Well, last chapter, hope you enjoy. I mean, as much as you can enjoy a sad story.

Yesterday, I had watched as he was falling, and that feeling of dread felt like it was about to tear me apart. I had left the room in a daze, having to tell someone a patient had...

I didn't want to admit that to myself.

I stood in his room, the one that was pure white like all the others. There was no reason to like it any more than any other one, but...I did. I couldn't even hide that from myself.

I looked around, then opened the window. I saw some men carrying a coffin, and a terrible feeling rushed through me. I closed my eyes, and turned away from the window. There was no reason to think any differently about that coffin than any others.

I remembered that past week so clearly, but only bits of it. I remembered the times with him. I won't even think about him with disgust any more. There was no reason to dislike him any more than any others.

I walked briskly to the door, hoping to exit and forget all about this week. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

I accidentally hit the trash can on my way out, the one with paper airplanes in it that I never bothered to get rid of, and I looked down at them as they tumbled onto the ground. I squinted as one slightly unfolded and picked it up. Flattening it out to its original form, my eyes widened.

The picture was of me.

I noticed two things as I ran over to the drawer where he had reached to get his envelope. First, I was smiling in the picture, which I hadn't done since...a long time...and even then, it was a fake smile. Second, I wasn't wearing my glasses. How did he know...about the promise...?

I flung open the drawer, the force sending a dozen sheets of paper into the air. They were all the same. Some were rough, some were perfect, some were shaky. I looked down at the envelope in my hand and felt my heart sink.

I opened it slowly, feeling my breath begin to shake. Inside, there was a paper flower. A pink paper flower. Behind it was a drawing. It was a drawing of me, unfinished and shaky.

I realized I was breathing quickly, and that feeling like dread came over me...but it couldn't be dread, because I felt two feelings. One was dread, for sure, but one was nicer.

I looked out the window, but of course the people carrying the coffin were gone. I ran through the hospital, driven by the feelings welling up inside of me. I ran out of his room, through hallways, past the room with music, out the door, and to where the hospital held funerals.

Then I saw him. His unmoving form, sitting in a coffin of fake flowers. I gasped, even though I already knew he was gone. I went up to the edge of his coffin.

"You let me forget it...until now..." I started quietly. "You always knew...your fate...didn't you? Yet you kept smiling. Why?" I could feel my voice starting to quiver.

"I remember the word. The word that I've kept hidden away for so long, the one I didn't tell you..." I paused, "The one I couldn't tell you."

I held back the urge to stop. "It's all your fault," I said, my voice cracking. "Now I've remembered it, and I'll tell you, even though it's still a blurry memory."

"The name of that word...just a four letter word...you already know it, don't you?" I drew in a quick breath. "Love."

I closed my eyes and took off my glasses, one tear squeezing out to sit next to the corner of my eye. I folded the glasses and placed them gently next to him, the patient that had gotten me to...

Smile.

I smiled; it was a small smile, representing gratitude, peace, happiness, relief, and anything a smile should represent. I closed my eyes again and pressed the pink paper to my lips. The mirage that had disappeared at the end of the day, did it really mean anything?

I didn't know, but I knew I could no longer be surrounded by the thorns I once accepted. I wanted to see the same happiness that patient saw, the one that kept him smiling, even when the end was near.

Love.