Thank You For Saving Me // Stauren

chapter eighty - the end of an era

So I haven't updated in literally a year. But the fact that I didn't finish this book bothered me. So here I am. Finishing it for all of you. This is the longest chapter I have ever done and it didn't end how I thought it would when I first started writing this book. But I still like it.

REST IN PEACE THIS BOOK.

ENJOY FOR THE LAST TIME :(

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third person

"Babe you're shaking, are you okay?" Lauren muttered while holding his hand, giving it a light squeeze to get his attention.

"Hm? Oh... yeah just cold I guess." Steven wasn't good at lying, nor was he good at keeping secrets but this one was important to him.

He loved her endlessly. He would do anything to make her happy and he wanted her to know that. He thought that to show how he felt he had to do it all fancy. In a fancy restaurant, with not-so-casual clothes. But he figured that would be so forced. So, here he was, walking through the park with his girlfriend, lost in thought and struggling to listen to whatever she was saying.

Steve was soon brought out of his daydream due to Lauren waving and clicking in front of his face.
"Did you listen to any of that?"

"...what?"

"Steven, are you sure you're fine? You're acting weird..." she seemed so concerned for him as she lightly placed the back of her hand on his forehead, checking to see if he had a temperature. The only explanation for this was him to be coming down with a cold to her, but oh, was she wrong.

"Come on..." he slowly started to pull her over to the lake, which reflected the sunset beautifully. Even though it wasn't a special day (like her birthday perhaps), it was as good as any other. He finally realised that it didn't matter about the fine details.

He had to look at the bigger picture and ask himself why? Why did he want to do this? Why did he have to make it fancy?
That's not what she would want.
He couldn't think of anytime where Lauren had asked to go to a restaurant instead of a fast food chain or takeaway. She wasn't that type of girl.
She appreciated the little things. And that's why. That's why he's not making this big gesture and making it seemed forced. Because it didn't matter. And he knew she wouldn't care where it happened, but he still thought about scrapping the whole idea and changing it completely to something so cliché that she would see it coming.
That's not what he wanted though.

"I swear, if you didn't listen to that I'm going to jump into that lake." Those words caught his attention. He didn't even realise that he wasn't paying attention again, he just thought she wasn't speaking, that is until she said that. "Um, I-"

"Bye!" She started walking to the lake but Steve was quick to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her back against his chest, making sure she couldn't walk further away from him, making her giggle in response.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm listening now." He gently kissed her cheek looking over the lake and occasionally back to the side of her face, taking in the beautiful sight of nature and the love of his life. "It doesn't matter now." She mumbled, knowing it would annoying him but she so desperately wanted to tell him so she gave in quickly. "Emily said the twins are fast to sleep and that they didn't even fuss when she put them down. Oh! And Adeline actually took all her bottle, not just half." She smiled, resting her hands on top of Steve's before he intertwined them.

He followed her facial expression and smiled also, knowing that bedtime and bottles were something Lauren struggled with when it came to our daughter.

"Why did you bring us here?" She leant her head back on his shoulder, looking at the side of his face.

"I needed to ask you something... something important."

"Okay.. then shoot!" She chuckled lightly but soon stopped when she saw his serious expression, turning to face him. "Steve?"

He slowly moved his hands to the small of her back, gently rubbing circles under her jacket. He sighed, "I have been through this scene millions of times in my head and I didn't know how I was going to pull it off. I didn't know if I should've made a bigger deal or made it even less of a deal- even though I don't think that's possible because this isn't-"

"Babe you're rambling.."

"Right, so... when I first met you I knew you weren't ordinary." She laughed a little then he realised what he said and how it could sound, "no not like bad like good but.." he sighed before taking a deep breath and looking into her eyes. "I knew that you weren't like any other girl, I knew you were going to change me in so many ways" he chuckled, "but... I feel like this is a good place in our lives where everything is going smoothly, for once..." now it was her time to chuckle, moving her arms to be around his neck with her fingers playing with the hair on the top of his neck. "We've been through so much shit that I think we need something to get us back on the track where nothing bad can happen, because I believe that we've had our worst luck that we are going to get. With the twins now getting to where they need to be... I think we need to think about us and how we are going to get where we should be.."

He felt into his back pocket, "shit."

"What?" She asked, confusion was written all over her face while he frantically searched through his pocket.

"Never mind! I've got it... okay..." he held it in his hand, no box, just the small hoop.
"I love you with all my heart and I don't think that will ever change. So, Lauren. Um... I'm asking you if you'd like to be my wife?"

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"Nova! Watch out you're going to fall!" Lauren almost had a heart attack when she saw her four year old son trying to climb up the swing frame, his sister not far behind.

"My go!" She screamed, starting to climb up the other side. That is until their father swooped in and scooped them both up in his arms, both of them giggling wildly. Lauren made a sigh of relief when she knew they weren't in any sort of danger, she had a big fear of them hurting themselves.

Even though they were twins and their facial structure was alike, Adeline was still smaller as she sometimes had trouble doing things a normal four year old would have. But, that didn't stop her from trying. In fact, she acted like nothing could stop her from doing anything, and that's the way Steven and Lauren would raise her to be like.

They were constantly afraid that one day she would take it too far, or something would go horribly wrong and they wouldn't be returning to the hospital for just checkups.
But of course, Steven wasn't going to let fear run the family into the ground, he knew that for them to be happy, they had to take some risks, which Lauren wasn't too sure about but she knew her husband wouldn't let anything go wrong.

Nova, on the other hand, was perfectly healthy, and always tried to slow down for his sister as he knew that she couldn't keep up. He was very stubborn, something he got from his mother, but would always hug her at the most random times, something he saw his dad do on a daily basis, and of course, he wanted to be exactly like his father.

"Go on, go play in the sand pit and stay out of trouble." He said while smiling, kissing both of their heads before they ran off across the garden to their sand pit, sitting down and immediately becoming intrigued.

"Thank you." She smiled, pecking his lips lightly before throwing her arms over his shoulders while his went to her waist. "They always listen to you more than me."

"Because you're the one who cuddles them all the time, stupid!" He jokes and laughs, seeing his wife of three years pretend to be offended by his words. "I'm kidding!" He dragged out the words kissing her cheek a few times making her giggle in response before leaning on his chest.

She couldn't help but gaze at their children, energetically playing with random toys they brought outside.

She couldn't help but think about how lucky she was to have a family like this.

But most of all, she couldn't help but think about how none of this wouldn't have happened if she hadn't have been saved.

END.