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A lump formed in my throat when I remembered how fucking happy West had been when Hope had accomplished it by accident the very first time. She probably would have cried with excitement to see her now.
“Exercise is something she’s not really been getting lately. She’s been staying holed up in her room unless Dr. Gresham forces her to go on a walk with him through the gardens. So, today I began teaching her the basics of how to dance.”
Julian grunted. She silently reached over and grabbed his hand in hers, linking their fingers together. Meghan drew in a deep breath. “It’s not easy for me to teach her how to dance, guys,” she informed us. I frowned. “Dancing is part of what led to my spiral in college. I lost Oliver because of it.” Pain danced in her eyes. Julian moved closer to her, his jaw clenched. “But I love West. She’s my sister and my best fucking friend. So, despite how much both Julian and Axel are against it, and honestly, Dr. Gresham as well, I’m going to teach her because she needs some kind of outlet.”
“Painting? Writing? Drawing?” Julian grumbled, listing off a number of activities West could be doing besides dancing.
“Sitting around isn’t going to help her, Julian,” Meghan softly told him. She squeezed his hand. “Please don’t fight me on this.”
He sighed but leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead, a silent offer of a truce. Meghan gave him a small smile before she turned back to face us. “She needs to move around. Exercise has been proven to help improve moods. And today, she seemed just a tiny bit lighter after I called our dance session quits for the day.”
Hope began to cry, abruptly cutting into the conversation. Without a word, I got up and went inside, lifting my little angel from the pack ‘n’ play. Fuck, with each day that passed, she looked more and more like West, and it tore at my soul.
The front door quietly opened and closed. “Meghan went on home,” Jessie informed me. He stood beside me, looking down at Hope. “I fucking miss her, bro.”
“Shit fucking hurts without her here,” I gruffly commented.
Jessie nodded in agreement. “Nothing around here feels like home without her here.”
“She’s going to come home,” I rasped, refusing to believe anything else. Fuck, I’d been telling myself this for two weeks now. “And when she does, Jessie, she’s going to be our West again. She’s going to fucking be okay. Some days are still going to be a struggle for her, but she’s going to have more good than bad days. Something in my gut tells me that as long as we’re patient, and we let her have her time to heal and get better, that woman we originally fell in love with will come back home to us.”
“She needs to fight,” Jessie gruffly spoke up as he reached out to gently take Hope from me. I let him cradle her in his arms. We’d been stage-five clingers with Hope since West had been put back into the center. “In my letter, I told her she needs to find that girl and become her again. That girl she used to be, that she hates. She never let the world tear her down.”
“And she needs to find that light inside of her again,” I told him, knowing he knew exactly what light I was talking about. “That light combined with that fiery personality of hers…”
“She’ll be fucking unstoppable,” Jessie finished.
I nodded in agreement. That she would. That light kept her warm and gentle, soft and loving.
That fiery personality? It gave her the strength to fight, to be strong.
Combined? She would be fucking magnificent.
And I couldn’t wait to see it come together inside of her.
West
Meghan held my hands in hers as she led me into the visitation room. It had been a month since Meghan had been teaching me to dance, and whereas I was terrible as fuck at it, which led to a lot of laughing fits between me and Meghan, the exercise helped me so much.
And honestly, so did the laughter.
Dr. Gresham had finally gotten the dosing right on my medications, and I was beginning to thrive again. I felt like myself again, something I hadn’t felt in months.
Lincoln and Jessie stepped into the room as I reached the visitation table we would be sitting at. Tears filled my eyes when my eyes landed on my two men. I quickly dropped Meghan’s hand and rushed forward. They both wrapped me up in their arms, holding me tightly as I cried when I crashed into them.
“I missed you,” I cried.
“Fuck, baby, we missed you, too,” Jessie rasped, pressing his lips to my hair.
They held me for a moment longer. Then, they slowly pulled back, Jessie reaching up to wipe the tears from my cheeks.
