Haunted Dreams
Chapter 15
"Hi." She said weakly. Her lips forming into a smile.
Sweeney stared at her in disbelief. She looked at his face and her expression turned into confusion. "Have you been crying?"
Sweeney just laughed and beamed. He couldn't find the words to speak, he used them all up I guess. But he didn't want to speak, there was only one thing he wanted to do, and he did it! He cupped her face in his hands, and he kissed her. Not hard, or rough like he usually does, but gentle, and passionate, very passionate. He kissed her for a long time, he doesn't know how long exactly, and he didn't care.
"God." She swore when he was finished.
"I missed you."
"I can tell." She said laughing. She smiled again and leaned up to peck him on the lips.
Nellie took a moment to look around the bedroom. Everything was the same except for the crib in the corner. She gasped, moving her hand on her flat stomach. She looked back at Sweeney questioningly and a bit worried.
He followed her gaze to the crib. "Oh would you like to see him?"
"Him?"
"Yes." He grinned. Sweeney got up and opened the door, then another realization
hit him. "She's awake!" He shouted excitedly down the hallway.
Nellie was curious to what it is he was doing, until she heard a woman shriek 'Oh my goodness' from the living room. She knew that voice anywhere. "Nettie?"
"Oh, your aunt and cousin are here." Sweeney answered.
Nellie looked at him, jokingly making a pouting look. "Aw, needed help taking care of yourself while I was gone?"
That Castellian sass, he hoped Jeramey and any other future children wouldn't catch it. He rolled his eyes and smirked at her.
He walked into the living room. Daniel and Nettie stood there, staring at him, their eyes demanding to know everything. Sweeney ignored them and immediately went for Jeramey. His little boy was napping, but woke when Sweeney picked him up. "Do you want to see your mother?" Sweeney said to his son, smiling. The baby smiled back.
"So talking worked then?" Nettie asked.
"Is she alright?" Asked Daniel.
"Later." Sweeney told them. He wanted Nellie to see her child first.
He came back into the bedroom. When Nellie saw the baby in his arms, she excitedly pulled up into a sitting position, and screamed at the pain in abdomen as she did so.
"Careful!" Sweeney said urgently, "You don't want to mess the stitching up."
Nellie looked under the covers at her bare stomach, and saw the horizontal gash below her belly button. Sweeney helped her into a sitting position, she leaned against the bed post, her head swimming with dizziness. But she ignored it for the sake of seeing her son.
Sweeney laid the infant into her arms. Tears formed in her eyes as she smiled down at her son, who looked up at his mother smiling back.
"What's his name?"
"Jeramey."
Nellie grinned and chuckled. "Your middle name?"
"It's too late if you don't like it. His already gotten used to being called that."
"I love it." Nellie said leaning forward to kiss Sweeney's lips. Her head spun in protest. "Ugh" she complained.
"Are you alright?"
"Weak, light headed, sore, but I'll be fine."
"I'll get you some water."
"Thank you." She said smiling. "And you can let Nettie and Daniel in, I know they must be in there losing control."
"They are. I'll send them in." He replied kissing her head.
He walked back into the living room. "You can see her now." He told both of them. They both ran into the bedroom excitedly. Sweeney went into the kitchen to get his wife a glass of water, silently thanking the lord that she was finally awake.
It's been a year since Nellie's coma and she was now capable of going about the house. She felt a lot better and her abdomen stopped causing her pain where the cut was healing. She hasn't been working since four months before Jeramey was born. She was so busy. Sweeney went back to work though. And Nettie and Daniel were still helping around the house.
Today a letter came in the mail from her mother, which threw Nellie for a loop because the woman usually hates her and never writes.
Nellie walked back into the house with the letter. Sweeney, Daniel, and Nettie were all sitting around in the kitchen smiling and chatting. But Sweeney noticed his wife's expression. He walked over to her, supporting Jeramey on his shoulder as he did so.
"What is it?"
Nellie looked at her aunt. "It's a letter from Isabelle." Nettie got up from the table.
"Your mother?" Sweeney asked. Nellie nodded her head and handed the letter to Nettie. Not wanting to read it herself.
Nettie opened it and started reading, her face grim.
"What does it say?" Daniel asked.
"She never writes to me." Nellie told Sweeney, rubbing her hand over Jeramay's back as he slept over his father's shoulder, he made little cooing noises at the gesture. She looked at Nettie, "Did you tell her I had a child? Is that why she wrote?"
"I did. But that's not why she's writing to you." Nettie sniffled and gave the letter back to Nellie for her and Sweeney to read, she looked like she was about to cry.
"Mum, what's wrong." Daniel asked, putting his hand on his mother's shoulder.
Nellie scanned threw the letter, her mother's handwriting was sloppy, so unlike her. She wrote it in a rush. "Elaine's dying." She told Daniel, who put a hand over his mouth in shock. Nellie looked tense, and she started shaking. "It says she's had a sickness for a long time and it is finally taking her." She said, tears forming in her eyes. Sweeney was the only one who did look to be in pain. He hated being so confused, he wanted to know more about Nellie, about her family, it was his family now too.
"I'm sorry, but who's Elaine again?" He asked.
"She's my sister, the younger one." Nellie told him.
Oh the little beauty queen who got all the love and adoration in the house. Sweeney thought.
"It says that there's nothing else the doctors can do and that she has just a day left. Her funeral will be in three days, that's really soon, so mother said she wants us to come to the manor. She said that Elaine asked for me." Nellie told everyone. "We need to leave now! She won't make it through the night? She wants me, she needs me! We must go now! Right now!" She said urgently.
"Okay Okay. Calm down. We'll go get the luggage ready." Daniel said.
Nellie looked up at Sweeney, she could tell he didn't want to leave. She gave him an apologetic smile. Jeramey started whimpering letting everybody know that he was awake and ready for food.
"Yes. Let's go get everything ready and packed." Sweeney said to all of them, passing Jeramey over to Nellie to take care of.
He walked out of the room, to go get the suitcase prepared. The three stood in the room glancing at one another.
"Is it just me, or is he not stubborn as a mule anymore?" Said Daniel.
Nellie positioned Jeramey, who was now awake, on her hip and went to get his bottle. As she passed Daniel she thumped him on the back of his head.
Sweeney closed to door to his bedroom, pulling the suitcase from the closet. He wore a grimm expression while doing so. While standing there in the kitchen a few minutes ago a memory from his past smacked him in the face like the back of somebody's hand. Nellie's family's manor was right next to his family's house. He was going home for the first time in seventeen years. And was not looking forward to it.
