Hi guys,
So I've been listening to this song for days now that has been a favorite of mine for many many years. It was supposed to be used in my other story Jealous, but although it fits the story of Haleb perfectly, it didn't really fit in the storyline I was planning. So I decided to give the song its own story.
XxxxxX
I Do
I got a letter today,
An invitation,
And the writing looked like you.'Hello how are you? And by the way…'Please RSVP I do.'
XxxxxX
"Hi Hanna, the invitations went out last week," Her wedding planner and general confidante Spencer blabbed through the phone in a business like manner. "So you should be receiving your RSVP's very soon. I'll make sure every single person sends theirs, even if I have to hunt them down one by one."
"Thank you Spence, I appreciate it," Hanna sighed. Even with the help of her best friend, she still felt so stressed about the wedding. "Have you…?"
"You don't have to ask me anything Han, Spencer Cavanaugh has everything under control and you know it. Aria is dealing with the flowers and Emily is dealing with the food," She rattled off rather quickly. "Now I've got to go to the bridesmaids' fitting, I have to be there in an hour," She said hurriedly. "I am just so glad you made us choose our own style for the dress Hanna," She added in a kind voice.
"That's the least I could do for my best friends, and can you tell the shop assistant I have requested Cherry Blossom pink dresses, not Baker miller pink? My decorations won't match with Baker Miller pink," Hanna groaned; Spencer laughed, wondering if she had been that difficult with her own wedding.
"I will. Now keep your hair on and try to relax. These are the last few months before you become someone's wife, you are supposed to enjoy all of this," Spencer laughed through the phone.
"I don't remember you being relaxed," Hanna muttered bitterly as she looked at the enormous rock on her finger, glistening in the bright light of the hot afternoon sun.
"I still can't believe you're keeping your own name though," Spencer whispered through the phone ominously, "Does his family know, what do they think about it?"
"They have nothing to say on the matter Spence. Hanna Hobart just doesn't sound all that great."
"You agreed to be his wife, it's all part of it," Spencer said, informatively.
"Out of all my friends, I always thought it would have been you keeping your own name," Hanna replied.
"Hanna, you know as well as I do that I have dreamt about being Mrs. Cavanaugh since we were in high school. I still remember us doodling our names in class, Mrs. Spencer Cavanaugh and Mrs. Hanna R…" But Spencer suddenly stopped and could hear a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line as she realised what she had almost said.
"I'm so sorry," Spencer said quietly after listening to Hanna trying to steady her breathing.
"It's okay Spence. It's been years since I've seen him anyway. It's in the past," Hanna said in a higher voice than usual; she was trying to sound chipper and bright, but Spencer could hear the lies in her words.
"He was going to propose Hanna…" She trailed off in a whisper, scared that even though they were currently miles apart, Hanna would still rip her head off for even mentioning it. They had only talked about it once before and it had left Hanna broken for weeks.
Caleb had appeared on Toby and Spencer's doorstep in Washington. He looked tired and rugged, a scruffy beard growing on his chin and his skin much darker than when they had last seen him. His hair was as long as it was when he had first arrived in Rosewood. He had his backpack with him still, as he just returned from India, where the trip he had planned to take with Hanna was supposed to have ended. The trip that they should have started as an engaged couple. The trip was supposed to be their own private engagement party; he had planned to ask her to marry him that night. But just as they were about to leave their comfortable apartment in New York for the biggest adventure of their lives, Hanna had chosen her career and Caleb had chosen to stop waiting for her.
He had left his phone at home. If she had wanted to find him, she would have been able to. He had asked her multiple times to sit down with him in order to work out a travel plan, an itinerary. Their trip had eventually been meticulously planned out by Caleb, who had written down which cities and hostels they would be staying at for the first few weeks. If she really wanted to find him she could have. Two weeks into the trip, Caleb stopped looking up with eyes full of hope every time a blonde with a backpack passed him by.
Before he went back to New York, he had one more thing to do. He needed to make sure that all the loose ends would be tied for good, to make sure that Caleb and Hanna would be nothing but a vague memory. Something of the past. He would make sure that there would be nothing left tying him to Hanna Marin.
