The next morning, after Ivan and Jessica showed up, she found everyone outside in the garden. Sarah was interrogating Gunnar about where he was last night.
"Hi. Where did you go last night?:
"We were at the gas station. Was I very drunk?"
"No, you were nice."
"What are you doing? Where are the other apples?," Adam asked.
"We ate them," Sarah said.
"Have you eaten seven apples?"
"He was hungry. You only had beer," she said, referring to Christoffer.
'Sarah is voluntarily caring for Christoffer? Something's happening...,' Jessica thought.
"For f*ck's sake!," Adam exclaimed.
"You look good in that outfit. Did we fool around yesterday?," Sarah asked Gunnar.
"The girlie boys are here again. There are more," Khalid announced.
"Go into the church," Adam said to Khalid.
'And Adam is actually starting to... care?,' Jessica thought.
"I no hide from that bunch of f*ggots."
"Look how many there are. Go. Into. The. Church," Adam ordered.
The men approached the small group. Adam stepped forward and looked coiled, ready to attack. One of them walked right up to him and struck him across the face, knocking him to the ground.
"You can go f*ck yourself. We just want the p*ki."
Ivan walked past Jessica. She reached out to stop him, but he was determined to have peace in his final days.
"Will you stop that noise! I really shouldn't have to come out here and ask for some peace and quiet. I have three, maybe four weeks left to live. I deserve to be able to nap. I can't manage you rude people. Please leave."
"We just want the p*ki."
"Do what you want. You can take him to the woods. I just want peace."
'Good god, Ivan... What's gotten into you?,' Jessica wondered, shocked at his words.
"Get him!," one of the skinheads yelled, pointing a gun at Ivan.
Jessica felt her stomach lurch. She bolted to where Adam was standing, her cellphone in her hand with the number to the police punched in.
"That is just plain rude! We'll do this another way. Give me everything that makes noise," Ivan said to them.
One man tried to resist giving him their weapon, and it fired straight into Ivan's head.
Jessica couldn't even register what had just happened. She stared straight ahead for a moment before her mind processed that Ivan was more than likely shot dead just now. She ran to his side on the ground. She broke out into hysterics.
"Ivan? IVAN? IVAN??," she screamed frantically, feeling for his pulse.
"Oh, Ivan...," she said softly, voice cracking, lightly running her hand down the side of his face.
She surveyed the damage to his face. The left side of his skull was blown nearly clean off, a dreadful bloody mess. Her brain went into panic mode.
She looked around in a shocked stupor, seeing that Adam was standing over them, observing the scene.
"What the f*ck was he doing? A*hole!," Ebsen exclaimed.
"It wasn't my fault," the man whose gun went off yelled.
"Let's get out of here," said another one.
As soon as they left, Adam bent down and looked at Ivan, then at Jessica. She looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, sobbing uncontrollably. He gently laid a hand on her shoulder. She gave him an apprehensive look.
"Help me pick him up and we'll take him to the hospital."
She nodded then stood up, gripping Ivan from under his arms while Adam gripped his ankles. They laid Ivan in the back of the van and sped off down the road.
When they arrived at the hospital, Adam hopped out and grabbed Ivan while Jessica parked the van.
When she made it up to the room they put Ivan in, she heard Dr. Kohlberg's voice.
"In medical terms this is called a half Kennedy. He won't get over that. I can assure you of that. Well, you just say your goodbyes and I'll stick the kettle on," he said to Adam.
He gave Jessica an apathetic smile on his way out the door.
Jessica slowly walked towards Ivan's bed, standing across from Adam.
"Thank you... for helping him. It means a lot."
Adam nodded.
"You're welcome. There isn't much left we can do now. Why don't we go back to the church and wait for an update?"
"As much as I wish I could do that, I can't. I don't want to leave in case he wakes up."
"Okay. Good luck."
Jessica slightly smiled as he was leaving. She looked back at Ivan. He was thickly bandaged around his head, along with his left eye. His mouth was open with a breathing tube. She felt an overwhelming amount of grief come over her. If she was the one he would spend his last moments with, then she wanted it to count.
"Ivan... I know you can't hear me, but I have to let you know how much you mean to me. I love you. I always have. When I had the darkest moments in my life, you were there for me. You're my best friend, and I wish we had time to deepen our relationship. It's not fair we had so little time together after we realized we care so much about each other. Now it's too late," she said, her voice becoming hoarse while taking his hand in hers. "I won't abandon you. I'll stay right next to you until your last breath."
She scooted the armchair closer to his bed. She sat down, and slowly drifted off to sleep, holding his large calloused hand in hers.
A few hours later, she woke up to see he was still asleep. She asked one of the nurses for a cup of tea; the nurse scurried off to fetch it for her. The nurse returned, handing her a styrofoam cup, and checked Ivan's vitals. He still had a heartbeat, but it was faint. As soon as the nurse left, Jessica started reading some of the magazines in the room, becoming bored quickly and dozing off again.
The following morning, Jessica woke up to a squeezing feeling on her hand. Ivan seemed to still be asleep, but his hand was grasping hers back. She stood up to stretch, kissing his forehead. She was close to giving up hope, when suddenly his eyes slowly began to open.
When he saw her glowing in the morning light, he thought for certain he was in heaven.
"My angel," Ivan said softly.
Jessica was floored.
