To Love Again

Epilogue

  (Five Years Later)

I was so glad this was going to be my last night shift, I was so ready to go home to my husband and our beautiful daughter Dylan. I had the whole weekend off to be with them and it was just perfect that Dylan birthday was today. It was hard to believe she was going to be three already, she was growing up so fast.

Just needed to finish up with the doctors chats and I was home free.  “Hey Raul,” I looked up from the chats to see Dr. Wilkins walking towards me.

“Yes Dr. Wilkins,” she glared at me. “Sorry it’s a habit, yes Ivy.” She smiled.

“I wanted to give you this to give to Dylan.” She reached into her lab coat pocket and pulled out a small rectangle box. “I know today is her birthday and I wanted to get her something special.” She handed me the box.

“What is it?”

“You can open it,” I opened the box and found a gift card from build a bear workshop. “Before you say anything, I’m not taking it back. I never got to have kids of my own, so I don’t get to spoil any grandkids. I was there when Dylan was born and any time I get to see her makes my day, y’all are the family I never had.” I smiled at her.

“Thank you Ivy,” I hugged her.

“You’re welcome and it’s nothing, but every child should have a teddy bear. Something fun to do for her birthday.”

“Well it’s something amazing and she will cherish it forever. By the way come by later we are just having a little party for her, cake and ice cream. I’m sure she will want to thank you for her bear.”

“Okay I will and I’ll let you go, see you later Raul.” She waved goodbye and I went back to finishing my work.

It was still pretty early in the morning as I walked into our apartment. I opened our bedroom door and like always my two favorite people in the world were still asleep. I kicked off my shoes and got into our bed next to Matt.

I wrapped my arms around Matt and cuddled closer to him, I inhaled deeply as I closed my eyes. “Good morning gorgeous,” Matt whispered as he turned around to face me.

“Shhhh don’t wake Dylan up,” I whispered back as I kissed him. “Just give me two hours of sleep before we have to wake up and start Dylan’s birthday celebration.” Matt chuckled.

“So what are we doing for Miss Dylan Francis’s third birthday?”

“Well there’s the zoo, she has been wanting to go see the animals and Ivy gave me a gift card to build a bear. So we take her to build a bear and then to the zoo, that should be good for the day. We don’t want to make the birthday girl to get tired before cake and ice cream.”

“Yes don’t want that, didn’t spend most of the night trying to build her a pretty princess cake. Just so you know it’s not that pretty and next time we are just getting it made.” I chuckled.

“Aw it can’t be that bad.”

“It’s bad, trust me and if it wasn’t because Dylan loves me, she would say it’s bad.”

“Well then, I must go see this cake and be a judge of it.” I pushed the blanket off and tried to get out of bed, but Matt pulled me back.

“You can see it later, it’s time for you to sleep because we are going to have a fun filled day in a couple of hours.” He leaned closer and kissed me, “Now sleep I don’t need you falling asleep during the day.”

“Okay,” I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes.

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I woke up a few hours later to see Matt and Dylan gone, that could only meant they were up. I got up and made my way to the kitchen, I could hear voices as I got closer. Matt was making pancakes and Dylan was right next to him on a chair.