A Broken Forever(15)

I watched his blue eyes leave my face and lock onto my hands firmly secured around his arm.

"I have to go," was all he said.

My head shook back and forth in confusion. "Why? What? Where are you going, Stefan?" I pleaded with him to talk to me, but still he said nothing.

With his free hand, he carefully pried my hands from his arm and turned to walk away from me. I stood there. Not believing this was real. Not knowing what to do. Watching the man I loved with an undeniable passion walk away; heading deeper into a darkness I could only begin to understand.

"Stefan," I called out.

He continued walking as he shoved his hands into the pockets of the black dress pants I bought for today. His head hung down but he refused to turn back to me.

"STEFAN!" I screamed out to him. My chest began to heave; the contents of my stomach were on the verge of coming back up and all I could think to do was scream his name.

"STEFAN!" I yelled so loudly it must have awoken the dead. Air escaped me, I pressed my hand against my heart, calling out to him again. "Stefan, please!"

I sank to my knees; staring after the fading figure through the sheets of rain. 

My heart wept. "Come back to me."



"Baby … baby … " My body was shaking, and I could feel my chest constricting as I gasped for air. When my eyes sprung open I was back in the hospital, looking into Richard's gentle eyes.

"What?" I asked in a panic, sitting up far quicker than I should have.

"You were just dreaming, baby," Richard whispered, placing a kiss to my temple.

I wished what I was just going through was nothing more than a dream. Unfortunately, the beads of sweat accumulating at the back of my neck and the sadness in my core said differently.

"Yeah," I responded, still trying to catch my breath.

Richard smoothed the back of his hand along my cheek; my eyes closed at the gentleness of his touch. My arms lifted and wrapped around his shoulders as I finally felt the warmth I was craving from my memory. His fingers spread out against my back and rubbed in slow and steady circles. Finally, I felt my breathing calm into even breaths, and for the first time in a few days, I was relieved to know it was Richard's arms holding me close.

This was exactly what I needed; no drama, just pure, unquestionable love.

"Grey, my darling, my shift is officially over. I need to go home and clean up, but I just wanted to let you know that I'll be back within an hour."

The needy side of me was on the verge of asking him to stay here and not leave me alone, but I couldn't. I saw the complete exhaustion in his eyes, so I sucked up my own pathetic need and decided it was now time to be the good fiancée. I pulled back and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

"No, go home. Shower, eat, sleep and then you can come get me in the morning. Honest, baby, I promise you I will be just fine here. As soon as you leave I'm going to head back to sleep anyway."

"No Grey, I promise I'm not just going to leave you behind."

"You're not, Richard. It isn't as if you're about to go out to a party, you've been working for the past thirty hours. Just go home, go to sleep, and if for some reason you aren't awake at seven or eight in the morning, then that is okay too. You know Kacie is probably standing by the phone just in case I happen to need her."

Richard chuckled and nodded with a resigned sigh. "That girl loves you."

I gave a playful shrug. "Well good, because I love her. But I also love you and I absolutely want you to rest, honey."

"Are you sure? I'll set the alarm for 7:00 and I'll come back and get you, then we can sleep the day away. Especially since you can bet that I won't let you out of my sight tomorrow."

My arms wound around his neck. "I'm okay with that."

With a final kiss goodbye Richard left. I curled into a ball and softly hummed a lullaby to myself, slowly lulling me back into a dreamless sleep.



The next morning I was up by 7:15 and beyond ready to go home. There were no missed calls or messages from Richard, other than letting me know he made it home safe very early this morning. I refused to call and wake him up to simply drive me home. Cabs worked perfectly well here, and I intended to utilize them this morning. Besides, there was one stop I had to make that I was not looking forward to, and it was going to be much easier to do alone.

After I was dressed and freshened up, I made my way to the billing department. I knew I had insurance, but I definitely didn't think it covered not only an overnight stay at the hospital but the ambulance ride. Being here was bad enough-I could only imagine what this was going to cost. It was also something I wanted to take care of without Richard knowing about. If he knew I didn't have all that I owed, there was no doubt he would cover it. I didn't want him to do that, though. This was my thing; Richard worked so incredibly hard and deserved to have his money saved for something that mattered to him.