Chapter 20- Epilogue

Three Years Later

It was a perfectly stunning day. The sun was shining so bright that it appeared a reflector was pointed in the direction of the whole world. There was not a cloud in the sky. The sky so blue to the point of being a deep, full, almost florescent azure color. The wind was blowing the slightest hint of a fall feeling breeze. It was almost questionable where the wind was coming from since there were no clouds out and they weren't even remotely close to the lake. But even still, this mid September day was the perfect, quiet, serene, complete opposite backdrop to what was actually happening in the scene.

What stood out the most to him was that it was so loud. It was like an arcade, amusement park, and rave party all came together and had a baby and what came out was an unusual pairing. For you see, golf by nature is a quiet sport. No one speaks, seas of people gather round the outline of a hole, silently standing there watching a golfer line things up, take a swing, and only when the ball is in the air do they let out a somber and semi-muffled 'golf clap.' So it's almost comical and ironic that the chaos and noise and high activity of this party version of a driving range is associated with golf. The place is called Top Golf. Indeed Jay took Hailey's advice and took up golf. He was quite bored one day three years ago and had a couple gift cards from the great Christmas gift exchange. He went on a drizzle filled February morning and the rest is history. It became his great life passion outside of work. If he wasn't on the clock, he was at a driving range or one of the many course in and around the city. He'd gotten quite good at it, half joking that he'd give up being a detective to join the tour and become a full-time golfer. He was so seasoned and at a specific level where Top Golf was silly by now, so the fact he was even there was hilarious. But Hailey was back at Top Golf level and still not seeing the joy and delight in the sport. But if she ever wanted to spend time with Jay outside of the office, then she knew she had to tag along with this golf kick of his. It was literally the only thing he had time for or a desire to participate in. Which may sound sad to some, but it's something he found a love for and it made him happy and it worked within his limitations. So Hailey was fully on board with it all. But still, she wanted to spend time with her husband. Thus the reason for them at Top Golf today. And thus the reason Jay was laughing quite hard at her, watching her grow more and more frustrated as she swung at a ball that seemed to be permanently on the tee.

"Ugh! How do you find pleasure in this!" She was beet read in anger, embarrassment, pure frustration. She'd been standing on the green mat, bent over and with the biggest driver known to man in hand for several minutes now with no progress. She was seconds away from snapping the driver across her knee. Jay's laughter did eventually die down to the point where he could get up from his seat and help her.

"Here, let me show you how to do it," he calmly laughed, setting his drink down on the table, getting up to stretch before waltzing over to the golf bag and grabbing his own driver. Yes, he'd gotten so good that he brought his own stuff now. He was not about to use the masses equipment.

"Oh sure, go ahead and show off," she jokingly hissed as Jay lined himself up, got the grip just right, took a breath before launching into another picturesque showcase of how to hit the ball hard and far and straight. She was instantly jealous that he could do this so effortlessly…and also quite turned on by his skills.

"Here, now you come stand next to me and let me see the grip." Hailey sighed, putting the driver away in place of a 9 iron, clearing her throat as she got to Jay's left.

"No see, your grip is off. The way you're holding it now is going to make you cut right every time." Jay took her iron out of her hands, showing her where to grip and what fingers needed to be where before handing it back off to her.

"Also, don't try and do a full swing just yet. Just go into a backswing and then go. Don't go all the way up."

"Again dude, you're speaking a language I don't understand." Jay rolled his eyes, sighing as he imitated what he wanted her to do.

"Just like this. Up to you shoulder and then come back. Also, keep your eye on the ball the whole swing. Don't follow the ball out."

"I am doing that."

"No you're not."

"I am!"

"No, you're not. Do you want me to take a video? I know what I'm talking about." Hailey actually groaned allowed, lining her feet shoulder width apart, making sure her hands are exactly where Jay showed her. She took a breath, kept her head down to the point it felt cemented in place before doing her approved half swing.

