True Love Waits Pt. 04

Glancing to her right, she saw Joss was staring at her waiting for her answer. Then she realized that the answer was just as important to him as it was to everyone else watching and waiting. There was another burst of bright flashes and clicks as she raised her head.

"Mr. Vandenburg was in a place he wasn't meant to be," she said carefully. "I simply told him he was a good man and that he should come back to the people he loved and who loved him. The Fenghuang spirit heard my voice and granted my wish."

Jyn stopped, wondering if she had said too much. Everyone in the room sat in total silence looking at the young Chinese woman who bowed her head slightly and turned to the man in the wheelchair who was staring at her.

Then, as if in slow motion, she watched as he reached across with his hand and laid his on hers as the room for them both disappeared not only physically but emotionally into a world of bright white light.

***

Back in his hospital room, the auxiliary staff were helping Joss get back into his bed and settled after the news conference had ended.

He was exhausted with the effort and lay there propped up against his pillows as the people around him tended to his every need but his eyes were only on the one that mattered. The one who meant more to him than anything even if she didn't know it yet.

"That was an interesting experience," she smiled, relieved that it was over. "Maybe now things can get back to normal and we can move on. It is late and I am done here. I shall see you tomorrow, Mr. Vandenburg," She saw him raise an eyebrow. "Joss," she said with a shy nod as she went to leave the room.

"Nurse Halliday."

Jyn stopped at the door. "Yes?"

Joss stared at her for a moment thinking about what to say as there were still other people in the room and this really wasn't the time or the place. But he wanted her to know one thing.

"I do remember the snow," he said simply.

Their eyes met and it meant more than anything to him when he saw her smile.

***

Time heals.

A day turned into two, then three slipped into four followed by five and six which become a week. For Joss Vandenburg, it was not only a time to recover but a time to think and consider everything that had happened and what was going to happen to him in the future. Before him, life sat waiting. Waiting for him to take the first step of many along the path of his choosing.

He was in a small garden in the rehab section of the hospital. Listening to the birds singing and watching the butterflies dancing amongst the flowers and shrubs. Still in his wheelchair, he closed his eyes and raised his face to the afternoon sun which sat high in a cobalt sky.

After everything, it was nice to have a moment alone.

Behind him, he heard a click.

And someone walk up behind him. Instinctively, he knew who it was and he could sense that tightening feeling across his chest and a surge of warmth flood his heart. A shadow fell across him as the young Chinese woman came to sit on a wooden bench opposite.

"Hello," she said in that endearingly formal way she had.

The man in the wheelchair didn't say anything but simply stared at her.

Jyn, her long black hair flowing free, was dressed in a smart red jacket, a white Chinese blouse, pleated knee-length black skirt and matching shoes. She tilted her head slightly as she looked at Joss with the intensity in his gaze taking her breath away.

"Is everything alright?" she asked him.

Joss sat forward never taking his eyes off her.

"I know who you are, Jyn Halliday," he said.

Jyn gasped and felt her heart ache in her chest.

"The snow," Joss remembered. "I chased and caught you in the snow."

The Chinese woman nodded. "And where you asked me something," she whispered.

The memory was as fresh to him as when the moment had happened. Yes. He had asked her a question. A question he had never forgotten despite all the years that had passed. "Did you?"

"Yes," whispered Jyn. "Yes, I waited," Her eyes met his. "For you."

Joss stared at her. "So did I."

At his revelation, Jyn got to her feet. "When you went back home, I remember thinking America was so far away," she said, turning to look at him. "I was so very sad at that moment thinking I would never see you again."

"I have a confession," he told her. "I made a promise to myself a long time ago that one day I would come looking for you. That whatever it took. However long it would take. I would find you again. And in the end, you found me," Joss reached forward and took her hand. "And saved me."

Nodding, Jyn could feel a tear running down her cheek when she realized he had always wanted her just as much as she had always wanted him. And like her, he had waited.

"Please stand up," she whispered.

Doing as she asked, Joss got to his feet and looked down at her. Then to his surprise, he watched as she knelt at his feet and reached for something inside her coat pocket.

It was a length of rope.

Jyn looked up at him.

"I have always been yours," she breathed. "From the first time I saw you," Then she handed it to him as he finally understood the kind of woman she was. The kind he was meant for. Slowly, he looped one end of the rope into a noose and looked at this woman he had loved for as long as he could remember.

Jyn clasped her hands together and held them up for him.

The years had faded away and their past became their future. A future that bound them to each other as he slipped the noose over her hands and pulled it tight.

Then, slowly, he urged her to her feet and brought her close so they could share a first kiss as the Fenghuang spirit sat high in a tree watching the whims of fate bring their love full circle.

***

End.