"Could you give her this?" Caleb had asked Spencer, dropping a beautiful, elegant, princess cut diamond ring which screamed Hanna into her hand. "Tell her she can do whatever she wants with it, sell it, give it away. I don't care. I can't look at it anymore. I don't want to have anything to do with it, with her." He added, and Spencer felt her heart breaking for her two friends. Never did she think it would have been Caleb and Hanna that would be dealing with the messiest breakup she had ever had the displeasure of witnessing.
Spencer had taken the ring from him. She had told Hanna with difficulty what Caleb had told her. She had handed the ring to Hanna, who had stared at it for the longest time, big teardrops falling down onto the shiny diamond in her trembling hand. Spencer wondered how Caleb had managed to keep the ring so immaculate, whilst returning from the trip looking so worse for wear himself.
Spencer had hugged Hanna close, and Hanna had clung to her desperately, her heartbreaking wails emanating from deep within her soul. It had taken hours for Hanna to stop; eventually her mournful cries turned into sobs, that lasted until she had fallen asleep clutching the ring in her hand, her tears still wet on her cheeks. Her body had finally granted her peace, the exhaustion pushing her into a false sense of contentment.
The next day had been the worst of her life, the next day she had vouched the name Caleb Rivers would never fall from her lips ever again.
"Spencer, like I said, it's been 4 years now, it's in the past," Hanna repeated, more firmly now.
"Okay…" Spencer trailed off. She knew their relationship would never be completely in the past for either of them, not even after fifty years. She was about to hang up when she suddenly remembered something she wanted to ask Hanna. "Hanna?"
"Yes Spence?" Hanna asked, wondering if Spencer was done talking about the one that got away. She didn't need this so close to her wedding.
"If it's in the past, then why did you send him an invitation to your wedding?"
"I didn't want to exclude him, everybody is coming and we still have mutual friends," Hanna answered. The truth was, she didn't know why she invited him. They hadn't talked in four long years. Even though they both lived in the same city, they had never walked into each other, never ended up at the same birthday party, never in the same club.
The universe's way of showing them that they should have never been.
XxxxxX
Caleb got home after the longest day at work. It was already 9pm when he reached his small apartment in TriBeCa. He waved at the owners of the restaurant adjacent to his building, who proceed to wave him over, asking him to come inside.
"What do you want Cal?" The redhead behind the counter smiled at him as he made his way through the restaurant, which was already packed with a combination of locals and tourists.
"I'll have whatever Elaine," He said, and they both laughed.
"So your usual?" She asked him as she walked into the kitchen, yelling something in Italian at the chef. She pushed a beer over the counter to him and watched him take a sip.
"You work too hard and too much Cal," She said, leaning on the counter.
"What else do you want me to do?"
"Get yourself a hobby, go shopping for something that isn't black, get yourself a girlfriend or a wife," She started. It was always the same with Elaine, she was worse than your regular overbearing mother, but he loved her nonetheless.
"I don't have time for all that," Caleb mumbled, taking another large gulp of his beer.
"Seems like you do, who was that perky blonde at your house yesterday evening?"
"He looked at her over the rim of his glass, not sure if she was still talking to him. When she crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows at him, he knew that she was.
"My house?" He asked incredulously.
"Yes," Elaine pressed.
"She probably the wrong house or something," He said offhandedly.
"I though that as well," Elaine continued bluntly, "But she came in here asking about you, asking if Caleb Rivers still lived at your place."
"Did she say why?" Caleb asked, now suddenly curious. He hadn't gone out to any clubs in ages, he deactivated his tinder a while ago. He was fairly certain he would have remembered any perky blondes crossing his path. "Did she say why she was looking for me?"
"Nope," Elaine said, as she was called back to the kitchen. She came back with his bag of food neatly wrapped up and pushed it over the counter towards him, grabbing his empty glass and placing it behind her.
"She did ask for a pen and paper however, she wrote you a note and she had this big ass glittery envelope with her as well. I watched her leaving it in your mailbox," She added.
Caleb looked back and wondered who it could have been. The only perky blonde he had ever known in his life was more than history. It had been four long years since he had seen her, and that day wasn't his greatest memory of her. Four years since Hanna had turned her back on him and left their apartment to chase after her dreams.
The envelope was glittery alright, a big off-white envelope with golden trimmings and curvy writing which said:
"Caleb Rivers & Guest."
He opened it, and a handwritten note fell out.
'Hello how are you? And by the way…'Please RSVP I do.'
