I Learned to Love You by Tamyalways

Translated from Spanish by ebfiddler

Good morning everyone! Here we are, another day and another chapter. There are many chapters yet to go, and I know they will be very complicated chapters, but I also know that they will be exciting … and full of feelings ... I hope that despite the suffering you can still enjoy the story. Yesterday I was re-reading the last chapter and I felt a knot in my stomach despite having written it myself ... despite knowing what was going to happen ... It's going to be sad at times, but at other moments it will be very exciting because of the feelings they both have ... I just hope you like it, and I hope you like the end result, despite the hard road they have to travel.

The characters are not mine ...

Idea from Lizcecilia6CECIFILLION

Chapter 36

MARTHA'S POV

I was so worried. I could not help it. I wanted to be with him. It wasn't for nothing that he was the most important person in my life. For him I would drop everything, and in spite of knowing he was in good hands, my maternal feelings kept telling me that he needed me there.

I was never a person given to crying, much less to wasting time wallowing in my problems. My character always pushed me to fight, not to settle for the status quo. I always knew that if you strived for something, you could achieve it. So now here I was in front of a door that was perhaps a portal to my past, to the time when the most important person in my life first came into being. My son.

I had never been a religious person, despite my Catholic education. I knew the prayers, I was familiar with the churches, and when I was young my mother made me comply with the doctrine they taught me in school. But I never thought that a simple prayer could fix something. Nonetheless, I had spent the last few days recollecting those lessons in order to pray for Richard—to plead for a cure for him, or pray that I could find his father and that his bone marrow would be compatible with my son.

I also debated between reason and desire. My good sense ordered me in a resoundingly forceful manner, to be there in front of that door, in a city far away from my home in New York. And my desire (my mother courage, as I've always considered it) ordered me to return to him, to take his hands and care for him, rocking him in my arms if necessary, so that he could rest assured that his mother would take care of him, would lay down her life if need be. But I couldn't … my place was here, looking for his father in an attempt to save the life of my offspring. Also, if I paid any attention to my intuition, I could not have left him in better hands. It was enough to see them together on their wedding day, to know that this woman was the right one for Richard, because she had given him the will to live. He looked happy and eager to fight with all his strength, and that he owed to his wife. Kate was a special woman, an angel who came into his life in time of need, and instead of running away, she stayed with him as his wife, nurse, and friend. She was the right one, and I knew it at first sight. The eyes of that woman spoke very clearly. She loved my son.

I just hoped that finally I'd found Richard's father. I hoped that if I found him, then the rest would be easy, because by whatever means necessary, I would not permit him to ignore his son now. He had to be there for him now, even if he later decided again to disappear from the face of the earth.

I arrive at the address the "boys," as Richard and Katherine called them, had provided me with. I had called upon several other "James Smith"s already, and it had been in vain, because it's unfortunately a very common name. But for me it was not just any name, in any old place. The day that I that I met him, I fell in love. One night was sufficient to render me falling at his feet, in the greatest travesty of my life. He deceived me. For him, I was just another one night stand in his string of lonely nights.

When I learned of my pregnancy, I looked for him, but couldn't find him at all. Until one day when my child was three years old, I came across him by chance. I was on tour, I don't even remember exactly where we were. My son always accompanied me on tour and during the daytime I would take him to a park or for a walk. Suddenly, I thought I saw a familiar figure that caught my attention. I went over, and there he was, with a young child, of an age similar to Richard. Then I realized the truth.

When I saw him behaving like a father with another child, I felt depressed, defeated, but above all humiliated. He also saw me and approached me; he begged my silence and told me what had happened.

One night he had a heated argument with his wife. He was frustrated that they couldn't have any children. What irony! He walked out, and happened upon the theater—he could just as well have gone to a cafe or the movies. But no, it was to the place where I was acting—quite successfully I might add—in "Pygmalion." He saw me and, according to him, fell in love with my performance. At the end of the play, he came backstage to congratulate me, and after a conversation, he felt so comfortable with me that he invited me to dinner—so he said. One thing led to another and—silly me!—I surrendered and fell into his arms without considering that he might be married. A few weeks later, his wife managed to get pregnant, and that was why I had not seen him again. Since that time, he had completely dedicated himself to the son he had with his wife, forgetting about me, and the possible consequences of that night.

After that meeting, I didn't see him again or hear from him. One day I received a notarized letter notifying me of the delivery a pretty hefty amount of money for my son, provided that I gave my full discretion over "the issue."

At first I decided not to accept such a bribe. How dare he do that to his son? But then I thought that if he did not want to know him, who lost out? It was him, not my child, who was going to hell. We didn't need him. I kept that money, invested it well so that my son would have a good future when he reached his majority. But my boy took after me, proud and dignified, so he decided not to touch that money for his college education. Between my savings and his own efforts, he studied for and then passed with flying colors the exams for the police academy and then later for detective. He liked his job, so he continued earning money and augmenting the amount that his father left him, until he finally decided to spend some of it for his dream home.

