Hourglass Chapter 7: Where Lover's Lay, a hannah montana fanfic

(March 3, 2018 Lily and Oliver: 27)

LILY: I'm combing my hair. Oliver is in the shower singing a children's French song "Sur le pont d'Avignon. On y danse, on y danse!" He shouts over the running water. I want to laugh but instead I get a bubbly feeling erupting in my stomach. Quickly I dash to toilet. I'm sick, I'm sick, is all I think as I throw up.

I hear the shower turn off. Oliver is still humming, not noticing me as I up chuck my entire breakfast.

"Lily!"

Finally!

"Lily! What's wrong?"

"I-I d-" I can't finish I throw up again. Tears are pouring out onto my cheeks and my nose is running. I feel like shit. Oliver pulls my hair back and ties it in a bun and rubs my back slowly. After I finish I sit back, exhausted.

"Better?"

I nod. He flushes the toilet and helps me up and sets me in bed. His hair is still wet and his skin smells like fresh dove soap. I watch as he walks back to the bathroom to check and make sure there's nothing to clean up.

I lay back and breathe slowly. In. Out. In. Out. Nice and slow.

I feel Oliver's weight push down the edge of the bed as he sits. He runs a hand along my cheek. "What's wrong?"

I shrug. "I'm not sure." I whisper. "Let me sleep."

He nods and leaves to finish getting ready. I'm alone.

(March 5, 2018 Lily and Oliver: 27)

LILY: … I'm pregnant. I'm holding the stick in my hand and it is bright pink. I check the box and skim it quickly. Blue: Negative. Pink: Positive. Ok, ok, breathe Lily, breathe. I can't help it, I'm smiling. What I thought to be the impossible is possible! HA! Take that you stupid doctors!

Oliver is out getting the mail so I stand by the window and wait. I tap my foot. Walk faster! I want scream but I hold back, he's opening the back door. I jump with excitement.

"Ollie? Oh Ollie boy?" I coo affectionately.

"Humm?" He says without looking up from the mail.

"Guess what?" I say in a sing song voice.

"What?" He asks looking up. I hold the test out to him. He pauses, his face unreadable. I wait, holding my breath.

"Is this? Does this mean?" He is searching my face, I keep smiling. He grabs me and holds me. I'm laughing and giggling as he kisses me over and over again.

"I'm going to be a dad!" He shouts. Oliver takes my hand and we waltz around the table. "You're beautiful! You're amazing! Ah I love you!" He says between a whirl wind of new kisses.

It isn't till later in the night, when we are curled up together, that I remember. I recall a thirty year old Oliver telling me we never had any children. I can't wrap my head around it. Oliver wouldn't lie about this kind of thing. Never, never. But maybe, we changed the future somehow. Is that even possible?

(March 7, 2018 Lily and Oliver: 27)

OLIVER: I'm closing up the shop. I've just flipped the open to the closed sign. I'm humming a song. I walk over to the counter and lock up the cash register. I find my car keys lodged under a mountain of paper work. I twirl the keys around my finger and put them into my pocket. I turn the lights out.

"Oliver?!"

My head snaps to Lily who is standing by the back door. "Oliver I'm… I'm bleeding."

She looks so small and fragile there.

"Where? What do you mean?" My heart is racing. The baby? The baby!

"It's like… like a period kind of bleeding."

I race over to her and we get into the car and I drive as fast as I can to the hospital. Speed limits be damned!

…We are sitting on a hospital bed. I'm holding Lily as she cries into my jacket. A miscarriage. A fucking miscarriage. I'm upset and torn between screaming and crying. I want to protect her. I want to keep her safe and give her what she needs and deserves… but I can't.

I feel helpless.

I feel powerless.

Where is my wife? Is she buried under all this sorrow and pain?

(March 10, 2018 Oliver and Lily: 27)

LILY: I never got a chance to tell Miley or my parents about the baby, now I won't ever have to. Jake and Miley have been blessed with a little boy. We're going to see them today. I can make it through this.

"Good! You're here!" Jakes smiles answering the door. Oliver and I follow them into the house. I try not to trip over numerous toys and packages.

Miley is sitting in a big armchair holding the little man. She is smiling and making silly faces at her bundle of joy. I cringe.

Miley spots us and waves us over. I notice Oliver's stiffness around her, I can't help but revert back to that summer day in the book shop, although it could have all just been my imagination. Miley looks happy and content with Jake and their newborn.

"This is James, named after Jake's father." Miley smiles introducing us to the baby.

I can't help it I crack a smile. I hold out my hand and say, "How do you do James?" The baby drools and rolls it's head to look at me.

I hear Oliver laugh quietly from behind me. Jake has never looked happier, aside from their wedding. He is bouncing around the house getting Miley and James whatever they need. Oliver and I sit on the couch and I reach for his hand.

He gives me a weak smile and I kiss him softly. I lean in and whisper in his ear, "I have you. That is enough."

Oliver lets out a shaky breath and mouths, "Yea?"

When Miley and Jake are not looking and are sitting in the other room I kiss him fully and deeply on the mouth.

