by Jillian Neal
The Governor hemmed, “That is true to a certain extent, but I think the fact that Fionna adores Dan more than life itself probably has a great deal to do with why she doesn’t feel anything dark from him. But whatever the reason, let’s get that ring back and see if maybe we can end this day with a smile on Dan and Fionna’s faces. I think they deserve that much.”
Together
Rainer and Garrett followed the Governor back into the waiting room. Several of the Angels had gone home, but had left cards, flowers, and balloons with well wishes for Fionna.
Logan’s hand was laced through Adeline’s, but fear and exhaustion still plagued his features.
“Logan.” The Governor moved to him. “How about I take you and your wife out for a little something to eat. We can come right back and maybe see Dan and Fionna for a little while before she goes to sleep,” he suggested, though Rainer noted that it was more of an order.
Looking like he was being thrown a lifeline just as the tidal waters threatened to engulf him, Logan nodded. Adeline looked relieved as well as they stood and followed the Governor out of the hospital.
Emily gave Rainer her sweet smile. “We gave Vindico their clothes and stuff when the nurses went in to change her bandages, so he’s giving her a bath and helping her change.”
Rainer wondered how long he needed to wait to let Vindico know that he and Garrett were back with the ring.
Garrett, who seemed much quicker that evening, texted Dan with the information that they’d returned and for him to let them know when he wanted the ring.
“Mrs. Vindico kind of got all mad again when Kara came out and told her that Dan was giving Fionna a bath.” Emily rolled her eyes dramatically. Garrett and Rainer both laughed harder than the story called for, but it felt good to laugh.
“Mom went home to see Abigail and the twins and to get them to bed. She’s coming right back.”
Garrett’s phone chirped and a broad grin spread across his face. He moved back to Fionna’s door and knocked. Vindico opened the door, looking much better now that he was wearing a clean polo and jeans. Garrett offered him his hand, and in a handshake he discreetly slipped him the ring.
~Garrett Haydenshire~
“Actually, would you, Rainer and Logan mind coming in for this?” Dan asked hesitantly.
“Dad took Logan out to talk. How about me and Rainer and Em?”
“That’ll do, I hope.”
Feeling his brow furrow, Garrett wondered why Dan wanted an audience for this. Rainer and Emily made a return trip to Fionna’s room.
Feeling relief wash through him again, Garrett grinned at Fionna. She looked so much better than the last time he’d stood by her bed.
Dan had washed her hair and had done a decent job of drying it, but she’d pulled up in a long ponytail. Some of the color had returned to her cheeks, and she was wearing one of Dan’s t-shirts. She looked much more like herself.
Someone had healed the bruises from Dan’s arms; Kara, Garrett assumed. “You look like you’re feeling a little better.” Emily grinned at Fionna.
“Yeah, well, he kind of has that effect.” Fionna reached for Dan’s hand again. He did his best to hide his deep regret, but Fionna saw through his efforts.
“Hey, Em, baby, come here.” Rainer guided her into his arms. Garrett joined them against the far wall to let Dan work.
Dan gazed at Fionna adoringly as she studied him, having discerned that he was up to something.
“Fi, baby, I love you so much.” Dan blinked back another round of tears.
She nodded. Her tears returned as well.
“I love you, too.” She sounded frightened. Dan leaned and kissed her forehead soothingly.
“And I know this is kind of a hell of a place to do this,” he lamented. He stood off of the bed, considering the logistics for a moment.
Figuring out that Dan was trying to calculate if Fionna would be able to see him if he got down on one knee as it hurt her to sit up or lean to her left side, Garrett shook his head. “Just do that part later, man.”
Seating himself beside her again, Dan drew a deep breath. “Fi, honey, I know that I can’t ever make up for all of the pain I’ve put you through, and I honestly don’t know why you still want me around.” The emotion settled thickly in his throat. Garrett squeezed his eyes shut and prayed that somehow, something better was on their horizon.
