UNLOCKED - LANDO NORRIS [Book 3]

ALTERNATIVE ENDING

I couldn't believe after everything, everyone was so willing to just give up on him, let him die. Not give him the time and space to heal. I knew, I knew in the very deepest of my core that he was going to pull out of this. He had too. 

We were a family now and he couldn't leave me. 

Not now. 

Not ever. 

Johan is with me tonight in the hospital as we lounge in the waiting room converted into our own little haven these past few weeks. 

I stare at the clock as it blinks past all the minutes and hours of each day, blurring into one another. 

As I see the nurse do her last round on Lando, I know I've at least got another hour before the next rotation, so I slide the blanket off my lap, bundling it up onto Johan, and tip toe past the nurses station and slip into Lando's room, shutting the door quietly behind me. 

"Hey baby" I mumble as I slide down next to him in the bed, wrapping myself up as close to him as I can, my back facing toward the door. 

The vibrating noise of his heart monitor along with the pulsating of his breathing tube distract me from my thoughts. No matter how many times I come in here and pretend that everything is fine, the constant sound of reality shakes me back into my nightmare. 

"I know the last thing you need from me right now is any pressure, and I know I'm asking so much of you right now, considering everything you've gone through," I take a deep breath before pushing my lips into the hand which I'm holding so incredibly tight in mine, fighting back the heartbreak that's pouring out of me. 

"I need you to come back to me" I choke out. "I'm struggling, I'm really struggling baby, and I can't do this without you. Everyone tells me I'm strong enough, and they promise me they'll help me through this, but I can't. I'm selfish enough to not even want to try and do this without you." 

I sniffle back some emotion, continuing to place messy kisses upon his hand, doing the best I can to collect every last scent of him that I can. 

"You can't do this to me. You can't do this to us. Not to peanut, not to me, not to you. We aren't meant to be separated now. It's not our time." 

Shuffling a little so I'm laying on my side, pressing my chin right up near his collarbone, my eyes now in line with his jawline, I look for the slightest of movements, the mere presence of breath. Anything. Something. 

"It's not our time for goodbye's Lando." I cry out. 

"Evelyn?" 

I jolt up to the sound of someone coming through the door. 

"You know you can't be in here sweetie" one of the regular nurses informs me as she looks at me regretfully. 

"What are the chances of you forgetting you saw me here then?" I mock in a light chuckle, wiping away at my nose. 

She smiles apologetically, "I'm sorry" 

I turn my head back to Lando, pressing a kiss into his jaw before slipping my legs off the side of the bed. 

Both mine and the nurses attention is caught toward the heart monitor as the alarm bells start going off. They do this every so often when they lose a little connection, or the rhythm of the beats change, I remember in the first few days, every alarm bell used to give me hope. Now I know it's pointless. 

"You can come back in the morning, you need your rest" she informs me as she switches off the alarm. 

I nod my head in understanding, turning back toward Lando and bending down, pressing one more kiss to the side of his temple, "Come back to me baby" I whisper in his ear before leaving.