That night we laid in bed and things were different, stared into each others eyes for a long while just hold each other close. For the first time since we fell in love we were now able to think about a future together. There was no telling what the long term damage would be to his body from over a years worth of poison to his system, but we knew he would be around longer then anyone thought. His eyes became misty and I caressed his face, he turned into my hand to kiss my palm: Daniel what's wrong?
"Elizabeth I love you, I'm, in love with you and I cannot imagine my life without you. But you married a dying man, your way out of this was my death. I need you to know that if you want out I'll let you go and I will give you anything you want." I looked at him repulsed that he could think that of me.
"My way out? My way out was on our wedding day when you told me I was free to go. I could have left then but I didn't. I didn't fall in love with you through some morbid fucked up fantasy of being with a dying man. I fell in love with you in-spite of your death sentence. I pushed you away trying to fight my feelings because you were dying. How can you not know Daniel, I would rather go through the worst pain imaginable a thousand times over to be with you for a mere few months, then to never experience the love and happiness you've given me." Tears falling freely from my eyes, I choked back the lump in my throat to continue: It wasn't that long ago that marriage and children were the furthest thing from my mind, but after everything I've been through, being your wife and the mother of your children is the thing I want most, a long and happy life with the man I love.
"Children?" He grinned at me and wiggled his brows making me laugh as the tears shook off my cheeks. He became serious again as he touched my belly, looking down at it and back at me: It IS going to be a long and happy life. I smiled at him and we sat in silence for a few moments longer before going to bed, he laid behind me with his arm around my stomach holding me and our unborn baby.
A few days went by and Daniel seemed to finally be feeling a little better, all of the little side effects left but his muscles were still very weak, after over a year of being sick and practically bed ridden his muscles had atrophied and he wouldn't know how bad the damage was until we could freely go to the Dr. and probably physical therapy as well.
I went to visit Olivia in the morning and hold her for a little while, I hadn't spent as much time at the hospital because I didn't trust anyone at the house and was afraid of leaving Daniel alone. On the way out of the hospital I noticed a man staring at me, he was short for a man but still a little taller then I am, he was bald and he wore jeans and a T-shirt with a black leather jacket. He watched me as I walked out of the building, down the steps and across the street, his eyes never leaving me, not once. He made me feel uncomfortable so much so that I called Daniel to stay on the phone with me till I got in the car. I gave him his description just in case, I got in my car and locked the door while telling Daniel every step I made, I heard his sigh of relief: Just get you ass home beautiful.
As I drove out of the parking lot I noticed the man was gone. I made it to the street and started for home, about 15 minutes in I noticed a red car about 3 cars back, every move I made they followed, every time I turned they did, I decided I would do something unexpected to see if they would follow me, I pulled into a coffee stand and ordered a coffee, they pulled in and parked in the small lot. I tried to see through the window but they were tented and he puled in facing away from me. I left and when I made it back to the house I pulled into the garage and made sure it shut before getting out. I went into the house and immediately went to Daniels room to tell him about what had happened.
His face became dark as he thought, I waited patiently for him to respond: Something isn't Lizzie, you need to leave.
"There's no way in hell that I am leaving you here alone, we go together or not at all"
"Lizzie, someone was following you and possibly after you, whoever it was followed you all the way home, you need to leave right now, you have my card, you can pull out all of it and buy everything in cash, just go"
"No Daniel!"
"Elizabeth! Think of Olie, think of… our baby inside if you!" Tears fell from his eyes and I could hear a small whimper escape his lips as he spoke. I grabbed his shirt pulling myself to his chest as our lips crashed together into a deep and passionate kiss as we both cried.
"HOW SWEET!" We both jumped at the gravely deep voice of a man presenting himself in the room. We snapped our heads in unison toward the voice to see the bald man from the hospital.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Daniel asked but the man just chuckled as he stared at me: Who I am isnt important, why I'm here is, I was hired to do a job… Well two in fact.
"Whatever they paid you I can double it" Daniel pulled me closer as if proximity could keep him from hurting me. I stayed silent hoping Daniel would be able to persuade him.
"Yeah even so, I cant turn in a client, its just bad for business, not to mention I've learned the hard way not to trust a target and to never get greedy on a job." He lifted his shirt and pointed at a very ugly scar on his stomach where it looked like he had been cut deeply.