Chapter Eleven

There was a soft knock at the door that took my attention away from the basically commuted death sentence. It was Nolan, and he was leaning against the door frame looking at me curiously.

"Is it okay if I come back in?" he asked.

"Always," I replied, forcing a smile.

He walked over and climbed into the bed with me. I inhaled his scent and closed my eyes—for some reason, Nolan always smelled slightly of autumn fields.

"What's wrong, Janey?" he asked into my neck, where he had nuzzled his face.

"I'm just worried about Liam. If I don't make it, he's going to have a very hard time. I don't want him to blame himself. Especially when there's nothing he can do about it," I confided.

"What makes you think you're going anywhere?" he asked, tightening his grip around my waist.

"Nothing really. I just… if anything happens, will you please look out for Liam and Stella? They're both going to be destroyed."

"Promise."

I intertwined my fingers with his and turned my face to look at him. He was looking at me with a sad smile and I leaned over and kissed him softly.

"Thank you."

"Can I ask you something?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Who's going to look out for me if something happens to you?"

Truth be told, I hadn't thought about that. I figured he was an adult and he'd be able to mourn and move on.

"Not to sound callous," I started slowly, "But you'll forget about me eventually. They won't."

He let out a scoff and rolled onto his back. He pulled his arm away from me and stared at the ceiling for a moment before speaking again.

"Speaking of forgetting about you," he said, slightly bitterly, "I have something I want to do for you. Or should I just leave now and start ‘forgetting'?"

I turned on my side and looked at him.

"Nolan, they're children. All I meant is that it's going to be way harder on them than anyone else. Including my parents. And this is even if I go anywhere, which I have no plans of doing," I said, becoming frustrated.

"Promise me that you won't," he said suddenly.

I stayed quiet. That wasn't something I could promise because I wasn't sure about it.

"Janey. Promise me," he said again.

I nodded. "Promise."

He sat up and began to fish around in his pockets until he found what he was looking for. When he found it, he stood up and went to the other side of the bed and carefully sat me up.

"Rabbit! Nugget! Come here please!" he called out.

Stella came running in with fresh flowers from Mom's garden and Liam, still red faced, came in holding a big box.

Nolan grinned at them, and they sprang into action. They climbed the bed, and each stood up behind me to help me sit up without feeling much pain and held their gifts on either side of me.

"Ready!" they said together.

I looked at them suspiciously. They both wore big grins on their faces; even Liam.

"MOMMY! DADDY! COME ON!" Stella bellowed.

"You've got quite a set of lungs on you," I said, wincing.

She giggled and I smiled.

"Okay, ready," Mom said.

I turned and saw that she and Dad were standing on opposite sides of the room with cameras in their hands.

Nolan nodded at them and looked down at me.

"Remember when I read you that birthday card and asked you to marry me?" he asked.

I nodded.

"That was kind of spur of the moment, you know? I just decided to say what was on my mind, and I'll tell you this much, Janey. I haven't changed my mind about it. So, I thought I'd be a little more traditional about it."

He pulled me to my feet and the kids rushed forward and put their hands on my back, using all of their strength to hold me up. I looked up at him in confusion. He simply smiled and dropped down on one knee.

My hand went to my mouth and my eyes watered.

A camera flash went off. I looked over in the direction and my mom smiled.

"Jane Camille East", he started with a mischievous grin. "I never thought that I would find anyone that I would want to spend my life with. I've never been the life-spending-with type of guy. But there's something about you; something special, something that was clear in the pictures I saw of you. Something that tells me that I need to spend my life with you, something that tells me that someone like you truly does come along once in a lifetime. You get me, Janey and no one has before you. I can't help that I love you as much as I do. I really can't and I don't want to. So, while the kids still have enough strength to hold you up, let me wrap this up by asking you a question." I found myself stifling a giggle. Stella and Liam were starting to have a hard time holding me up, which was evident in my body beginning to sway. Nolan opened his hand and presented me with a beautiful, antique, sapphire ring. "Will you marry me, kid?" he finally asked.

Another flash went off and this time it came from Dad's direction. I didn't look, though. I was too busy staring down at the one person besides my family who made me feel loved and wanted; the one person who didn't care that I clearly wasn't like everyone else.

"This is the part where you say ‘yes'," Stella whispered into my ear.

I looked at her and smiled. Then I turned to Liam.

"What do you think?" I whispered to him.

"Say ‘yes'," he half whispered, half grunted back.

