His Maid

Chapter 33

The past week of being pack in England had been awful, I was visiting James every chance I could get and contacting Luke or Maddie to see if there was any news of him waking up but it was the same as usual: nothing. My bed had slowly started to become my favourite place, I reeked of body odour and yet I still couldn't find the energy to go and shower, my hair felt like I had poured a bottle of oil over it and no dry shampoo in the whole world could make it seem like it's been washed.

"Come on." Damien pushes the curtains open and the winter sun shone through the window, I groaned and threw the duvet over my face.

"Close those curtains."

"Marley, get out of bed now. I have given you an entire week to come to terms with the fact that James may not wake up but you have to try to get over it." I took the duvet off of my face and glared at it. "Not get over it but try to see the reality of it all. You aren't doing any good on yourself, you've barely spent any time with Rhys and you have lost so much weight over the past and when was the last time you had a shower?"

"I don't know, the day before leaving Bora Bora probably."

"Marley you need to look after yourself."

"Well I can't! I can't help but think about my dad that's sitting in the hospital fighting for his life when I am out here, living the life of Riley and he is not able to do anything!"

"Hey, hey, hey." He spoke calmly and shushed me as he sat down on the bed next to me and pulled me into him. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. I'm just worried about you, you're not the same."

"I know, I'm just not coping well with the situation James is in. He promised me he wouldn't leave me and now he might. I didn't have enough time to get to know him Damien." After three days of not crying all of the pent up tears saved spilled onto my cheeks. "I can't lose him, Damien."

"I know, baby, I know. But you have to look after yourself, you can't have yourself in a bad position when James wakes up and he will wake up."

"What if he doesn't?"

"He will, just have a bit of faith on him. He's fighting to come home, I know he is." He assured. "Let's get you out of the house today, Christmas is in three weeks and we still haven't gone shopping."

"No I don't want to go shopping."

"You go get in the shower, thoroughly wash and then you can come back to me. I will lay out an outfit for you but then we go. No ifs or buts you are going shopping with me." He pulled me up from the bed and pushed me toward the bathroom as I stuttered to get words out but he shut the door on me before I could finish. I guess I'm going to have to shower then.

****

"I hate you but I hate that you have such good fashion even more." I roll my eyes as I gesture towards my outfit, he had laid out a pair of black jeans, a white knitted jumper and a red wool scarf with a matching red bobble hat and gloves, along with a pair of knee high black boots.

"That's one reason why you will marry me in the future, there I've finally won you over with my fashion sense." He had a shit-eating grin slapped on his face and all I wanted to do was whack it off of his face, but I held in my need to have a violent outburst and took it out on the door instead as I forced it open and rushed to get out, but I was pushed down my the resistance on my seatbelt. I almost growled as I forgot to unbuckle it. First Damien telling me to leave the house and now the fucking seatbelt.

"Let's go."

"Someones grouchy." Damien commented.

"You made me leave the house for a reason other than to see James, of course I am grouchy."

"We'll go and see James afterwards, alright?"

"Fine."

"Good, now stop acting like a teenager and start acting like an adult." I almost laughed at the authority in his voice but held it back when he glared at me. "I'm being serious, Marley, you're an adult start acting like one." I huffed and stormed off towards the store ignoring Damiens yell of my name behind me.

He can be so rude at times and it makes me question why I am with him, but then I remember everything we've gone through and everything he has done for me that makes me love him and love him and just love him. He can so perfect and yet so incredibly imperfect. Thinking about him makes me turn around and watch him as he shakes his head before making his way over to me in quick, steady steps.

"I'm sorry." I apologise as he catches up with me. "Alright? I am sorry, but I can't help but act like a child. I am an adult that has gone through far too much in the space of two almost three years. But I will try, I will try and get over it all. Does that make you happy?"

"Not in the slightest." I sigh with annoyance. "I don't want you to get over anything, what you have and are going through is making you into who you are. I don't want you to change at all. I have to try and understand what you're going through, I never cared when my father was in hospital when he was alive because we didn't get along. When he died, yes I may have fallen down the hill a bit but it wasn't because I cared that much that he died, it's because I realised that I never had the relationship I wanted with him even though I had countless times to make the effort and so did he."

"So you don't want me to get over it?"

"No I don't. I want you to try and be strong and become positive, not bury yourself in the bed and not take care of your hygiene. You need to be stronger for Rhys not pull away because that isn't good for you or him. Now enough of the sappy conversation, we need to get everyone their Christmas presents, I know you didn't want to but it's three weeks until Christmas and we have only got Rhys some of his presents."

"Some? He'll have a bloody castle full if we get him anymore, no Rhys is done we need to get something for Mary-Jane and the girls, your family and my family."

"But Rhys deserves to get spoiled, I'm giving him last years Christmas presents as well because I wasn't able to give them to him last year, so I just put them away in the attic."

"Damien you didn't need to do that."

"I did, Marley, I had to do something. I would have sent them to you but Mary-Jane never gave me the address."

"Well I'm happy she didn't because I would have sent them back."

"At least have the decency to sell them. It would have given you and Rhys enough money to last a few months, I went all out for him last Christmas and his first birthday and his first Easter and for the day he was born."

"Damien." I scowled with a warning tone.

"Come on, let's go shopping!"

****

After four hours of shopping and only taking a break for food and the toilet, we finally left the shopping centre with a car full of presents and a delivery scheduled for Wednesday next week. Even though I protested far too much about the presents for Rhys, Damien still went against me and bought twice the amount Rhys has at home waiting to be wrapped. On the way to the hospital I started to get a giddy feeling about Christmas, it was the first ounce of emotion other than sadness and anger I had felt since finding out James had been in an accident.

"Hello." I chirped at Luke when I stood in front of him in James' hospital room. "Has he woken up at all?"

"Not yet. What's gotten you into such a happy mood?"

"Christmas is in three weeks, that is what has made me happy and I just know that dad will be awake and out by then. I can feel it."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Marley, but he hasn't showed any signs of awakening. Not even a flinch or a bat of an eye."

"He will." I pushed. "Now I am going to spend some time with my dad, could you both excuse us." As soon as they were both out of the room I stared down at my dad, his face didn't look as bruised as last week, the cuts had started to heal slightly and his stitches were out from his eyebrow now.

"Oh dad, I know that you'll wake up, Damien is sure that you will and I trust him. Christmas is just around the corner and you have to be awake for our first Christmas, it's take me twenty-six years to get a Christmas with you and it's finally here, you have to be awake for it." I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "And I know you will, I just know it."