The Way That I Love You(Book 2)

Next To You

-a few hours later-

Colin

He's cold and groggy when he wakes up. He can hear quiet murmuring and feel something brush against his cheek. He sort of peels his eyes open and blinks a few times to see clearly.

His head is in Morgan's lap as she touches a hand to his cheek and then his hair.

"Hey."

"Hey." He clears the rasp from his throat.

"How are you feeling?"

"A little cold but otherwise I'm fine." He sits up, wincing a little at the pain in his shoulder. He leans against the headboard and looks over at her. She's wrapped up in a big sweater and her hair is up. Her nose is red but she's staring at him with bright eyes.

"You jumped in after me."

"Why wouldn't I?" She whispers.

"I don't know." He answers truthfully. She moves up on her knees to stare at him before she's attacking him with a hug. She's squeezing him tight and kissing his face.

"You scared me. You weren't moving Colin. Don't do that anymore..." she mumbled and he held onto her tight.

"You saved me...how?"

"I untied your boot and pulled you up."

"With your cast still on?" He brushed his fingers against her arm and she nodded. "How are you feeling?'

"Better now that you're awake and talking. Is it safe to say we should stay in the house for a while until we're not accident prone anymore?" He smirked.

"Yeah...I think so." He leaned forward to kiss her head. "Tha-" he was interrupted when she pushed her lips against his. He sat with his eyes wide for a moment.

Stop being stupid; you've wanted to kiss her ever since she woke up.

He did.

God did he.

So he closed his eyes and kissed her back; hoping that she'd get it that he really did love her. Hoping that she would realize that he wanted nothing more than to have her by his side for the rest of his life. That she would know how thankful he was for her and for the things she does.

She pulls away from him to bite her lip.

"No thank you's...they aren't needed."

**********

"I hope they like their gifts." She murmured as she sat the last wrapped present under the tree.

They had been up for the past two hours transporting the gifts from upstairs and wrapping the remaining ones. No talk of either incidents came up as for right now they just wanted to forget. It was Christmas eve and they were actually excited despite some of the craziness that had gone down in the past two days.

"They'll love them...hopefully."

"Here." She grabbed a box and handed it to him.

"It's not christmas..."

"It's two in the morning so technically it is. I just really want you to open this one." He shook his head and smiled; wrapping paper to reveal a box. He moved the top off before and stared down at what was inside.

"A chain..." he lifted it from the felt placing and examined it. A slim silver rope chain with a silver square hanging from it. It has some ridges in a circle on it. It's a fingerprint. He sort of stares at her in shock.

"It's my...fingerprint. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate how cool you've been about me. I mean it's like in a way, me telling you that no matter how far you are or what happens; you have me. I don't know, it's stupid..."

"It's not stupid...I love it." It's really cool. He had no idea you could do that. It's original; something she's good at.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. This is really cool." It has her name engraved on the back. He slips it over his head and around his neck. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

**********

"No wake up..." He heard Darlene groan and Morgan giggled.

"You don't have to wake up if you don't want to." She rocked her side to side; kissing her head.

Darlene had woken up because the boys were up and now she was sulking and falling asleep in Morgan's arms. It was nice to see; as it always had been. They were all opening gifts and what not; even though everyone besides their parents and the kids had been up for almost twenty four hours.

"What about your presents though? You don't want to open them? See, look..." she picks up a box and places it in front of her. She sort of peeks at it; deciding what to do before touching the paper.

"You wanna rip the paper?" She sort of scratched at it until the paper came off; then Morgan lifted the lid from the box. "Look it's your favorite color." She held the green doc martens up for her to see and she squealed.

"Mm them on mommy..." Morgan giggled and set the box to the side to help her put them on over her pajama pants.

And she kicked her legs and wore them all day. When it was brought up that maybe she should take them off; she pouted a bit and shook her head. Of course him and Morgan didn't mind it, it was fun knowing that she liked them that much.

Same thing goes for Knox who practically lost his mind when he saw the Marvel superhero jacket. He found it even cooler when he realized him and Zeek would be matching; both wearing their jackets around the house as well.

He got a few other things; including the long coat that he asked for a while ago from Morgan. He was nervous about giving her the certificate to get the piercing she wanted because he had bought it a little before her incident. She loved it though; something he was glad about because he wanted her to love all her gifts.

After they all had breakfast together; they sat in the big living room and talked while the kids played with the toys. It actually felt like Christmas and he was happy to spend the time sith his family.

He was sitting on the edge of the couch when he felt arms wrap around his middle then a kiss to the side of his neck. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see Morgan's head on his shoulder.

"Thank you for everything...for making my Christmas special." She muttered and he smiled.

"It was nothing."

"It was something...and I love you for it."