"Ivan... Ivan, wake up. Please... don't leave me," she begged him.
Ivan's eyes began to flutter, then they stayed open as he looked at her. She laughed incredulously at what was happening.
"Dr. Kohlberg! Dr. Kohlberg! Ivan is waking up!," she yelled.
Immediately, the doctor and a nurse rushed in and gave him a once over.
A quick look at where Ivan's tumor was sent the doctor into a rant of how impossible Ivan's situation was. According to him, the gunshot blew the tumor right out of his head without any serious complications aside from part of his skull being malformed.
"I don't know how you did it, Ivan, but you should recover after a few weeks or so. Incredible...," the doctor said, leaving the room.
Jessica took hold of Ivan's hand again and brought it to rest on her cheek as she beamed a smile at him, which he returned. He splayed his hand out and stroked his thumb across the apple of her cheek.
"I thought I lost you," she said quietly, nuzzling into his touch.
"I thought you did too."
"I guess we're stuck with each other," she said with a light laugh.
"You won't hear any complaining from me," he said with a grin.
They both leaned in and shared a chaste kiss. When they parted, Jessica had an excited look on her face.
"Oh! I'm supposed to give Adam a call with updates on you. I don't know how you did it, but Adam actually gives a damn about people now."
"That's what faith can do, Jess. It can make the impossible possible."
She gave him a smile and dialed the church from the phone in the room.
"Hello?"
"Gunnar! Tell Khalid and Adam that Ivan pulled through and he's going to be fine!," she exclaimed.
"Oh, thank God! I'll tell him right away. He's baking his apple cake right now," Gunnar explained.
"Fantastic. You're all allowed to come visit too."
"I actually won't be able to come today. Sarah and I are going to the municipal court to get married!"
"Gunnar! Congratulations! Pass the message on to Sarah too please."
"I will. Tell Ivan we're all happy to hear he'll be fine."
"I will. Goodbye, Gunnar."
"Goodbye, Jessica."
She turned her attention back to Ivan.
"Adam is baking his apple cake and Gunnar and Sarah are getting married today. This is shaping up to be a great day!"
"It certainly is. Speaking of romance... This whole ordeal has made me rethink several things. And almost dying without getting to be with you is one of the things I would curse myself over forever. I don't want to wait anymore, and I'm certain you don't either. So... Will you be mine?"
Jessica felt her heart nearly stop.
"Yes! Yes! Of course, Ivan! I would like that more than anything!"
He grinned ear to ear and pulled her in for another kiss. Just as their lips were about to touch, Dr. Kohlberg walked in.
Jessica began to pull away, but Ivan grabbed her shoulders and brought their lips together in full view of the doctor, who cleared his throat.
'Wow, Ivan. Nice flex,' she thought, amused at the doctor trying to hide his surprise.
"Well Ivan, it looks like you're in good shape. Your cognitive functions are all normal, there's no severe damage to your cortex, and you're obviously being well taken care of. We're still keeping you a while to monitor you though," the doctor said, giving them an unreadable look.
"You're going to be okay! You're going to be okay! Oh darling!," Jessica all but screamed as she showered his face with kisses, while Ivan sat back and enjoyed her ministrations.
The thing that had been hanging over his head for the last few years was finally a thing of the past. And he had nothing but good things to look forward to now.
"Let's go for a walk. I could use some fresh air. And a cheeseburger."
Jessica chuckled.
"Of course, honey. Then we'll have tea in the garden. How does that sound?"
"Absolutely perfect."
Jessica helped him out of the bed and they walked down the hall, his arm around her shoulders.
They walked around the hospital, then sat down at a table in the cafeteria, discussing their history.
"You know, I think I started loving you when we were all outside in the snow and you got snow down your pants. It was so cute the way you tried to run it off," Ivan said with a chuckle. "I knew for sure though when I held you on the loveseat in front of the fire in the library the night you found out your parents died."
"That's when I started developing romantic feelings for you too. But I was one hundred percent certain when I was in Copenhagen settling my parent's affairs, and all I wanted was to come back to you. To the point that I came straight back after their burial and left that entire part of my life behind. You're my family, Ivan. You and Khalid and Gunnar and Christoffer. And if he plays his cards right, Adam as well."
Ivan pressed a kiss to her forehead and she leaned her head on his shoulder.
They retreated to the garden. Ivan took a seat at a small table, and Jessica went to fetch them their tea. On the way to the cafeteria she saw Adam come out of Ivan's room. As she caught up with him, she overheard him and the doctor discussing Ivan.
"His bed is empty."
"Yes."
"Where is he?"
"It doesn't make sense. I'm a man of science. I believe in figures. I'm going somewhere where the sick die... and don't go sit in the garden with a newly acquired girlfriend and a cheeseburger after having been shot."
"Are they in the garden?"
"Yes. He just got up and went for a walk. The bullet simply shot the tumor away. Now they're telling me that the bloke is well again. I've bloody well had it."
'Jeez, I knew this guy's a d*ck, but still... What an awful little man.'
"Adam, would you like me to take you to him?"
"Yes."
As they approached, Ivan's eyes drifted between them, settling on Adam.
"Hi, Adam."
"I baked an apple cake."
"Yes."
"Should we have a go?"
Ivan gave him a grin and a nod of approval. Adam and Jessica sat down with him, and they all partook of the small apple cake.
