Because everyone needs a fluff-fest now and again, right?
x
"Hello?!"
"Hello?!"
"Sorry, why aren't I getting through?"
"Hello?! Hello?!"
"This is an emergency - please - !"
"Hello?!"
"Hello - please, can you just pick up the phone - hello?!"
"Fucking pick up, will you?"
"Hello?!"
x
He was going to be fine.
That was what the doctor said, anyway. Jal didn't know where Cassie had fucked off to, but apparently someone had rung for an ambulance, and it must have been her. She couldn't be bitter about the girl's disappearance, not really, when she was the one who seemed to have saved Chris' life.
They told her that he had another few months, at least, maybe even a year. Maybe even more - it depended on how well looked after he was. When they told her that, Jal had gone home and spent the whole night cleaning out his apartment. Goodbye, drugs, goodbye, alcohol, even goodbye, coffee. She bought nice, organic fruit and vegetables, rice, hummus, healthy stuff. She scrubbed the windows, floors and ceilings, made all the beds and even bought flowers. No doubt they would have wilted by the time he got home, but that didn't matter. She could just buy more.
She sat by his bed, and when he was awake, they chatted about stuff. She decided to have an abortion; Chris could conceivably die at any point, and besides, even if they had been both perfectly capable parents, there was always the small niggling matter of the fact that he carried a genetic disease... One that Jal did not want to pass onto her own children. One day she might have kids, but it wouldn't be with Chris. Probably adoption, if she really felt she needed to have them. She couldn't really see herself with anyone else. Jal was not naive, and she knew there was a possibility that she might fall in love again, but honestly, that didn't seem to be on the cards.
Jal was not taking any chances. When the doctor told her that he could go home, if he liked, she insisted that he stay.
"He can't stay here forever."
"He can stay here until he gets better." Or he can stay here until he dies.
x
He didn't die - at least, not for another seven years. That might seem like a brief period of time for another couple, but for them, it was amazing. Right up until the end, he was pretty capable. They ticked everything off his bucket list, made sure there was nothing he would regret. In the end the doctors told him that he would have to be bed-ridden from now on if he wanted to survive much longer, but Jal knew Chris, and she knew before he said it that he would want to be active until the end.
One morning, he got up before her and made her a plate of French toast before going out to sit in the garden (she had worked hard; they had bought a house together. They were going to have their life no matter what, Jal was determined of that). She knew from the moment she opened her eyes that something was wrong, but there was no sadness - at least, not immediately. Just a hollow, empty knowledge. She knew, too, what he wanted, so she ate every bite of the toast - burnt, but delicious, because he had made it - before following him out. He was asleep on the lawn, asleep in what Jal knew to be a very final way.
There was an ache in her gut, a disappointment more than anything else. But she knew that they had a long time, a very long time, more than they could have wished for. His death was inevitable. She called Michelle, they made arrangements about a funeral. Michelle cried a little, but Jal wanted to save her own tears for later. For now, she just wanted to be grateful for the time they had had.
x
I think this is as happy an ending as could conceivably be given in this situation...
Well, for me, it's happy anyway. Jal and Chris were never going to have long, were they? I just wanted to make it a little less abrupt... wanted Chris to achieve a few more of his dreams, and Jal to be able to have longer happy and free.
I do have another happy ending in the works, and another two planned after that, but it's your call - is it worth me writing them?