“Dan…” Fionna shook her head, disturbed over his admittance.
“Baby doll, I want to be with you forever, for as long as you want me.” He was unable to halt the tears this time. “So I was wondering if you’d do me the extraordinary honor of marrying me, Fionna?” He popped open the ring box.
Fionna’s eyes goggled as she took in the ring. “Dan, no, you don’t have to do this,” she began to sob.
Garrett understood immediately why he and Rainer were there.
“You don’t have to propose just because of the baby.” She cringed inward as she tried to argue.
“No, Fi, baby, just listen to me.” Garrett moved in. Dan urged him on. “He’s been planning this for a while. He bought the ring back when he went to New York.”
“ Months ago.” Rainer added.
“He actually had Uncle Tad design it before that,” Emily leapt on the bandwagon.
Fionna looked stunned as Dan nodded his adamant agreement through his own tears.
“What if this isn’t all okay? What if I can’t have more kids? I don’t want you to give up anything for me,” Fionna continued to sob.
“Fi, honey, you’re here. We’re here. By some miracle, I didn’t lose you, too. I could never, ever ask for more than that. I’m not the one giving up anything, Fionna, you are! Adeline told you that she healed you herself, and that you’re probably going to be fine. But even if that wasn’t true, I don’t care. I want to be with you. That’s all that matters to me. If you want kids, then we’ll adopt. As long as I have you, then that’s all I’ll ever need.”
A smile finally broke through Fionna’s anguish. She nodded. “Okay, yes,” she agreed. Her smile turned to a broad, delighted beam. It lit the entire room.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she announced as she tried to draw deep breaths when Dan slipped the ring on her finger.
“We should go.” Garrett gestured Rainer and Emily to the door.
“No,” Fionna fussed, “come tell me how pretty it is.”
Everyone laughed as they moved back to admire the ring.
“Just remember that I’m most definitely out of a job, and I may be headed to prison,” Dan huffed, only partially kidding.
Garrett had put forth a concerted effort not to think about the way Dan had killed Nic Wretchkinsides.
“I don’t care. I’ll be married to you in jail!”
Dan shook his head, still unable to believe just how much Fionna Styler loved and adored him.
~Dan Vindico~
“Okay, now go away, so I can kiss him.” Fionna was clearly feeling much more herself, much to Dan’s delight.
Rainer chuckled as he guided Emily out the door.
Garrett shook his head. “Geez, he puts a ring on your finger, you think you can just order everybody around.” He kissed Fionna’s forehead tenderly.
“Yes,” she giggled, but she shifted uncomfortably, and Dan knew instantly why she wanted everyone to leave.
He moved to her side, gently easing her body upright using all of his strength so she had to use almost none of her own.
“This is so embarrassing,” the tears starting to fall again.
“Baby doll, you just said that I get to be your husband, so this is my job. It really doesn’t bother me. Please let me take care of you,” Dan pled for the fourth time in the last few hours.
She couldn’t wear underwear or pants as her abdomen was still heavily bandaged. Taking her to the bathroom wasn’t difficult other than getting her there. He managed to guide her and roll the IV pole along as well.
He eased her along, watching over her as she made
tiny fragile steps.
He helped her sit and then closed the door behind him as he made his exit.
“Okay,” she called a few minutes later.
Dan reopened the door, and she was standing at the sink.
“Fionna,” he scolded. She wasn’t supposed to stand on her own. She looked sheepish, but he couldn’t continue to get on to her. She’d been through enough.
He helped her back into bed and tucked her back in, sealing heat in the blankets just like he did at home.
“I still don’t want to see anybody, but I kind of do want everyone to know we’re engaged.”
Grinning at her, Dan nodded his agreement. “How about if I go out in a little while and see everyone. I’ll tell them that you’ve just made me the luckiest guy in the entire Realm, then I’ll come back in here and we’ll see if we can’t get some sleep.”
