Military Love

Epilogue

The babies were at grandma's house, my mother, staying there for their first time for a whole night. Both of their grandparents on both sides absolutely adore them and want to be with them every chance they get. Just the other day, Jerry's mother sent up these outfits she found at a store and thought they were just too cute to pass up. 

I was in their nursery, rocking in the chair, as the sun lightly streamed in through the window diagonal from me. Their green and yellow blanket spread across my lap as I closed my eyes and felt the peace of the morning for the first time since they were born. Exhaustion had crept on me, but nothing stopped me from going to the hospital everyday, just to hold his hand and have the babies doze next to him in their double stroller.

Before long, I felt the darkness sweap over me as my slumber turned to dreams...

"Alexa... Alexa..." the voice was crisp, but gentle. So familiar...

"Jerry?" I asked, hazed and lazily.

"Darling, it's me." the stroke on my face was electric, something that I had not felt in so long.

"Jerry, I miss you so much." I kept my eyes closed, as if this dream would end.

"You'll see me sometime..."

I interrupted, "But I need you. I need you now, baby."

"And I need you, more than you'll ever know..." His voice was fading, ever-so-slightly, one word at a time.

"Jerry, don't go!" The feeling on my cheek left slowly.

"I have to, darling. I love you..." 

"Jerry!" I yelled, prying my eyes open completely. 

But what I saw was no dream, even though I knew that I fell asleep. I was back in the nursery and Jerry was nowhere to be seen.

But there was a sound, starting distantly, and as I concentrated on it more, I realized it was the phone. Probably my mom, I thought.

I reached myself up and walked out of the nursery and into the kitchen. Looking at the caller-ID was like deja-vu. 

Boston Medical Center.

                                                                   *****************

You don't know the meaning of 'running for your life' until you know that you are forced to. I mean this running was nothing that I usually did for a morning jog when I had time. No, this was different. This was running through the streets of life. This was running to find your love again. 

The exhaustion was in me, but I fought it and kept pushing, as I plowed down the doors to the hospital and ran down the halls. The hallways I knew by heart, the ones that I hoped that someday I would travel to meet him again.

I swung open the door and looked straight into the eyes I had missed so much. His eyes locked with mine and he struggeled to get up and slowly walked towards me from his original sitting position. Tears flooded my cheeks as my knees started to give out and shake with anticipation. He took two steps and before I knew it I was running into his arms and felt his arms over-take me, completely swallowing me in. 

I was in hysterics, "Jerry..." I cried, unable to hold a steady voice, "I missed you so much."

"I love you so much, Alexa." I heard the shaking in his voice, "I heard, from the doctor, that I have been gone for ten months. Baby, I'm so sorry."

I looked into his face, "Did the doctor tell you anything else?" I asked, thinking of the kids.

"No. Why? Something I should be worried about?" He asked with his own playful, quizzical look. 

"Did you want to know what I was going to tell you at the restaurant the night of the accident?" I asked, so close to his lips, I wanted them so much.

"Yes, what were you going to tell me?" Moving in even closer, my heart was beating, the pace- quickened.

"I was going to tell you that I was pregnant." His face became shock, but grew with a smile.

"And I've been gone for ten months, so that means... Oh my god..."

I nodded with a smile that grew, something that I haven't done in so long.

"Where is my baby.." He asked, peering over my shoulder.

"They're at my mother's."

"Wait. They are?" He looked puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"Jerry, we have twins. One boy, Nicholas, and one girl, Elizabeth." My smile grew, "They're so beautiful, Jerry, I can't wait for you to see them."

"We have twins!" His eyes grew moist, with a single tear dripping down his right side.

He stroked my cheek so slightly, "I had one big dream about you. And you know what happened?"

"What?" I smiled even bigger as he got down on one knee.

"With all my heart, Alexa, Will you take my hand in marriage? Make me the happiest man in the world?"

I placed both hands on his shoulders and leaned my head against his and added, "Make me the happiest woman. And with all my heart, I say yes," right before I kissed him for what seemed like the first time. The power of the kiss was too sweet to imagine as the softness of his lips made a chill go down my spine as he wrapped both arms around me as I felt like I, again, gave in to every inch of him. Feeling every part of love, and what love stands for. It's the surviving feeling of, "We Made It" and this is how bad I want them, and I don't ever want to let go. Everything that I've lived for for the past ten months just happened, and I feel that feeling all over again. And that's when I realize that Derek is looking down on us, watching this moment. He is, almost making this memory come true, in my mind. For he would want me to find a forever happiness instead of thinking only of the moments we had together, even as beautiful as the young love that we experienced. But things happen for a reason, and I think Derek sold his soul for me, for his family, and for everything we believed in. No longer will I feel this Military love that I mourned for for such a long time, but instead just think it as a different chapter of my life. Because starting from this precious moment, and going on from now; I start a new chapter of my life, creating something and beginning something that all relates back to one thing, just the fact of two people falling desperately, completely, and utterly in love with one another.