The Experiment © [Completed]

Chapter 97 - Clarity

Rj woke up to the loud sound of his ringing phone. He blindly reached for it from the bedside table on Dei's side and pressed the answer button with only one eye slightly opened.

"Hello?" he answered sleepily.

"RJ?" came his mom's voice. "Where are you? I thought you were coming back to get us and drive us back to the hotel last night?"

He quickly sat up on the bed, suddenly awake. "Oh dang, I forgot mom, I'm sorry. I'm at the apartment now, with Dei. Are you still at grandma's?"

"No, we're at the airport. We'll be boarding the plane in a couple of hours" Rose answered. "Your Uncle Vic drove us here instead. I was hoping to see you and Dei before we leave."

Shoot. He forgot that his parents were flying back to the US that morning. He looked at the clock on the wall right across his bed and saw that it was only 5 minutes after 6. "Okay mom, we'll just get ready and we'll drive to the airport right away."

"Okay, see you," Rose said before hanging up.

RJ groaned, still exhausted from last night. Dei came home very late and they only got to sleep at around 3AM. He totally forgot that his parents were leaving today. He had been too preoccupied with thoughts about Dei since Saturday evening when he drove to the resort she was in, and even more last night when he came home and she wasn't there.

When he left the resort after their fight, he actually spent the whole day driving and walking around aimlessly on their part of the city to try to let out steam. He came home at around 9 in the evening, ready to talk to her again and fix things. He was so sure that she would already be home around that time and when she wasn't, he was devastated.

He actually thought that she won't be coming back anymore and he was so worried that he had lost her again. He shook his head to drive the thoughts away. They still had two more months until the wedding and he had to make sure that nothing like that would ever happen again. He sighed and looked at her. She was still deep in sleep.

"Babe," he whispered, kissing her softly on the shoulder.

"Hmmm..." she hummed sleepily, burrowing deeper into the sheets.

"You have to wake up, babe, we're going to the airport," he said, brushing her hair with his fingers. "My parents are leaving."

Her eyes flung open. "Oh no, that's today?" She sat up at once, her drowsiness gone. She couldn't believe that that slipped her mind. That was the reason why Rose had wanted to drive back to the city the same night they went to her parents' home.

"Yep," he answered, getting off the bed. "I actually forgot too but we can still catch them. They won't board the plane until 8 AM."

Dei quickly stepped off the bed, her exhaustion gone as she started to prepare.

+++++

"Mom," RJ called when he saw them seated on one of the benches outside the terminal. They got stuck in traffic and arrived at the airport with only thirty minutes left to talk to his parents.

"Oh there you are," Rose said smiling. "Dei, honey," she greeted while giving her a tight hug.

"I hope you enjoyed your stay, Tita," Dei said as she rubbed Rose's back. "I'll see you again in two months?"

"Definitely, honey," Rose said, touching her cheek. "I'm so excited to see you in your wedding gown," she added, looking fondly at her.

Dei smiled, touched by her future mother-in-law's gesture. She gave Rose another tight hug and closed her eyes. "Thank you, tita. Have a safe flight okay?"

"We will," Rose answered before turning to RJ. "RJ, I am going to email you the real estate brochure once I get it from my friend so you and Dei can start searching for your home in New York. Are you planning to stay in the city?"

"We have to, mom," RJ answered as he gave her a quick hug. "Just email me what she has and we will look at everything."

RJ and Dei gave Rick a quick hug too before walking them to the boarding area. Dei heaved a huge sigh as they watched them leave and RJ squeezed both her shoulders.

In the short time that she got to spend time with Rose and Rick, both in New York and during their quick visit in the Philippines, she had already come to love them so much. She let out another sigh, thinking how lucky she was to have parents-in-law that were as nice and kind as the Faulkersons.

"What are you thinking, babe?" RJ whispered, his lips close to her ear.

"I'm just feeling kinda bad that I didn't get the chance to spend more time with them before they left," Dei said sadly. "Maybe if I went with you to your grandparents' instead of the beach, we would've spent more time with them and we wouldn't have fought like that."

"Hey, its over... at least we learned something from it," RJ said as he placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. Then he sighed loudly. "Dei, I'm pretty sure we'll have some more misunderstandings in the future. It happens. We just have to stay strong against them. And remember this, babe - we may fuss and fight, we may encounter some huge hurdles especially after the wedding, but at the end of the day please know that you are and will always be the one I'd wanna be with."

Dei looked up at him. "Same here, RJ. No matter how mad I get, I will always care about you. You're the only one I want, babe."

"Are you still scared?" he asked carefully.

"Just a little bit," she answered honestly. "But I realized that my love is greater than my fear. And I trust you."

RJ smiled and kissed her forehead just as a plane took off and glided into the skies. "Let's go to work?" he whispered.

"We're so late. Matt's gonna kill us," Dei said, giggling.

RJ chuckled. "He'd want to keep us alive until the wedding. He's obsessed with DeiJay."