And now here I was, in front of the door of this "man"—if he even deserved the appellation—to renege on the agreement, to contact him and ask him to do something for me, not for his son. To save what he gave me that day, what I would now lose if he didn't donate his bone marrow.

I raised my fist to knock on his door. Though my hand shook, I pounded with strength and determination. I waited, praying I would encounter him face to face. I wanted to lay the blame on him for everything, but I knew this was not the time. My son needed me, and I had to be as quick as possible so that I could return to him.

When the door opened, I was taken aback at what I encountered. It was a woman with a little girl in her arms. She looked beautiful despite her age, which appeared to be more or less the same as mine.

"Hello, may I help you?"

"Yes, please excuse the inconvenience. I am looking for James Smith."

"That is my husband. But he is not at home right now, but if you want to leave a message I can—" she said, but after half a sentence I was not listening.

"Will he be very long?" I asked agitatedly, looking at my watch.

"I don't think so. Do you want to come in?" she said in invitation. "You can wait inside."

I thought about it a little, but did not believe it appropriate. I decided to leave a message.

"You can tell him that Martha Rodgers came to see him." I took a card from my purse and handed it to the lady in question. "And here's my number, tell him to call me as soon as possible." She looked surprised, but even more so when I added, "It is urgent."

"Yes, of course. I will tell him, don't worry," she said looking at me with concern, seeing me so agitated.

I left there determined. If he had not called me back by first thing tomorrow morning, then come hell or high water, I would make him talk to me, if it was the last thing I did.

RICK'S POV

We were sitting in the room, each in our own thoughts. She looked calm, but I could tell she felt sad.

"Kate."

"Yes?" she said lifting her head from the book she was reading.

"We're fine, right?"

"Of course," she said looking at me with puzzlement.

"It's that ... I'm worried that you're angry," I said despondently.

She got up and sat next to me on the bed, kissed me gently and hugged my neck with a smile on her face.

"Everything's good, very good," she smiled.

"You know what? I love being with you like this. Well, not that this is exactly the best place—but I have a lot of imagination."

"Oh yeah? Show me," she challenged.

"Look ... for example ... close your eyes and see if you can picture it," I told her, placing my hand over her eyes. "I imagine being with you in a tropical paradise, lying on the beach in the sun, while you kiss me passionately."

"Not bad. I love that idea," she said, caressing my cheek and kissing me firmly on the lips.

"You know what? I thought about making another list."

"Another one? Didn't you just marry me?"

"Not that kind. It's another type of list, a list of places where …." I raised my eyebrows in a mischievous gesture, so that she would understand me.

"Oh yeah? Go on ..."

"Yes."

"Don't you count the beach, the pool, the bed, the shower—?" She enumerated on her fingers all the places where we had been carried away by passion.

"I loved all of that, but those are just normal places." I wrinkled my nose. "Here in the hospital would be—"

"Don't even imagine it," she laughed.

"You've got to help me with this list. I can't exactly do it by myself."

"Richard Alexander Castle, only you would dare to ask me this."

"Come on." I stretched my hand out so she could lie down beside me, trying to convince her.

"Castle," she protested, even as a little moan escaped her.

"We can do it quickly."

"Rick, stop..." she protested, attempting to get up. "Every hour and half they come to change your IV medication."

"That's fine. I don't think I could last any longer than that anyhow," I quipped, making her laugh.

"You are really something."

"Come on! Tell me you don't want to."

"Of course I do," she replied, suddenly timid, "but not here."

"You're raining on my parade."

"Come on. Let's do something more productive, and stop thinking about impure acts."

"They're very pure acts, when done for love," I asserted, then began tickling her. She looked like she'd never stop laughing, and I smiled too. Seeing her like that was the best medicine ever for me. After a while I said, "I would like to stay this way my whole life."

"Me too."

"I love you, Kate."

"I love you, Rick. You don't know ... you'll never know, just how important you are to me. Knowing you has been ... I never knew love like this."

"Didn't you ever fall in love? Never before?"

"Childish fancies, I guess I've had. But feeling like I feel now? No, I don't think so."

"I don't think so either. One time, I thought I did ... but now ... now I know that wasn't the real thing," I said softly stroking her cheek. "When I met you I realized that I've never felt anything like it."

"I …. Look, my parents really loved each other. They were an amazing couple. I thought what they had was special, extraordinary. I thought it was unique, and it could never exist anywhere else. But now I realize I was wrong. I thought I knew true love, but I didn't really know. Please, show me," she said kissing me.

We embraced for a long time until we fell asleep, side by side, feeling each other's quiet breaths. Now that I knew that she really loved me, I knew that it was worth all the trouble, worth all the pain—even though it would end so soon.

TO BE CONTINUED…

In the next chapter we'll see if Martha finally found Rick's father, once and for all ... Hopefully it's really him, and hopefully he's compatible ;)

I hope for your comments, and hope you have a good day. See you on Wednesday …

XXOO

Twitter: tamyalways

translator: Hopefully, we're back to a more regular schedule. See you again in a few days. Did you like the section from Martha's POV? I did! :) Thanks for your comments.