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She looks limp and her face is pale, but she’s here and she’s breathing. The rest will happen in good time. I don’t care if her speech is affected, she has a limp, or doesn’t have perfect eyesight. None of that will matter to me, as long as I still have her with us.
Tate is following close behind her with his trusty tablet in his hand, and he’s on the phone, talking in technical medical terminology that I can’t even begin to understand, and I understand a lot.
“Page me if that doesn’t work.” His phone disappears back into his white jacket pocket, and he’s standing between me and the door that I was about to walk through.
“Just give them a minute. They need to hook her up to monitors and don’t need you in the road. Another few minutes won’t kill you.”
“Debatable!” Yeah, I know I sound like an asshole, but he is the person standing in between me and my Cassie.
“Whatever. Now, she is going to be out of it for a while. I’m not sure why but she has had an adverse reaction to the anesthetic, and we had trouble bringing her out of it, but it does happen. The good thing is she’s on her way back and talking to me. Opened her eyes and told us you were grumpy, but you’re her grumpy.” The smirk on his face tells me how happy he was to relay that story.
“Damn straight I am. Now let me in there, otherwise you will see more than grumpy.” The chuckle that Tate lets out as he steps to the side just makes me more agitated. I need to pull it back, be gentle with her and nice to him. He still has her life in his hands.
The day I get to take her home, I’ll let him know in my best friendly way what an asshole he is.
I’m moving toward her on a mission, but the moment I’m close enough to touch her, all that aggression is gone and the love that I’ve been hanging onto is pouring through me in waves. I wish she had her eyes open so I could tell she’s really okay, but just being able to touch her and leaning down to kiss her lips that are all dry from the tube, is enough to center me again. She smells like a hospital, but still, under all the sterile things they have used on her, I can still detect a hint of that sweetness that is all Cassie. Every day she uses a jasmine-scented body lotion. Even if she misses putting it on, I can always still smell it in her skin. Just like I can now.
Tate’s hand on my shoulder pushes me into a chair next to her. He understands how overwhelmed I am. Taking her hand in mine, she takes a big breath, and the machines give a few weird, out-of-rhythm beeps, but then they settle back into normal, and her body seems to relax a little more into the bed.
“She knows you’re here, buddy. That was her way of telling you. Talk to her. She can hear you. She’ll wake up when she’s ready, but in the meantime, keep talking to her to reassure her that it’s safe out here. She doesn’t need to hide inside there.” She squeezes my hand with whatever strength she can muster at hearing Tate’s words.
“I know, baby, you’re fighting. I believe you,” I whisper, raising her hand to my mouth and kissing the back of it. There is no way I’m leaving this seat until those eyes are open and I can’t shut her up from talking.
I have things to do but nothing is more important than this.
Once she is out of danger, then the plan will be put into place to finally take Jason down. It didn’t take long to work it out, and everyone is on board. We all agree it’s time, and we have enough evidence that there is no way he can get out of it this time. Ashton’s words to me were,“What took you so long, dickhead?”but then he hasn’t been here from the start. It’s easy for him to say, Cassie isn’t his wife. Bull told me if I had tried to do this on my own, he would have come and killed me himself. All this time I thought I was on my own in this world, besides Cassie. But it’s not the case. These guys have always been there for me, I’m finally just realizing it.
I’m not a big talker, but I’ve come prepared, after having so much time on my hands today. Reaching into my backpack that has my laptop and a set of earbuds in there, I also pull out her phone I have been carrying with me. I make sure it’s on airplane mode, so it doesn’t upset any of the machines that are important in this room. Carefully putting one of the earbuds into each of Cassie’s ear, I start the recordings I have loaded up for her.
Our home security has cameras and sound in the kids’ bedrooms, so I have taken hours and hours of me reading stories to Bessy or both of the kids together. You can hear Bessy talking and Eli making himself heard at times, with his chatter or a little cry. I don’t want her to feel alone. I will be here holding her hand, and she can hear us all around her until she is ready to wake up. She may be ready to murder me by then, sick of hearing the children’s stories, but I don’t care.
Between every story finishing and the new one starting is my voice telling her,“I love you, keep fighting for us.”
CASSIE
Ghost’s voice.
He’s here, just like he promised.
His hand, I can feel it. This time the touch feels like home.
I can rest now. He’s got me.
My Bessy, sometimes she just needs to slow down when she is trying to read. Her sweet voice is like a lullaby. The purity in her words. I love this story, but Eli doesn’t. He’s crying, why is he crying? I need to go to him. Why can’t I get to him? Ghost has him, it’s okay. He is always there for me. Keep reading, Bessy, I love to hear you.
I remember more of this story than the last. Maybe I can wake up. I want to tell the story, mine is better. Bessy laughs at my animal noises and so does Eli. Ghost isn’t any good. They need my“Moooooo… mooooo…”No, that chicken is terrible, we need to work on that. Need to wake up, come on, eyes, open!
Where did the farm go? We are back in the ice castle. No, not again, I’ve read this book a thousand times already.
Enough, enough, no more, enough.
“Enough, no… more… snowman…”
The earbuds are pulled out of my ears and the story is gone. Instead, I hear him, his voice much deeper and tired.
“Cassie, baby, talk to me.” I can hear a small laugh in his voice. “I promise no more snowman if you open up your eyes for me. I love you, please, I’m begging you to show me those bright eyes.”
The light hurts.
