Disclaimer: I don't own the right's to Christy the only thing I own is my crazy imagination that came up with this story.
A/N ok so I know most of you thought the last chapter was the end well it wasn't there is more hehehe. I want to thank hippogriff-tamer for beta-ing this for me.
Alice couldn't believe that Margarete had actually blessed the couple. Oh, she knew that Neil loved Christy, in fact, she had known long before her daughter returned to the Cove months before. She, however, had not known Christy's true feelings for the doctor. She dared to look over at her son-in-law noticing his mixed feelings playing over his face. She knew that he should go after Christy and tell her of his true feelings for her.
Neil, meanwhile, stood there looking at the door Christy had just run through. He couldn't believe that she really did love him. He had hoped and dreamed that she would someday come to love him but he couldn't quite believe that she really did. He still thought about following her, his need to comfort her and hold her in the way he had only dreamed about running through his mind. He also thought about his desire to finally tell her that he was undeniably in love with her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He was interrupted from his musings by Alice.
"Neil, you need to go after her," Alice prodded gently, a small smile lighting her lips and eyes.
He needed no other urging and was out the door in a flash.
Christy, having fled the cabin, ran to the rivers edge. She couldn't believe that she had just told Neil her true feelings. She hadn't even allowed him to speak a word before she had fled in embarrassment. She didn't want to have to face the possible rejection she was expecting so she had run. Alice would have said she was running away and it would be true. Knowing that she was young and that Neil was at least ten years older than her, she knew she shouldn't have just blurted it out the way she had. Looking out over the bubbling river she fell to her knees, sobs wracking her tiny body. She was still sobbing by the river when Neil found her.
"Christy?" he called out softly as he knelt down beside her sobbing form, his heart going out to the young woman. Before long he simply pulled her into a gentle embrace and allowed her to cry, though it broke his heart to see her in such distress.
"Hold me," came her whispered sob against his shoulder.
He smiled and thought to himself 'always'. Instead he held her tighter against him relishing her body's gentle curves against his much stockier form.
Neither could ever say how long they knelt there by the river holding each other but when they finally parted, he looked down into her tear-stained face and into her brilliant blue eyes waiting for her to tell him the reason she had run from the cabin the way she had.
She looked into his hazel eyes and knew he was waiting for her to tell him exactly why she had run from the cabin. She knew she had to tell him but was unable to find the words. Her admission surprised her though it shouldn't have. The reason she had come to his cabin earlier had been because Fairlight had made her see that it was he, Doctor Neil MacNeil, was the man that she loved. He was the one that she thought of every morning when she awoke and the one she thought of before she fell asleep. He was the one who made her blood boil in more ways than one and he was her best friend. He was the one she told her deepest hopes and dreams too. She loved him and now that she thought about it, had loved him for a long time. She had defended him every time someone tried to put him down; looked to him for support and now she knew that there was only one thing that hampered the last step into their growing relationship. It was the one thing that they battled over and it was the one thing that they couldn't seem to move beyond. Until he accepted God into his life they were doomed to stay apart.
"Neil," she finally said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Yes," he replied just as softly.
"I didn't want to tell you like I did," she said dropping her eyes to the ground. She hoped that he would understand what she was referring to.
He did understand what she was referring to. He knew she hadn't planned to tell him that she loved him like she had but with everything that had happened in the last few hours he understood the strain she had been under and forgave her for her hasty words and after words yet he knew she had meant them. "I know," he whispered, as he gently caressed her back.
Suddenly, Christy decided to tell him why she came to the cabin earlier. She needed him to know why it had hurt her to see him in his dead wife's embrace and why she had raced off like the very devil was after her. Pulling back slightly, she looked up into his eyes and said, "Neil, I do love you. I think I have for a while and was too blind too see it. That was until Fairlight and I were talking and I asked her something and she turned it around and began asking me some rather interesting questions. She made me realize that you are the one that I love. That's why I came here earlier. I couldn't wait to tell you but then I saw you and Margarete embracing and I felt like a fool for coming so I left. I should have known you would follow me but I was too upset about what I had seen to stop. I guess I was embarrassed by the fact, for a brief moment I had let myself dream and hope before seeing it come crashing down around me realizing that you were still married and I couldn't tell you how I felt."
He was at a loss for words. He knew that if she knew what was going on inside his head right then she would be blushing to the tips of her toes but instead he was humbled that this little woman loved him; loved him so much that she had left when she had seen him with his now dead wife. Neil decided that he couldn't hold back anymore and slowly cupped her face in his hands and bent towards her slowly.
Christy instantly knew what he was abut to do and waited expectantly for the kiss she was about to receive from the man she loved.
He placed his lips over hers in a tender kiss, showing her without words how much she meant to him. Christy was shocked by the intensity she felt from his simple kiss. David's kisses had never sent her heart soaring but Neil's... She felt like she was soaring over the mountains with that one gentle kiss. She likened his kiss to coming home. For that is how she felt. No longer did she feel the confused emotions that had been tearing at her heart. She knew where it was and who she belonged with. Before long she allowed their kiss to deepen as each tried to show the depth of their feelings for the other. She was slightly surprised by the desire that engulfed her when the kiss turned passionate.
He pulled back from the kiss only to place gentle kisses along her soft smooth cheek up to her brow. With each little kiss he told her how much he loved her.
She was a little shocked by his declaration. She knew he loved her, seeing it in his eyes on several occasions but as she had said before had been to blind to see it for what it truly was. Before too long though he broke away and asked softly, "Christy lass, may I ask you something?"
"Anything," she whispered breathlessly, placing a hand over his erratically beating heart and the other lovingly to his cheek.
He loved the feel of her hands touching him as he had only dreamed of her touching him. Taking a calming breath, he looked into the eyes of his beloved and whispered, "May I call your Father and ask permission to court you?"
She didn't speak for fear no words would come to her. Instead she nodded, fresh tears coming to her eyes but they were not tears of sadness but tears of joy.
He stood and pulled her up into his arms spinning her around joy filling his soul. Her laughter was contagious and he began to laugh with her.
"I love you Christy Huddleston."
"I love you too Neil MacNeil."
A/N this is not the end yet..... please feel free to leave a comment in the little grey box you know you want too so go on do it it won't hurt to try anyway.