Thank you for the reviews! This picks up after episode 5.5. Hope you enjoy.
Nearly losing him sealed it for her. She will not belong to the church any longer, but she knew God was still with her. Otherwise, He wouldn't have brought Lucien back to her. No, she didn't need the church, she would always have God. She looked at Lucien, pain evident on his face. She brought his hand to her lips and held it there. That's how Matthew found them.
He spoke softly from the doorway, not wanting to wake Lucien but noticing the tears in her eyes. "Jean?"
She looked toward the doorway. "Matthew, come in." She quickly wiped the tears away and freed a chair for him to sit next to her.
He put his arm around her shoulder as he looked at his friend lying in bed and asked her, "You okay?"
She smiled at him as she reached for Lucien's hand. "Oh, yes. Yes, I'm fine." She looked at him and tried to play it off but Matthew was smarter than that. She sighed. "We nearly lost him tonight, Matthew."
"I know but we didn't. He's tough as nails, this one." He squeezed her shoulder.
A weak voice sounded from the bed. "Take her home, will you?"
"I'm not going anywhere!" He opened his eyes to see her glaring at him.
This made him grin slightly. "Jean, I'm okay and you need your rest."
"I can rest when you go home tomorrow. I am staying until then."
It always thrilled Matthew to watch Jean handle Lucien. "Mate, I think she's staying."
Lucien rolled his eyes but squeezed her hand. "I tried."
Matthew patted Lucien's leg. "How you feeling?"
"Sore. Very sore." He hissed when he attempted to change position. Letting out a deep breath. "And tired. Very tired." His eyes drifted shut.
Jean and Matthew looked to each other and sighed. "Well, then. I better get home. You'll be alright?"
She smiled. "Yes, I'll be fine. Thank you, Matthew."
As Matthew left the room, Jean picked Lucien's hand up again, bringing it to her mouth, resting her lips against the back of it. She stayed like that until they brought her a cot. It wasn't the best night's sleep but it wasn't terrible either. All that mattered to her was that he was with her.
Two days he had been home. She was positively exhausted. To say he was a dreadful patient was clearly an understatement. It was a full-time job to try and keep him in bed, dealing with his terrible mood. He had been awful. She thought about asking his doctor to give her something to make him sleep more but thought better of it. She was sure he would snap out of it. Today, he started moping. He declined dinner, which upset her. That was it! How did he expect to get his strength back if he wouldn't eat? He didn't seem to be responding well to her frustrations or her yelling back at him. It was time for a different approach. Instead of giving him another fight, she decided to give silence and tenderness a go.
After dinner, she gently climbed into his bed, taking his arm and wrapping it around her shoulders, while gingerly wrapping herself into his right side. His mouth open, stunned at her bold move. The door was still open. Anyone could see and she clearly didn't care about that right now. The love in her touch, in her eyes…said it all. He had been horrible to her. Instead of yelling at him, she was fighting back with her love. He had been such a fool but she still loved him. How could he have gotten so lucky? He squeezed his eyes shut, elated to have her in his arms again. He opened his eyes again to find her looking at him. She reached up to wipe away the tears he didn't know had fallen. "Am I hurting you?"
"On the contrary, love." He reached up and took hold of her hand that was resting on his chest. He kissed her fingers, the back of her hand, then her wrist. He tried to move toward her lips but cringed in pain. "This blasted thing!" Frustration evident.
She raised herself on her elbow, stroking his hair. "Shh, what are you trying to do?"
He sighed with his eyes closed. He spoke softly, almost in a whine. "I just wanted to kiss you."
She tried to hide her smile. "Okay. Can I help with that? Or did you want to do it all on your own?" The twinkle in her eyes and the tone of her voice took the sting out of the question. He knew she was teasing him and he also knew he deserved much worse.
He opened his eyes, smirking up at her. "Come here." She lifted an eyebrow and he added, "Please." She obliged, finding his lips with hers. It felt like it had been so long since they had last properly kissed. He got a little too eager and broke the kiss with a hiss.
Breathing heavily, she told him, "Okay, that was…"
"Amazing!" He finished for her, still wincing from the pain in his chest.
She smirked. "I was going to say, enough for one night. But…yes, amazing also fits." Giving him a sympathetic look. "We need to change that dressing and you are overdue for your meds. That's probably why you're in so much pain."
"Ah, I think an experiment is in order. Give me my meds, then in another hour we duplicate that amazing kiss."
She rolled her eyes as she rose from the bed and collected the items needed to change his bandage. "I think you are starting to feel better." She helped him sit up and take his singlet off. She noticed the fresh blood on the old bandage. "Oh, Lucien. That was too much. You're bleeding."
"Nonsense. It's perfectly normal." He gave her an exaggerated simper.
Definitely feeling better, she thought. "You are incorrigible." She finished cleaning the wound and applied a fresh bandage. She grabbed his singlet and noticed it had blood on it as well so she grabbed him a fresh one from his drawer. All done, she helped him lay back down and told him she'd be right back.
Jean went upstairs and changed into her night clothes, made sure all the lights were out and headed back to Lucien's room. She shut the door behind her and climbed in beside him. Thankfully, the meds were already helping. He looked much more comfortable. He awoke long enough to put his arm around Jean and kiss her head. She soon followed as he drifted into a peaceful slumber.