How do I start? Well, a lot of things happened. My fiance cheated on me since I was away. I returned to find out and fell back into depression. Katy gifted me a kitten to soak up my grief. I met my ex again by accident and finally had some closure. Oh, and also, there was that time when I got shot.
As a cop, it was only a matter of time. It wasn’t serious, just a .22 pistol. Some con pulled the damn thing on my partner and I leapt to tackle him, grabbing the gun. The next thing I know, I feel a hole being ripped through my body. I heard screams, more gunshots, Misha, my partner, calling for backup, the crook lying on the ground in his own pool of blood. Then, my vision darkened. I saw flashes, indistinct sounds, sirens. I faded in and out of conscience. When I finally woke up, I found myself on a hospital bed. As expected. I tried getting up, but couldn’t. That’s when I saw the bloodied bandage wrapped around my abdomen. I groaned. “Hurts, don’t it?” I nearly jumped. A woman was sitting on the chairs on the side. I didn’t even notice her. She was wearing doctor’s scrubs. “Who, who are you?” “I’m the Doctor who saved your life. The bullet nearly carved off a good piece of your intestine. Lucky for you, I did some nicks and cuts and managed to salvage what I could.”
I sat up, through the pain. “Umm thanks?” Her expression didn’t change. She continued. “Your gratitude is meaningless to me. You are just another body that I had to heal. That is my purpose.” “Umm okay, so, what’s my condition now??” She didn’t speak. Or say anything. She just continued to stare. “Why?” She whispered, getting up. She pulled her chair beside me. “Why did you risk your life to save your partner?” She looked at me with genuine curiosity. “I don’t know. I know she would do the same for me. We’ve been friends for a long time.” “So you’d risk your life to save a friend?” She peered over, leaning closer. I shrugged. “I was doing my job. The crook pulled a gun. I didn’t think, I leapt into action on my own.” “I don’t know if that’s brave” She got up. “Or just plain stupid.” She picked up a syringe from the side table, and injected me. “You must take rest. Give your body time to heal.” My eyelids drooped, as she left, her silhouette fuzzy and out of focus.
“And that” I finished, “Was the first time I met Ellie” I smiled. We were sitting around a bonfire in our backyard, in the cold winter night. Ellie snuggled up closer to me. Jimm and Sarah looked at me with their tiny eyes, shining. “And that, kids, is how I met your father” Ellie laughed. “Hey, I wanted to say that!” “Sorry babe, beat you to it” She shoved me, and I shoved her back. “Dad!” Sarah jumped. “Go on, go on, what happened next?” “Well sweetheart, I basically won your mother’s heart being simply awesome and handsome and-” “Oh shut up!” Ellie covered my mouth with her hands. “You were annoying and irritating. You made every excuse to see me and won’t leave me alone for one moment.” “Well, I was shot, wasn’t I? I had the right to call my doctor.” I laughed. Just then, the doorbell rang. Jimm ran to get the door. A few moments later, Misha showed up, with her husband. “Don’t mind if we join in. Ash here made too much baked potatoes, so we bought some over” She laughed, holding up a cooking pot.
“So is this what happiness is?” Ellie asked me. The kids were sleeping in their room. Misha left well after midnight, talking, reminiscing about the old days. Now, Ellie and me were lying near the bonfire on the grass. “You know, after Sasha, I never thought I’d be happy.” “And I never thought I’d want to be happy with someone else” She turned to me. “Hey!” “Hey” “We made it, didn’t we? I mean, this” She touched my heart. “This won’t change right?” I took her hand. “Ellie, yes, everything will change. Jimm and Sarah will grow, I’ll retire, you’ll stop performing surgeries. You can’t stop change.” I stroked her hair. “But you don’t need to.” She nodded. We lay there, on our backyard, on the grass, watching the stars.
Stories are meant to be told 