Disclaimer: I own nothing and ABCD owns everything.
Author's Note: So, after a few days struggling with an uncooperative muse and getting very little written I woke up with the first paragraph of this in my head. Procrastinated writing it for a few hours but finally opened Word and got it started—and here I am a little over an hour later with 6 pages. LOL The muse is good sometimes!
Dedication: To Becki for being such an awesome friend! You always know just what to say when I get insecure about my writing and help me feel secure in it again. I love ya my evil twin, thanks for that and so much more!
Also to MaBellis22 for extending the 'what if he came home tonight' challenge—it got me thinking and her awesome scenario certainly helped inspire this!
Title: Finally Right Again
John wasn't surprised to walk into his hotel room and find all of his things boxed up. Just as he had suspected there was no trace of Natalie or her things—she had never been one to hang onto the past for too long and he knew that in this instance it must've been particularly painful for her to be in this room.
He took a deep breath as he surveyed the room he had once wondered if he would ever see again. It had been two long months since the accident; two weeks of excruciating pain and hard work since he'd awoken from his coma and begun to work towards getting out of there and back to his fiancee.
His fiancee. John smiled slightly as he turned around and walked back out of the room. He ignored the pain as he limped down the hallway once more. He had somewhere important to be.
Natalie's face was wet from the tears she still found herself crying every night once her parents and whoever else had decided to drop in and check on her would finally leave her alone. She was sitting on her window seat, her knees drawn up to her chest and covered with John's jacket. Her chin was resting on the cool leather of his jacket as she stared blankly at the wall in front of her.
"How could you do this to me?" she whispered brokenly. "God, I miss you so much." She buried her nose in the jacket and inhaled deeply, breathing in John's scent.
Jessica and Viki kept telling her that time would ease her pain and that she would overcome this and she didn't have the heart to tell them that she knew otherwise. John's death was quite possibly the one thing that she couldn't overcome no matter how tough she tried to be.
No, she would always be John's girl and the only thing that kept her breathing was the knowledge that he would want her to. "But it's so hard to keep going without you," she whispered without realizing she was talking aloud.
God, she was beautiful even from this distance and even with tears rolling down her face. Even her red rimmed eyes seemed stunning to him in this moment.
John was standing just underneath her window paralyzed as he drank in the sight of his Natalie and what the grief of losing him had done to her. After a moment he realized that if she looked out the window she would see him. He couldn't scare her like that, so he turned and walked around the house to the front door.
Viki was feeding her granddaughter in the library when the doorbell rang. "Jessie, could you--?" she asked with a nod towards the door.
"Of course. I'll be right back pumpkin," she told Bree as she pressed a kiss to the top of her head and walked to the front door. Her gasp filled the foyer as she opened the door to see John McBain.
"Who is it darling?" Viki called from the library in concern, having heard her daughter's gasp.
"Oh my god," she whispered. "John?"
"I need to talk to Natalie."
"I'll—I'll go get her. Why don't you go wait in the library with Mom and Bree—oh wait, can you stay here for one sec?" When he nodded she shut the door and went back into the library.
"Okay Mom, I need for you to brace yourself."
"What is going on?"
"Mom—"
"I'm fine Jessie. Just tell me who was at the door."
Jessica took a deep breath. "John McBain."
Viki's eyes widened with shock. "Are you sure?"
She didn't reply, instead she walked back to the front door and opened it, leading John into the library. "I'm sure. Now I'll be right back—I've got to get Natalie."
"Jess?"
She stopped just outside the library doors and turned around to look at John who had gingerly sat down on the couch next to Viki and Bree. "Yes?"
"Are you going to tell her I'm down here?" he asked, needing to know what kind of reaction he could expect from her.
She hesitated. "I don't know," she finally answered. "Probably not because I don't think she'd believe me if I did."
John nodded. "Okay. Thanks."
Jessica simply nodded and turned back around, resuming her trip to get her twin.
The seconds ticked by slowly as John and Viki sat in an uncomfortable silence until John broke it. "Mrs. Davidson—"
She shook her head. "Don't. You don't have to explain anything to me, but you'd better believe that my daughter is going to want an explanation as to why she was forced to go through two months of pure hell grieving you when you aren't even dead."
"With all due respect Mrs. Davidson I'd like to explain to you. I've been lying in a hospital bed for the past two months recuperating from severe burns and until two weeks ago I was in a coma—under the name of Hugh Hughes."
Viki had been rendered speechless and she just stared at him for a moment. "John—"
He held up a hand to stop her. "Don't. You had every right to say what you said—I know that you love your daughter and you were just trying to protect her."
"Yes, but I had no right to jump to conclusions like that. I'm sorry, John."
He smiled slightly. "It's okay. I understand—especially after the Cris situation."
"Natalie honey, I need you to prepare yourself." Jessica and her twin were standing at the top of the staircase and Jess was trying to prepare Natalie for what was waiting downstairs.
