Light rain surrounds Molly's car as she parks at the side of the bridge. The last time she was here her mind was almost blank. Now it is filled with the brightest most beautiful memories of a life she wishes she could keep. Charlie's arms are the main focus of her attention, the way they wrapped around her like barriers of steel, the way his lips tasted against the sun. And then she sees him lying there, with blood all around him, she sees his still and unconscious body on the hospital bed and her tears become faster. He'll be okay, she knows that, but as long as she is alive he will always be in danger. She is no longer killing herself for her own reasons but for him. She has to do this for him. So he can have a life because he is the most important thing in her world.

She holds on to the Saint Christopher pendant as she slowly leaves her car. She stares at her hands, remembering a time long ago when he held on to them, when he promised he wouldn't let go, and since then he never did.

Her heart breaks as she glimpses a world without the two of them together. She doesn't want to die, she never wanted to die, but she needs to. It's a need she can't explain, even to herself. She wishes it could be blamed simply on depression but it's more than that, it's always been more than that.

Her mind starts playing a soft melody to comfort her and she envisions the last time they were together, when their skins touched on the bed, when the heat sparked a bonfire that sent them to another world.

All the memories come crashing back as though she's watching them on a loop. From his visits to the hospital to when he took her to the beach and they rolled in the sand. From the frenzy that began in her stomach whenever he touched her to the fireworks that exploded from her heart when they kissed. She had never given much thought to love or being in love but she can't imagine that it would ever come closer than that. Maybe that's why fate or whatever it was sent Charlie to her that night because dying without ever having the chance to feel it wouldn't have been the same.

The rain falls harder and she glances down at the water one last time, knowing that this is the only place that can save her. It's the only place that ever did. Molly readies herself to climb over but just before she does, she gasps to herself.

Molly turns her head and sees Charlie standing on the sidewalk. His hands are either side of his body and he's panting heavily as he looks at her. He looks too weak to barely stand. She hates seeing him that way. Her hands grip the wall tighter. He won't intervene this time, he knows that this is it. This is her choice, her last choice. He will either watch her die or hold her as she chooses to live. Molly holds his eyes for as long as she can and she thinks they're as teary as hers are. She's never seen Charlie cry, it's an experience that shocks her. She looks back to the wall and places pressure down as she almost jumps it. Almost.

"Remember this, Moll. For every fear we have there is a courage we haven't yet used. If there comes a time when all you have is fear then courage will always be available too. Choose it, find it, and bathe in it. Find the courage to live. To fight."

Molly closes her eyes. "Savannah?"

"We will always be there," her sister whispers into her head. "We never left. You are stronger than me, Molly, you always have been. I was at your side every step of the way, I held your hand when you couldn't feel it and now you don't need me anymore."

"I can't," Molly cries quietly.

"You can. Open your eyes, Moll." Molly opens her eyes slowly. She sees her sister over the wall, she doesn't know how but she's a beautiful glow of light and wisdom as she hovers above the water. Her hair is as dark as Molly remembers and her eyes are flashing so blue that they're like beams, shedding colour over the darkness. "Look at him."

Molly looks at Charlie. He takes a step closer and then another.

"The courage to live is right in front of you. And he isn't going anywhere." Molly takes a deep breath as she realises no one is really saving her but she is saving herself. "Don't let that monster win. Fight, Molly. We will see each other one day but not today."

Molly lets go of the wall and she steps back. She shakes her head and the glow vanishes, there is just herself and Charlie. The rain is the only obstacle between them and it is no obstacle at all. Molly runs to him and his body relaxes as he anticipates her approach. She wraps her arms around his shoulders and they slide to the ground. He holds her face in his hands and he chokes on his relieved breaths as he looks at her.

"I thought I'd lost you," Charlie says, his voice breaking.

He studies every inch of her face before pulling her into a kiss. She melts in his embrace, all the emotions swirling around in her stomach until she can no longer breathe. Charlie is starting to get weaker and she tries to help him up but then she feels a pressure against her throat. Charlie's eyes widen as he looks above her and then Molly is yanked to her feet by a strong hand.

"Stay on the ground or I'll slit her throat," a voice says.

Molly keeps her eyes on Charlie as she's forced to back away from him, the large blade is removed from her throat and the stranger steps around her.

"Get down," he commands. "On your knees."

Molly slowly drops to the floor. The stranger keeps the blade in his hand as he stares down at her. He drops his hood and Molly sees his face for the first time. She's surprised by how normal he looks. He's a middle-aged man with brown hair, pale skin and small, beady eyes.

"I've waited a long time for this moment," the man says.

"Why are you doing this?" Molly whispers.

