Summary: This takes place at the end of the book "Christy" by Catherine Marshall. I have quoted some parts from the book and please forgive me for paraphrasing a few sections from the book to tie this story and the book together. I have used a couple of segments from the CBS Series and possibly the PAX-TV Mini-series to bring out thing's that readers might be more familiar with then they are the book.

Disclaimer: the Marshall-LeSourd Family, L.L.C, owns Catherine Marshall's beautiful story of Christy. I am in no way seeking profit or credit for her story. I am continuing the story of Christy for my own amusement and hopefully yours as well. The writer of this story has invented any additions in story line and characters. The content of this story is the responsibility of the writer. Any similarities between this and other Fan fiction are purely coincidental.

-=*=-Prelude to Austria -=*=-

Chapter I

By Anne B.

"Neil, can you believe it, in only two weeks I'll be Mrs. Neil MacNeill!!" I declared as my fiancé smiled broadly before me.

"Yes, but first, you need to complete your trip to Asheville." Neil teased. He knew I didn't want to go, but mother insisted I be fitted for my gown one last time before the wedding.

"I wish I didn't have to leave! I'd do anything to stay right here in the Cove-- but I know this is something that I need to do. I don't want to look like a sack of potatoes walking down the aisle either!" I giggled and Neil laughed out loud.

"You know I wouldn't care if you did!" Neil laughed even more heartily. I smiled at him; I knew he meant it with all his heart. "I wouldn't care if you came down the aisle wearing Swannie O'Teale's dress. It's the woman inside that I love, not the trappings on the outside."

"I know that Neil. But I want everyone to be jealous of you that day!" I teased.

Neil whispered. "They already are, Love. They already are." I felt my checks turn crimson at these words and the look Neil gave me.

All too soon the train pulled into the station and it was time to say good-bye. "I'll be back next Saturday, Neil. Don't forget to pick me up!"

"I won't, and if there's an emergency David has already graciously offered to come in my place and bring you home. But I do hope I'll be the one to come. I don't know how I can survive seven whole days without you!" Neil smiled teasingly.

"I think you'll manage just fine. What did you do before you fell in love with me?"

"I spent day after miserable day wondering how long I could continue on in this lonely, empty existence. I will *never* be able to repay you for all you've done for me. For filling my life with beauty, for being there for me and lifting me up out of that lonesome pit I was in without you." He took my hand and led me to the train. Before I turned to board the train I stood on my tiptoes and gave Neil a peck on the cheek. He smiled a bit embarrassed at me. "I'll see you next Saturday, Love, one way or another. If I can't pick you up here, I'll do my best to make it to the mission to visit you Saturday evening."

"I'll look forward to it, Neil!" I said feeling somewhat shy suddenly.

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On board the train I watched out the window, waving to Neil and blowing him kisses until I could see him no longer. Then I leaned back in the seat with my journal and wrote about the events so far today. When I finished I looked back at the entries from months ago, at the end of my bout with Typhoid and my near death experience. I owed my life to Neil and his heartfelt, impassioned prayer for me…

I read, …"From a great distance someone was calling my name. The voice was familiar. Whose…I did not want to hear it. The voice was weight pulling me backward, drawing me away from the light. I would ignore it. I had to go on. The decision was made.

"But over and over the voice called my name. No matter how I tried to stop my ears, I could not ignore it. Why? Why could I not go on? There was something in the voice that pulled me back. Now I recognized it--in the voice there was love too, like the love I had seen among the playing children. There was pulling power in that love. But the weight, the awful weight. I did not want that earth-bound weight along with it.

"Fairlight still had not seen me (but hadn't Fairlight died just a short while ago?). She had finished the planting. The lady's-slippers stood up straight with heads erect, as if they had always grown happily in that spot. And then Fairlight and Jeter (wasn't he the child Fairlight had told me had died of croup when he was three years old?) waded into the stream, splashing, skipping from rock to rock--as she and I had so often rollicked together. The more they splashed, the more the baby, Cecile, lying on her mossy bed kicked her feet and moved her tiny hands and gurgled (so this was the baby Fairlight had told me she lost in infancy). I stared longingly, wanting to be there beside them.

"Then I knew. Suddenly I knew and bowed my head with the knowledge. I had to go back. Someone (who was it?) who loved me, still needed me. The light was not for me yet. Not yet. But sometime. Oh, sometime! Fairlight, you will wait for me, won't you? Won't you? Fairlight. The weight, the weight. The fading light. …

"I was heavy, so heavy. My eyelids were leaden. They would not open. The familiar voice, a man's voice, very soft. He was talking to me, calling me. "Christy, Christy, you've got to come back to me. Christy, wherever you are, listen to me…Christy, I love you, love you, *love you*. Christy, can you hear me? Down in your spirit, at the depth of you, do you hear what I'm saying to you? *I love you!* You cannot leave me without knowing this. Christy--"

"And then the tone of the words changed. "God, I have fought against You because I have not understood. Not only fought, God, but cursed You. I did not understand why You let Margaret die--and our son. I did not understand anything about You. I still don't understand anything--except that somehow I know *YOU are love*. And that in my heart has been born so great a love for Christy as I did not know existed on this earth. You, God, must be responsible. You must have put it there. So what do I do with it now?" The voice broke. The bedclothes muffled a man's sobs. I wanted to comfort the man in some way. I tried to lift my hand, but it was too heavy. Still my eyelids would not open.

"The voice was hoarse with emotion. "Lord God Almighty, Lord God of heaven and of earth, I have been stiff-necked and proud, arrogant and stupid. I am not worthy of--of anything, least of all to ask any favors of You." The voice paused. The room was very quiet. I could hear the sharp intake of a man's breath. "Lord God, You are the Creator, I am the created. I am helpless, as helpless as all other men. As a doctor, I thought I knew something. Now there is nothing more that I can do for Christy. Nothing at all.

