Apartment No.4

Part 69: At Last

He was silent as he came over to me slowly and sat beside me on the bed.

"I'm never going to be able to repay you for everything you've done for Claire and I," He murmured, cupping my cheek in his hand.

"You being with me is all the payment I need," I whispered, biting back any tears that were working their way up.

A nurse walked into the room and nodded, signalling that is was time for me to go through. My heart was filled with butterflies and I looked back at Mason, trying to not let him see how scared I was.

"Come back to me, Ashley Anderson," he whispered just a breath away from my lips.

He pressed them to mine and I was filled with sadness. It felt as though he was saying goodbye, but there's no way in hell I was going anywhere.

"You've put me through too much shit for me to go anywhere," I laughed and he smiled sadly.

A couple more nurses walked in and began to pull me out of the room.

"I expect an answer to why Cameron twisted his ankle when I'm back," I called out to him as he trailed behind me. I couldn't see him anymore and so I fiddled with the edge of the blanket to ease my anxiety.

I thought I heard him call out something just as we turned a corner that sounded like 'Gary Tea'. What the heck? That kid's such a weirdo. But he's my weirdo.

"Alright, Ashley if you could count backwards from ten for me we can go ahead with the procedure," said my surgeon after they'd administered the anaesthetic.

Brilliant, I always tried to get as long as I could before involuntarily falling asleep. When I had my teeth taken out I got to seven, my aim is now six.

"10, 9," I felt my eyelids go heavy and everything went black.

It's funny how you never remember falling asleep but you remember waking up, and there's that slight moment of panic before you realise where you are and what happened.

I looked about the glaringly white room and saw Mason sitting beside another bed to my right.

"Mason?" I croaked out, my voice feeling heavy in my throat. I felt a longing to have him by my side, to touch his hand or his cheek or to run my fingers through his dark hair.

He turned in his seat but I couldn't see his face as my eyes adjusted. He took my hand in his and sat carefully beside me on the bed.

"I'm here," he said quietly, brushing some hair from my face. My throat felt dry, as though I hadn't had any water for years and it took a lot of swallowing to get it to feel relatively normal.

"How did it go?" I asked once I felt I wouldn't sound like something from StarWars.

"She hasn't woken up. The surgeon said it went well but she hasn't woken up yet," worrylines were etched between his brows as he held my hand tightly in his.

"It'll be okay," I murmured as I reached up to touch his face as I'd been longing to do. I brushed my fingers over the scruff on his jaw and smiled weakly as my eyes fluttered open and closed and I willed myself to keep them open.

"You're alright?" He asked, fussing over me.

"Yeah I'm fine, just oddly exhausted," I tried my best to laugh but it came out as more of a rasping cough.

"I... I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am. I just- I love you so much," he continued but I silenced him by pulling him down to kiss me.

"You don't need to tell me. I already know,"

He went on to tell me about the surgery giving me details on how long it was, all the updates etc etc. and after an hour and a half of talking, Claire still hadn't woken up.

"What was it you called out to me as I turned the corner?" I had a faint memory of his yelling something down the hallway and for some reason it sounded like 'Harry Bee'

"Oh, ah that, nevermind," he smiled coyly, looking at our intertwined fingers and playing with them.

"Oh come on, tell me, please?" I pouted causing him to laugh. He grazed his thumb over my bottom lip and flinched when I pretended to bite his finger

"I'll tell you another time," he winked lazily and I huffed.

Mason had spoken to the nurses nearly every fifteen minutes previous to me waking up to ask why Claire was still asleep and each one had the same response: just be patient.

He continuously looked back at her with concern on his face.

"It'll be okay," I reassured him, my hand on his knee as he looked over at her again.

She looked so peaceful. So innocent. It broke my heart to think of everything that she'd been dealing with while her brother was trying to go to uni and support himself while supporting her.

"So," I wanted to bring up a more comforting and fun subject so Mason wouldn't be so anxious while we waited for Claire to open her eyes. "I was thinking, we could take Claire to the beach when she's done a little bit of rehab, yeah? We could get fish and chips, and have a picnic, it would be really fun!" I was getting excited thinking about it, sitting on the beach in Mason's arms, Claire standing int he water or picking up shells, "I think she'd really like it and after we coul-"

"Marry me?" he asked suddenly, holding my hand between his at his chest.

"What?" I gasped, gawking at him while his eyes were wide and pleading.

"Marry me?" he asked again a little louder, his words almost begging.

"You're daft," I laughed breathlessly, "Is this a joke?"

"No, I'm serious. Marry me, Ashley,"

Oh god, he was serious. There was no humour in his wide eyes as he stared down at me. Surprisingly, I wasn't freaked out or scared, I was calm. In fact, I was almost giddy from happiness.

"Sure," I said and he raised his brows in surprise, "I'll marry you," I grinned like a kid at Christmas to the point where it hurt my cheeks. "Not yet, but I will."

"I don't care, you're marrying me!"

He stood and kissed me on the forcefully before staring deep into my eyes.

"Excuse me, but I think I may have walked into a private conversation," came the sound of Claire's tired and weak voice.

If everyone could ignore the fact that since Ashley had a miscarriage a few months previous and she shouldn't be having surgery and all the other medically incorrect occurrences in this chapter I would be very grateful! I know that in reality a lot of the things I have included ARE NOT correct in the medical world but it's not my field of expertise (I had to go off my own knowledge and do a bit of research) nor am I portraying anything medical as fact.

I've been stretching the story as much as I can and I feel like their story has come to an end, and this is how I wanted it to end. So please excuse anything that is not medically correct!
I apologise profusely if I have offended anyone!

Thank you guys so much for coming with me on this journey, it really has been a rollercoaster.

Don't forget to hang out for the epilogue and PM me your questions!

We're finally finished. Apartment No.4 has shut its doors.

Love you all so so much!