"Because your father took everything from me!" he yells. "I made one mistake, one tiny mistake, and he had me fired. I lost my career, my home, my wife because of him."

Molly gasps. "You're the doctor that misdiagnosed me."

He nods. "Now you know what depression feels like. To be sucked into a black hole of pity and grief and confusion. It was supposed to be your father that survived, that would have suffered. But, well, Jacob got a little trigger happy and killed him."

Molly closes her eyes for a second and takes a deep breath.

"You were supposed to die that night," he says. "I met Jacob in a bar when I was at my lowest and he told me if I needed someone taking care of then he was the perfect person. And your family was his. . . preference. It was the perfect plan. He knew how to get away with it and there was no evidence to implicate me. I wanted your father to suffer, Molly, to suffer so badly that it would have been him standing on a bridge. I didn't want you to suffer though, I told him to make it quick."

"Quick?" Molly says. "He raped my sister; he stabbed her ten times."

"I'm sorry for that," he says, as though that makes it better, as though it will bring her comfort. "I made sure he picked a night when the baby wasn't there, I'm not a complete monster. But you left early, you weren't supposed to leave early. It made me so mad to know that he wasn't suffering because his precious daughter was still alive." He grabs Molly's chin and she shakes her head out of his grasp. "It took me an entire year to work out a way to kill you but you weren't there then either."

Molly widens her eyes. "You set the fire that killed my grandparents?"

"I made it look like an accident too," he says. "Jacob refused to go back to Florida to finish the job so I had to do something. After the fire the FBI got involved and I lost you for a very long time. Until, Jacob's arrest. I knew you'd go straight onto social media, what teenage girl wouldn't?" He stands up, turning to look at Charlie. "But when I saw you, you were still broken, I could tell. I needed you to be at your happiest. I needed you to be as happy as you would have been that night. And I have you to thank for that, Charlie."

"You're fucked in the head," Charlie hisses.

"Maybe," he says. "But my reasons are justified."

"Why are you so obsessed with me?" Molly demands. "You took my family from me, you took everything."

"This isn't about you!" he yells at her. "This is about your father finally paying for what he did."

"Her father is dead," Charlie says. "What difference does it make? How does hurting her now help you?"

"I was at the hospital when your father brought you in," he says, walking back towards her. Her body stiffens as he crouches down to her eye-level. "I usually work in the office but I had to go there for something, I can't remember what. I saw the way your father screamed for help when he held your small, unconscious body in his arms. I saw the tears in his eyes as he thought his little girl was dying. It was killing him too. I've never forgotten that moment and ever since he ruined my life I've been waiting for him to feel it again."

Molly blinks back tears. He isn't wrong, she felt that love when she woke up. All she ever felt was her father's love. Even now, when he's far away from her, she can still feel it. He would do anything to protect her. He was killed because of her, because her life meant that much to him that he couldn't let it go. He pulls Molly to her feet and he points the end of the blade at her stomach.

"Now, you're going to jump," he says, pointing his eyes to the wall.

Molly looks him in the eye and snarls. "No."

"Do it or I'll kill him. They'll never find his body."

Molly looks at Charlie and he shakes his head at her. She takes a deep breath as she nods, she dries her eyes and she tells him something unspoken with her glance. Charlie seems to understand, even though it's not possible to be understood.

"Any last words?" the man says.

"He knows," Molly says.

"Do you really think you'll get away with this?" Charlie demands.

"It'll just be a tragic suicide," the man mumbles as he touches Molly's cheek. "No one will even question it with your past." He turns back to Charlie. "And you're about to succumb to your wounds as you fought to stop her, resulting in a double tragedy."

"You're forgetting one thing," Molly whispers. The man looks back at her. "You're on camera."

The man turns his head up towards the top of the bridge, suddenly panicked. "What?"

In his moment of distraction Molly curls her hand into a fist and punches his throat, just the way Charlie taught her. He clutches his throat as he struggles to breathe but he comes back angrily, yielding the blade at her stomach. As the pressure sends a wave of pulsating pain into her body Molly steps back as Charlie runs at them. It happens so fast that Molly doesn't really see it but Charlie tackles him into the wall and throws them over it. Their bodies become lost to the water below.

"Charlie!" Molly screams so loud that the heavens open.

She can't see anything but raging water. She looks for him, hoping he has made it, her hands tighten around the railing as she screams his name. She runs back to her car and frantically searches for her phone inside the compartment. She calls nine-one-one as she races back to the edge.

"You need to send a search and rescue to the river!" Molly cries into the phone. "He's down there, you need to send help, now!"