She nodded, but then began crying again. Dan couldn’t stand to watch her cry, knowing that every tear was entirely his fault. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“Hey,” Dan cradled her as tenderly as he could. “Shh, Fi, baby it’s all my fault you didn’t think you could tell me. And it’s Pravus’ fault that this happened. None of this was your doing.”
“I was so scared,” she confessed, effectively shattering his heart.
“I know.” Dan let his tears fall in her hair. “But you don’t have to be scared anymore, and I will be here the entire time. We will get through this together, all of it.”
Fionna nodded against him. “I hated not telling you. I don’t ever want to keep anything from you again. It was horrible. I felt lost and like no one would ever be able to find me.”
“I will always search until I find you, Fionna, always. I just had to figure out how to get you back. And I don’t ever want you to keep anything from me again, either.”
“Are you going to be okay? I mean you had kind of the worst day ever, except for maybe…” she halted abruptly before she brought up Amelia’s death.
“It will be a long process for both of us.” Dan knew that the next few weeks would be particularly difficult. “Please don’t ever think that I’m not aware that my child was killed today. That it wasn’t real for me, because it was. I’m sick, Fi. A complete disaster, until I look into your eyes. So together, we’ll get through this.”
He wondered momentarily if there was somewhere he could take Fionna where they could both do a little healing.
His revelation seemed to restore her. She shuddered against him, and he held her close until she leaned back on the pillows and managed a timid smile up at him. It soothed his weary soul. When she smiled up at him, everything that had happened, and that stupid fragment of malignant energy he’d taken on, disappeared completely.
“Okay.” She let her eyes close as he continued brushing tender kisses on her forehead. “Will you go tell everyone that you put a ring on it?” she giggled, but then grimaced. It hurt to laugh.
Dan placed his hand tenderly over the bandages. He pushed soothing energy through the lose weave, and she relaxed.
“I will, baby doll, and I’ll be right back.”
“Not for too long.” She seemed to rethink her request.
“I won’t go at all if you don’t want me to, but if you do, then I’ll come right back. Here.” He reached and pulled her cell phone from her purse and placed it on the rolling tray that was beside the bed.
“If you get lonely, just text me, and I’ll come right back.”
“Will you send Mama and Emily back in to stay with me? Their energy feels good.”
“Of course.”
Weary Hope
He stared at all of the faces offering him tender remorse and hope, all of the people that loved him and Fionna.
“Ms. Styler, Fionna wants you and Emily. Would go sit with her for a few minutes?”
Smiling, Mrs. Styler patted Dan’s arm lovingly as she followed Emily into the room. Dan sank down in the chair between his father and Will.
“I’m so sorry, son.” Tears pricked his old man’s eyes. Dan could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen his father cry. The emotion choked him again.
“Me too, man, so sorry,” Will echoed.
“I don’t know whether to congratulate you or tell you how sorry I am first,” Fitzroy chuckled.
This brought a genuine grin from Dan, who stood to hug his best friend. “You didn’t have to come out here.”
Fitz hugged him fiercely. “No where else I’d be.”
Governor Haydenshire and Logan rejoined everyone in the waiting room. Adeline knocked and stepped into Fionna’s room to check her bandages and blood pressure again.
“You okay?” Dan quizzed Logan. He recalled that he’d had a hell of a day himself.
“Pretty sure I will be, eventually,” Logan allowed.
“You need me, you know where to find me,” Dan pledged.
Looking genuinely touched, Logan nodded his appreciation.
Turning back to the crowd, Dan smiled. “Well, after everything, I did convince her to marry me.”
Cheers lit from most everyone around him as Dan’s hand was shaken and his back slapped by numerous loved ones. His eyes fell on the two people seated, looking morose in the midst of all of the congratulations. One of them was Fionna’s father, so he wasn’t terribly surprised.
His brow furrowed as everyone returned to their seats. “Excuse me, but who the hell are you?” he demanded of the other guy seated nearby. He was not in the mood to deal with interlopers after all they’d been through.
