"Did you talk to Christian?" Aaron asked.
"Yes," she replied pointedly. "And he told me there was only an eighty percent chance that serum would even work. I was afraid I was going to find you dead."
She expected an apology, or some sort of strong reaction to her concern, but instead, he looked only surprised. "Eighty percent?" he asked. "Interesting."
"Yeah, and he said you had no idea. Besides being worried sick about you, I've been contemplating the numerous painful ways I can make him pay for his idiocy."
"That would have been nice to know," he said solemnly.
She glanced over at him and realized he seemed very upset. She considered how much worse things could have been and wrapped her arm around him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, babe. I don't mean to be so ugly. I just... it's been a long day. The important thing is that you're okay." She kissed him on the cheek, hoping he'd turn to her and return her kiss.
But he didn't. He didn't say anything for quite some time. When he did speak, it was just above a whisper. "Cadence," he said waiting for her to acknowledge she could hear him, "it didn't take."
She pulled her head up only slightly, confident she had misunderstood. "What?" she asked quietly, pushing down the panic rising in her stomach.
He swallowed hard before saying it again. "The serum... it didn't take."
"How do you know?" she asked, sitting up and looking at him intently.
"I know," he replied assuredly. Her expression was enough to tell him that his response was not adequate. With a deep sigh, he flipped his right arm over so she could see the injection sight.
Cadence gasped in horror. The veins in his arm were a dark green color, almost black, starting where he had inserted the needle near his elbow and running up his arm toward his bicep. The flesh was a lighter shade of green, and she could see it was spreading the other direction as well. "Why is it green?"
"The serum was green," he shrugged. "I'm not sure why."
"Does it hurt?" she asked as she reached out her hand to touch it, but then paused, waiting for his answer.
"Yes," he admitted. "But you can touch it. It might feel better if you do, actually," he muttered under his breath.
She gently ran her finger along the line for a moment, and then pulled her hand back, shaking her head. "What if we... apply a tourniquet or something?" she asked, her mind beginning to spin again.
"It's already in my bloodstream," he assured her.
"Is that why your eyes are green?" she asked, still puzzling over the situation.
He looked surprised. "I didn't know they were."
"We can fix this," she said, pushing the panic away. "We can totally fix this."
"No, we can't," he said calmly.
"Yes, yes we can!" she assured him. "Aaron, you do realize what this means, right? If it didn't take...."
"Hell, yes, Cadence," he replied, finally evoking some emotion. "Of course, I know what it means. I've been sitting on this mountain for the last four hours wondering how the hell I was going to tell you I accidentally fucking killed myself."
The weight of his words hit her fully in the gut, but she was determined not to let the tears roll down her face. "No," she said firmly. "No! I am not letting that happen..."
"Cadence..."
"NO! Not you, too. Not both of you! It's not happening. I won't let it."
"Cadence..."
"Aaron, we've finally gotten this figured out. We're going to be together. You love me... we love each other. I won't let you die."
He turned toward her and grabbed both of her forearms, attempting to steady her, causing her to look into his now unfamiliar eyes. "Cadence, I know how this works. There's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do. It's just a matter of time. God... I'm so sorry. I would have never done it if I didn't think..." he looked away from her then, as if he realized it didn't matter.
"But, I have the Transformation serum," she assured him, pushing him off so that she could get into her backpack and pull out the vials. "See? This will work. We can fix it."
For a second, there was a small glimmer of hope in his eyes, but then it disappeared. "Of course, I'm willing to try it, babe, but I don't think there's any chance it will work. I think it's too late. Even if... even if you'd given it to me right away, I don't think it would have been able to stop this."
She carefully placed the vials back in her backpack, making sure they didn't break, and took his face in her hands. "Aaron, it's going to work," she assured him.
He returned the intensity of her stare, holding it for a moment before quietly saying, "Okay. Let's give it a try."
She leaned in and kissed him, hoping to transfer her confidence, however wavering, to him. He returned her kiss before pulling away and resting his forehead on her shoulder. It was only then that she realized how warm and clammy he felt. "Are you going to make it back down the mountain?" she asked gently. "Jamie says I should get you in bed before we do this."
Without lifting his head, he asked, "How's Jamie doing?"
She pulled back her head in confusion. "What? Really?" she asked before shaking her head in disbelief that he was worried about Jamie as he was literally dying. "He's going to be fine," she finally replied.
"Good. Jamie's a good guy."