He knew that handwriting. His breath got caught in his throat as he scanned the note once more, dreading the moment that he would see what else was in that envelope. That handwriting belonged to none other than Hanna Marin. She had left him numerous small love notes under his pillow, which he used to find as soon as he woke up and stretched out lazily in their king-size bed, his fingers brushing against something under the plush cushions. She even stuffed them in his lunch whenever she had the time to make food for him in the mornings. In the end, she demanded that he painted one of the walls in their apartment with a black chalk paint so that she could leave him notes on the wall everyday, telling him how much she loved him in case he forgot.
He never did.
His hands trembled as he reached for the card and pulled it out. He was finally face to face with the reality that his head had been dreading; his heart wasn't ready for the truth yet. It started beating loudly as the sentences swimming in front of him were given meaning, the ramification of the words coming down on him hard.
"You are invited to join us in celebration of the union of Jordan Hobart & Hanna Marin."
There were more words, but only those few mattered. "Celebration of the union," He muttered to himself, as if it would make him understand the meaning of them better.
He stared at the card again – it looked expensive and over the top. It looked like nothing he would have ever agreed to send out, even if Hanna had been adamant.
He let out a shaky breath as he scanned the card again. She was gone for good now. She was going to be someone else's wife, someone had given her a ring and she had accepted. She had accepted the fact that she was going to be with this Jordan guy for the rest of her life, and they were ready to promise such things in front of, potentially, hundreds of people.
A rush of anger suddenly came over him. Why on earth had she invited him? To gloat? To show him what she had that he did not?
Why would she ask him 'Please RSVP I do'?
Why would he want to watch her walk up the aisle in a white dress towards anyone that wasn't him?
He stood up angrily and ripped the card in half. It was like she had never known him at all. Didn't she know he would love her forever?
He would make sure that she knew how he felt in the only way he knew would work. He would write her a letter just like she had written him one. He grabbed a pen and paper from his desk and sat down at his large kitchen table, the one they had bought together in the hopeful knowledge that it would seat more than just the two of them in the very near future.
Caleb bit his lower lip hard, trying to push those memories to the back of his head. There was no point dwelling on the past. He grasped the pen harder in his hand and started writing.
XxxxxX
Hanna was on on her way to her rehearsal dinner. The stress of making sure things ran smoothly had subsided significantly, as her real wedding was mere days away and felt far more important.
Spencer had done an amazing job keeping Hanna calm, and keeping the peace between Hanna and her soon to be in laws, who had finally come to understand that Hanna was keeping her own name after she married their precious son. It had cost Spencer two full weeks of relaying messages back and forth between them as she tried desperately to keep the original wedding party intact, including the furious soon-to-be bride who threatened to blow everything off if there was another word about her last name. Not to mention the fact that Spencer felt the stress of it all had cut a good year off of her lifespan.
Spencer let out a long breath as her husband handed her the microphone. She finally got to do what she did best – ordering people around. The rehearsal dinner was just what she needed to let go of the stress that she had been accumulating over the past few months.
Spencer was about to coerce the soon to be bride and groom down the aisle, telling them exactly how to walk and at which speed. Spencer had calculated it down to the second so that it would all go perfectly with the song that Hanna had picked out.
She looked at Hanna questioningly as her phone buzzed loudly in her small bag. Hanna just shrugged and let it ring.
"Everybody who is supposed to be here is here," She said, looking at Spencer for clues as to what to do next.
Spencer nodded at Toby, who was working the music. Yet as the music started, the loud buzzing of Hanna's phone managed to be heard over 'Canon in D'.
Hanna groaned and grabbed her bag, locating her phone in seconds. She was about to turn it off altogether when she noticed that the number that was calling her wasn't saved in her phone. She was very certain that the numbers of every vendor, supplier and florist she had dealt with over the past eighteen months were saved to her phone. Curiosity got the better of her and she answered.
"Hanna Marin," She said, and glanced over to her soon to be in laws with a small smile on her lips. Spencer, Toby, Jordan, Aria, and everyone else that was close enough to hear her fell silent; they were just as curious as to who would dare to call Hanna during her rehearsal dinner.
Hanna nodded and said, "This is her," Before her expression turned serious again; she was straining to listen to the other person on the line.
