Chapter Forty Seven - Conclusion

 “Why so glum, Madison?” I asked the next morning when I noticed she was only pushing her cereal around the bowl.

 “I don’t get to see Jay ’till after school...”  Her face started to crinkle.

 “Oh, sweetie, I forgot to tell you, didn’t I?  You don’t have to go today.  We’ll go and see him in the hospital as soon as they let us.”

 “Really?”

 Her sudden change in demeanor made me laugh.  “I don’t think you’d have payed attention in school today, do you?”

 She shook her head quickly, hastily agreeing to anything that meant she could go visit Jay.  “No way.”  I laughed again.

 Just before we left, the phone rang.  The caller ID showed it was work.  Shoot!  I forgot to call Patty!  “Hello?” I answered.

 “Oh, hello,” a sarcastic male voice answered.  Frank.  “Is this Laura?”

 “Yes...  Hi Frank.”

 “May I ask why you are still home?”

 “I can’t make it in today, my friend’s in the hospital because...”

 “Well, we have things going on here as well!  For instance, a line of over a dozen customers at the deli!  You know I actually listened to Patty when she defended you, and I gave you a chance.  This is how you repay me, with a no-call no-show?”

 “Someone close to me got shot last night, Frank.  I’m sorry, I forgot.  But I can’t make it in!”

 “You forgot!” he fumed, and suddenly I found myself only mildly irritated at his anger.  It’s a deli, Frank.  Get over yourself.  “Well, don’t worry about coming in, because you’re fired!”

 I could tell he’d been saving that up.  I could also tell he enjoyed saying it to people, and expected me to react somehow.  You’d love it if I cried right now, wouldn’t you?  I sighed.  “Fine, Frank.  Been nice working for you,” I said in one of my most non-committal tones ever.

 “Oh, we’re not done here!  I expect...”

 He started talking more, and I just couldn’t listen.  He wasn’t even my boss anymore.  “That sounds great, Frank.  Bye, then,” I said quietly in the middle of whatever he was saying, not caring if he heard me or not.  I hung up.

----

 Madison and I were the first to get to his room.  He was finishing breakfast.  When he saw us, his expression brightened and his shoulders loosened.  “Hey!”

 He was looking sharper than the night before.  “Good morning, sweetheart,” I said, kissing him and holding Madison so she could as well.

 “I should have asked you to bring some of those eggs you’re so good at making.  Look at this,” he poked at the yellow mass on his plate.  “I don’t know what it is, but it isn’t egg.”

 “Better than nothing?” I offered.

 “Heh.”  He poked at them some more, and finished eating.

 “How’d you sleep?” I asked.

 “Not all that well,” he admitted.

 “Why not?” I asked.

 “My back hurt from laying like this...  And I was thinking a lot.”

 “Thinking?”  I thought I heard something like a smile in his voice, and deep down I knew I was reading his mind.

 He was interrupted by a nurse coming to take his vitals, and by the time she left Sara had come in with Tristan.  “How are ya, man?” Jay’s friend asked him.

 “These beds aren’t made for side-sleepers, but on the other hand, I’m alive and all.”

 “Sara said you almost got an artery punctured.”  Sara’s gaze went to his face at the mention of her name.  Sara, you are so busted.

 “Anterior tibial artery.  I guess the bone was pretty much resting against it.  If I’d tried to stand I could have bled to death.”

 “Well, you didn’t.  And so much for ‘no news is good news’.”

 “What are you talking about?” Jay asked.

 “Look at this,” Sara said, and pulled a newspaper out of her purse.  “Earl made the paper.”

 We passed it around.  I thought back to the officer being interested in Earl’s car.  They’d found two pounds of cocaine in his glove box.  Well, two pounds minus however much he had done in the last three days.  Add in assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, attempted murder, endangering the welfare of a child, I’m sure...  Not to mention all they had on him to begin with.  I couldn’t help smiling broadly as I passed it on.  He’s gone!  He’s really gone!

 There was a knock, and two men in suits were at the door.  One asked for Jay by name.  “Yeah?” Jay said.

 “I’m terribly sorry, we were hoping to get here before visiting hours.  Would it be okay to have a moment alone with you, or would you prefer us to come back?”

 “What’s this about?” Jay asked.  “Are you the doctors?”

 “No,” the other said hesitantly.  “We were notified of an incident regarding the records of a prior visit a few days ago.”

 “Oh...  No, I’ll talk to you now.  How long?”

 “We could make it quick, possibly...  Fifteen minutes?  If it takes longer we’ll deal with this at another time.”

 “Sure,” Jay told them.  “So, anybody want to do me a favor and get me some real food?”

