Promise Me Forever

Chapter Fifteen

I am at the hospital with some flowers. Nick has been in a coma for exactly a year now. There was hope inside of me but now it hurts all over again. Is this how the rest of our lives are going to be? Coming here for God knows how many years we will have to, to keep coming to visit until they convince me that euthanasia is the best option to save him. I am holding his hand, and the tears are flooding down my cheeks uncontrollably. Come home. Just come home, please. I organized that the family should come here in a few hours to say goodbye. My body is aching all over. (Michelle): “I am not going to read anything today, my love. You have heard more than enough. Please come home. I can’t do this anymore. Therapy can only do so much. Seeing you like this every day shatters my heart over and over. I no longer have the strength within me to keep putting the pieces back together. As long as my heart beats, I’m yours” Immediately, I start to break down. So much so that I could not finish my sentence. My words fail me. There are so many words in my mind, but my mouth cannot find the strength to sound them out. (Nick): “In this life and the next” WAIT! He’s awake? He’s awake! Holy shit! He’s awake! My husband is awake! He can look at me! (Nick): “What happened? Where am I?” Without hesitation, I kiss him, and he kisses me back. I feel his hands wrap around me and I feel a warmth in my chest that I have not felt for a year now. I get onto the bed with him and lay by his side. (Michelle): “Hi” (Nick): “Hi, baby. What happened? Why am I in a hospital bed?” (Michelle): “We have a lot of catching up to do, my love” I tell him about the plane crash and him being brought to the hospital with severe injuries. Then once they had done some surgery, he immediately fell into a coma and ever since then, I had been reading my book to him. In anticipation of the day he would finally wake up and look at me with those charming brown eyes. (Nick): “I heard your voice” (Michelle): “You did?” (Nick): “Every word. It felt like it was all a dream” (Michelle): “It wasn’t a dream, baby. I was here all the time for the past year” (Nick): “Wait. Hold on a second. I have been in a coma for an entire year?” I start crying again but this time it’s for the fact that it has been a dreadful year and because he is finally talking to me. He holds me in his arms and says that everything is fine. It feels unreal to finally be back in his arms. He wipes the tears off my cheek, and we kiss for what could have been hours. I’m finally home. (Jenny and Jill): ‘Daddy? DADDY!” Everyone is here. The girls run towards us and get on the bed too. They hug Nick tightly and are crying which makes all of us cry too. They tell him about how school has been going and that they passed with really good marks. They say that they can’t wait to spend nights with him to show what they had learned during the day at school like they used to. Once he was discharged, allowed to take a shower, brush his teeth, change into clean clothes, and finally stretch his legs. Everybody hugged him too. (Andrea): “Welcome back, son” (Daniel): “Now our family is whole again” (Tony): “Please be more cautious with weather warnings next time. I deserve unlimited drinks after showing off my babysitting skills” (Nick): “Deal” They hug once more, and I laugh at Tony’s hilarious sarcasm. Nick holds my hand, and he kisses me once again. We have a year to make up for so there will be plenty of public displays of affection. (Tony): “Okay. Slow down, you lovebirds. There are children present” (Nick): “Let’s go home” (Michelle): “Let’s go home, baby” We had a huge family dinner at home to celebrate that Nick is here after so long. Too long. I do not ever want to spend a night where I am not sleeping next to or waking up next to him. Knowing that he is here makes me realize just how precious time is with the ones we love. We have music playing so of course we all had to dance together. I told him about my book release events and that it has reached the best-seller’s list. Marketing the book with what happened to Nick pulled in more readers. Nicole thought it was a smart idea. Even though I don’t always agree with her methods, it was a smart idea. He said that he absolutely loved it and that we need to make up for last time.

Three years later, a lot of things had changed for all of us. Jenny and Jill turned ten years old today. They say that grade five is not as fun as they thought it would be, but they are learning a lot. We are currently at their birthday party at home. I am watching the girls enjoy the snacks with all of their friends and it warms my heart to see them so happy. (Andrea): “Darling, have you seen Tony? I have been looking for him” (Michelle): “He said that he was just going to quickly take Nora and Neal out for a walk so there would not be any poop accidents at the party” Oh right! Remember when we said that we were going to get two huskies one day? We adopted them three years ago not too long after Nick came back home. The girls love them so much and they have made our lives so much brighter. Then I remember that we are waiting on Tony them to get back so we can sing Happy Birthday and cut the cake. Once Tony got back, I head upstairs to get Nick in the nursery. (Michelle): “Baby, it’s time to sing Happy Birthday to the girls. How is our little man doing?” (Nick): “He is doing so good. Isn’t that right, Louis?” Also forgot to mention that we had another baby, and we named him Louis Junior after Nick’s dad that passed away. He has my blue eyes and Nick’s blonde hair. Nick had changed his diaper and fed him his bottle, so we headed downstairs for everyone to sing Happy Birthday. Jenny and Jill were already standing by the cake in anticipation for the song to be sung. Not so they can blow the candles but for them to have some cake to eat. After singing Happy Birthday, the girls blow out the candles and we cut the cake for everyone. (Nick): “Can you believe that after everything we have been through, we are even stronger than we were before?” (Michelle): “I can’t believe it, my love. We have such a strong love story” (Nick): “As long as my heart beats, I’m yours” (Michelle): “In this life and the next” (Nick): “What’s this?” (Michelle): “Something I have been working on since the accident” (Nick): “Another best-seller, I am certain. What’s it called?” (Michelle): “Promise me forever”

THE END.