You'd risk your own life to rescue me -- Fall 1994 (DONE)

This was realy the first time annette was back at work from having Seth.  She had taken a lot of time off to spend with our son.  He was nearly a year old now.  I could not wait to have his big party... the entire Weasley clan was going to hopefully be able to make it.  I looked u from my desk where I was waiting for my partner to finally come down so we could get to our site.  I looked up and saw her walking towards me from the big man's office.  I gave her a quick kiss.  "HOw'd he welcome you back?" I asked her.  I was hoping that he did not get too obnoxious with her.

I smiled at my boyfriend and shrugged.  "He just gave me a hard time about how long I took off.  It's just whatever," I said to Bill.  For the past few weeks I felt like Bill and I were strained.  I really hoped getting back into our old routine would help things out with us... he just seemed like he was a little distant with me.  So I grabbed our pack that we always took with us that had water and other contraptions that we may need in different types of situations.  I wondered if we would ever use anything that we kept in this bag.  I felt like we took all sorts of extra things... but better safe than sorry about any of these safety things.  Especialy now.

I was at least glad to hear it was nothing too major.  He was an ass, though, so it did not matter I suppose.  I took hold of Annette's hand and we Apparated to one of our two sites we needed to visit and deal with today.  It was extremely windy and I had to pull my scarf-like bandana up above my mouth and nose so I did not breathe in any sand.  I looked over at Annette and saw that she had done the same.  I waved my wand and it took about ten minutes for me to get through the outer barrier.  Once inside the cave, I pulled the bandana so it was just around my neck.  It as dark inside the cave and I grabbed some candles, lit them and bewitched them to float around the cave.  It was beautiful in here and looked like it was some sort of burial site for an ancient pharoah.  I smiled over at Annette as we looked around a little bit.  We always had a look before getting the job done.  It was nice to do a little recon of the area before attacking the problems at hand.

It was lovely in the caves.  I could easily see why Gringotts wanted this.  I felt an eerie foreboding feeling though.  It sent chills down my spine.  I looked over at Bill.  "Let's just get going on this... I am getting very bad feelings about being in here right now," I said.  I was not sure if it was due to this being my first day back or because something else was going on here.

I looked over at Annette, concerned.  I nodded and started to go through the steps of getting rid of different things that my be there -- curses, charms, anything that would be detrimental to what our job would be.  I was going through just the normal steps right now.  When I tried to reveal anything else, all the candles went out.  We both lit our wands and that was when hell broke loose.

I lit my wand and had only a moment to look at Bill before our wold started to cave in -- quite literally.  I started to run towards Bill, but a piece of the ceiling fell in front of me, making me cry out in fight.  "Bill?! Are you alright?" I called out.  Everything was shaking and there was dust everywhere, making it hard for me to see my own hand in front of me let alone Bill.

Coughing, I was trying to get to Annette.  "I'm... ugh!" I cried out, getting thrown back by a boulder that hit me in the shoulder, making my wand fly out of my hand.  Isaw my light go out; my wand must have broken.  I felt warmth run down my aching arm and assumed I was now bleeding pretty badly.

"Bill!" I called out when I heard him yell.  I had to get to him.  We needed to get out of there.  Seth needed us to.  I moved towards where I last saw Bill.  I was so close to him, I could see his outline, when there was an eerie glow among the dust because a chunk of ceiling fell down.  I did not really realize what happened at first.  The chucnk of rock fell on me.  I tasted blood and I could not move.  I could not feel my lower half of my body.  The walls were still trembling and I knew this was going to continue to fall in on us.

The eerie glow from the sun peeking through the parts of the cave where it fell in on us was a horrible reminder of what was going on.  Dust was not settling and more sand was falling down from the outside.  I looked around for Annette and saw her beneath som eof the crumbled rock.  I heard the shifting and shaking of the walls around us.  It was going to continue to fall in on us and we needed to get out of there.  Now.  My wand was broken, so I just rushed to Annette's side.  I prayed she had her wand still or else we would have lto wait for help.  "Annette... where' syour wand?  Do you still have it?" I asked her, taking her hand in mine.  It was a little cold... not a good sign at all.

I shook my head and saw fear in Bill's eyes... something I have never seen before.  He was always so confident, brave, and strong.  This was the only emotion I could put on the expression I was seeing, though.  I wanted to reassure him, but I needed to get him to focus on getting out so Seth would have at least one of us.  I knew I was bad.  When you cannot even feel the pain that had to be there, it was obvious how bad it really was.  I squeezed Bill's hand the best I could.  I could not beleieve how weak I was.  "Bill... you have to go," I told him quietly.  More of hte walls crumbled around us.  It was bad.  There had to have been some protective, self-destruct spell or something.

I stared at Annette, keeping - or at least trying to -- tears from being evident in my eyes.  "Babe... I can get help.  You'll be fine.  The bag... it has the device that signals help.  I'm not leaving you," I told her.  I saw the bag... I fwas able to grab it and sound the alarm.  Annette would be fine... wouldn't she?

I let tears fall from my eyes since I knew what was going to happen.  "Honey... I need you to look at me," I said to him, trying to be strong.  This was breaking my heart.  But everything was falling apart around us and he needed to go.  For seth... for his own life.  I knew what my fate was going to be... I could feel it.

I hated her tone... so defeated she sounded.  I did as I was told, though.  I looked at her, wanting to be with her and to be strong for the both of us.  "Don't... help is coming," I told her lamely.  This could not be the end.

I shook my head the best that I could.  "Bill, go.  I can hold on for help by myself.  Go outside so you can tell them where I am.  I love you," I told him.  A chunk of rock nearly hit him as it fell, proving my point that he needed to leave.

As horrible as it was, she was right.  For Seth.  I gave her a kiss.  "I love you," I whispered to her.  I stood and as soon as I got outside, the ground shook as practically everything fell down on top of my son's mother.  I dropped to my knees... Annette just saved my life.