"Well, the kids seem to approve of you," I said, eyeing Nolan. "My answer is yes. Today, tomorrow, and forever; my answer will be yes."

Nolan's grin widened as he slid the ring onto my ring finger. He got to his feet and took my face in his hands.

"I got it from here, guys," he said to Stella and Liam, without looking at them.

They fell back against the bed and hooted and hollered as Nolan kissed me. Passionately, deeply, with everything that he had inside of him.

The camera flashes were almost nonstop, and I felt like my room had suddenly acquired strobe lights. After what seemed like forever, we broke apart and he held me tightly against him.

"I love you, Janey," he whispered into my ear.

"And I you, Nolan."

"Promise?" he asked softly.

"Promise."

"Stop kissing already! We've got presents for you," Stella suddenly yelled.

The adults in the room laughed as he helped me back onto my bed. Nolan propped me up against the headboard and I asked him to pull the sheets up over my legs.

"I got you flowers," Stella said, pulling her little bouquet apart and handing half to me and half to him.

"Thanks, Rabbit," I said, giving her a hug.

"You're welcome," she said.

"I got you some toys," Liam said, pulling the lid off of his mystery box.

I raised an eyebrow as he reached into the box and pulled out his two favorite possessions in the world. He handed me his baseball glove and handed Nolan his favorite action figure; Iron Man.

"Thank you, Nugget," I said softly, hugging him tightly.

He smiled proudly and gave Nolan a hug before he went to join his sister next to our parents.

"We've got something for you two as well. We're just waiting on Rosalie and Bryan to get here," Mom said mysteriously.

"Guys, it's not like we just got married. We just got engaged... again," I protested with a laugh.

Mom and Dad exchanged a grin. Dad got my wheelchair and hoisted me off of the bed and into it.

"To the living room, everyone! They should be here soon," he said.

Twenty minutes later, Nolan's parents knocked on the door. Mom let them in, and they went and sat on the love seat, which was pretty much next to my parents.

The four of them looked at each other with grins before they turned to us.

"I kind of feel like I'm going to get devoured or something. This is getting creepy," Nolan leaned over and whispered to me.

"Yeah; I can see what you're saying. The cannibalistic tendencies are becoming quite apparent these days," I whispered back.

"You goof!" he said as he began to laugh.

I winked at him and turned my attention back to the four people watching us closely.

"We actually drew straws to find out who would get to tell you this," Bryan said finally with a laugh. "And I pulled the lucky one."

He stood up and cleared his throat. He walked over to us and placed an envelope on the couch arm between us.

"Before you open that, we just want you to know that even though we still have some doubts, for medical reasons only, we're very happy for the two of you. Okay. Open it," he said, sitting down and leaning forward.

"Should we draw straws to see who opens it?" Nolan asked.

"We could, but I don't have any straws. However we could each just grab and end and rip it open," I reasoned.

"Seems fair. Let's do it," he said, handing me the envelope.

"On the count of three?" I asked, to which he nodded. "One, two, three!"

We each ripped our halves of the envelope and a pair of keys fell out onto the carpet. He leaned down and picked them up, giving our parents a curious look.

"We got you your own place!" Mom all but yelled in excitement. "The rent has been prepaid for a year; to give you guys some financial help for a bit. We thought it was the best thing to do. What do you think?"

We both sat there in shock. I looked at Nolan doubtfully and he returned my look.

"Mom. Are you sure this is okay?" I asked her.

"Of course it is. You're both adults and you're going to have to live on your own eventually. Aaron was the last one to come around on it, but the four of us agree that if you're going to start a life together, you should live together; alone."

"Do you understand the responsibility that's going to come with this, Nolan?" Mr. Ransom asked him seriously.

"Yes. And I hope you all know that you can trust me to do an amazing job. I want a long life with Jane, so I'll take care of her as best as I can," he replied, squeezing my hand.

"There's something else you should know," Rosalie said.

We both looked at her expectantly.

"You'll be living in Morningside."

I raised an eyebrow, "But there is no Morningside in Ohio."

"We know," Dad said softly. "It's five minutes away from PPG."

"What about her dialysis?" Nolan asked, leaning forward.

"It's all taken care of. We had her information transferred to one of the best Nephrologists in all of Pennsylvania," Mom said.

I was still looking at my father who was dangerously close to tears. I let go of Nolan and rolled over to my dad and hugged him harder than I ever had before.

He held me and we both became wracked with sobs.

It was as though we knew that would be the last time we would ever see each other again.