An: Just a oneshot I thought up while listening to Calender Marks by My Favorite Highway. All human. Please Review after you read, thanks.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.
Everything was going to come to an end soon. He was an old man, almost ninety-two years old. His darling wife's been gone for five years now, and it hurt him everyday. He used to pray that he'd never have to live a single day without her, but it didn't work. It doesn't matter now though, soon he'll be joining her. He still remembers all the little moments he had with her…
-Flashback Fall, 71 years ago-
"Come on, honey! We're going to be late."
"I'm trying. Give me a minute!"
"You don't have a minute, we have to go n-" she turned around and ran right into him. At that moment she forgot everything. She forgot why she was running around the house, she forgot that they had to get to work, that they had class. The only thing that mattered was him.
He brushed a stray hair out of her face, "What was that?" he asked, almost silently.
She couldn't reply, her mind was too muddled.
He leaned down and put his lips against her ear, "How about we call in sick today and do something? Just us." He whispered.
She nodded. The only thing that she was capable of at the moment.
"What did you have in mind?" She asked breathlessly.
"Whatever you want."
She could have took this several different ways. In fact she did. Her mind spun at the possibilites. She thought through her answer carefully, going through every single scenario she had in mind. Then it hit her.
"A CIDER-MILL!" She exclaimed, successfully making her fiance jump.
Once he composed himself, he stared at her like she was crazy. "Excuse me?"
"A cider-mill." She stated again, as if he hadn't heard. "I want you to take me to a cider-mill."
"That's not what I had in mind when I suggested we take the day off."
"You don't want to?" She suddenly felt stupid, of course he wouldn't want to, what was she thinking?
Looking at her heartbroken face, he quickly backpedaled. "No, no. It just caught me by surprise. If you want to go to a cider-mill, I'll take you. May I ask why though?"
She shrugged, "I've never been to one."
Shock was evident on his face. "You've never been to a cider-mill?"
"No. My mom was allergic to bees and a cider-mill usually has a bunch of them roaming around so we never went. By the time I could drive there myself I never really had a reason to go."
"Well then, off to the cider-mill." He said, smiling.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
The biggest grin appeared on her face and she jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist. "Thank you!"
He laughed at her excitement. Who knew a cider-mill could have made her so happy?
-----
When the owners of the cider-mill eventually had to kick them out because they were closing, she turned to him, looked into his eyes, and while he was distracted by her hand running down his arm, she poured a huge glass of cold cider on his head. She started running, laughing wildly as he stood dumbfounded and soaked to the bone with cider. Eventually he realized what she did and he ran. His long legs gave him a huge advantage and he quickly caught up to her, wrapping his arms around her laughing form, whispering one word.
"Gotcha."
-end flashback-
That was one of the best days of his life. All the little things that he used to do with her made him fall in love with her all over again. Her little quirks were what drew him to her. He loved her so much.
-flashback, winter, 69 years ago-
It was Christmas Eve, and they were outside building snowmen. His was turning out perfectly. The three balls of snow used for the body were perfectly proportional, the buttons all lined up, the sticks used for arms were the same length. Even the smile looked flawless, not one piece of coal out of line.
Hers was a mess. It looked like a big lump of white stuff smashed together to form a small hill. A carrot was sticking out of the mound randomly, as well as two long sticks- which looked more like antlers than arms. She gave up on trying to put the buttons on the snowman a long time ago, they kept falling off. She huffed in frustration as she turned toward her husband.
"Why?"
He turned his attention away from his work and looked at her. He really was trying not to laugh, but he couldn't help it. He burst out into laughter, clutching his sides.
She stood there, her arms almost crossing but not quite because of the large marshmallow-like coat she had on, as well as five sweaters, a scarf, and two pairs of gloves. She looked like a huge angry wannabe yeti.
She quickly got tired of him laughing at her. She grabbed a spare branch off the ground, stomped her way over to his snowman, and wound up, ready to destroy the perfect thing.
As she was getting ready to swing, he grabbed the stick, knocking her off balance and sending them both flying to the ground.
She landed on top of him, and soon realized what happened. They both fell onto his snowman, crushing it under their weight. "Oops."
He started laughing again, "What are you saying 'oops' for? You were going to destroy it anyway!"
"Yes, but that was gonna to be on purpose, this is an accident,"
He eventually calmed down, even though her reasoning didn't help much. He started to spread his arms and legs apart, moving them back and forth, hers following his since she was still on top of him.
"Snowangel?"
"Exactly. My snowangel." He said, as he leaned up to kiss her.
-end flashback-
She thought he was being unbelievably corny. She started laughing after that, asking him if he used that line on all his wives. He just smiled and kissed her again. It was always all the small moments that stuck out in his head, good or bad.
-Flashback, Spring, 64 years ago-
"As of right now, there is a tornado warning in affect until 9:30pm. Again, that is a tornado warning in affect until 9:30. Make sure you're somewhere without a lot of windows, a baseme-" He turned off the TV.