"So I offer back to You this love You gave. It's all I have to give you, God. Here are our lives--hers and mine--I hold them out to You. Do--with us--as--You please." The voice fell silent.

"So his was the voice that had called me back. Dr. MacNeill's. He needed me. He *loved* me. He loved me like *THAT*.

"There was a warm glow in the room. Warmth came into me, starting at the top of my head and flowing steadily downward, into my brain, into my face--my eyelids fluttered open. Familiar objects in the room came into focus. He was still there beside my bed, his head sunk on the covers, one hand stretched out with the bowl of that old pipe of his clutched in it, but the stem of the pipe was broken. It had fallen from his hand and lay on the rumpled covers of the bed.

"And still the strength and the warmth flowed--into my chest, along my arms. I could move my fingers now.

"I felt across the counterpane until my hand reached his, the big hand with the blond-red hairs on top. My fingers closed over his hand gripped it. His head came up.

"Christy!"

"The joy of the children was in his voice.

From this I couldn't help but remember the days and weeks that followed…

"Dr. MacNeill remained with me day and night for the next few days as my strength began to return gradually with each successive day.

"After waking more fully after the Typhoid fever Dr. MacNeill was seated beside my bed one day checking my vital signs when I felt an urgent need to approach him with what I heard while I was 'away' from my body. "I heard your prayer that you prayed for me…and yourself." I said shyly.

"You did, did you?" He paused for a few moments as he looked away shyly. "Did you hear… *everything* I said?"

"I think I did, in fact I'm certain I did." I looked at Dr. MacNeill coyly. "You told me that you love me, that I couldn't leave without knowing that. You asked me to come back to you. Then I heard your prayer. Is that all you said?"

"That's pretty much it, yes." Dr. MacNeill said timidly looking down toward the floor.

"I remember thinking as you spoke, 'Dr. MacNeill *needs* ME? He *LOVES* me? He loves me like *THAT*!?!'"

He paused a long while as he fidgeted in his chair before finally finding his voice and continuing, "Christy?" He paused as if he was unsure how to continue on. He would not allow his eyes to meet mine as he went on. "Christy? Do you think there is anyway that *you* could ever love *me* like THAT?" He asked still without looking into my eyes at all.

"I reached for his hand and said, "I already do, Dr. MacNeill…" I ended in a whisper, "I already do." His face lit up and he put my hand to his mouth and kissed it, holding it there.

"I'm not sure what to say Christy?" He said somewhat shocked by my reply.

"How about 'I love you'?" I asked.

"He leaned forward and kissed my forehead tenderly. "I love you Christy." He whispered.

"I love you too, Doctor."

"Don't you think it's time you started calling me Neil then?" He asked humbly with a raised eyebrow.

"Alright--" I said sheepishly. "--Neil."

"He kissed me once again on the forehead, my eyes were heavy and sleep was about to overtake me as much as I hated for this moment to end sleep insisted upon its way. As my eyes closed in slumber, Neil leaned back in the chair beside my bed with my hand in his and I heard him say just above a whisper, "She loves *ME*!!" Once again I could hear the joy of the children in his voice, as I drifted off into a dream filled sleep.

"When I awoke Neil was asleep in the chair still holding my hand, with his fingers entwined in mine as if to not let go of me while he slept. I smiled at the sleeping form of the man that I had only recently discovered that I loved. He had spent many sleepless nights caring for everyone in the Cove and then for me. He had been here day and night while I was ill, most especially when I was near to dying. My heart went out to him now as I viewed him asleep in the chair with his head leaning to one side, it had to be painful for his neck! He had my hand in his yet, still holding fast as if I'd get away if he let go of me! It felt wonderful. I had never been loved like this before."

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I set my journal down slowly and looked out the window at the passing scenery. I would miss these

mountains for the next seven days. Fourteen days from today would be our wedding, then I would be married to a mountain man. Not that Neil was truly a 'mountain man' but he was from these mountains and was accepted as one of them. I was anxious to 'one-of-them'!! I loved these people, the children, these mountains, and most especially a certain Doctor who lived in Cutter Gap in a cabin on the bank of Big Spoon Creek.

I put my head back and closed my eyes and began thinking of Ruby Mae and Will Beck's wedding. How I was so blind to Neil's fondness for me. I could see the love in his eyes plainly now. But *then* I wondered what that look was! Maybe I was much more 'young and innocent' then I realized! How could I have been so ignorant of things that were happening? Neil had kept his eyes on my face all the while he sang "Shady Grove". He had sung to me "My Pretty Little Pink". And the enigmatic look on his face!! It may have been a mystery to me then, but after my bout with Typhoid, I knew what that 'look' was, my eyes were finally opened to the love of this man.

I had given him quite an impression as Neil spun me around and I let my head fall back in a moment of joyous rapture and I met his eyes. How they glistened with approval and I couldn't understand what else. When I pulled my head back up, his lips brushed my forehead. His arm had remained firmly behind my back with my body pressed tightly against him. Now I wished he'd hold me like that again, but I knew better then to do that. There was more temptation in that type of behavior now.

Enough of those type of thoughts for this afternoon!! Suddenly there were *fourteen whole days* until our wedding, where just a short while ago, as I was standing on the platform in El Pano, there were *only* fourteen!! I still felt dizzy as I thought about that day, but I didn't panic any longer, as I had then. And for some reason my stomach seemed to do peculiar lurch within me as I thought of the way Neil looked at me that day.

Perhaps a nap would help…

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End Chapter One

Chapter Two Coming Soon!!