· The Sky is Falling // Neal & Rose
The readings on the monitors had been off the chart. There hadn’t been any warning. There had been no indication that a ship of any sort was incoming, no indication of a landing or something waking up or something going out of control. Things didn’t just suddenly show up on the scanner. There was always a buildup. Always. That was just how things worked. It was how things were supposed to work. That was all Rose knew.
So when suddenly the radar had blown up with a sighting and no warning, of course they threw a badge and a gun at her. Of course they told her to get to the location as quickly as she could because there was no one else they would send to identify an alien life force. No one else had gone all over the universe. No one else had seen quite as much as she had. It only made sense. Or, at least it made more sense than the vortex that seemed to be spiraling harmlessly between buildings in London.
Rose had never seen anything quite like it. Almost like a hole in the fabric of reality….
A hole.
In the fabric of reality.Her eyes widened and she glared up at the anomaly. That couldn’t be right. There hadn’t been a tear last time. Not that she remembered at least, not one that she could see. And yet here she was staring at something that could have been a hole to any world imaginable and of course her radio was down. Her cellphone had lost signal. She should have expected that. Standing too close to anything of this sort just seemed to work wonders on electronics.
Rose frowned and stepped just far enough away for her radio to signal out. She waited for confirmation that she was heard before spouting, “May need a team out here. Vortex of some-” She turned sharply as she heard something hit the pavement, her eyes widening at the sight of the bloodied man. “Shit. Send back up.” She let the radio fall to the ground, not caring about the static or the busted speaker it was certain to have, as she ran forwards towards the man.
Her arms reached out, grabbing him from behind as he fell, wrapping around his middle. He was bigger than her and she hadn’t expected quite so much dead weight which left her sinking slowly to the ground with the stranger in tow. Gently, she spread her legs so that she could cradle his head in her hands and keep an eye on the wound. She stroked the man’s hair and face, not sure just how out of it he was but wanting him to at least know that he wasn’t alone.
“I’ve got you. Falling out of the sky is no good. But, I’ve got you. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”
A flurry of blonde hair soothed his troubled mind, two hands cradling his head, one of which stroked his hair and face with the softness of an affectionate touch. The voice that followed, he didn’t quite recognize, but in his confused state of mind, his brain deformed the sound so much that he thought it sounded familiar. He had identified the woman as someone from the life he had led before his fall through the portal before she had even spoken twice.
“Emma—”
Even as he struggled to keep his consciousness, he lifted up a hand to reach out for her, not quite managing to touch her hair as he had intended to. Disappointed by the notion and weakened by the loss of blood, he simply dropped the hand. In stead of giving up entirely, however, he shifted position just slightly in order to get a good look at her. Blinking a few times, he finally managed to clear his vision enough to realize it wasn’t Emma who was holding him in her arms. Confused by the fact that he was being held, caressed and talked to by a complete stranger, Neal pushed his eyebrows towards each other in a deep frown.
“Who are you—?”
Moments later, he found himself dropping his gaze yet again as his eyelids grew heavier, struggling with the inability to stay awake. No—he’d fought it this long, he wasn’t supposed to quit now. He wasn’t—
He was. Eyelids fluttered shut and Neal sank back into the deep pits of unconsciousness due to loss of blood. Would the woman be on time to rescue him? Most likely. But he had no strength to stay conscious, let alone thank her for catching him. Or introduce himself, for that matter.