"Yes." I say. "Yes."

(May 28, 2018 Lily: 27 and 25)

LILY: I'm reading a book about Cornell's Aviary boxes. It's extremely interesting. Oliver is gone for the moment, picking up the new order of CD's. I'm about to turn the page when there is a loud thump in the bathroom. I quickly swing my legs over the edge of the bed and find myself slipping into my bathrobe. I look tired.

"Hey." The other me says groggily.

"Come on you look like you need some sleep. Where are you coming from?"

"The sleeping lab, I was getting my head scanned."

"Oh." I say, I remember that. The other Lily is twenty five. She lies down in the bed and pulls the covers up over her head. A moment later she is gone. I pick my book back up and return to my reading.

(May 28, 2016 Lily and Oliver: 25)

LILY: I arrive at the sleep lab exhausted, just like Doctor Brown had instructed. I'm a little nervous, but I'm so tired that I can barely concentrate.

"Lay down here." Cindy says while writing something down on her clipboard.

I seat myself on a small uncomfortable bed. There are no windows in this room. The walls are painted a gloomy gray except one that has a large one-way mirror; behind it is another one of Cindy's partners.

The lab technician, Harriet, puts cream on my head and the very top of my chest, after I unbutton two buttons, and tapes the wires in place. The room is dim and cool, I shiver. Everything is set. Harriet bids me goodnight and Cindy flips on a few monitors and leaves.

I settle into the bed carefully and as soon as my head hits the hard pillow, I'm fast asleep. I dream of my old kitten Kit-Kat I imagine playing with the brown kitten in a yellow field of sunflowers. Next my mind brings me to the old skate parks. I'm making a sharp turn on my old orange skateboard and I fly off of it and land in the dirt.

Suddenly I'm walking with Oliver down a long winding road. We are laughing and holding hands it's peaceful. But then I see a dark shadow looming over us. I scream and the two of us run but the dark figure catches me. I'm screaming and screaming. My heart is pounding. I wake up back in the sleep lab sweating.

I turn back over and fall back asleep. I'm dreaming that I' am in a bright place. I can't see anything. I can't see! I'm thrashing my arms around and shaking my head. There is a lullaby singing hauntingly in my head: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Someone is holding me down. I feel sick! I feel something cold rip out my-

"Holy shit she's bleeding!"

I wake to find Brown and her crew standing over me. I have a bloody nose. The other doctors look worried and upset but Cindy has a jubilant smile on her face.

"Did you get that?" I ask.

"It was perfect." Cindy replies.

"Great." I say and vanish.

(June I, 2016 Lily and Oliver: 25)

OLIVER: Lily's face is crumpled and droopy with sleep. Her face has pillowcase lines all over it. She turns to me and whispers, "Say the poem about the two lovers on the carpet." I rack my mind for the poem. I remember doing a report in my senior year about a German poem about… oh! I remember now.

I clear my throat and begin,

"Engel: Wenn es gab einen Ort den wir von nicht gewusst haben, und dort, auf einem unsayable Teppich, Liebhaber haben dargestellt was sie nie könnten bringen zu Herrschaft hier- die mutigen

Heldentaten von ihren hochfliegenden Herzen, ihre Türme des Vergnügens, ihrer Leitern, dass lang hat, da Stehen gewesen ist, wo es keinen Boden gab, der nur auf einander lehnt, zitternd- und

könnten alle dies, vor den umgebenden Zuschauern, die unzähligen lautlosen Verstorbenen beherrschen: Wird diese dann Wurf ihr Finale hinunter, ewig hat gespart, ewig versteckt, unbekannt zu

uns, ewig gültige Münzen des Glücks vor dem an zuletzt echt lächelnd Paar auf dem befriedigten Teppich?"

Lily is please after I finish. "Brava, Brava, it was beautiful."

"I can't believe I remember that." I say marveling at my own abilities.

Lily then tilts her head at me and repeats the poem in English.

"Angel!: If there were a place that we didn't know of, and there,

on some unsayable carpet, lovers displayed

what they could never bring to mastery here- the bold

exploits of their high-flying hearts,

their towers of pleasure, their ladders

that have long since been standing where there was no ground

leaning

just on each other, trembling- and could master all this,

before the surrounding spectators, the innumerable soundless dead:

Would these, then, throw down their final, forever saved-up,

forever hidden, unknown to us, eternally valid

coins of happiness before the at last

genuinely smiling pair on the gratified

carpet?"

"I think foreign languages should be a super power or something." I say after her translation.

"You think?"

"Oh yeah! How cool is it to run around and say random things in French or German and no one know what the hell you're talking about!"

"Unless they knew German or French." Lily giggles.

"Fille astucieuse." I snicker.

"You have taught me well oh wise one."

We kiss and it's times like these that I forget that at any moment she could disappear. During these few abrupt moments we are a normal happy couple. I thank God for every second like this I get.

…..

Leave your thoughts.

Lazy Days

In case you care here is the poem again it is very lovely:

Angel!: If there were a place that we didn't know of, and there,