9

She sits there, beside his bed. Tubes coming out of his body, machines beep, oxygen is being pumped. For a moment she couldn't hear any of that. She grabbed his hand, its warm but she doesn't feel him. He's not there, it just doesn't feel right at all. She doesn't feel like she's even in her own body. Its as though she is watching herself beside her husband. "It must be a dream. There's no way this is even real." Marley thinks to herself. "I would totally believe it if I wasn't trying to wake up from this nightmare for the last two hours."

"Mrs. Scott, whenever you're ready." The nurse whispers.

"NOT YET!" Marley barks back. Shes not ready for this. No one is ever ready to pull the plug on anyone, especially her husband. No one should ever have to do this. There's so much to live for. The children are both under 10. There's so much living and growing left for all of them. "There's no way that I can do this." Marley thinks.

"Brian," She whispers, "Its me, you probably already know that," Marley continues, "If there's any way you could just wake up, right now, move, flinch, anything, just do it. Do it now!"

*Nothing*

"I hate you for making me do this, but..... you, I love you." Marley looks up as to try to hold back the flood gates from her eyes to burst. She has always been great with holding back all those tears. "I never had the way with words that you had. I never could sweep you off your feet with the flow of words pouring out of my mouth, that was you. Brian, I love you," She squeezed his hand, "I know you can hear me, you've never left me, but you need to go. You go." Marley leaned over and kissed his head. Tear streaks down her face, one lands on Brian's face. She can't hold it back any longer. She wants to look away but can't. She can't take her eyes off Brian. Marley takes a deep sigh and closes her eyes, to pretend she's not in that room, or situation. "Okay, I'm ready."




Seattle held so much more than what they anticipated. Passive aggressive comments, dagger stares, and more eye rolls than one pair of eyes can ever preform, or watch. But all of that was the opposite of what actually happened. The only tears that were shed were one from laughing too much, and from Jordan stubbing his toe on grandma's coffee table. Conversations were never dull, there was always something to reminisced about or even laughed at. Marley could not remember when she had laughed this much with her parents and family. She leaned over to Brian, "I can't think of a time besides one Thanksgiving, where my whole family sat down at a table and ate a meal where no one was upset."

"It's nice isn't it." Brian smiled and put his arm around Marley.

Marley began to cry.

"What's wrong?!" Brian asked

"Its my emotions that are flying all around. I'm not sad, it really is nice." Marley laughed. They spent more time in that house than they did touring Seattle like they had planned. The whole itinerary was thrown out as soon as Marley sat down at that dining table when they first arrived. Which Brian was completely alright with.

Brian grew up with always having his family close. There was rarely a time when all of his family was not seated at the dinner table for dinner. He spent a great majority of his youth being around all of his siblings and parents. He did understand how Marley has handled not being so close with her family. He wasn't about to push her into something she didn't want to do, but knew eventually things would fall into place.

The final day of their stay arrived, and Brian, Marley, and Jordan drove up into the mountains, to a spot that over looked the city. "One of my boyfriends in high school used to take me up here." Marley chuckled.

"ONE!!!" Brian gasped. "You must have been quite the popular girl. I mean look at ya, I can't be totally mad." He laughed, "I mean, I ultimately won because you married ME and decided that I was a good enough choice to have a couple of kids with."

"Listen here bud, I was the one who lucked out and landed the hottie." She replied.

"Um, okay this is kinda gross, mom!" Jordan said disgusted. Marley and Brian laugh then smile at each other. It was cute the way that they looked at each other. It was almost as though they had feel in love all over again. But that feeling has never left them. It just was one thing that seemed too good to be real. But when you live in something that seems too good to be real, it is real, its no different than anything else.

Brian pulls the car over, "Your mom wasn't joking when she was telling us how pretty it was up here was she bud?" He asks Jordan.

"Its just Seattle dad, whats the big deal?" Jordan said without looking up from his tablet. Brian and Marley weren't too concerned, he didn't really understand the beauty. They stood over by the edge of the cliff, Brian holding Jordan and Marley with her arm around Brian.

"Its not a big deal, but it sure is nice." Brian exhaled, "Kind of like us."

Marley looked up into his eyes, smiled and kissed him. "Lets go home."