She tells them all the details she can and then she runs to the opposite side of the bridge but there's just water. Nothing but water, for miles. She doesn't know how long it's been but there's suddenly sirens all around her. The police, ambulances, the fire department, everyone arrives and crowds the bridge. She cries it out to the first police officer she sees but after he gets all the details he's more interested in taking her away.

"Miss," the policeman says as he puts a hand to her arm. "You need to go with the ambulance, you're hurt."

"I'm fine," she hisses, ignoring him. "I need to wait for him. He's alive, I know he is. He has to be."

Molly places a hand to her bleeding stomach as she watches the rescue boats circle around the river. There's a loud noise from above as a helicopter arrives, it stays in the air, hovering above one particular boat.

"What's happening?" Molly demands to the police officer as he talks on the radio.

He tucks his radio away and looks at her sadly. "They've found something. You said there's two people down there? Two men?"

"Yeah," she says.

No one's ever survived jumping from this bridge, a sinister voice tells her inside her head. It's why you chose it.

But what if she's wrong? What if there are survivors but she's never heard of them? What if there's a chance?

"We've got one," a voice says into the radio. "There's a pulse, it's weak. Preparing to airlift."

"Received," the officer says. "Keep searching, there's a second person down there."

He turns to tell Molly something but she's already running towards her car. She keeps her eyes on the helicopter as she drives down the bridge and through the barricades that they're setting up at the entrance. She knew he'd be okay, she knew he'd survive, he's stronger than her. She grabs some napkins and holds them against her wound as she keeps her eyes on the helicopter in the sky that is flying towards the hospital. The napkins become soaked in blood, she's bleeding out but she doesn't care. The pain is nothing, it's just a scratch against her skin.

She arrives at the hospital a few minutes later and she can't see the helicopter anymore. She limps across the parking lot and she catches the attention from a familiar face that is standing next to his car.

"Molly?" Alan shouts. "Oh my god, what happened?"

She ignores him, pushing onward towards the hospital entrance. Her vision is starting to get blurry, she fights through it, making her way over to the desk. Alan follows her and stays at her side.

"The man that was just airlifted here, where is he?" she demands.

The woman looks up at her. "Uh. . . are you family?"

"Where is he?"

"It's okay," Alan says, showing her his lanyard. "I'm Doctor Ranch from next door, just tell her everything she wants to know."

The woman types on her computer keyboard and then glances up. "There was a patient just admitted, he was airlifted from the river. He's in the ICU, room three."

"Thank you," Alan says.

Molly doesn't thank her; she turns and starts walking. Alan doesn't ask her anything but he stares at her bleeding stomach as she limps through the hallways. Molly glances up at the numbers and all of the blinds are drawn at the windows. She stops at room three and opens the door.

"Hey!" someone shouts. "You can't go in there!"

Molly stands in the doorway. Her heart drops when she sees the face isn't Charlie's. It's him, the man that took her family from her, that destroyed her life. His shirt is ripped open and they're preparing a defibrillator to shock his chest.

"Who is that?" Alan asks.

Molly doesn't say anything. She watches as they shock him, as his body convulses, but his stats don't change. They all read zero and she breathes strangely as she watches him die.

"Call it."

"Time of death," a nurse says. "Eleven-forty-five PM."

She backs out of the room slowly, her back hitting the wall as she holds her head in her hands. Alan puts his arms around her as she breaks down, he picks her up when all she wants to do is collapse.

"I don't know what happened tonight or who that man is," Alan says softly. "But what I do know is that you have a wound that needs to be treated immediately. Everything else can wait okay?"

"No," she whispers. "He's dead. Charlie's dead."

"That wasn't Charlie," Alan says. "Charlie is okay."

She shakes her head violently. "You don't understand! Charlie fell into the river too, they only pulled one body out. He's still down there, he's not coming back." Her lips tremble as she starts to scream. She falls to the floor and Alan doesn't know what to do, he's trained to know, but not this time. He takes his sweater off and places it against her stomach as he crouches down.

"Molly, listen to me." Alan sounds so far away, but he's right in front of her. She blinks at him slowly. "Something is happening right now that is out of your control and that's going to feel like one hell of a nightmare but every nightmare has hope. You just have to wake up."

"He's gone," she says, her face becoming still. "I know he is. I can feel it. He was so weak; he wouldn't have been able to swim. He's just woken up from a coma! It's all my fault."

"You are not to blame for any of this okay? Bad things have happened to you, but you overcame it then and you can overcome it now. I'm right here, I'm right with you. Every step of the way. Will you come with me to get checked over?"

