Sleepless Night

(2:30am)

It seemed as if I had just closed my eyes for the night when I was suddenly awakened from my slumber by someone calling my name…or better yet, my nick name.

"Red…"

What the…?

After quickly turning my head towards the door to my room, I had to will my eyes to adjust to the dark for a second to make sure the person I was seeing was really there.

Fortunately for me, after a minute of staring at the person and then even going as far as pinching myself on the arm to see if I was dreaming or not, I realized that it was the person who I thought it to be.

"Mark…? What are you doing here?"

Without bothering to remove his sunglasses from his face, although I could tell he was staring right at me, Mark replied, in his usual deep baritone voice: "What? You didn't think I'd hear you were somewhere in the hospital right now and not show up, did you…? I thought you knew me better than that by now, Red."

Knowing that I should have known him better than that by now caused me to look down at my hands; ashamed that I had put that passed him.

"You'll have to thank your boy, Matt, for bringing me here."

Matt?

Looking up at these words, I was surprised to notice for the first time Matt standing slightly behind Mark wearing a look that I couldn't quite read in the dark too well.

I wish one of them would turn the light on so we could at least see one another without squinting so hard…

As if reading my thoughts, Mark quickly replied: "I would turn the light on but we're not really supposed to be in here…your friend Jeff is outside keeping the nurses occupied with his stories of being a major heart-throb back in high school--"

"You know how much of an exaggerator my little brother is." Matt half joked, causing the slight tension in the room to lessen up a little…or at least for the moment anyway.

"So, you want to tell us what happened, Red?

Mark did always like getting straight to the point I thought to myself before letting out a small sigh and then starting the story from the beginning: "I didn't mean for it to happen the way it did. I hadn't been sleeping that well lately so I figured I'd take a couple of the sleeping pills that they gave me back when I hurt my neck a few months ago to knock me out for awhile. But then thinking those two might not do the trick, I took a couple more…and then I woke up here to them pumping my stomach. And that's all I can remember."

Or better yet, that's all I'm going to tell you...

Knowing that all three of us knew there was more to the story than I was letting on caused me not to be that surprised when Matt said: "I don't understand…so taking four sleeping pills caused you to have to get your stomach pumped and have you, as Jeff said, staying here on observation for the rest of the week?"

No…me taking those pills and being pregnant is what had me get my stomach pumped and is keeping me here for the rest of week. I thought to myself, but knowing that this wasn't the way I wanted to reveal the news to Mark, I instead replied: "That and other stuff…but I think the doctors believe me when I say that I really didn't try to kill myself. That is the last thing I would ever think to do…I hope you guys can believe me, too."

It took almost a full minute, but before I could open my mouth to ask again if they believed me or not, Matt replied that he did. "And I'm sorry for being such a jerk to you these last few months. I didn't know having a bruised ego could make someone into a real asshole…I apologize—to both of you. I hope you guys can forgive me."

Wow, I didn't think he had it in him…

With that thought in mind, I slightly laughed to myself before telling the oldest Hardy that I forgave him and that I apologized as well for any thing mean I said to him while I was angry with him.

"Don't worry…I'm used to ignoring you." Matt half joked, causing me to slightly laugh again, but then after noticing Mark still hadn't said anything except for "apology accepted" to him, Matt quickly got serious and threw out: "Well, I think ya'll two have a lot more to talk about so I'm going to go find Jeff and see if there's a cafeteria in here that's open. Sixteen hours out on the open road sure makes a guy hungry. Talk to you later, Ames?"

After telling Matt that I looked foreword to it, I waited until he was fully out of the room before turning my attention back towards Mark, who was now staring at the floor in between us.

"Are you-?"

"Okay? Is that what you were about to ask me….? Am I okay?" Mark asked; his voice now dripping heavily with anger—reminding me of the last time we spoke when he got angry with me for not letting him go and beat Matt up after the elder Hardy had hit me.

I had promised myself after that never to let Mark get that angry with me again…I guess I failed.

"Do you know how it felt to be woken up by someone I had just finished getting into an altercation with a few weeks ago; telling me that the woman I'm in love with was just rushed to the hospital after attempting to kill herself? You would've thought that I needed an ambulance, I damn near died myself…so no, I am not okay."

Wow…

Even though I was shocked that someone this angry with me could yell at me without even raising his voice once, I was more shocked at the fact that Mark had just admitted to me that he loved me.

He can't be serious….

"You're in love with me?"

After shooting me, with what I assumed was, an incredulous look, Mark replied: "Did you not hear a damn word I just said…? Of course, I'm in love with you, Red. I've been in love with you ever since I can remember. Hell, I was in love with you the day I saw you at the club and gave you the key card to my room…I just didn't want to admit it to anyone including myself back then."

Feeling a set of fresh tears springing to my eyes, I had to will myself not to cry while asking: "And now?"

A question which Mark took a second to let hang in the air before replying: "And now…I'm willing to tell the whole world how much I love you, and how much I don't care who knows it 'cause I don't know what I'd do if I ever had to lose you again."

As if to hit home with his statement, Mark took the sunglasses he had been wearing off his face; revealing to me for the first time his dark red eyes.

Oh my god…

Seeing all the pain I had caused him in the last twenty four hours sent a flood of tears down my face and apologizes to come flying out of my mouth.

"I'm so sorry Mark. I never meant to hurt you. I love you so much, I never want to lose you either."

As if pleading for him to believe me, I stretched out my hand to his—asking him to come closer.

And fortunately for me, without even a second passing by, Mark grabbed first my hand, and then my arm and then my lips with his; inwardly promising me that he believed me and would never leave me.

Epilogue next