"Love, we have to get downstairs, what are you doing!?"
No answer.
"Honey?" He walked around the dark house, hearing nothing but thunder and rain pounding the windows. His only source of light was the lightning.
Finally he found her in their bedroom, holding a shaking form. He panicked.
"What's wrong?" He said, rushing toward them.
"Nothing, she's just scared of the storm." She said softly, " Shh baby, go back to sleep, it's fine. Mommy's here," she looked at her husband, "and daddy. Everything's going to be okay. Daddy's here, he'll protect you."
He felt so helpless. He couldn't do anything for his daughter except to try and calm her. He rubbed circles along her back. She eventually fell asleep.
He spoke quietly, trying not to wake his baby girl, "We really should go downstairs, the warning's still up for another hour."
She sighed but got out of bed, trying not to disturb the two-year-old in her arms. They walked silently to the basement, and sat down on one of the couches. Nothing needed to be said, they just held each other, listening to the storm.
At a quarter to ten they decided it was safe. They went back upstairs and tucked their daughter into bed. She woke a little and seemed to remembered what happened.
"Mommy?" She whispered, "Is it over?"
"Yes baby, it's over."
"Did daddy protect us?"
She smiled, "Yes, daddy protected us."
The little girl smiled and closed eyes, snuggling into her bed. "Thank you daddy."
He smiled, "No problem, princess. Anytime." He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Sweet dreams, honey."
She barely got out the words but she managed to mumble a "Goodnight mommy, 'night daddy."
They walked out of her room and mumbled a final goodnight to their daughter, smiling as they headed toward their room.
-end flashback-
She was such a little miracle to them. Their daughter, now nearing seventy herself, was the joy of their lives. They hadn't been expecting kids, in fact they hadn't even wanted any, but as soon as his wife found out she was pregnant everything changed. All of sudden they were parents and they loved it. They couldn't wait to be called mommy and daddy, to have a little life to care for and love. Everything seemed to work out so perfectly.
-flashback- summer, 59 years ago-
"Dad! Watch!" The seven-year-old cried as she jumped into the pool, making a huge splash and getting her mother wet.
He laughed at the look on his wife's face. She was soaked. "Good job, princess! That was great!"
His wife stuck out her tongue at him.
"Dad, can you come in the water with me?"
He smiled, "Only if your mother jumps in too."
She turned toward her mother, "Mom?"
"Honey, you know I don't like pools."
"Please?" She gave her mother the cutest puppy-dog face she could manage and her mother's resolve wavered a bit, but she stayed strong.
"Not today darling, maybe nex-" but she never got to finish her sentence because at that moment her husband snuck up behind her, grabbed her by the waist waist and hurled both of them into the water. Their daughter was laughing hysterically at the sight of her parents in the pool with their clothes on while her mother was screaming at her laughing father. She swam over to her parents and clutched onto her father.
"Dad! That was so funny! You should have seen your face mom, you were like-" and she tried to imitate the face her mom was making when she was falling into the water.
Her mom took one look at her daughter and cracked up. Soon they were all laughing.
After they calmed down, they started playing games in the pool. They eventually decided to play tag. He was 'It,' of course. He gave his wife and daughter a ten second head start and then started to chase after them. They were squealing and laughing, his wife was trying to keep their daughter away him, pushing her through the water so she wouldn't get tagged.
In a matter of seconds he caught them both.
He clutched his two girls closer to him, and whispered one word.
"Gotcha."
-end flashback-
He felt himself slipping away, and he knew that this was it. He was finally going to see his wife. His beautiful darling wife. He closed his eyes and waited.
When he opened them again all he saw was white. There was nothing there. No floors or ceilings, no walls or furniture. Absolutely nothing. It was just white. He rose his hand to see if he could touch something and he noticed that they weren't wrinkled. They looked so young. He felt young. Nothing seemed to be stopping him from running a marathon. He decided to test it. He jumped up and down once. He hadn't been able to jump like that since he was at least 40. He realized he could see. He reached his hands to his face. No glasses. He got glasses when he was 30. He remembered because his wife made fun of him for it, calling him an old man.
His wife. He whipped his head around and saw her. She was standing there, staring at him. She looked like an angel. She couldn't have been older than 21, with her beautiful mahogany hair and brown eyes contrasting with the white space. She was in a white dress that reached just above her knees. He didn't know what to do, he was so shocked he just stood there.
Finally, he seemed to snap out of his trance-like state and started running toward her, just as she started toward him. He opened his arms and she jumped into them, wrapping her arms around his waist, hanging onto him for dear life.
Nothing could break them apart at that moment. They had each other again and that was all that mattered.
After what seemed like minutes, but could have easily been days for all they knew, he whispered one word while clutching her closer to him.
"Gotcha."