Come With Me

Chapter 17

It was 3am the next morning, and there had been no change in Connie's condition. They knew that Connie wasn't going to make it much longer, and so Grace's Aunt had come down to take Grace away for a while, to give Connie and Jacob some time alone. However, before Grace left, Connie had been told that she could hold her baby for a few minutes, and so she'd sat up in her hospital bed, with her gorgeous baby in her arms, while Grace and Jacob stood either side. They all smiled as the Nurse took a photograph on Jacob's phone, and it looked like the perfect family photo. Their only full family photo. Grace left a little while later, and the nurse had to take the baby away from Connie to get her back in her incubator. Connie and Jacob were left alone - neither of them knew what to say, and Connie was advised to speak as little as possible, so it was on Jacob. Their baby had been taken back to ICU to be monitored, as they had been forced to operate although the baby wasn't ready to come out. It was a baby girl, and everyone was thrilled to finally find out the gender - especially Connie, who had cried when she found out. She was only a few weeks premature, but the doctors wanted to check that everything was okay, and so that's why the baby had to be taken back. Not knowing what he could possibly say, Jacob just sat holding Connie's hand, looking at her as she moved to lay back down in her bed.

"Connie, I know this is it. I know this is probably all we have left, and it's killing me too. You've been asking me to do one thing ever since we first got together - 'come with me'. It's our phrase. And now, Connie, I don't know if I'm ready to break that promise. If I could come with you, I would, and trust me - I have thought about it. But it's not just us. I've got our baby to look after, and I've got Grace to take care of. I would give anything to spend the rest of my life with you, but I know that it simply isn't possible without letting down those two little angels."

"I love you," Connie muttered, and a tear escaped Jacob's eye.

"I love you too, Mrs Masters," she smiled, and it warmed his heart to see her smile once more. "Our baby girl is so beautiful, isn't she?" Connie nodded, smiling again as much as she could manage. "Have you got any name suggestions?" Connie shook her head, and removed her mask so she could speak.

"Whatever you choose will be perfect," she answered. "I trust you." Jacob smiled, and held Connie's hand tightly. He couldn't bear to watch her like this. He finally understood what she had meant in that letter that she wrote to him so long ago - when she said that she wanted to spare him the pain of having to see her in this state. Now he understood what pain she had been talking about. "Hey," she whispered, reaching forward. "Don't be sad. We've been married, we've lived our lives, and we haven't let this hold us back."

"Why does it have to be you?" Jacob asked, crying properly now. Connie had only ever seen him cry once before, and it broke her heart to see it again. "Why does it have to take the only woman I could ever love away from me?" He hated breaking down in front of her - he hadn't cried properly since his sister died as even when Connie left, he had to stay as strong as he could for Grace's sake.

"You'll love again," Connie whispered. "And when you do, don't think of me. I'll be happy for you, moving on with your life, regardless of who the woman is. If she makes you happy, my darling, then that's good enough for me. Just because I can't live my life, it doesn't mean that you can't either." Jacob nodded, and a nurse walked into the room. She stayed in the back, but made herself scarce, and so Jacob turned his full attention back to his wife.

"You've been fighting for years, Con. Just a little longer, please. I hate that I have to say goodbye to you. I've got so much to say, and so little time to say it."

"I don't want to die," Connie sobbed, causing tears to roll down Jacob's cheeks again. "I'm scared."

"Hush," he whispered, tucking some hair behind her ear and kissing her cheek softly. "Hush, baby. I can't bear it either."