Garrett chuckled and stepped up. “This is Jarred. I’ve told him about a dozen times to leave, but he insists that he’s not going until he sees Fi with his own eyes to make certain that she’s all right.”
“Mrs. Haydenshire.” Adeline peaked her head out of Fionna’s room. “Fionna was wondering if you’d come in and see her.”
“Of course, sweetheart.” Mrs. Haydenshire slipped quickly into Fionna’s room and closed the door softly behind her.
Dan’s mother stood. “I’m certain that she would like to see me as well.”
“Mother,” Dan bellowed ominously. “If Fionna wants to see you, she’ll ask for you. Sit down!”
“And you are not going to see Fionna!” He turned to Jarred, glaring at him hatefully.
“I think that should be up to Fionna,” Jarred quipped. “Once she knows I’m here, she’ll want to see me,” he insisted pompously.
Dan narrowed his eyes, feeling fury move through his waning energy. “You know what, fine. I’ve beaten the shit out of an endless number of men today. Loaded bullets up in the rest. But what the hell.” He moved back into Fionna’s room.
“Baby doll, Jarred is here and thinks that you’d like to see him,” he challenged indignantly. All of the women in the room had stopped talking abruptly when Dan had entered.
“What?” Fionna gasped and then clutched her abdomen. “You mean Jarred, Jarred?”
“Yes, that Jarred.”
“Why is he here? I do not want to see him! I don’t want to see anyone except the people in this room right now!”
“And she only wants us for a few minutes because then she just needs you Daniel,” Mrs. Haydenshire stated knowingly. Fionna’s mother nodded her adamant agreement.
“No where else I’d ever be,” he assured the women staring up at him. “Baby, I’ll be back whenever you want me, and I’ll take care of Jarred.”
Fionna gave him his smile. The first one he’d seen in several weeks. His heart thundered and then finally, after days and weeks, it managed to find its steadying beat. He blew her a kiss and closed the door.
“Yeah, Jarred,” Dan drawled furiously, “I’m gonna go ahead and tell you that my baby doesn’t ever want to see you. And if you try to go in that room, I’ll fix it so they’re admitting you next. I believe I informed you of this on the phone.”
“And we’ll help him,” Garrett assured Jarred, with Will and Fitz nodding adamantly. Fitzroy�
��s biceps rolled in anticipation. Will and Garrett wore the very same pompous smirk they’d always worn when they were challenged together.
“She said she didn’t want to see me?” Jarred was somehow shocked.
Rolling his eyes, Dan fought the urged to choke Jarred, but he was now wary of his temper, concerned that somehow the energy he’d taken on might be the cause. “Yes, my fiancée asked that I make certain that you leave before I go back in there, take care of anything at all that she might need, and then put her to bed.” Dan spelled out the relationship slowly for Jarred, listening to his friends snicker behind him.
“Why would you do all of that? Isn’t that what the staff here is for? I’m sure a trauma room must cost your insurance a great deal of money. You should make the Medios take care of her,” Jarred scoffed.
Garrett and Will stood. “As if we needed more evidence, suddenly everyone understands why it’s his ring she’s wearing and not yours.”
“We’re walking you out, Jarred,” Will informed him.
“I think I’m going to go ahead and insist on that.” Governor Haydenshire shook his head.
“Well, tell Fionna when she feels better, I’d like to see her again,” Jarred pled.
“Dude,” Garrett shook his head. “Fi-on-na,” he drawled like he was talking to a very young and unintelligent child. He moved around Jarred, grasped his head from behind, and forced him to look at Dan. “Is marrying him,” he drawled slowly. “Big guy, big muscles, gets real, real angry when people upset Fionna. Veins pop out of his head. He yells a lot. It isn’t pretty. He’s killed enough people today. He’s tired. You need to go away and stay away for your own health.”
Dan listened to Jarred argue as Will and Garrett dragged him towards the elevator.
He fell back into a chair beside Fitzroy in utter shock.