Beyond the Grave - original story

Chapter 9 - Death do us part

"I'll love you forever,
even when death do us part."

It was late when Lois woke up, due to hearing someone's conversation as they walked down the hallway. She quickly got out of bed and as she rubbed her eyes and walked out of the guest room, she caught a glimpse of Kristine and Matt going downstairs. She narrowed her eyebrows at that, not really catching up to all of the things that happened yesterday. All she got to know from Judy was that Kristine and Joan argued really badly and it resulted in Kristine moving from the second guest room to her car.

The former nurse didn't understand why Kristine was pushing everyone to agree on her thoughts or her ideas, when it was clear it wasn't her who was in charge. In fact, Lois knew it the moment she arrived that the ones in charge were Matt and Joan or, since he was the owner of the said ranch, Joan's and Goldie's father. Either way, Lois wasn't woken up enough to deal with all those thoughts now. She walked downstairs and her frown deepened when she saw Matt and Kristine taking some bags. It was weird, because they had enough food, water and even a full stash of pharmacy products.

"Hey, you going on a trip to the town?" The blonde woman asked the two, making them turn around and look at her.

"Yeah, Kristine said that we're lacking some things that we'll probably need anytime." Matt explained swiftly, although he himself wasn't really fond of the idea.

The only reason why he was going along was the fact that he was afraid that if Kristine would go alone, something would happen to her. Also because she came at six o'clock and apologised to Joan and him, what made him look at her more softly again. Maybe she finally knew that she shouldn't push them all on agreeing to things they didn't like.

"Some things? What things?" Lois questioned, furrowing her brows even more as her eyes shifted to look at Kristine who was gnawing at her bottom lip nervously.

Kristine rolled her eyes at Lois's curiosity. She should stick to her own things, the woman thought as she looked at the blonde woman in front of her. It was annoying her how she had to know everything. After all, she wouldn't even be here if not Judy and Goldie.

"Don't be such a curious cat, Lois Lane." The dark-skinned woman teased the former nurse at what the other woman huffed and crossed her arms on her chest.

"I'm just asking. There's nothing wrong with it." Lois said back, sighing softly at Kristine's annoying choose of words.

Matt looked between two women and lifted his gaze to the ceiling as if quietly asking for their bickering to be done. He hated to be in the middle of such things, it overwhelmed him to handle things like that without Joan. The woman was his everything, but most importantly, she was the more reasonable person in their relationship. She could handle everything.

"Okay girls, let's stop it, shall we?" He said after a moment, an awkward smile on his lips. "Lois, can you do me a favour?" He asked suddenly, turning towards the blonde woman.

Lois raised her eyebrows at that but nodded only. She was grateful enough that they took her in, even though they didn't have to, so she thought that a favour would do things even for them. When Matt saw her agreeing by a nod, he pulled out a folded piece of paper from his brown jacket's pocket and handed it her. The woman looked down at the folded piece of paper and narrowed her eyebrows again as she raised her eyes at the man in the cowboy hat. She clearly didn't knew what it was for.

"It's for Joan. A little letter. I always write those, when I know I won't be home when she'll wake up." The man explained as soon as he saw the questioning look on the young Hickman's face.

"You're really romantic, you know that?" Lois chuckled as she placed the folded piece of paper in her pajamas pocket.

"Yeah, heard it once or twice." Matt laughed in return before he fixed the bag's strap on his shoulder. "Take care of her for those two hours, okay?" He asked softly with a faint smile painted on his lips.