“He told me to kick your butt right out of this hospital bed, Sebastian. You promised him you’d go surfing in California after this tour; a fact that you completely forgot to mention to me, I might add. Do you want to have our honeymoon in California, tesoro? Because I don’t care where we have it. Anywhere you like, my love. Sebastian, can you hear me? I love you so much – we have our whole lives ahead of us. I’ll go anywhere, do anything to be with you. Just please wake up, tesoro.”
A medic came past and checked the machine’s readouts, before methodically pushing some more meds into the IV bag that was suspended next to the bed.
“You a friend of his, ma’am?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Perhaps you can help me then? We found a letter on him when he was brought in, but the name isn’t anyone on his emergency contact list. We just held onto it, kinda hoping we could find someone to give it to. Do you know a ‘Carolina Hunter’ ma’am? We figured it was some relative of his, but so far we can’t trace her.”
I gasped slightly, then nodded. “Yes, I know her. I’ll make sure she gets it.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
He reached into a locker next to Sebastian’s bed and pulled out a muddy envelope. When he handed it to me, I realized it wasn’t covered in dirt, but blood – Sebastian’s blood. The medic shrugged his apology, and walked away to check on his next patient.
My hands shook as I tore open the envelope. There was a single sheet of lined paper with a ragged edge inside, probably torn from a notebook. One side contained a short message in Sebastian’s careful handwriting.
Caro, my love,
Just writing these words makes me happier than I can remember being for a very long time – ten years, in fact.
I’m not one for words – I leave that to you – my beautiful, talented Caro. But we’ve had the news we were waiting for and soon we’ll be heading out. I hope you never read this letter, but if you do, it means I’ve gone on to the next big adventure.
Knowing that you are in the world and wearing my ring, makes me the happiest man alive, and the last few weeks have been the best and happiest of my whole life.
Be happy, Caro, because that’s what you deserve.
I love you, I have always loved you, and wherever I go after this world, I will always love you. Sempre e per sempre.
Sebastian
I clutched his letter to my chest, trying to find a way to fill the aching void. I couldn’t understand why my heart was still beating.
I gave up trying to be strong. I lay my head next to his hand, and my tears soaked into the crisp, white sheet.
My love was slipping away from me, and there was nothing I could do.
The night passed and I sat staring at Sebastian’s face, memorizing every line and angle: the softness of his cheeks, now covered with a fine, light brown stubble; the full, sensual lips, distorted by the breathing tube that had been placed into his throat; the strong, straight nose; the wide forehead; the beautiful symmetry of his cheekbones. But his lovely eyes, the windows to his sweet soul, were hidden.
I whispered my secrets to him, all my desires and fears, hoping that in some way he knew that I was with him. I ran my fingers along the back of his hand and up his forearm, tracing the faint veins, knowing that they were still pumping blood through his body, and that the fight wasn’t over.
David returned at some point, although whether it was day or night by then, I couldn’t tell.
“Caroline, perhaps you should try and get some sleep. I’ve arranged for you to have a cot-bed in the doctors’ lounge. Well, it’s not much of a lounge, more of a shed really.”
“Thank you, David. That’s very kind of you. Maybe later.”
He looked at me thoughtfully.
“He’s holding on, Caroline. He’s strong, but… they’re trying to decide whether to medivac him to Germany. It just depends on… whether he’s stable enough to make the journey.”
I stared up at him.
“Why are you being so nice to me, David? I always thought you must hate me after… everything that happened.”
He looked surprised, then rubbed a hand tiredly across his cheeks.
“I tried to hate you. I thought I did, for a while, but I couldn’t really. I knew it was my fault.”
I blinked with surprise, amazed by his words.
“Why did you think that? I was the one who… had the affair.”