The Things They've Been Telling Us Along...

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee pulled a bunch of flowers of mid-air as he half-walked, half-ran down the empty corridors. It was early on in the morning- like, really early. Perhaps 8, or 8.15 or so. Okay, so there was no point in bringing them, but he hated how bare the hospital wing looked. He wanted it to have a bit of life in it, at least. He fiddled with the white petals of the bouquet of calla lilies critically. They were pretty, and no-one could deny they wouldn't blend in with the hospital surroundings.
And... according to Ellie, they were traditionally assosiated with funerals.
Lee threw the hospital doors open and followed his familiar route down to the bed. Then he stopped. And stared.
No pale, still Madeleine lay in that bed. Its covers were neat, and made- devoid of any occupants. It was just empty. God. Oh god. Oh god oh god ohgodohgodohGODOHGODOHGOD...
"M- Madeleine?" His voice shook horribly, and he stumbled forward slightly onto the bed, his knuckles whitening as they clutched its snowy sheets.
This couldn't be happening. She was there. Right there- just last night. He'd spoken to her for god's sake! He kissed her forehead; held her hand, and promised he'd come and see her tomorrow...
"Madeleine..." he croaked, slumping slightly as his knees buckled. "Oh, god, Madeleine... you can't be..."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

The sky was clear and sunny, and the day was bright, just like when she had seen Shaun.
Pity about the flecks of dirt marring the windows, though.
Madeleine's hand closed around the smooth grey pebble in her hand, and she closed her eyes, visualizing her brother's face in her mind.
She was sitting in a white covered armchair by the dirty window of the hospital ward, hooked up to a portable heart monitor and IV.
God, how much did she hate those wires. When she'd woken up with those things on her face... eugh. At least now a few of them were gone, and these ones didn't cover her face.
She had tried getting up and walking to the chair from the bed, but she'd stumbled, and humiliatingly, Nurse Gornray had had to help her over.
So much for strength, then.
She hadn't slept last night at all. Death makes you think over a lot of things, and Madeleine had thought long and hard.
As a result, her unusually pale face was marked by pale violet circles under her eyes.
But more importantly, she'd decided to leave Levi. After all, it wasn't Levi who had come looking for her when she was missing.
It wasn't Levi she was in love with.
And even if Lee was still with Chloe, well, she would still tell him how she felt. At least if she knew that he didn't return it, then she could move on.
The doors to the ward opened, and there were footsteps, which became louder and closer to her.
"M- Madeleine?"
Madeleine pulled herself up slightly, and closed her eyes at the sound of the voice that only a few hours before she thought that she'd never hear again.
"Madeleine..." Lee's voice croaked. "Oh, god, Madeleine... you can't be..."
She opened her eyes. "Lee?" she called.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

He laughed softly to himself. So... he really was mad now. Hearing things. Great. That's great, Lee. You can run out and get that strait jacket any day now...
He heaved a sigh, and sat himself down on her... the bed. The flowers spilled from the bouquet to the white hospital floor, and he put his face his hands for a few seconds, inhaling deeply. She was gone. So she was gone. So that was it. The end. Goodbye. Lost to that goddam eternal blackness. He'd never see her again.
Never.
A lump rose in his throat and he tried inhaling slightly quickly, and the effect was a strange muffled noise. He coughed, trying to clear his head.
"So, you're dead," he mumbled to no-one, half-hoping the sweet voice would answer him. "Great. Thanks for that."
God. Oh, god. Ohgodohgodohgod...

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

He didn't answer for a second, then his muffled voice said ""So, you're dead. Great. Thanks for that."
Madeleine screwed up her eyes and clutched at the stone. So he thought he was going crazy now.
Craziness is a nice feeling...
As Shaun would say - just bloody excellent.
"No, Lee, I'm not dead," she said patiently. "Over here, at the window."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

You've got to be bloody kidding me...
Wild, irrational and very much alive, hope raised its head with a cry of joy. Suddenly, Lee's heart went into overdrive, a new, strange light feeling filling up from the bottom of his stomach and shooting up to dissolve into his brain with a fizzing, crackling sensation. Jumping up in shock, Lee turned, and ripped back the screen, staring down the ward.
He'd never seen anything more wonderful in his entire life.
Madeleine- Madeleine- was sitting in the white armchair beside the window. Her dark head was turned in his direction- her face as pale as ever- but her bold blue eyes were wide and alert. Her smooth lips were pursed in the smallest of frowns as she looked at him.
He must look really weird.
In eight steps that seemed like three, Lee had crossed the hospital wing to her, and taken her face in his hands, staring at her in amazement- even amusement. He pressed his fingers softly against her snowy cheeks, and felt a tingle of relief as her familiar warmth washed over him. Her eyes stared quizzically into his, and he sighed, as if in relief.
A knot loosened in his stomach.
Struck by a sudden fit of passion- like a floodgate had just been opened- a million, billion emotions rushed forth. Lee didn't know whether to laugh, or to cry. He couldn't even speak. He just stared at her. Smiled at her.
And all of a sudden, he pulled her forward and crashed his lips against hers.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

As he walked down the corridor towards her, looking worried, Madeleine found herself wishing that she could get up out of this bloody chair and run towards him like in all those cheesey, awful romance films.
Dammit. This was called being in deep.
Finally, he reached her and pressed his hand against her cheek, and his face flooded with something that looked like relief.
She stared at him, trying to bite back her own relief.
Right now, at this moment, she found it so difficult to believe that a few hours before she had thought about never coming back.
Never seeing him again.
How could she have done it?
Suddenly, his lips touched hers and he kissed her.
And everything felt right.
A million nameless emotions ran through her veins as she pressed her lips back against his, feeling every wound that had been placed in her heart during the past month being stitched back together.
However, the same heart was beating rather fast, according to her monitor - and since when had the beeping been so loud?!
Feeling the colour rush to her cheeks, she pulled back from Lee, smiling. "Hi."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

