"Trish," Dez said gently. She jumped at his words dropping the piece of toast that she was carefully buttering. Clearly, she had been lost in thought and had forgotten that someone sat across from her at the table. "Are you okay?'
The last twenty-four hours had been much too quiet. After they had gotten home from his doctor's appointment, she had sat and read for most of the day. Trish didn't read much—not normally at least. He had been expecting her to be back to her more talkative self this morning, but she had hardly said anything. He had roused her from her thoughts knowing that they would both feel better once they had talked everything over.
"Yes, Dezzy, I'm doing fine." Her tone was confident, but her eyes never left her toast.
"I know." He grabbed both of her wrinkly hands from across the table and held them in his giving them a gentle squeeze. "That's my brave Trish, always strong no matter what comes her way." In the early days, he had always thought that he was the stronger one because he was the man, but time had proved him wrong. The fire that he so loved in Trish made her her strong even when times got tough. He never ceased to admire her ability to chin up and deal anything in her way.
"I know this isn't going to be easy for you," Dez said. "But I'm going to do my best to walk through it beside you as long as I can. Like the doctor said yesterday, it's not like I'm going to die tomorrow." He massaged her hands before reaching up to turn her still downturned face upward.
The look on her face tore his heart to pieces. "But you're not going to be around forever," she said, voice almost breaking. "You're the one person I need in my life, and I'm going to have to watch you turn into an empty shell of yourself….the…..man I love so much….." She was crying so hard she couldn't go on anymore.
"Oh, Trish," Dez said. Seeing her like this hurt him more than the thought of the suffering that he would have to endure. The tears streamed down his face as he continued. "I'm so sorry. If there was anything….just anything I could do to change this, I would. You know I'd do anything for you, babe, right?"
Trish merely nodded through her tears.
"I was counting on staying here with you until the end of your days and living out the in sickness and health part. But it looks like that's not what's going to happen, and we're going to walk through this as gracefully as we have everything else. We're a team, and we can do anything together, remember?"
"Yeah," Trish sobbed. "But I'm going to have to do this myself. And I can't—not without you."
"Yes," Dez said quietly. "But I'm going to be here with you as long as I can. I'll take the medicine no matter what the side effects and do therapy. I'll do every little thing that I can to help me stay around as long as I absolutely can. And when I can't, you're going to make it on your own. I know you can."
"I'm going to miss you so much," Trish whispered. The tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Me too," Dez said. "I'm not looking forward to forgetting you. You're my woman, the one who's walked beside me all my life and someday I'm not going to know that anymore."
"Come here," Trish said beckoning with her hand. When he came and stood at her side, she wrapped her arms around his waist. "No matter what I'll still love you. You'll always be my favorite Dezzy."
He felt a smile come to his face with her words. He was lucky to have such a loyal wife. "I know," Dez said. "And I'll always love you. No matter what crazy things my brain does, there will always be love in my heart for you. Even when I don't remember you, you can look at me and know that buried inside that empty shell is the heart that loves you."
He knelt beside her chair so she could lean her head on his shoulder. "I love you so much, Trish," he whispered. "And I always will. I promise."
Author's Note: That's the end of this story. Hope you enjoyed this last installment and that I didn't leave you too bad of a place. :) Thank you so much for all of your reviews and favorites. I had so much fun writing this series and your feedback made it that much more enjoyable for me. That said, this is not goodbye. I plan to focus my efforts of finishing Seven Years next. As of right now, I think that I have three chapters to go. Anyway, thanks again.