"Hey hey! Look who did it," Jay praised as the ball went about twenty feet in the right direction. The ball definitely didn't get any air or even score on the TV screen above them. But still, it was a step in the right direction.

"Eh, that still wasn't all that great."

"What are you talking about? It was good! I mean…small, but good!" Hailey put the iron back in its' holder, walked over to where Jay was sitting and planted a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Happy three years," she quietly spoke once she pulled back. Jay nodded, exhaling with a sense of tension about him.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing," Jay mumbled under his breath. The sound of Ed Sheeran's Perfect blaring above them cancelling out whatever came out of his mouth. But Hailey was pretty good at reading lips and she knew him well enough to know what was said.

"Jay, you're gunna be fine. It's been three years and the last scan was great!" Jay nodded, tried his best to look like all was well, but he wasn't fooling Hailey. She let go of the game for a moment, taking a seat next to him on the bench as the sounds of the place filed their now slightly worried minds. The clinking of golf balls against the clubs, people cheering, screaming, celebrating a great hit or high score. People were walking up and down the walkways as food, drinks, people, were ushered all over the place. Top Golf on the weekends was a lot more like Six Flags in the summer, but the good thing about the chaos was that no one saw the two of them sitting there silently, nervously, not at all looking like two people celebrating three years of marriage.

"Hey," Hailey finally spoke up, nudging Jay's shoulder as she waited for him to finally look her way.

"I love you." Jay nodded, sniffing a little as he cleared his throat.

"Love you too." Again. More attempts at smiling, trying to reassure her that all was well, but it only made her more anxious for him.

"Jay, you've gone this long and everything has been great. There was no sign of anything going wrong six months ago."

"Yeah but…that's kind of what happened when this all blew up."

"Jay, you were having side effects and they didn't do a scan till December, remember? You've not had any issues since then…I mean, aside from the seizure stuff. But you've been doing really well. Stop being so worried about things going well." Jay nodded once more, leaning over to plant a kiss on Hailey's cheek now before rising up and looking to grab a club out of his bag.

"Okay, let's see if we can get all the way back to the net," Jay joked.

"Oh brother," Hailey exhaled. Sitting back and watching Jay line things up, literally he stood there with the club, one eye closed as he made sure things were lined up to exactly how he wanted it. A couple minutes later Jay did indeed strike the ball hard, the very satisfying sound of iron meeting ball ringing out in their little pod as they watched the ball sail wide right.

"Well, at least it sounded good," Hailey teased as Jay jokingly crumbled under the embarrassment of the horrible shot.

"See?! Even I mess up every now and then."

"That doesn't make me feel any better knowing you practically live this sport and you still mess up." Jay laughed, grabbing his 8 iron just as he noticed his phone lighting up. The caller ID didn't need to be read. There was only one call the two of them were waiting on on this day.

"Hey Amelia," Jay swallowed, his non phone hand was resting on the top of the club, left leg crossing over the right as he listened to Amelia speak up.

"Hey, are you out somewhere? Sounds kind of loud," Amelia began with.

"Yeah, we're at Top Golf for our anniversary." "Oh that's so romantic," Amelia joked, smiling as she heard Jay crack a quick laugh.

"Yeah, we're keeping it low profile this year…given what's happened…"

"Well Jay…I really kind of wish you guys weren't out somewhere for this…" That one took all energy, standing ability, strength in him, Jay just about falling to a nearby seat.

"Jay," Hailey was quick to react, lunging out for him as he barely landed on a seat. He was already emotional, Hailey as well, without even knowing what was coming next.

"How bad is it," was all he could get out, too nervous to go beyond that.

"It's bad, Jay." The panic began to swell, all air that was in his lungs completely depleted now. The world was spinning, becoming smaller, growing darker and darker at every sound that came next.

"I'm so sorry Jay." "It's gunna be okay," Hailey spoke into his ear.

