Acceptance
A/N: This is the fifth and final part of my five-part one-shot series. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. This is (finally) Acceptance.
"Adam wait." The woman said to the man as he put his hand on the doorknob. The man hid his scowl and turned back to the woman.
"Make it quick, they expect me to be at the mines in twenty minutes." He said to the woman.
"But you haven't even had breakfast yet." She told him, looking down at his bowl of soup.
"I'll grab something on my way." Once again he reached for the doorknob.
"Adam don't go!" The woman suddenly cried out.
The man turned back to her, concern etched across his face. This was something much more then not finishing his breakfast.
"Eve, what is it? What's wrong?"
The woman sunk into her chair and buried her head in her hands. "You're going to leave me." She said, sobbing.
The man knelt down next to her and stroked her hair. "Eve, what would give you that idea?"
The woman lifted her head and looked at him, tears trailing down her cheeks. "You want to leave, I can see that. It's because I've been gone so long."
The man said nothing, because it was true. He was thinking of leaving her. He just didn't know how to help her depression. He was worried he was making it worse.
"But you're back. You've been back for weeks now." He whispered to her.
"Yes, but you're worried that I might leave again. You're worried that the memory of Jacob will cause me to go through it all again."
The man was startled, that was the first time she had mentioned Jacob for over a year.
"I..." He didn't know what to say.
"Exactly Adam. But I am better! I am! I'm much better than I was a year ago. I just had to go through a cycle of change. At first I kept denying it. I kept think Jacob can't be dead. He can't be. He shouldn't be. My baby, my little boy killed in the Hunger Games.
"Then I got angry. Angry at the boy who took my son, angry at the escort for picking his name, angry at the Capitol who caused this in the first place. But mostly angry at myself because I couldn't take his place.
"Then I start praying. Begging God to bring him back, pleading with Him, saying that I would trade my life for his!"
"Eve!" The man said, distressed when he heard this.
"And you didn't think anything similar Adam? You didn't?"
Of course he did. When he had seen his little boy on the television screen, having a spear thrust inside him, he would have given anything to take his child's place.
"And then you know what happened next Adam. I became depressed. Most days I just laid in bed. I barely saw you, since you left so early and came back so were good days, days when I could greet you when you came home, days when I was happy to be alive. But there were more bad days, when I couldn't comprehend anything and all I wanted to do was die. To be with Jacob again."
The woman was silent for a while. The man worried that she might have slipped back into her depression. But then she looked at him and smiled.
"But one day, I woke up and knew it was over. My son was dead. I would mourn him forever. But I knew I needed to accept his death and move on with my life. With our life. And I've been trying Adam I really have."
It was true. The man had noticed a change in the woman recently. A drastic change. She seemed more like the woman he had married now then she had been in the past year.
The woman looked at the man. "Adam, I feel so guilty for leaving you and hurting you like that. But I have come back. For good this time. If there was anything I could do for you to forgive me and stay, I would do it."
The man shook his head. "Tell me why you are so certain that you will not sink back down and leave me."
The woman's eyes glistened and she smiled and the man realized how radiantly beautiful she looked at that moment.
"Because I'm pregnant."
A/N: I thought I'd give this one a happy ending. It is Acceptance after all. I've been through the cycle of Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance before. And as hard as it is to get out of the denial stage, the depression stage is far more hard to get out of. But, like Eve, I knew eventually I needed to learn acceptance and move on with my life. And I have. I haven't been depressed like that for a very long time.
I hope you enjoyed this series. Thank you all for reading.
Love you all,
-Jacky Dupree, Writer, Thinker, Surviver.