Suddenly, the frown on her face fell and was replaced by a look of utter shock, the visible dimples disappearing instantly and the rosy cheeks that Jordan loved so much suddenly turning white. Spencer could see her lips start to tremble and her eyes grow wide as she looked helplessly at her best friend.
"Please... Please tell me. Is he okay?" She whimpered, and pressed the phone even closer to her ear. Hanna leaned back against a pew to support herself as she listened, her hand coming up to her mouth in shock.
"Which hospital?" She managed to croak out. Spencer, Jordan and Aria didn't miss it, and exchanged looks of shock and surprise.
"I'll be there as fast as I can," Hanna said in a trembling voice before hanging up.
"We need to go…" She breathed.
"Spencer get the car, we need to go," She said with a faraway look on her face; despite this, her request was clear and firm. "Bring Toby," She added.
They all left in a hurry. Leaving a confused Jordan behind.
XxxxxX
Hanna had never realised that Toby was such a skilled driver. Before she knew it, they had arrived at the hospital. He let Hanna and Spencer out at the front entrance with a promise that he would come and find them later.
Spencer ushered Hanna through the halls, and was quick to find an information desk. She laid a firm yet comforting hand on Hanna's shoulder, who was trembling violently underneath her touch, her eyes still wide and unfocused.
"We were called in for Caleb Rivers," Spencer spoke, "It's my understanding that he was rushed in today?" She asked.
The woman behind the desk smiled kindly at her and picked up her phone. It didn't take her long to disconnect the call.
"Yes he is here. Only direct family members are allowed in, are you family? She asked, her eyes scanning over their features, lingering on Hanna's disheveled appearance.
"I'm his emergency contact," She said, "He doesn't have any family, he was fostered."
"Right," The woman said, as her eyes scanned over Hanna yet again. "I'll have Harriet escort you to his room." The lady beckoned over a bright, smiling young nurse who smiled at them politely and asked for them to follow her.
"What happened?" Hanna asked hurriedly, looking desperately at Harriet the nurse.
"I really don't know, I'm just escorting you to his room. There will be a nurse there to explain everything to you," Harriet said calmly. "Here we are," She said when they reached the right floor, before alerting another nurse to their presence. She knew which ward they were currently in, and was fully aware that she wasn't allowed to let Hanna and Spencer into Mr. Rivers' room before they had been informed about his condition.
As if Hanna had heard Harriet's thoughts, she looked up, a panicked expression on her face as she stared at her, hoping she would explain why they were on a ward where everything was eerily quiet. Everybody that walked passed them had solemn looks on their faces, and they didn't seem to be making any noise.
They were greeted by another nurse who shot them a warm smile, although Hanna questioned how genuine it was.
She desperately clung to Spencer, tears prickling in her eyes as she dreaded what was to come. Her stomach was in knots and she couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
The nurse introduced herself, but her name didn't stick with Hanna. She didn't even remember if she gave the nurse her name.
"Caleb, where is Caleb?" She asked, panic overtaking her now needing to see him. She looked around, hoping for a sign that would guide her to him.
"I was called about Caleb Rivers, he's supposed to be here," She started to shout at the nurse, who winced at her raised voice.
"Miss Marin, in here please," The nurse said, giving Spencer a pointed look as they ushered her into a small room. Hanna was fully aware of the way in which the nurse made a point of closing the door firmly behind them.
The nurse got straight to the point.
"Mr. Rivers is here. And it's my understanding that you are Hanna Marin?" She asked Hanna, who nodded. "Okay good. Mr. Rivers was pulled from a car wreckage not too long ago, just West of 6th Avenue near 14th Street. Does that mean anything to you Hanna?" She asked.
"Wreckage?" Hanna whispered, afraid to ask the question that she had wanted to ask the moment they had arrived, the tightening knot in her stomach stopping her from doing so. She didn't dare to ask if he was okay, if he was alive. Part of her questioned why she was taken to the side and ushered into this small stifling room if he was okay. If he would have been okay, they would have just let them see him. Hanna couldn't fight the tears anymore. The adrenaline that had filled her as Toby had maneuvered them through the busy New York streets had left her and all she could feel was anxious.
She needed to know, she needed to ask. She would never be okay until she knew.
She couldn't think straight, until the words she never thought would ever fall from her lips came tumbling out.
"Is he still alive? Is he okay?"
She heard rather than saw the nurse shift in her seat as Spencer stiffened beside her.
