Mind the Gap (Between Us)

You asked me why I gamble breath

Like I’ve got more to spare

Strange thing for you to question, Mark—

You live like you don’t care

But I remember London nights

Before the sky went wrong

A city that would hum you home

And pull your heart along

I know that look—you’re somewhere else

Not standing here with me

Chasing ghosts through burning streets

That no one else can see

You think the past is something

You can wrestle back by force

But I’ve seen men like that before—

They don’t come back, of course

Big Ben ringing through my bones

London Bridge beneath my feet

Voices saying “mind the gap”

Like the world was kind and sweet

Now it’s ash and something worse

Where the brave and broken lie

If I don’t take every chance—

Then that city truly dies

I hear it in the way you breathe

Like you’re already gone

Like every step you take with me

Is just to carry on

You say you cannot fail at all—

That’s not a thing you choose

’Cause anyone who fights like that

Is planning how to lose

Torchlight in the underground

As trains came roaring in

Golden light on tired faces

Hope beneath the din

Rain that washed the whole world clean

Fog that let you hear

Every footstep coming close—

Everyone was near

I’ve walked through towns that look like that

Just silence where they stood

And every soldier swore to me

They’d fix it if they could

But “no failure” breaks a person

Turns their heart to stone

You don’t save a city, Liz—

If you lose your own

✓Bridge – Elizabeth: (quiet, intense)]

She walks there now… something ancient

Twisting all I knew

If I stop, if I falter—

Then she wins it too

And if you burn yourself to reach it

What’s left to bring it back?

A victory without a soul

Is just another crack

[Elizabeth:] I don’t get to lose, not once—

[Mark:] That’s the lie that gets you killed—

[Elizabeth:] I will not leave London there—

[Mark:] Not if you’re the one it’s filled—

[Elizabeth:] With what? Say it.

[Mark:] With someone I don’t know.

[Elizabeth:] Big Ben ringing—faint but there

[Mark:] Then we fight to hear it clear

[Elizabeth:] London Bridge still stands in me

[Mark:] Then you don’t have to disappear

[Elizabeth:] Say “mind the gap” one more time—

[Mark:] Between the past and what is true

[Both:] We don’t win by losing ourselves

We win by making it through

[Elizabeth:] I won’t let it die…

[Mark:] Then don’t die with it.

…Then stay with me when I run.

Always. Just not off the edge.