"Jess, I'll be fine. Let's just go see this surprise already—I want to go back to bed." Natalie began to walk down the stairs and Jessica closed her eyes, murmuring a silent prayer to anyone who would listen that her sister would take this well.
John felt his heart speed up when he saw Natalie walk into the room and his gaze was immediately drawn to her left hand. He smiled at the sight of his ring on her slender finger—it looked so perfect there, so right.
He struggled to his feet and saw the exact moment when she saw him—her eyes widened and she let out a strangled gasp before turning to look at her sister. "Jess?" she whispered.
Jessica nodded and embraced Natalie. "It's him," she whispered in her sister's ear. "It's really him Natalie."
Natalie felt the tears prick at her eyes as she released Jessica and slowly turned back around to face him. She knew with certainty that this wasn't a dream because when she dreamt of John it was always just the two of them—neither Jessica, Viki or her niece had ever been there. And John looked weak—she could see the pain in his eyes along with the scars that had come from surviving such severe burns. When he appeared in her dreams he always looked normal, like a memory come to life.
"John," she whispered after what seemed like an eternity. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as she threw her arms around him and began to cry as she felt his arms encircle her.
John was mindless of the protests his sore body made as he hugged Natalie tightly to him. He closed his eyes and blinked back tears of his own as he pressed countless kisses to the top of her head and whispered, "It's okay. I'm okay," in her ear.
By the time Natalie's tears had finally stopped and she pulled back to look at him Jessica and Viki had quietly retreated from the library with Bree. Their absence was unnoticed by the two lovers however; they only had eyes for each other.
"I can't believe you're here," Natalie whispered, gently tracing the scar on his forehead from where he had hit a rock after being thrown from the car. "I've dreamed of this so many times—"
"So have I," he whispered, gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I owe you one hell of an explanation—"
"Shh." She pressed a finger to his slightly swollen and cut lip. "Right now I just want to bask." Leaning in she pressed her lips softly to his, taking great care not to hurt him.
John didn't care about his pain; he pulled her flush against his body and kissed her back passionately. He ignored the throbbing pain of his cut lip as he slipped his tongue inside of her mouth. He had been waiting to taste her like this again for so long; it had been all he'd dreamt about while in the coma.
After a moment Natalie broke the kiss to catch her breath. Breathing heavily she gently touched his cheek. "Okay, now I think it's time for an explanation."
John nodded and backed towards the couch, a hiss of pain escaping when the back of his legs hit it and he fell onto it. He tried to tug Natalie onto his lap but she refused, not wanting to cause him any more pain. Instead she sat down next to him and scooted over so that he could wrap his arm around her and pull her head onto his shoulder.
"Hugh Hughes is buried in my grave," he said softly after a moment.
"Hugh? But Hugh's in the hospital—" Her voice trailed off as realization hit her. "Oh."
"Yeah, I've been in the hospital for the past two months under Hugh's name. Up until two weeks ago I was in a coma."
"Two weeks?" She sat up and looked at him. "Two weeks and you're already out? Is that safe?"
"The doctors didn't seem to think so but I didn't leave them much of a choice." He smiled sheepishly at her glare. "I couldn't let you go on thinking I was dead anymore."
"Ever heard of this invention they call the telephone? See you can pick it up and call people on it—"
"You're telling me that you'd believe I was alive if you hadn't seen me with your own eyes?" he interrupted.
"Okay, so maybe you've got a point there. But still—"
"Don't worry, I'm continuing my physical therapy and getting regular examinations starting tomorrow at Llanview Hospital." He smiled at her.
She smiled back and lay her head back on his shoulder, settling back into his embrace. "Okay. So…"
"So."
"Where do we go from here?"
"Well, I was hoping—" He hesitated.
"What?" she asked, lifting her head to look at him.
He picked up her left hand and placed a soft reverent kiss on its palm and then on the ring adorning her finger. "I know I didn't get to do it right but—"
"The answer is yes." Her face was glowing with happiness. "I've been wearing this ring for the last two months and I have no intention of taking it off now."
John smiled and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "Okay, but you have to admit I did put the cart before the horse."
Her brow furrowed. "Have you been spending time with my grandfather? That sounded like an Asa-ism"
He chuckled. "Yeah, I went to see your dad before coming here and ran into him. We had a nice chat."
She laughed. "I'll bet."
"Anyway I think that before you agree to marry me there's something I should say." He slowly slid the ring off of her finger and painfully got from the couch onto one knee in front of her.
"Natalie Buchanan, I love you more than I ever thought I would love anyone. You're my soulmate and I would be honored if you would agree to be mine forever. Will you marry me?"
Natalie's eyes filled with tears and overcome with emotion she found herself unable to speak so she just nodded eagerly. The tears began to fall when he slipped the ring onto her finger—the moment was more perfect than she had imagined in any of the millions of scenarios she had constructed over the past months.
He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips before drawing back, touching his forehead to hers as he began to cry as well. His tears mingled with hers and then she was kissing him again.
Things were finally right again.
FIN