"Hanna, Caleb is on a ventilator," The nurse started.
"What does that even mean?" Hanna snapped.
"It means we are helping him to breathe, he can't breathe on his own and…"
"I want to see him, now!" She demanded. It was a dream, this wasn't real. She had to see him for herself or it would never be real.
Anger filled her as the nurse looked at Spencer first, as if she was waiting for Spencer to give the all clear before letting Hanna see him. "Now!" Hanna said in a raised voice, trying to keep all of her emotions in check as the nurse quickly nodded. They followed her to one of the last rooms down the hall, before the nurse turned around.
"It's only Hanna I can let into his room," She said apologetically, waiting by the door as Spencer and Hanna hugged tightly. Things would be so different when Hanna came back out of his room, they both knew it, yet neither dared to voice it.
Hanna took a shaky breath as she walked into the room. Tears formed in her eyes as she laid her eyes on him for the first time in four years. Caleb was surrounded by machines and tubes going in and out of his body, the steady beeping of one of the machines calming her nerves. To her it meant he was still alive. She looked at a machine that seemed to be pumping something straight into his chest. His face was motionless and almost angelical, drained of color and eerily still. As if all life had left him already.
She wondered if he knew she was there. She needed him to know she was there.
"This is the ventilator that lets Caleb breathe," The nurse explained, pointing at the machine as Hanna kept staring at it, "It artificially lets his lungs fill up with oxygen."
Hanna nodded absentmindedly and moved towards Caleb, shuffling as close as possible before she reached out a hand to touch his beautiful face. She noticed that his brown hair was long again, just like it was when she met him. Hanna glanced at the nurse who nodded at her, telling her it was okay for her to touch him.
Hanna let out a deep wavering breath as her hand came into contact with his warm skin. She had been afraid it might have been cold. She gently brushed his cheek like she had done so very often in a lover's caress, she cupped his chin between her fingers, brushing them over the stubble of his chin. Even a touch didn't seem to have any effect on Caleb. Hanna fought hard against her tears as she willed him to open his eyes.
"Caleb?" She whispered, "Caleb it's me, Hanna," She whimpered, reaching desperately for his hand which she squeezed hard.
She tried hard to ignore how limp it felt in her own hand, and sat down in the chair that stood next to his bed. She knew that if she tried to stay standing, she might faint.
The nurse swallowed hard and blinked as she watched Hanna comprehend what was happening. She glanced at Caleb before she looked back at Hanna. Silence filled the room, the nurse giving her all the time and space she needed for now. But there was something she still needed to discuss with Hanna.
"So what does this all mean?" Hanna asked in a steady voice as she looked at the nurse.
There was an understanding between the two women and the nurse knew Hanna was ready to hear the heartbreaking truth.
"This machine here, the ventilator, is keeping him alive for now, Hanna. Mr. Rivers, Caleb, was pronounced brain dead just before you arrived. He won't be able to wake up by himself anymore."
Hana's life was over forever, she struggled to breathe, her body started to tremble uncontrollably and she let out a feral scream that made Spencer and Toby burst through the door and sprint towards her, hugging her close.
Hanna's heart had shattered into a million pieces as she looked at Caleb's face.
Dead, he was gone.
"He's just sleeping!" She yelled angrily at the nurse. Denial the only way she could cope with losing the love of her life.
"Can't you see? He's sleeping, just give him some time. Please?" She asked, looking at the nurse desperately. "He will wake up, I know he will," She wailed as she fought against Toby's hard chest to be near to Caleb once more. In her uncontrollable rage she managed to push Toby away from her and rushed to Caleb's side. She kneeled down near his face and pushed her warm cheek against his, a torrent of tears falling between their faces.
"Caleb…. Please." She begged.
"Caleb wake up."
"Wake up."
Toby and Spencer had tried everything in their power to help Hanna for the rest of the day. She wouldn't leave Caleb's side for anything. They all sat in his room, Toby quietly wiping at his face as he watched the heart wrenching sight in front of him. Spencer couldn't stop crying, although the loud cries coming from Hanna drowned out all the other noises in the room.
An hour later Spencer and Toby were asked to leave the room, to give Hanna some space as she talked to the doctors. Hanna finally managed to look up through bloodshot eyes when a male doctor walked in and gave her a sympathetic smile. He sat down on the other side of Caleb as Hanna remained with her head on his chest, clinging on to every single beat of his heart for as long as she could. Not ready for the moment it would stop beating.
