He already had everything off by the time they got to the bedroom. After he had her dress off he stopped and said, "This won’t hurt it will it?"
"No baby, just keep going" Elise said and smiled. He put her softly on the bed and continued as ordered.
When they were done A.J. pulled her close to him and said, "Baby, I love you…" then he began to sing. "I wanna love you like I never loved you tonight, If it's all right, I wanna tell you things I've never said in my life, I'm going to hold when the sun refuses to shine, I wanna show you that I'll always be by your side, When you call my name, and you need me there, Girl you know I will be waiting for you, When you close your eyes and you see me there, Don't you know that I will be waiting, I wanna kiss you like I'll never kiss you again, If it's ok, I can't imagine loving any other this way, (I can't imagine baby), When you call my name, and you need me there, Girl you know I will be waiting for you, When you close your eyes and you see me there, Don't you know that I will be waiting, When you call my name, and you need me there, Girl you know I will be waiting for you, When you close your eyes and you see me there, Don't you know that I will be waiting, (So what she wanna do I wanna wish you I know you like my style So why don't you stay awhile And when you want me to I'll wait for you), When you call my name, and you need me there, Girl you know I will be waiting for you, When you close your eyes and you see me there, Don't you know that I will be waiting, When you call my name, and you need me there, Girl you know I will be waiting for you, When you close your eyes and you see me there, Don't you know that I will be waiting" As he sang he kissed Elise. That was their song. It had been playing on the radio the night they met.
They finished what they had started and when Elise fell asleep A.J. watched her breath. ‘This is my wife’ he thought as he rested his head by her belly. He kissed it and whispered, "Goodnight little buddy. I love you."
"NO!" screamed Elise.
A.J. woke up with a start. "Baby? Wake up ‘Lise. Wake up!" A.J. shook his wife awake.
"A.J." she threw her arms around his neck, "It was my parents they were in the fire, I couldn’t help them,” she sobbed.
"Oh my god was it a flashback? What can I do?" A.J. held the woman in his arms as tight as he could.
She was remembering the night they met. "A.J. there was nothing I could do, they were so scared. My leg hurt. I couldn’t walk."
She was shaking. He didn’t know what to do she was in so much pain. He remembered that night too. He had been on his way to the hospital to visit his grandmother. He saw her on the ground in front of her burnt down house. No one had seen her. She couldn’t walk so he lifted her up put her in his car and carried her to the ER. "Elise I remember, you were so scared, but there is no reason to be scared now, I’m here, I won’t leave you." was all he could think of to say.
She lifted her head and gave him a weak smile. "A.J. I never did get to thank you for that. You saved my life."
He pulled her close and whispered, "Oh believe me you have thanked me, plenty of times. You saved my life by opening your eyes and smiling at me that night. I have never been the same since then. You thought I was an angel." He began to weep, "You were the angel ‘Lise. I never told you that I left my grandmother’s side to stay with you. She died that night and the last thing she said to me was, ‘Now don’t you kiss that girl too much.’ winked at me and then she made me leave and go with you. She knew I wanted to stay with you. I want to stay with you forever; I’ll never let you down. Just promise me you won’t give up on this. I love you too much to let you lose sight of this moment right now. This is our moment."
Elise had never seen him cry so much. "A.J., I love you." There was nothing more she needed to say. She leaned into his kiss.
As they kissed all the pain they had ever felt lifted from them and they felt as though they were one. A.J. moved his pillow back up by Elise’s head and they fell back to sleep. There were no more disturbances the rest of the night. Everything was peaceful.