For a second, Lee almost thought that heart moniter was plugged up to him. Then, seeing Madeleine's sheepish expression as she pulled away, something seemed to clunk into place inside him.
She felt the same way...
"Hi," she smiled.
"Hi," he said a little breathlessly, then wickedly, leant forward and kissed her again.
This time, he pulled even closer, carelessly reaching out to caress her soft, dark curls. Her lips were as soft and warm as he'd remembered them- but somehow, better. How much time had they wasted with this stupid Chloe/Levi dance? But... not even that... how much more time they still have...?
The thought panicked him, and he kissed once more roughly on the lips before hugging her and resting his head on her shoulder. It took him a few seconds to realise he was kneeling beside her, and he nearly laughed at the thought.
"So, hi," he muttered against her neck. "Welcome back."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

When she'd pulled back, Madeleine's heart rate had returned to normal, but then Lee leant forward to kiss her again, and it went back up to a scarily high rate again.
But she didn't care.
As his hands ran through her curls, her arms reached out to wrap themselves around Lee's neck.
Why had she ever left him? They could have had so much time... her death needent have happened...
He kissed her once more before wrapping his arms around her and hugging her. Immediately, she felt the heat from his body touch her and run through her body, warming up every part of her that had been so cold for the past week.
"So hi," he mutted. "Welcome back."
It felt so good to be in his arms again...
Now there's no place else I could be but here in your arms..."
"It's good to be back," she replied, hugging him tightly back.
There was a comfortable silence, as she felt his breath tickle her shoulders.
"Nurse Gornray said that you've been coming every day," she murmured, resting her head on top of his.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

His lips brushed the hollow of her neck again. He couldn't help it. A smile played about his lips as he breathed her in. A couple of her curls tickled his nose.
"Yeah..." he said sheepishly. "I have. Pretty sad, right? I must've been really annoying; I nattered away to you all the time."
He frowned, and felt like pulling back to look into her eyes again, but couldn't bring himself to remove himself from her arms. It was just so deliciously comfortable- and she so wondrously warm. Another kiss. And another.
Hell, if he could have his way, they'd stay wrapped around each other forever.
"Could you hear any of it?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

She smiled as he kissed her neck gently.
"Flashes of it," she half-lied, remembering the vision in the pool that Shaun had shown her. She was certain that that had happened; Shaun hated lying. "I didn't hear it, as such, but I can remember bits..."
If Madeleine could hear me, she would've woken up when I asked her to. She would've smiled at me when I... when I wanted...
"If I could have, I would have woken up," she whispered into his hair. "But I couldn't."
There was another pause, which she broke by murmuring, "Thank you for staying with me," before kissing the top of his head gently.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

The moment she said that, a slight chill ran down his spine.
"But I couldn't..."
"But you did," he muttered, trying and failing to ignore her lips on his head. "You fought it. You came back. How'd you... how'd you do that, Madeleine?"
You were going to die...
Madeleine the Miracle. He'd always known she was special, but heck- this was something else! He kissed her again, slipping his arms around her waist and pressing his head against her chest.
There. Her steady, solid, reassuring heartbeat.
She really was alive.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

His arms reached out and wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly.
Madeleine smiled. The pebble was still in her hand.
If I told you, you'd think I'm crazy...
She'd already decided on this. Telling people - well, they would think she'd gone nuts. And telling her parents that she had seen Shaun would just open up old wounds.
"I promised you I wouldn't die, didn't I?" she chuckled softly. "I wasn't about to break my promise."
But she was going to. For a minute, she had wanted to stay up there, with Shaun.
Thank God that she hadn't. She would have lost this...
Instinctively, her arms tightened around his shoulders, pulling him closer to her.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

He smiled. "Hey, guess what, Madeleine? Don't laugh, okay? You're not allowed to laugh; 'cause I do mean this. I swear it."
Prising her arms gently from around his back, and taking both her hands in his, he looked once more into her bright, blue eyes. He couldn't believe himself. He couldn't believe this. It still felt like a dream.
This was one hell of a good dream.
It was a simple thing to say really. But he knew, he just knew- he had to say it. Time was precious. Every second spent waiting was wasted.
"Madeleine, don't do that to me again, okay? This never sounds right whenever you say it... ugh, great, okay, I'm gonna get it wrong. Okay, rambling now, shut up, Lee. Alright. Good." He gritted his teeth, and exhaled slowly. "I love you."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"I love you."
For years, Madeleine had scorned chick flicks, romance novels and Cecelia's raves for what they said about the power of those three little words, but now, she found herself taking every scornful word back - because all of those so brilliantly understated it.
Hearing those words... it was wonderfully, gloriously, brilliantly great.
Her lips curved into a smile that she felt wasn't big enough to show how she really felt about what he had just said.
"That was perfect," she smiled, squeezing his hands with as much strength her tired body could muster. "I love you too - and Lee, I am so, so, so sorry that I was so bloody stupid; I never should have left you, or done all that horrible stuff I did between then and now. I'm so sorry, and I love you, okay?"
A huge weight lifted off her chest that she hadn't even realised was there, and suddenly, she knew something -
Shaun had been right.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee didn't know what to say- hardly even what to think. Maybe he couldn't think anymore. He didn't have to. All he needed to know was Madeleine. She loved him. She loved him. He'd never expected to hear that- not in a million years- but god, it felt great.
Was the word 'indescrible' too much of a cliché right now?
"Okay," he said weakly, and kissed her once more.