"No. No no no no NOOOO!"

And that was when Jay woke up to reality. It was a horribly bad dream, his body drenched in sweat and quick, panted breaths evidence of that. The room was so dark that there was no way Jay could see his hand in front of him, but he rolled onto his back and just imagined he was staring straight up at the ceiling. This wasn't the first time he'd had a nightmare in the last week, but it was the first time it was pertaining to the tumor. Nightmares, uptick in seizure episodes, all the fun permanent side effects of the tumor and epilepsy seem to flair up around this time of year. One year post-treatment Jay had to check himself into Northwestern they all were convinced he had suffered some huge setback. Year two he didn't go into work for a week due to an inability to sleep and control the partial seizures. So now here they were, year three and still things were bad. By now he'd come to accept it all. It wasn't anything he looked forward to, in fact he dreaded it if he was being honest. So he tried to calm himself, control his breathing and talk himself out of being freaked out by the realness of it all. It felt so real, he truly was in that moment of pure, unadulterated fear now learning that things were back and so much worse.

"It was just a dream. It was just a dream," Jay whispered out loud, closing his eyes and forcing air out of his nose hard, to the point he thought he was blowing his nose. Several minutes later his heart rate came back down to a normal level, breathing not in panic mode, finally convincing himself that it all was just a dream. There was no truth to what he just experienced, everything was fine.

…And then it was there, in the way, way back of his mind. It was a pain that for right now was very faint, but there. It was a pain he knew, from a long time ago. But one that once you experienced it it never lost its touch, it's grip on you. It was an evil little companion of his. One that he hadn't been visited by in quite some time, but one that Jay instantly knew was back and not going anywhere. Cue the dramatic music, the tension in that very dark, quiet room. Jay just knew, just had that inkling, that this was not just a headache. How on earth were they doing this all over again.

"Fuck, no no no FUCK no," Jay mumbled to himself, lunging into action as he rolled to his side to open the drawer and rummage around for his medicine bottles. His pace was quick, frantic, full freaking out now, loud enough to wake Hailey up from her deep slumber.

"Jay," she yawned inquisitively, reaching over to turn the light on by her side as she continued to hear him muttering something to himself. Now in the light she got a first glimpse of him. He didn't react to the light change, he didn't look her way, he was so caught up in whatever he was doing that only when she touched his back did he flinch back into things.

"Hey," she was quick to react, now sitting up as Jay glared at her before going back to what he was doing.

"What's wrong?" Jay shook his head, Hailey following his head shaking down and out to his whole person. He was a shivering, nervous, almost convulsing mess. He had broken out in a good sweat, he was so tense that Hailey could feel it against the sheets. She sat there dumbfounded over what was going on to make him this way. He'd bad seizures in the middle of the night before, but never was he acting like this or this level of panic. He was borderline catatonic at this point.

"Jay," she asked once more, a little more concerned and stern now. She didn't lose her gaze on him till he turned to face her. Only when he found what he was looking for and swallowed did he turn to face her.

"Sorry to wake you," his voice quivered. She was now petrified of what was going on. He was ghostly white, eyes bleary and whole person almost in a crisis mode. Whatever level of Jay he was when he went to sleep had vanished in rapid form. Things were not well in that body of his.

"Jay, what is going on?"

"It's back Hailey."

"What?!"

"Hailey, it's back. The headaches are back."

"Jay, it's just a headache. You're just having a bad headache." Jay refused to listen to this once again. He fell for that feigned lie three years ago. He now had the experience, the surgery, the side effects, the full treatment and remission knowledge to not fall for it twice. He just knew.

"Hailey, it's back." Something seemed to click in her mind, Hailey gasping at that last line. She looked up at him, tears on the verge of brimming and falling over as he nodded, choked for air, the two of them motionless and shell shocked at the realization of it all.

Did I not warn there was a monster at the end of this story?

Screen fades to black. End credits roll.