Beautifully Knight (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #5)

Notes and Necklaces

-LIA-

My temples pulsated miserably as I tilted my head upwards to hang my red dress that I'd planned to wear to Logan's party back up in the closet. An involuntary wince escaped my lips and tears rimmed my eyes as I quickly hooked the hanger onto the rack. I clutched my head between my thumbs to try to alleviate the pressure building and said a quiet prayer for the banging to stop, but it was useless.

The banging was relentless and no amount of moving my fingers in circles was going to make it stop.

I blinked away frustrated tears as I quickly changed out of my clothes and into one of Jordan's old t-shirts before heading back into my bedroom where I climbed into bed as gingerly as I possibly could.

My silky sheets were a comforting welcome as I snuggled underneath the covers to block out the beginning streams of sunlight that had begun to filter through my bedroom curtains. However, in the process of "nestling down", my fingertips bumped into an unexpected rougher material.

With a groan, I wrapped my fingers around the flat shape and it took me a few seconds to remember that it was the envelope that held the note that Jordan had written to me almost 24-hours earlier. I smoothed my fingers over the rectangle and held still as I replayed our romantic bath and plans for a coffee date and tried not to let my tears make my head hurt even worse.

It was almost hard to believe that the past several hours had all belonged to one day—yesterday morning that had started out so simply felt like it was at least a week ago when I considered all of the new additions and twists and turns that had happened so swiftly.

Over the years, I'd become accustomed to the busyness of day-to-day life in the family that Jordan and I had built together. Still, there were times that took me by surprise and made me pause for just a while of contemplation and today was certainly one of those times.

My oldest grandchild had married and my youngest had been born in two unexpected, but special events. It was times like these that kept me going everyday and ensured that I couldn't imagine any form of an existence without each and every one of the people that I loved the most surrounding me forever.

Changes came, but they were all changes that included me and I never wanted to imagine a day when I wasn't included in the family affairs. Yet, every time this excruciating pain set off in my brain like firecrackers, it was hard not to panic and let my thoughts wander in that direction.

The current banging in my skull was the kind of special misery that typically came from a horrible hangover, but my ache hadn't come from a night of fun. Instead, it was a raw, inexplicable hurt that invaded my life at the most inconvenient moments.

Out of nowhere over the past several weeks, situations that had never bothered me before had begun to physically hurt me. After years and years of listening to a million voices talking at once during family discussions, all of a sudden, the commotion made my head explode and the stress and anticipation of the birth of my grandson sent fiery thunder to my skull.

I tried not to let my pain on to those around me. Instead, I kept a smile on my face, quietly took my medicine, and prayed that the headaches would just go away someday in the same way that they'd started. After all, it wasn't an everyday occurrence, most days I was fine, but when they did occur, they were beyond miserable.

So miserable that I'd mentioned the headaches to my doctor during my last checkup. I'd hoped his response would give me a peace of mind, but in reality it just left me more confused and anxious than I already was.

Rather than tell me that I was fine, he'd given me a litany of possibilities. It could be stress. After all, during my visit to see him I'd been in the middle of finals season at BU law, which was just as much of a stressful time for me as it was for my students, whether they believed it or not. If that was the case, he presumed that once I was out of the fray of life as a clinical law professor and on summer break, I would likely settle down and the headaches would just go away.