Nobles

Ch. 26: You'll always be Strixe

Skylar's breathing changed, and he knew she was not sleeping anymore, but she was not fully awake either. From what the nurse who had changed the fluids bags for her IV had said, there shouldn't be any pain, but she could perhaps be angry and confused when she came to.

They had switched the sedation to a relaxant, and she had gone through some wild episodes during the three days he had been there with her. She had not been fully conscious and aware of her surroundings, it had been expected.

"Sky?"

"Philo." She smiled but didn't open her eyes. "I wish you were here."

"But I'm here, Sky. Right here."

"You feel so real," she said dreamily and held on to his arm, her fingers gently caressing him in soft strokes.

"I hope I am, kuralino."

Slowly, she opened her eyes and closed them again, she felt so tired and weak. She hated feeling like that, she wanted to go back to sleep where Philo was waiting for her; warm, beautiful and in love with her.

In her dreams, he was still with her.

She could not wrap her head around how much she missed him; even if he was overly careful with her, he was only doing that out of love, not because he did not want to treat her normal, she understood that now.

Her mouth felt dry and her head was banging, but the worst was the aching in her body. Her stomach felt upset and her joints were stiff. It was terrible to feel sick and weak at the same time. Like there was not enough energy to react if she needed to vomit.

Skylar tried to turn to find another position to relieve the knot in her stomach when she felt something holding her back. A blood chilling fear ran through her; she could not go through it again. "Please let me go, my husband..." Her voice cracked with the desperation in it. "I'm married, please don't hurt me."

"Kuralino..."

"Philo?" She opened her eyes in shock.

Why was he there?

He was there holding her, looking at her with his beautiful, emerald eyes. His face had day-old stubble and his eyes seemed worried, but he was smiling...

At her.

She could not stop herself, she started crying. She was so happy to see him, so afraid that he was there to divorce her after the stunt she had pulled, but so happy to see him. He smelled familiar, his embrace was pure safety, and by God, he looked like heaven.

"Sky, please don't cry. I can't take it when you cry."

His words only made her cry even harder, clinging to him and sobbing her heart out.

That woman drove him mad. It did not matter what he did, she always turned it around on him. She kept him on his toes, and he knew he would not want it any other way. He wanted her to drive him mad every day.

"Why are you here?" she asked through her crying.

"We'll talk about it later, you need to relax."

"I have to know, Alistair. Are you here to divorce me?"

"Skylar, why the hell do you even think that?"

"I left you," Skylar hiccupped and hid her face in embarrassment. 

"We had a fight. What you did is the movie equivalent of slamming the door and going to your mother's house." As he had hoped that made her smile. He had missed her smile, missed everything about her except for having to hold her like that again. He wanted her to be well and never need that kind of care from him in the future. They were meant to move forward, not stay stuck in old habits. "If you had truly left me I know you and your hard head well enough to be sure I would have been served with divorce papers, gleefully administered by your sister, and since I haven't, I suspect you just needed some me-time."