Careful of the medical machines and her injuries I sit as close to her as I can with the chair they provided. I lay my hand on top of hers and soothingly run my thumb back and forth across her skin.
Connor takes a seat on the opposite side, holding her hand just as gently as I am.
Minutes pass yet they feel like hours but it finally happens.
A twitch of her fingers.
A twitch.
My heart stops beating as I hold my breath.
Another twitch of her fingers.
My eyes stay transfixed on the twitching of her fingers.
I try not to see their fingers twitching but the images are beginning to blur.
That is until I hear her coarse and groggy voice from the affects of the anesthesia. And I don’t care how strained her voice sounds, at this moment it’s the most beautiful sound I have ever heard.
“Oak,” she says my name.
She says my name and I can fucking breathe again.
Rising from the chair I then brace my hand by her head and lean over her. Even bruised she’s still the most beautiful woman to me. “Grace.” My voice breaks as a tear falls down my face.
Her fingers tighten slightly around my hand. Carefully, as if I’m handling a piece of glass, I raise her hand to my lips and press the most tender kiss. “Don’t cry,” she croaks out and another tear of mine falls. “I’m okay.”
“I know, baby. I know,” I tell her before a sob rips from my throat. “The thought of losing you. . .” I close my eyes as paintears through me. “I didn’t know if you were going to make it, Grace, and it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Finding you like that. . . Seeing you like that. . .” I swallow roughly. “It ripped me to shreds. And I couldn’t stop the pain, Grace. I couldn’t stop it.”
Her sky blue eyes water with unshed tears and her busted lip quivers. She opens her mouth to say something but I stop her. “And I realized something, Grace. Losing you will be the greatest pain I’ll ever have to face in my life, but loving you, Grace, loving you makes all the pain in the world worth it.” Tears finally break as they slide down her cheeks. I sweep them gently away with my thumb. “You told me something months ago that I never believed. How every day is a gift, you remember that?” She nods her head. “The most precious gift life has ever given me is you. You, Gracie Mae Vale, you’re everything to me. I love you, and I promise you I’ll never let anyone ever hurt you again.”
She blinks away more tears. Her lips try to pull a smile. “I love you.” Then, she turns her head and tightens her fingers around her brother’s hand. “I love you, too.”
“I love you more,” he says to her thickly. The emotion returning to get the best of him.
“Not possible,” she disagrees teasingly.
“I do, I love you more. And I’m going to love you more with each day that passes.”
“Promise?” She asks of him.
He nods his head. “I promise. This,” he waves his finger around the three of us, “is my family and it’s a family with love that will always grow. Right, Oak?”
I reach my free hand across Grace and connect with Connor’s. His eyes shine brightly to mine. There’s so much promise there. So much hope and love. There’s a future, a happy one.
And I see myself living it, too.
Epilogue – Gracie Mae
I stare at the reflection of us in the mirror and marvel at the sight. Butterflies swarm in my stomach as my heart trips over itself. Oak’s large tatted hand rests right beneath my breasts, holding me to him, leaving no space between us.
It’s amazing how far the both of us have come. The battles we have fought with blood, sweat and tears and to come out victorious.
The past few months have been trying. The physical therapy to regain strength in my calf and shoulder has been intense but it’s the after affects of the attack that still plague me. I’ve talked to Alice about it, along with the Old Ladies. They’ve opened up about their own traumas. And it’s nice to talk to people who understand and don’t judge.
The first night I woke up startled from a nightmare I felt awful. Oak, who is the most understanding and patient man I know, cradled me in his arms and rocked me back to sleep like I was a child. The next morning he asked me about it. And I told him the nightmare was of the attack. Of what would’ve happened if he wouldn’t have showed.
But he told me something so beautiful it made me tear up and my heart burst. He had said to me, “Don’t be afraid to sleep,baby, I’ll fight those demons before they have the chance to reach you.” And, god, it did me in. My love for this man is truly unmeasurable. Sometimes I can’t believe he’s real. That a man as good as him exists. But he does, and he’s mine.