She nods and she squeezes her hand around his as he helps her up. He never lets her go, not for a moment, because she'll drop back to the floor. It's like she's dead inside, as though she went over that bridge with him. Will she ever be free from death? Will she ever escape the darkness that consumes her whenever her heart breaks?

She keeps the sweater against her wound as she drifts aimlessly back to the waiting area. The lights are so bright, blinding. There's a silence in this room that she's never heard. She feels a tight ping in her chest as though she's having a heart attack. The pressure is sudden and sharp, her whole left arm starts to ache from shooting pains. She is having a heart attack. She leans over the counter and buries her head, she can't breathe, she slides to the floor and Alan catches her.

"You're having a panic attack," he says. "Look at me. Focus on my breathing. In. Out. Slowly."

It's not a panic attack. She's had thousands of them, she knows what they feel like. This is something new. The pain in her chest is so tight that she can feel her heart literally giving up, she can feel something snapping inside of her. She breathes along with Alan until the pain eventually vanishes. She doesn't know how she's still conscious but she's clinging to the edge of the counter as though it's a lifeline.

"We need urgent medical assistance," Alan tells the woman at the desk. "Can you call someone down here?"

"Of course," the woman replies, looking between them with concern. "What injury?"

"I'm not sure," Alan says as he looks at Molly. "Molly?"

"I was stabbed," she whispers.

The woman's eyes widen and then she grabs the phone. Molly turns her head towards the door and she looks through the glass. She continues to take long, deep breaths as she rubs her hand against her stinging chest in a clockwise rhythm. Her fingers catch the small pendant and she closes her eyes.

"As long as you are wearing this then whenever you are lost or far from home it'll protect you from harm." Charlie's voice fills her head and she thinks back to Christmas day, when he was standing right in front of her, when he was declaring his love in a way she never realized.

Maybe from the moment they met they were always doomed to lose each other. She opens her eyes and she absorbs herself into the silence. She can't accept that he's gone yet but she'll have to at some point. There's no hiding from it or running from it, it's going to be the hardest truth she'll ever have to face. Charlie died for her, he sacrificed himself for her, his last act in this world was putting her life before his and she'll never be able to thank him for that. The tears come again and her body shakes as she holds in a scream. Alan puts his arms around her and holds her close to him, she digs her fingernails into his shirt as she breaks. There is suddenly a different kind of silence as Molly's eyes look over Alan's shoulder. She stares through the glass, her cries drowning out.

She wonders if her mind is playing tricks on her because she can see someone in a white shirt limping in the middle of the parking lot. She stares so hard that she doesn't hear whatever Alan is saying to her. It can't be. . . but it is. It is.

Molly takes off through the door and she stands on the steps, her body stiffening. Charlie meets her eyes from across the lot and the moment she sees him smile, she runs. He can't move as fast as her and he takes slow steps to try and meet her halfway. She wraps her arms around him and she holds on as though he'll disappear if she lets go.

"I thought you died," she cries.

"I came back," he says as he rubs her head. "I'll always come back to you."

"I saw you fall. You hit the river. I was so scared."

"It's definitely something I won't be in a rush to do again but the body can do amazing things right?"

She pulls her head back and she glimpses the brightness in his eyes. They're alive, she never thought she'd see those eyes again. His clothes are wet and he's not wearing shoes but he walked all the way from the banks of the river to be with her. They kiss each other and then he moves his eyes down to her stomach.

"You need help," Charlie says.

"I can't even feel it," she says. "It's nothing."

Charlie smiles as he takes her hand and leads her towards the hospital. "You punch a guy in the throat and suddenly you're Rambo?"

Molly smiles, leaning her head against his shoulder. "You know, I think I saved your life this time."

"That's up for negotiation," he says. "But let's talk about that after I'm sure that you're okay."

"Deal," she whispers. "You need to get checked too. You've just woken up from a coma you know?"

Charlie squints his eyes. "A coma huh? I just thought my mum was exaggerating."

They walk into the hospital together. Side by side, the way it's always been. And as quickly as her darkness returned, it vanishes. Replaced with something that can only be described as better.

"I still hate hospitals," Charlie mutters. "I wish the trauma would have knocked that out of me."

"I'm sure they have a room for that somewhere, I'll ask."

Charlie laughs and pulls her closer to him. She closes her eyes for a moment, appreciating every second to be close to him.

"Charlie," she whispers.

"Yeah?"

"Happy new year."

He kisses the top of her head. She tightens her hand around his and folds deeper into his touch. She'll never take it for granted, she'll never let the darkness take her again, as long as she has him, it's over. The struggle, the pain, the paranoia, the reluctance to be accepted into her life.

It's finally over.