be quite alright. And, of course, hoping for the best. No need to harp over me while you have important matters to attend to. Especially if it concerns Nova. Yes, I know your history. I say give 'em hell, mate. Go claim what is oh-so-rightfully yours."

He shot Alexandra a look that said everything. He'd be right here waiting for her when she returned. And in the time she'd be gone, this look told her he'd be missing her. There was something in those implications that both frightened and thrilled David to the bone. It was the chilling nerve of being alive. Alive.