Maddi could hear breathing.<br/><br/>And a faint rustling too.<br/><br/>That was so.....<br/><br/><em>So afraid.......</em><br/><br/>She didn't want to open her eyes.<br/><br/><em>So afraid.......</em><br/><br/>Could she open her eyes?<br/><br/>Yes.<br/><br/>The shock felt like a cold blast of icy wind making her skin blister with goosebumps and then just as quickly the warm rush of relief doused it, making her feel like crying all over again.<br/><br/>She was alive.<br/><br/>The feeling of air moving in and out of her lungs was a miracle she just had to close her eyes again and concentrate on.<br/><br/><em>In... </em><br/><br/><em>Out........</em><br/><br/>She'd never felt so lucky, so blessed in her life.  How did it happen?  They'd told her she was hypersensitive, she even wore a medic alert capsule on her belt most of the time.  So how had she survived?  She turned her head and looked out across the room, the realisation, suddenly, that she could move too lit her up like Christmas lights as she licked her lips and swallowed, trying to ease the bitter the bitter acrid taste in her mouth to a more bearable level.<br/><br/>She lifted her hand and looked at it, there was barely a mark on it, perhaps that was why, whatever it was, she must have had only the slightest contact with it.  She shivered, so dam close.........<br/><br/>Then, feeling it enclosed,  she looked down at other hand, still held by Elijah and realised the breathing she'd heard was his.  She looked over the edge of the bed at him, younger, peaceful, so relaxed and almost serene.  He had a wonderful, intelligent face she thought.  He looked about 40 years of age, and she could imagine him all clean cut and civilised.  He had quite a presence about him, and she smiled, wondering if it had been anywhere else but here, how they would have got on if they had met.<br/><br/>She lay back again, feeling tired and worn, but oh so relaxed, so happy........ how mad to think those words...... happy........ but no-one would ever know, she hugged it to her heart, the smile seeming to grow, what a wonderful gift life was, any life, even this one.