Disclaimer: I don't own the situations or characters portrayed herein. I'm just playing with them for a while.


Bad Timing Part 3

He turned to her as Fritz left, and her face was so ashen and troubled that he thought, for one horrific second, that they had received more bad news.

He stood up and went over to her. She looked so pale and upset that he didn't want her to faint.

"Amanda, what is it?" he asked.

Her voice was small and agonized. "It's from IFF. A messenger just brought it."

He took the papers she handed him. They were run-of-the-mill life insurance papers.

He sighed. "They work fast. I asked Billy to handle this for me last night."

He knew that Amanda loved him, but it had been so hard to believe it sometimes. Why would such a lovely and pure-hearted woman want to love such a broken man? How had he turned out to be the one who won her heart?

It was so easy to doubt her love, or discount it as something temporary that would falter when she realized who he was — something too good to be true.

But as he watched her, those doubts vanished. For the rest of his life — however short or long that may be — he would remember this moment, when she found out that his death would mean a small fortune for her and her boys. He could never forget the pain and sorrow and horrified denial in those eyes he loved so much.

"Amanda," he explained, "I've never had a beneficiary for the agency life insurance policy and... I wanted you and your boys to be taken care of. You know, just... just in case." He sat down heavily on the couch as he spoke.

"When do you have to leave?" she asked, and the forced bravery that enveloped the wistful question broke his heart.

"Billy's here at 6," he said, checking the watch that counted down the seconds of his life.

She sighed, then sank down onto the couch to join him in his misery. She wrapped her arms around him, so tight that he thought for a moment that surely even death could not break through those protective barricades.

He felt her breath on his neck as she whispered the words he had been fighting against all day.

"I want more time."

He pulled her close, savoring the feel of her so warm and alive in his arms. If he died tonight, he would die safe in the knowledge that he had been loved, truly and selflessly, by the one person whose love really mattered.