Disclaimer Apologies to Ian McEwan, who wrote a wonderful book, to Christopher Hampton, who wrote the script. Thank you to Joe Wright for his vision, and to Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai and the rest of the cast for bringing Joe's vision to life.

All rights to those who own them. I claim nothing.

A "What if...?" Story. "What if Robbie made it home?

Love Never Dies

by

Ninja Elizabeth

Chapter 4: Reunion

Robbie sat up and sipped the hot cup of Earl Grey tea he had asked for. He still didn't feel very good but he always liked the way hot tea felt going down when he was sick. When he was sick his mother would make him tea. He missed drinking hot tea. He didn't get tea or any hot drinks in prison. In the Army tea was a luxury and a lowly Private such as himself was never able to acquire any. When he was able to get some it tasted horrible and there was no sugar. He liked his tea with two sugars. The nice nurse at his side when he woke up made it for him and put in the sugar he asked for. As he savored his tea he thought of the last time he had had a decent cup. It was with Cecilia the last time he had seen her at the teahouse. He smiled as he remembered the vision of her standing there looking at him in her nurse's uniform.

With his cup to his lips, there over the rim, he saw it. His vision, his beautiful nurse was walking toward him with that tall, deliberate, sexy stride of hers. He closed his eyes tightly. He didn't want it to be a dream. So many times he had dreamed of the day when he would see his Cecilia again. So many times he would dream of her there with him only to be awakened by Mace's snoring or Nettle talking in his sleep somewhere in France on the way to Dunkirk. Was she really walking toward him? It had to be real this time. He smelled tea, hot tea, under his nose. He opened his eyes. His vision was at his side smiling at him. He just stared.

Cecilia chuckled at the sight of Robbie, blue eyes staring at her over the rim of cup of tea. "Robbie, has the cup stuck to your lips?"

He lowered the cup and giggled sheepishly not realizing that he had been frozen like that staring at her over the rim of his cup.

Cecilia took the cup from his hands and placed it on the saucer. She cupped his bearded face in her hands and leaned of and kissed him. "You look terrible. Don't smell so good either, darling." She teased. "I hope you haven't grown too attached to that beard. I hate it."

"You look the same." he smiled. "And you don't smell so good either. As for the beard it's attached to my face."

Cecilia chuckled then turned to Nurse Bennet. "Would you be so kind as to fetch the shaving kit from my foot locker?" she asked. "There is also a small wrapped package tied with blue and green ribbon. Bring that as well."

"I will," with that Nurse Bennet left Cecilia with the soldier.

Robbie raised a finger to wipe away Cecilia's tears. "Please don't cry, Cee." He replied tenderly. "I hate seeing you cry."

"I'm sorry. But they aren't all for you. I was talking to Briony."

"So she was here." Robbie replied. "Did I hurt her?"

"Would it matter?" Cecilia responded. "She would have deserved it."

"Yes, it would matter. I've already been sent to prison for a crime I didn't commit. I don't want to go for one that I did." He replied.

"I'm sorry. She just frustrates me so." She responded. "I almost hit her. I probably would have if Nurse Bingley did not enter when she did to tell me you had awakened. And no, darling, you did not hurt anything more than her pride."

Robbie looked down at his chest. His wound was no longer staring at him. It was now concealed under a bandage. It still hurt but it was a nice kind of healing hurt not tormenting him like it had been during the trek to the shore. He was certain that his wound had been cleaned and dressed. He suspected the piece of shrapnel had been taken out as well. He looked at the nurse beside him. It was Cecilia. It still didn't seem real.

"You're not out of the woods yet. Your infection has spread and still may attack your system. Your fever is down but not yet completely broken." she replied wiping his face with a cool towel. "The piece of shrapnel has been removed and your wound has been cleaned, but until the infection clears we cannot stitch you up. You've made it this far. Please don't give up now."

Robbie smiled and placed a hand on Cecilia's cheek. "Cee, do you have to talk to me like a nurse?" he asked. "I've missed you. I thought of you, read your letters and/or looked at the picture you gave me every day."

Cecilia cried. She knew that she shouldn't kiss him while on duty but she didn't care. She leaned in and kissed him again, more passionately than the first time. "I love you. I've missed you."

It wasn't Nurse Bennet who brought the shaving kit. It was Sister Drummond. She set it down next to the bowl of what was once ice then turned her attention to Cecilia. "You know it's against regulations to bring personal items into the ward."

Cecilia looked at Sister Drummond. She wondered if she had seen her kissing Robbie. "I've been certified to shave faces. It's something we do at the EMS. Barber services." She replied. "Sometimes all a soldier really needs to feel better is a haircut and a close shave. I'm hopeless when it comes hair but I can give a man a shave that will rival any barber."

"I never thought of that, but that does make sense. Sometimes I think, here in the ward, we forget that the soldiers are only human after all. Something like a close shave could work wonders."

