A Place In the Sun
28
"Are you ready for this?" Edmund said to Maria as they drove toward town.
"Ready or not…"
"There are going to be people there who remember you."
"I don't care. They don't matter. You are here by my side and I know however hard it might be, it'll be okay."
"When your mother sees you…"
"How is she?"
"She's doing well."
"I mean, how was she, after the plane crash?"
Edmund shook his head. "I'm surprised she didn't completely fall apart. She had just lost your father, Julia had to move away, and then you were gone."
"How were you?" she asked, putting her hand on his.
He didn't say anything. He took his hand away from her and held the wheel with both hands.
"Edmund?"
"I'd rather not talk about it," he said, finally. There was silence again.
"I'm sorry," Maria said, stroking the back of his head.
"Don't be."
"Why hasn't Ryan called yet?" Kelsey asked as she and Jake still waited.
"Maybe no news is good news."
"Yeah, right," she said, standing up. "And when is someone going to tell us what's going on with Gillian?"
"Kelsey, calm down," Jake said, putting his hands on her shoulders.
They both turned around as Joe came out.
"What are we doing?" Julia asked as Tyler pulled off of the road near a bridge. "I've got to get to the hospital."
"No, no you don't," he said, getting out of the car.
"Tyler, they paged me, do you want to get me fired?"
"No, they didn't page you," he said, leading her down to the to the river and helping her up onto a rock.
"Yes, they did."
"No, I had you paged with that number so we'd have an excuse to leave."
"What?"
"I was going to take you somewhere special, but I couldn't wait any longer, so I hope this is good enough."
"Tyler?" she said, looking at him strangely.
"Maybe I'm rushing this a little bit, or a lot; we have only known each other for three months. But, these have been the best three months of my life, and that's because you're in it. I-I don't know how I ever lived without you, and I don't think I ever could again. There's this huge part of me that you filled, and I didn't even know that there was something missing there. And—I guess, the only thing left to say is to ask you," he said, bending down on one knee and pulling a box out of his pocket. "Julia, will you, will you marry me?"
Julia couldn't speak; she could only nod.
"Really?" he asked, standing up and taking her in his arms.
"Really," she whispered. "Tyler, I didn't think I could love anyone after Noah, and you proved me wrong. I can't imagine that happening with anyone else, ever. I love you, Tyler Barrows."
"I love you."
Julia's pager went off.
"This isn't you, is it?" she asked with a smile.
"No, this time I'm innocent."
"It is the hospital, though."
"Well, then I guess we have to go."
"Yeah," she said as he was about to step off the rock. "Wait."
"What?"
"Thank you," she said, lowering her eyes.
He looked at her, confused. "You don't need to thank me for anything."
"No, I do. Ever since I lost Noah, I had sort of been living in my own little bubble and showing everyone on the outside that I was just fine. But since I met you, I was able to deal with all of that and learn how to love again. I didn't think there was any possible way for me to care about and love someone enough to want to marry him, but I do."
Tyler took her hand, in understanding, and helped her down off the rock and they went back up the embankment to the car.
"Dad, how is she?" Jake asked.
"Seeing this sort of thing never gets any easier," Joe started.
"Grandpa Joe, is Gillian going to be alright?" Kelsey asked.
"Well, as far as we can tell there's no internal bleeding, she has some broken ribs and plenty of bruising. Our biggest concern right now is that she has not woken up. But we're moving her up to a room and we're going to be keeping very close watch over her."
"So you think she'll be okay?" Kelsey asked.
"You know I can't make any promises," he said, going back into the exam room.
"Kelsey," Bobby said, coming into the ER.
"Bobby, why are you here?" she asked.
"I wanted to make sure everything was okay."
"He was worried," Anita added.
"So far, Gillian's okay," she said. Then, to Jake, she asked, "Why don't you try calling Ryan?"
"Ryan left right after you did," Anita told her.
"Yeah, he was here, and then he overheard something…I mean I guess it's not a secret anymore—"
"What you were upset about earlier?" Bobby asked.
The phone rang just as Jake was about to pick it up.
"Hello?" he said.
"Jake, how is she?" Ryan asked.
"So far, so good," he told him. "Did you find Kata?"
"Yeah, yeah, I did, we're still at Myrtle's," he said, in his truck. He rubbed Kata's back as she laid asleep on his lap.
"Thank goodness. Is she okay?"
"Far as I can tell. Jake, what should I do with her? I want to come check on Gillian but that is no place for a child."
"How was Katalin with you?"
"She's amazing, Jake. I mean, when I found her she was hiding, and then she looked up and she knew who I was."
"She's not scared?"
"She was, but not now. She's asleep. I think—I feel like I should just take her home."
"That's probably best. I can call you if anything changes with Gillian."
"Thanks Jake, I appreciate that."
Jake hung up the phone and turned to Kelsey.
"So she's alright?" Kelsey asked.
"Ryan has her and is going to take her to his place."
"Good, good. I'm so glad that Ray didn't get to her."
"That's for sure."
"So, your friend Gillian has a kid? And she'd kept her a secret? And Ryan's the father." Bobby asked.
"That about sums it up."
"I can't believe anyone would trust someone like her to keep their secret…" Anita muttered under her breath. Bobby gave her a sharp elbow in the rib.
Kelsey looked up as she saw Edmund coming in the door, followed closely by Maria.
"Jake, how is Gillian?" he asked, joining them.
"She's doing well, so far," he said, as everyone turned to face the couple.
Anita's mouth dropped open in shock. "Oh, my God," she said, instantly giving her sister a hug. Still with her arms around her, she asked, "Is it, is it really..?"
Maria nodded, "Yes, Anita, I'm here."
"But, Maria, how? I mean, it's been so long…"
"Don't worry about it, okay? I'm here now."
The ER doors opened again, this time it was Julia and Tyler.
Julia saw Bobby first and asked, "Hey, what's going on? Did something happen?"
Bobby started to answer when Anita and Maria stepped away from each other and Julia saw them.
"Oh," she said, backing up, her hand covering her mouth. With her other hand, she reached for Tyler. "Maria?"