 I laughed.  “What would you like, dear?”

 “Can you see if you can get some egg fu young somewhere?”

 “I’ll see what I can do,” I said.  We all stepped out, and I told Tristan and Sara what I thought this was about.

 “I’ve heard of Alyce,” Tristan said.  “I hope she did get fired.”

 I found a Chinese takeout place not far away, and by the time I got back Jay was alone again.  “So?” I asked, brandishing the brown paper bag.

 “Ah, care package delivered!  Thank you, Laura.”

 “Of course...”  I gave him a kiss along with his real food.  “So what did those guys want?”

 “That was the information security something something, and one of the hospital’s lawyers.  They figured they’d better make me rich.”

 “What?” I asked, smiling.  “Because of what Alyce did?”

 “Oh yeah.  I told you, that is very illegal.  They just offered me an out of court settlement, and I accepted.  Probably could have gotten twice as much easy if I did sue, but...  That’s not how I want to make my money.  I would have settled for them firing her stupid a*s, actually.  Except, the bill for all this will be unreal, and I won’t be able to work for awhile...”  He looked at his leg, and started eating.

 “Well that’s handy...  I’m depending entirely on your rent now.  I just got fired this morning.”

 “You got fired?  What for?”

 “Calling in so much, and not showing up or calling today.  I forgot.  I wonder how that happened...”  I smiled at him to let him know I didn’t care.  “So, what were you up all night thinking about?” I asked, not forgetting the weight I’d heard in his voice.

 “Let me finish here.  I’m starving, and this is...  Important.”

 Of course, the others came back before he finished.  “Jay, I just made a few phone calls and got in touch with John,” Sara made sure to get in before everyone started talking.  “I told him what happened and said you wouldn’t be able to make the interview.  He said not to worry, to take your time and heal.  He’ll meet with you when you’re ready.  He also said that unless you make a really bad impression, you’ve pretty much got the job.  Carol praised you to the skies, that was enough for him.  He also said that once you have their insurance, it will go back far enough to cover all of this.”

 A smile forced itself onto Jay’s face.  “I was worrying about that...  Thank you Sara.  I’m grateful.”

 “Of course,” she said, perhaps a touch bashfully.

 We made some small talk after that.  Tristan and Jay told us a story from their youth, about playing with fire in the woods.  “So I extinguish that whole log Jay had soaked in gasoline,” Tristan said, “And as I’m catching my breath, I look over to see...  What?”

 The way he was telling it had us all laughing.  “Oh, come on man, it was funny,” Jay said.

 “No, tell them what!”

 Speaking through his laughter, Jay said, “Fine...  I had a roll of toilet paper...”

 “Also soaked in gasoline,” Tristan added.

 “Also soaked in gasoline...  And I lit it.  Then a*****e here takes my favorite walking stick and uses it to fling it into the swamp.”

 “Still going on about that stick!  How about, not burning the forest down?”

 “Ah, it was contained, it was just a roll of toilet paper.”

 “Soaked in gasoline!”

 Listening to the two of them had Sara, Madison and myself laughing uproariously.  Suddenly it was as if we all remembered simultaneously that we were in a hospital, and slowly quieted.  

 When we’d had a small stretch of silence Jay said, “Alright, everyone.  Can I ask a favor and have awhile alone with Laura?”

 “Hmm?  Yeah, sure, man,” Tristan said.

 “Come on, Madison,” Sara said.

 “Oh, Madison too,” Jay said.

 “Alright...  When should we come back?” she asked, her brow furrowed in amusement.

 “I...  Hell.  After lunch?  Sorry, we just keep getting interrupted.”

 “It’s fine,” Sara smiled.  “See you after noon, then.”

 I watched her closely as she left with Tristan.  She didn’t seem to mind having some time with him at all.

 Finally, we were alone.  No doctors, nurses, lawyers, friends or family.  No family?  Are you sure about that?

 “What is it, Jay?”

 “I think you know already.”  I thought I did too.

 “I don’t know!” Madison piped up.

 “Madison, do you know I love you and your mom very much?”

 “Yes,” she said, the shy little girl in her coming out.

 “We have fun, when there’s no fighting going on, right?”

 “Right.”

 “I love spending time with you two.  It’s my favorite thing to do.”  Emotion was creeping into his voice.  “I’d like to spend even more time with you.”

 “How much time?” Madison asked.

 “Oh, something like, all of my time.”

 “Enough to be my daddy?”  Madison stiffened from excitement, almost sliding from my lap.

 Jay laughed, and put that one on hold.  “Laura, we love each other.  Right?”

