- "because just before you opened your eyes, your first words were «I love you Charlie»".
---
Maya's eyes had opened again and she'd swallowed. She hadn't said anything. The room had become incredibly quiet. Carina had raised herself on her elbow to look at her wife, but the blonde's eyes were riveted on the ceiling.
The Italian had let go of her arm, slowly raised her hand and came to rest her fingertips on her wife's chin. She had turned the captain's face towards her.
"Baby?"
The blonde's eyes had tears threatening to fall.
"Baby?" Carina asked again, her voice trembling.
-"I... I... I don't... I don't know... I... I have... I, I feel like... since I woke up... I feel like I... That I had to remember to... Of... Something..."
-"and you don't..."
-"I'm sorry... I'd like to tell you that I remember why I said that... Really, my love. I'm so sorry..."
- "It's all right, my love" Carina replied, caressing her cheek with a twinge of sorrow.
Maya could read the «disappointment» on her wife's face. She had to tell her why she had frozen a few moments ago, even if it wasn't concrete or «real» information, she had to tell her.
-"Amore... There's something I haven't been able to get out of my head since I woke up... It's like I've been trying to hold on to just one memory of it all... But I don't know what it's worth... I don't know if it's all in my head or if it's really something that happened... I feel like I have to tell you...
That he loves you... That he misses you... And that he'll love you forever.
And I don't... It's as if I had this sentence: «Will you tell ... that I love her? That I miss her and will love her forever», which had been playing over and over in my head since I woke up, but... But I didn't know who had told me that... And for whom... And when... And then... When you told me I'd said that... I... I saw myself on... On the swing... The one in Sicily... The one in the painting... And I see..." She had swallowed.
"And... And I «see» Charlie telling me again... For... for you... «Will you tell my mamma that I love her? That I miss her and will love her forever»
But love... I don't... I don't know if it was a dream or... Reality... I've always wanted to meet Charlie... So I don't know if my mind is playing tricks on me or, or, or if it really happened... Why would He come to me..."
Carina had placed her hand on her wife's heart and it was beating wildly.
-"Your heart would never lie to me... And the way it's beating... Your heart really believes you've seen my Charlie... He probably came to you to tell you that you couldn't abandon me, or me... Or his little sisters."
Maya's heart under Carina's hand had gone into extrasystole.
"cosà?" Asked the Italian feeling her heart have a missing beat.
-"I think... I think... I think so... I think... I believe that... He, he, he told me... Or I... Or I dreamt it... Like when you told me what I said when I woke up... I had a «memory» like a flashback."
The brunette's eyes had released a few tears.
"Love... Love... Love ... Please... Don't... Don't... Don't take for, for, at face value... All... All of it... If I... If I only dreamed it?". Maya said, putting her hand on her cheek.
Carina had put her hand on hers.
-"Then it means you've been dreaming about Charlie... That of all the people who have ever lived, of all the people who are still alive... Your beautiful brain chose to dream of my Charlie... And then it will mean everything to me.