"Hanna," The doctor said in businesslike manner; Hanna immediately understood why he was there. Why Caleb's heartbeat was still beating steadily against ear, why his chest was still moving up and down.
"No," She said, her voice thick with emotion. "I know why you are here and the answer is no, you are not cutting into him and you are not receiving any of his organs. Don't you dare touch him," She wailed the last part and started sobbing all over again.
She bunched his hospital gown up in her hands, wanting to hold onto him forever. She knew that by refusing to give up his organs, time would start to tick. She laid her head back down against his warm chest and wrapped an arm around him. She closed her eyes, inhaling his musk-like smell that she tried to ingrain in her memory, knowing it would soon be taken away from her, never to return.
She listened to his heart once more, it was the sweetest sound she had ever heard and yet she had never appreciated how beautiful it actually was. His big loving heart. The heart that would always belong to her just as much hers belonged to him.
"Hanna." A voice came from the corner of the room; she was shocked to find that the male doctor was still there. She didn't move, only opened her eyes to look up at him, her grief stricken body too heavy to move. She watched as the doctor reached for something in his pocket and pulled out an envelope. He moved swiftly over to where Hanna was lying on Caleb's chest and handed it to her before he left the room.
She took it and read the front. She recognised his scrappy writing.
'Hanna Marin-Hobart.'
Obviously he had received the invitation. She had wondered if he would ever send an RSVP. Now she wished she had never given him an invite at all. Clearly he had been on his way to drop it off at Claudia's studio, as he probably didn't know where she and Jordan lived. The doctors had told her where the car wreck had been found; it
was just around the corner from Claudia's. This was all her fault.
She hiccupped loudly and took a shaky breath, opening the letter inside, the paper shaking in her trembling hands.
I got a letter today, I thought of writing sad words of how it used to be, If you think that I don't love you, you're just wrong, I remember when in a lover's whisper you said, I wish you health and wealth and a white house on a hill and I, Time rolls on, Old friendships fade away, love falls apart,
An invitation,
And the writing looked like you:'Hello how are you? And by the way…''Please RSVP I do.'
But I didn't want to bring you down, no.
I guess the bells will ring pretty well there without me,
Don't worry 'bout me baby I'll wear the thorny crown,
I will play the clown.
And that don't matter now anyway.
I couldn't bear to see you up there with a white dress on,
Here's my vow to you,
I'll stay away.
No other man would ever share your bed.
Well we both know that's not been so,
And I wish I'd never let you go now,
You found a better man instead.
I hope you raise a family.
Little boy and a little girl, a little more joy in this little old world,
Well, that'd be enough for me.
And dreams they die,
And I've thrown out the pictures I had of you and I,
And if you're ever wondering if love can be true,
Well, think of me and remember darling like I, like I do.
And you've not spent a single day outside my heart.
But, there's just one more dream that I have left for you,
I hope you're smiling when he turns around and says I do. . .
I do,
I do,
I do,
I do.
Hanna howled as she read his words, regret coursing through her body like electricity, the discovery of his near proposal leaving her without breath as she bowed her head and tried to calm herself down.
She read his last words and knew what they meant. She understood what he had tried to say; he had tried everything in his power to let her go. To let them go and to move on.
He never did.
I do,
I do,
I do,
I do.
If she would have given him the chance, they still would have said 'I do', even after all this time.
Hanna didn't think she had any tears left, yet they continued to fall from her eyes and onto the paper. She frantically wiped at her face, willing herself to stop crying. Her fingers brushed the thin metal necklace around her neck. Hanna pulled the delicate silver chain, that was usually hidden, from underneath her dress. Nobody ever knew that it was there, yet Hanna felt its presence every day as it pressed against her heart.
It was a long, thin, silver chain; she opened up her hand and let the ring that hung from the chain fall into her palm. An elegant princess cut diamond ring that screamed her name. She removed it from the chain, before removing the engagement ring that Jordan had given her from her finger, replacing it with the princes cut diamond that should have been there all along.
"I do Caleb, I do. If you would have asked me, I would have said I do." She whispered with her eyes closed, one last tear trailing down her cheek.
XxxxxX
The song is I do, by Jude. In case you want to listen to it.