 “Right,” I said, and started to cry softly.  That started Jay crying.  “I’d like...  To spend all of my time with you, too.”

 “Why are you crying?” Madison asked insistently.  “Be happy!”

 “We are happy, sweetie,” I said, hugging her to me.  “Sometimes people cry because they’re really happy.  Jay, are you proposing to me?”

 “Something like that.  I know I’ll want to marry you at some point, Laura.  I know it.  I still don’t want to mess around with labels like boyfriend and girlfriend, or fiancée...  Other people have ruined them for me.  I can’t, in my mind, describe our relationship with any of the words other people use.  I feel like we have something special, unique.  So for now, can we just say we’re together, for good, and leave it there?”

 “Yes,” I said, and it came out as only a breath.

 “Madison?  Do you feel the same?”

 “We can’t get married, Jay!” she said, rolling her eyes.

 Jay and I had our tears dispelled by hysterical laughter.  “No, no we can’t.  But if I marry your mom someday, that will make me your step-father.  Is that okay?”

 “Yes!  Daddy!”  She jumped from my lap and ran to hug him.  He grunted from the jolt.

 “Madison, be careful,” I said distractedly.  Married...  I knew it would come someday, and I didn’t at all care when.  We’re together.  Nothing else matters, the rest is all paperwork.

 “No, she has the right idea.  Kiss on it.”

 We did, deeply and passionately.  “So,” I said when we broke away.  “Is it just me, or is Tristan going to end up as my brother-in-law?”

 He laughed.  “There’s a string between those two for sure.”

 “What’s he like?”

 I didn’t have to explain what I was looking for.  “He’s a wonderful person.  Best friend a man could wish for...  And before you ask, don’t worry about Sara rebounding to him.  Tristan has also been hurt, badly.  Way worse than the aggravation my little flings caused me.  He moves slow.”

 “Sara called me last night.  I guess he’s going to be staying with her for awhile.”

 “Hmm.  Nice,” Jay muttered to himself with a nod.  “People ask too much of him up north.  He’s taking a break, probably.”

 “Worried about his ‘brother’, more likely.”

 Jay shrugged.  “It’s the thing to do for him right now.  It’s as simple as that.”

 I enjoyed a deep breath and looked out the window.  I realized birds were singing.  “So, now what are you going to do?  Now that you’re out of work for awhile?”

 “I’ve been thinking about that too.  Years ago I used to write as an outlet, before I started x-ray school and didn’t have a life anymore.  I think I’d like to try my hand at it again.  It’s always been a great form of release.”

 “You could write our story,” I said, half-joking.  “It’s got all the elements of a regular old fairy tale.”  A giant smile crossed my face.  “Especially since you want to live happily ever after with me.”

 “And me!” Madison added.

 “I might just do that.”  He gave a contented sigh and looked out the window as well, and I could tell he’d also noticed the birds.  “You know, I feel so close to you right now...  If you fill in some blanks, I bet I could even write it from your perspective...”

The End

Author's Note

If you've made it this far, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Again, I haven't done anything with this yet so I'm interested in any and all feedback. Anything from typos to inconsistencies, what you loved or what you wish was different.
Most of all, had you bought this book from a store, what would your final impression be? Was this a good book?

Reviews

[Sira YR]

This was a truly beautiful story. I thoroughly enjoyed it and i have not found ANY grammatical errors whatsoever. Thank you so much for posting this and I really do hope that you publish this. Again thank you so very much and I hope that others read and review this writing. As a matter of fact, I'm bout to send a read request to all of my friends :)

[Christopher Miller]

Well, a big thanks for bring the first to finish reading it on here. I'm glad you enjoyed it, in a way it's my first real effort. I wrote Lavender first, but that was originally just for my wife alone, never to see the light of day.

[Sira YR]

Well Im glad you decided to post it and there is no need for thanks. It's actually a shame that no one else has taken the time to read this or review this. I meant what i said bout sending read requests to my friends :)

[Sira YR]

Okay ive sent all of my friends read requests for this book. Hopefully you will get more reviews :)

[Sarah]

Bravo. Coming to the end of a story after being deeply invested in it is always so bittersweet.

First, I'm glad Laura finally got fired. It might've been better if she quit, but same effect.

Jay and Laura are together, and I see that Tristan will be good for Sara. It's as though everything always works out in the end. Also the story from their childhood was a cute touch. Offered something personal between the two. I just wish Tristan was introduced earlier or more regularly throughout the story. I felt like the ending with him was quick and rushed.

Overall, that was a fantastic story, and I'm wondering what I'm going to do now that I'm done reading it. Please clean this up a little and publish it, and I promise I'll buy a copy.