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| - Lightning cracked across the sky, closely followed by the roaring of thunder. The tom sat hunched in the windowsill, watching the rain fall in sheets and waver the glass till everything was distorted. Every bolt of blue-white light reminded him of that fateful night; moaning softly, he leaned forward till his forehead touched the rain-chilled glass of the window, unmoving even when a bout of thunder shook the whole foundation of the house. Each strike of lightning cracked the stone barrier he built up to block out the night a little bit more. Destroyed his ability to fight off the images. Years later, the flashbacks of things he hadn't relived in years back rushing back to him, leaving him hunched over and gasping for air. That had been years ago. Now, he still lived with the Twolegs who had found him that night. They had another cat - a little she-cat, young, with cream fur and green eyes. Her name was Belle, and she reminded him so much of her. She was bright, lively, playful and cheeky. She had only been a kit when he first came to this place. Now, she let out a quiet mew behind him - he twisted to look over his shoulder, his face cold from being pressed to the window for so long. Belle's cream tail twitched worriedly, her body language speaking of anxiety. Instead of answering her unspoken question, he leaped from the windowsill and bounded to the front door, slipping out of the cat door. Belle didn't follow. He was right. There was Pineshadow, sitting on a tree root sheltered from the rain, tail curled over his paws. He was glad he was never given a collar to wear by his Twolegs - neither him nor Belle, though both outdoor cats, had ever worn one. He kept himself fit, eating fresh-kill he caught in the yard next to kittypet food, and he knew he still held his warrior frame. "Why are you here?" He demanded of the tabby, unsheathing his claws to reveal they were still sharp and not trimmed away. "Only to come say I've got a price on my pelt now. Apparently some young apprentice was around when I killed her all those moons ago. Saw the whole thing but never spoke a word. He finally confessed a few days ago. Everyone's hunting me." Pineshadow didn't look concerned by the though, unsurprisingly. He sat down heavily, his tail sprawled behind me. "You think I care? I've been waiting moons to see you dead. Every passing day I wish I'd torn your throat out while I had the chance. You were right. Her love made me weak." Pineshadow narrowed his eyes. "What do you want?" He demanded, staring at the murderer. "I'm not going to kill you. I regret not doing it before, but I still can't. You were right. She wouldn't want that of me." "No," The brown tom agreed. "She wouldn't. But I wanted to give you a reason to hate me more. Really make you angry you didn't do the job when you had the chance." Rage burned in his belly; he flattened his ears, trying to block his voice, but Pineshadow plowed on. "Her sister. Her mother. Her niece. Her best friend. I killed them all. That's why the apprentice who witnessed me killing her spoke up. Her best friend's body, the last one, showed up a day ago. All of them had their throats torn out." He screeched and lunged, trying to complete the task his claws had been aching to do for years, but Pineshadow was gone, whisked away and lounging out into the forest. He took a step, ready to plunge after the brown tabby and hold him down, ravage his body till there was nothing left but blood - but a distraught mew jerked him out of his rage. Belle's eyes were huge, her tail trembling - she looked up to him, like a father, depended on him. He turned back to the forest, wanting to badly to go after Pineshadow. Finish what should've been done the day she died. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. He turned and padded back to Belle, feeling defeated. "He killed your mate?" Belle whispered, tightening her tail from where it was wrapped around her dainty paws. He nodded mutely. The cream she-cat pressed against his side; she was shaking. "I'm so sorry," She whispered, her voice trembling. "But I'm glad you didn't go after him." He closed his eyes and laid his chin against Belle's head. It was easy to imagine their kit like Belle, had she lived and they had kits. Her pelt, his eyes, a mix of their personalities. Easy to imagine they'd had a kit before she died, and this was her, green-eyed and cream-furred and innocent. And he was glad he hadn't gone after Pineshadow either. He died in his sleep, peacefully, years later. He looked desperately for her in StarClan, wanting nothing more than to feel her fur against his for the first time in years, but she wasn't there. Surely she hadn't gone to the Dark Forest? She was the most innocent cat he'd known, never doing a single bad thing. "The kit," A voice behind him said. He turned; it was her mother, a white-furred queen named Morningwind. Her yellow eyes were empty of emotion, carefully blank. "What kit?" He demanded, wanting only to see her again. "The kittypet kit. Belle." Morningwind twitched one ear thoughtfully. "It's her reincarnate. She won't be here until the kit dies." He was taken aback. He'd been living with his mate's reincarnate for years - she'd never left him. She'd been by his side for years - she'd kept him from killing Pineshadow that day years ago. His heart soared. It wasn't long before Belle joined him - hit by a car, her spine broken on impact. It was a painless death, and not long after, the half of her that was his mate joined StarClan while the kittypet half joined the afterlife all kittypets were granted. She'd never looked more beautiful to him. Young and strong, blue eyes glowing, slender muscles working under her cream coat. All he could do was look at her, his eyes drinking her in, rooted to the place with the joy of seeing her alive again. She touched her nose to his, purring, and the touch melted him; he pressed his face into her shoulder, finally feeling the softness of her pelt again, her warm, sweet breath on his ear.
- How to Save a Life is the twenty-first episode of the eleventh season and the 241st overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.
- The short can be best described as the ending of a story that was never written. It was one of the stories submitted for the first fanfiction contest at The3Eds ("Fanfic of the Season"), and is therefore only visible for registered The3Eds users. The original story hasn't been published anywhere else on the internet, but the artwork was eventually included in one of the artist's dump submissions at Deviantart and posted on the "Ed, Edd n Eddy Highschool" Facebook page. In 2012 the story was rewritten and posted on Fanfiction.net. It was written by Anastasia Stephan and published on November 13, 2010.
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