Caught (Camren)

Epilogue

...

I took a deep breath as I stood behind the doors of the church. Somewhere inside, Lauren was already waiting for me at the alter. I wasn't nervous. I wasn't afraid. I was anxious. I wanted to see her. I wanted to say the words, "I do," as much as I wanted to hear them. My little sister, Sofi, who my dad had successfully created with my new step-mom six years earlier- stood behind me, carrying a basket of flower petals.

"Are you excited?" she asked me.

"I'm very excited," I smiled. "Are you excited?"

"Yeah," she nodded happily. "I love Lauren."

"I do too," I chuckled.

"What are you going to name the baby?"

I placed a hand over my stomach. There wasn't even a bump there yet, but somewhere inside, there was human life. We'd received a donor, but the son or daughter that I held was Lauren's.

"We don't know yet," I told her. "What do you think?"

"I like the name Cameron," Sofi suggested. "It works for a boy or a girl."

"Huh, that is a good one," I laughed. "It's fitting. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that yet."

My dad shushed both of us, signaling that we were just seconds away from entering the building. One more deep breath and I was good to go. The doors opened slowly. I searched the room the second I could see inside, and there she was, standing at the alter- without the help of the crutches she'd thrown away years earlier- with her hand over her mouth in shock. My heart nearly stopped when I saw Lauren in her dress, and it seemed that hers had as well. I could tell that she was crying even from far away, but I also knew that they were tears of joy. My dad helped me up the stairs and onto the alter, and then we were face to face.

"You...you look gorgeous, Camz," she whispered.

"I could say the same to you," I smiled.

The priest cleared his throat and we were both forced to hush, though I knew Lauren would go on and on about the day the second we were on our own. I barely heard anything the priest said. I watched Lauren and she watched me. We'd made it. We'd stuck together for six years, and now all we had was the future to look forward to. We didn't count the days we had left or the seconds until something else happened, because we didn't know. We had no idea when our last day together would be, but we spent every day like we were reliving our first all over again. We fell in love again every single day. Every single kiss we shared was a promise of another to come. Our love never dulled nor weakened. It remained strong. It burned. I wasn't sure how much time had passed while we were standing together in front of all of our friends and family, but time was no longer an issue for us. Somewhere down the road, the time to say our vows was announced. Lauren picked up my hands, signaling that she would take the first turn.

"I don't really know where to begin," she sighed. "I prepared my vows a long time ago, but I don't know what to think right now. I mean, we're here. I guess I could start there. For one, I vow to follow you through every journey you face, whether it's our marriage or when you finally give birth to the beautiful baby girl or baby boy you're carrying, I vow to be with you through all of it. I vow to never leave your side, but I vow to give you your space when you need it, because God only knows that with a baby on the way, you'll need plenty of it."

The crowd laughed and I cracked a smile, admiring the way she always managed to slip a bit of humor into even the most serious situations.

"Six years ago, when we were still teenagers and all we could think about after three months apart was tearing each other's clothes off, I told you that you had to wait to hear the story of the letter I slipped under your door that same Christmas," she continued. "See, the thing is, even though we were apart, I knew it wouldn't be forever. I knew you'd find your way back to me eventually, but like I said, I was a teenager. I was impatient, so I decided to help you out and give you a little push. Granted, you never showed up at my house, but we did end up there in the end. That's another thing; I vow to never keep you guessing. I vow to be honest with you. If, God forbid, there's ever a time where we find ourselves lost and on our own, I will not make you wonder where I am. I'll come and find you, and I'll make sure you know that I love you and that we'll be together again soon. I vow to tell you everything from my deepest secrets to my biggest fears, even if you've heard it all before, because I know you want to hear it anyway. I don't know what to say besides, I vow to give you all of me, every second of every day, for the rest of eternity. I love you, Camz. I vow to never stop."

I let the tears flow, because, like Lauren's, they were tears of joy. I already knew everything she said to be true. We'd spoken about it all before. We'd promised each other an eternity dozens of times, but hearing her say it all out loud meant something more. It was a confirmation that all those years hadn't been for nothing. We were still as in love as we had been years earlier. When it was my turn to speak my vows, I thought it best to forget the cards that I'd spent so much time studying. I thought, if I was really about to promise forever to the love of my life, that it would be best to speak from my heart. I squeezed her hands tightly, watching the smile that spread across her lips.

"I almost lost you six years, five months, and two days ago," I started. "I vow to never get to that point again. I did lose you six years and two days ago, and, Lauren, I swear to you, I will never let that happen again. You should be treasured. You're like seeing the sun on a cloudy day. You're a smile or a laugh or a kiss when I need it most, and I need you all the time. I need you by my side, not just because I want you there, but because that's where you're meant to be. I don't know if you remember, but while you were in the hospital, you told me that nothing happens for a reason, that everything is just coincidence. I don't know if you still believe that, and I'm sorry to argue, but I have to tell you that's not true, and I vow to make sure you see that we fell in love for a reason. I bumped into you that day in the office because I was meant to, and you ignored me because you were meant to open up to me the following night, the night that started it all. I vow to give you as many of those nights as you need. I vow to give you something to look forward to each day. I vow to love you unconditionally and with all of my heart."

I looked into her eyes like I had the very first time I ever saw her. I looked at her like she was a stranger, but she wasn't. The only thing strange about any of it was that in just a few moments, my last name would change from Cabello to Jauregui and we would each wear a ring to remind us of forever, but the material things, the physical aspects, that didn't matter. All I needed was to look at her, and she knew as much as I did that no matter where we ended up on our path, no matter how many pages we turned in the process, we would always have each other.

"I saw you for the first time six years ago at a school that made my life miserable, and the second I laid eyes on you, I suddenly fell in love with being there every day," I concluded. "I saw you every day after that, not just in person, but in my mind, only I saw you with me. I vow to love you, Lauren, because that's all I've wanted to do since that very first day, and I know that's all I'll ever want to do for the rest of my life. The journey hasn't been easy, and it might not always be, but look at us now. Look at where we are. You escaped the hands of death, I escaped heartbreak, you escaped the odds that you'd never walk again, and that's all led us to this point, but you know what's even better? What we did. We fought like hell to get here. We exhausted ourselves. We made mistakes along the way, but it all worked out, and that's something. I don't know where to begin with you. I love every inch of you, from your lovely emerald eyes to the bottoms of the feet that carry you freely now. I'm in love with you, and I don't know how I ended up here because for so long, I was so afraid to let you catch me, but you did, and I vow to thank you every day for it. Lauren, you did it. You caught me, and I don't ever want you to let go."