"Exactly. Take Private Turner, for example." Cecilia thought it funny to call the one she had know all her life as simply 'Robbie', 'Private Turner'. "I'm sure like many of the normally clean shaven soldiers I've shaved, the beard feels heavy. It's itchy and scratchy and one just wants to rip it off. He feels filthy and unclean."

Robbie was nodding. Cecilia put it into words perfectly. She did understand.

Sister Drummond allowed herself a little laugh. She turned to the Private. "Now I want you to behave yourself and I will allow Sister Tallis to give you a shave. Don't do anything that will get yourself in more trouble." Not that he was in any trouble, but she was in a good mood and felt like teasing her Ward Sister and her lover. Marjorie then turned to Cecilia. She slipped a small package wrapped in brown paper tied with blue and green ribbons into her hand and whispered in her ear. "After his shave I want you to promise me you are going straight to the office and have a rest on the hide-away bed."

"I promise," Cecilia replied.

With that said, Sister Marjorie Drummond walked away.

Robbie picked up his now lukewarm cup of tea and drank it. It still tasted better than anything he had in a long time. He watched Cecilia as she opened her shaving kit and prepared to shave his face. He was excited. He had always shaved himself. He never had the luxury of being able to afford or to have the time of going into town to a barber. The first time he had had anyone else shave him was in prison. He hated the prison barber. He always ended up cutting his face. He continued to watch Cecilia as she fluffed out a small sheet and tied it around his neck. She then, with the care and precision that came with her being a nurse he was certain, laid out the instruments she needed from her kit.

Cecilia paused a moment from her ritual and looked at Robbie. She smiled at him. He looked away sheepishly, knowing he had been staring. She laughed and went back to preparing for his shave.

He felt silly at how excited it made him to watch Cecilia prepare the shaving soap but he couldn't help himself. He had only shaved on the battlefield only when it was absolutely necessary. It wasn't sanitary and there usually wasn't must time. He had to do it dry. He hated that most of all. There was also something slightly erotic about the way Cecilia stropped the straight razor on the sharpening leather, or it was just the lack of any female contact for the past five years, replaying the same fantasies with Cecilia over and over that something new excited him. The words of the prison psychiatrist taunted him. 'The subject may become dangerously inflamed should he see her.' Robbie burst out laughing.

"What's so funny, darling?" Cecilia asked turning toward him with the cup of shaving soap and brush in hand.

"Nothing, Cee," he answered. "My mind was just wandering, that's all. I always shaved myself until I went to prison. I haven't had a decent shave since I left the bungalow that hot summer afternoon for dinner. And never in my wildest fantasies did I ever think of you giving me a shave."

Cecilia smiled as she began to lather up his face. "And what kind of things did I do in your wild fantasies then?" She asked out of curiosity.

Robbie flushed with embarrassment but it couldn't be seen as his face was buried under the cool lather. "Um, you gave me a foot massage and a pedicure once." He answered with one of the tamer fantasies.

"Did I paint your toenails too?" She asked sparing him having to answer by tilting his head back. "Now hold still."

Robbie relaxed under the care of his barber, his nurse, his beautiful Cecilia as she ran the blade across his whiskers. The feel of the clean cold steel against his skin was wonderful. No wonder men liked to have a barber shave them. Had always considered it a 'lazy luxury' but now he could see why one would pay someone to give them a shave. When she was done she had a bowl of ice cold water for him to rinse his face off waiting for him. The shock of the cold water on his now naked cheeks was heavenly. He could feel his face again. His beard was gone. She handed him a soft towel to pad his face dry.

Cecilia handed him the small package that Marjorie has slipped her in exchange for the towel.

"What's this?" Robbie asked with excitement. A present!

"I bought it for you," she replied softly. "I had planned to give it to you when we met up at the cottage."

Excitedly, like a little boy on Christmas morning, Robbie tugged at the ribbons. Blue and green, he noted, their favorite colors intertwined as one. He tore at the paper. It was aftershave lotion. He stared at it for a while.

"I didn't know what to get you, I'm sorry." Cecilia replied.

"No! It's a wonderful gift!" Robbie replied sincerely as he opened it. He wanted to smell it and put some on. It smelled and felt so much nicer than the usual cheap astringent he used. "Thank you. I'm afraid I don't, and probably wouldn't have had anything for you."

Cecilia cupped his cheek. "It's all right. Seeing and spending time with you would have been all I needed." She kissed his cheek before moving to his lips. She kissed him as though she didn't have a care in the world. The man she loved was home, and at the moment it was all that mattered. The aftershave lotion smelled nice on him, not too perfumed and not like medicine.

Finally she pulled away. "Robbie?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Robbie smiled. "I love you, Cecilia."

She cupped his clean shaven face in her hands. He almost looked like her Robbie again. He needed a haircut. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss before turning to her shaving things and begun to clean up. She then turned back to Robbie. She did her best to fix his hair but it was hopeless.

He chuckled.

She kissed him again then tucked him in before leaving his side.