An Incest Birthday Ch. 25

"Come on Rita, visiting hours are up, we can't stay any later?" mom said.

"I'm gonna spend the night again, we have a lot to catch up on since he's awake now."

Dr. Garrett wasn't surprised at all. "She certainly is persistent, I'll give her that."

"Come on Doctor, just one more night, I'll leave with everyone tomorrow, I promise."

"What about Tibbles? You haven't seen him in nearly three months," Aunt Lisa said.

"He'll be ok for one more day, I know you've been taking care of him."

Dr. Garrett sighed. "Ok, one more night, but tomorrow you leave when visiting hours are over."

"Sure thing doctor, thank you," Rita smiled as she sat back in her chair.

"I'll let you say your goodbyes, and I'll be back first thing tomorrow. Try not to sleep on your left side Randy, you don't want any unneeded pressure there," the doctor said as he left.

"Sure thing doc, sleep on my right side, got it," I replied.

Rita hit me on my leg and rubbed it a little, it felt completely innocent but when mom is around nothing seems innocent. She gave Rita a smug look and Rita pretended not to see it as everyone said their goodbyes and gave their hugs and whatnot. She whispered something in Rita's ear and then probably the same thing to Aunt Lisa as they left the room giggling after everyone else, leaving Rita and I to ourselves.

"So, we have lots to catch up on huh, like what?" I asked.

"I just said that so they would let me stay, I've been in this room as long as you have basically."

"Oh, ok then, lying so you can get some alone time huh?" I joked. She went from happy to sad in a matter of seconds and I forgot completely about the joke. "What's wrong?"

"I was so scared I'd never see you again. All these days kept going by and you wouldn't wake up. I tried to stay positive, but I knew there was a chance that you would stay sleep."

"Sometimes things like this take time, it's probably not good to rush out of a coma."

"I know, but all the waiting didn't make it any easier. That wasn't even what was bothering the most, it was that the last time you were awake, we were fighting, and I'd given you the cold shoulder for a week, I didn't want that to be the last image you had of me."

"Even if that had been the last time I saw you, that wouldn't be what I remembered you for. We had thousands of good times, that one bad isn't gonna erase all the good."

"Well you're back, and you're healthy, so we can just put that whole incident behind us."

I contemplated telling her about what happened when I was in a coma, I wanted to, but I thought it would do more harm than good, but she still needed to know, that way everything was out on the table and we could move forward. "I have a confession to make."

"What kind of confession?"

"I almost chose not to come back."

She looked at me weird. "What do you mean chose not to come back?"

"When I was in a coma it was like I was alive in my head, no that's actually what it was, I was alive in my head. My conscience was there and everything, he told my mind was too damaged to go back into the real world and if I did, I would basically have brain damage. He said before I could go back I had to solve the riddle of my life to get a second chance, but I almost gave up."

She looked like she believed what I was saying, though it took her a second to process, then she caught the part where I said I almost gave up. "Why would you not want to be alive? Was it something in your head making you say that? I don't... why would you volunteer to die?"

"Because I thought you hated me, I thought we were done. I didn't wanna come back to a world where I couldn't be with you, where I had to watch someone else be with you."

"Oh my god. I didn't mean for it to go that far, I was just mad at you, I felt betrayed, I wasn't thinking clear. I walked in and saw you... even though I didn't completely believe what I was seeing, I was still seeing it, she was kissing you. I was hurt. I wanted you to feel as bad as I did, maybe worse, but I never hated you, least of all wanted this to happen."

"I thought I had nothing to live for, and then my conscience showed me a vision or something of you sitting in that chair, crying, begging me to come back to you, I knew at that moment I had to get out of there, that we still had a chance," I said as I took her hand.

"Of course we still had a chance, I can't just turn off all my feelings and emotions like that, you are way too important to me. I was being stubborn and stupid, but we would've worked it out."

"That's how I was able to get free, the whole riddle, it led to me forgiving Ashley."

"What? How? How is Ashley involved in this?"

"It went all the way back to when we met her. It was the only time I ever really hated someone, and it manifested inside my head. All that stress from her and getting shot on top of that broke my mind, and the only way to fix it was to forgive Ashley, thus relieving the stress."

"So... you forgive her, for everything she's ever done to you? All of it?"

"Yeah, the whole riddle was don't let anger control my life, and Ashley was the source of the anger. I feel a whole lot better about it too, you know figuratively."

"Well if you can forgive her then I guess I can too. Can you forgive me?"

"You don't even have to ask. It might take you a little while to forgive Ashley though, she made you eat her out, and recorded it, and almost made me do it."

"Yeah thanks for reminding me. Don't worry, we're gonna get her back for that," she grinned.

"I know that look, but I'm not gonna press it right now, my body hurts, and I'm sleepy."

She shed the grin and went serious for a second. "Can we put this behind us, this whole thing? Let's never bring it up again, we'll pretend like we never went to that party."

"It never happened. As far as we know we set up for it then went home."

She smiled as she rubbed my hand. "Any room in that bed for me?"

I played stupid. "I don't know, it's pretty small, we'd be all bunched up."

"That's ok, I prefer it that way."

I pulled the thin cover back and she walked around the right side of the bed and climbed in, making sure to steer clear of my left side. There was just barely enough room for both of us as long as she stayed on her side. "I missed this," she said as she squeezed in tight to me.

"Me too, we have a lot of time to make up for."

She turned her face to me and was looking me directly in the eyes, and without saying anything pushed her face forward and kissed me softly on the lips. It felt like everything that had been a problem had been erased with that kiss, it was like starting over without completely starting over, like this is what should've happened instead of us going to that party. When we finally did break the kiss she lingered for a moment, her frazzled hair falling over her big blue eyes looking just as beautiful as ever as she stared back at me.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Nothing else was said that night, nothing else needed to be said. She put my arm around her and pulled the cover over us, and I squeezed her into me, happy to have a second chance, happy to have Rita back, happy to have my life back, just happy.