You and I

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I scoured my entire Spotify library and somehow couldn't find a song lyric that fit with this chapter so no title this time :/

August 2017

"Bye Opa!"

"Bye, have a good week at school!" Sharon's father said from the bed in his hospital room as he hugged Luna and then Robin.

"Bye, Opa." Logan leaned up to kiss his cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said, and ruffled the little boy's hair before he joined his siblings and father at the door.

Robert stepped toward Sharon. "Take as much time as you need, love. I can hold down the fort. I'll save your dinner if we end up eating before you get back."

She smiled gratefully. "Thank you."

He gave her a quick hug before ushering the kids out the door and down the hall. Sharon turned and sank down in the chair next to her father's bed. She spent almost as much time in this room as she did at home, but even with the framed family photographs, flowers, and balloons they had brought to add personal touches to the room, it still never felt home-y to her, and she had a feeling her father felt similarly.

Only a thin curtain printed with little teal squares separated her father's space from the next patient's, and she could hear every cough, every slurp of his drink, every droning note emitted from his TV. The tile floor was too shiny, the overhead lights were too bright, the air constantly smelled of sharp disinfectant, and the plastic of the chair she sat on always felt slightly sticky.

Her father looked older. It seemed that just over the past month, his hair had thinned and his cheeks had hollowed. He had the same spark in his eye as always, and his face never failed to light up when she brought the kids over like she had done tonight. But she could see that he was tired.

"So how has writing been going?" her father asked.

"It's been good!" She rested her elbow on the arm of the chair and angled herself toward him. "We have about three songs done so far, or rough drafts of them at least."

She finally had inspiration to write for Within Temptation again after writing songs for what had turned out to be a pop project she called My Indigo, and they had started writing a new album at the end of summer. She was grateful for the down time spent writing, because she was becoming more and more uneasy about leaving home for long.

"Is it coming to you easier?" he asked.

"Yes, finally. For the longest time, it felt like such a chore to even try. But it's actually starting to feel fun again."

Her father smiled. "See? I told you it would come back to you."

He had been almost annoyingly optimistic, as he always was, throughout her whole period dealing with writer's block, constantly assuring her that the inspiration wasn't gone forever. And of course, he had been right.

"Yes, you did," she said, returning his smile. She glanced at the doorway to make sure Robert and the kids had gone, even though they had left minutes ago. "Papa, how did you first know when you loved Mama?"

Her heart pounded in her ears. She knew she was asking out of the blue, but she needed to know.

He thought for a moment, and the spark in his eye twinkled when he turned back to her. "When I realized she was the first thing I thought about in the morning. Before I thought about work, before I thought about anything I had to do that day. It was her."

Sharon swallowed hard. She knew what her first thought in the morning was, and it wasn't about Robert, even though he was lying right next to her.

"Why?" he asked, the twinkle still present in his eye as he studied her face.