CHAPTER 15

Monica's words, explaining everything that had happened to her since she abandoned the warehouse, left Andrew speechless. All that time he had stood by her side, thinking that terrible things had happened to his angel girl. He wondered how in the world she would recover from a rape, and beating himself up for not being there for her when she most needed him. The blond angel thought the worst and yet he was totally wrong about everything.

"Why... why are you crying?" Monica was so confused, so anguished and the memory of the terrible night in the woods only caused her to feel worse.

"Monica... angel, I thought... so many things..." he gently stroked her cheek, careful enough not to hurt her but now aware that she wouldn't reject his touch as he had previously imagined.

"What things, Andrew? What happened?" she wanted to know, her heart still uneasy about the latest events.

"Many things... but the most important is that I wanted to tell you how much I love you again, and I just dreaded the feeling of not being able to..."

His words caused her eyes to open wider and tears to fill them, "Why? Why wouldn't you be able to tell me?" The tremendous guilt she had felt for leaving him alone in the first place now rushed back to the surface, "Andrew, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to leave you-."

Realizing what she was thinking and despite the pain it caused, Andrew moved to sit on the edge of her bed, so he could meet her glassy brown eyes, "Monica, baby, listen to me," His own tears were still threatening as he reached across to lay a tender hand against her cheek, "Angel, my sweet angel, I thought..." He could hardly say the words, even now when he knew the worst had not happened. His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper, "I thought Phil had raped you."

For a moment she could scarcely speak as his words sent her mind reeling. Andrew had thought that...he had been sitting here for...well, she didn't know for how long. How long had it been? How long had she been asleep? And Andrew, he had been shot! How was he here? Suddenly the questions seemed to overwhelm her weakened body as she broke into tears, then seeing him flinch as he reached for her, she cried out, "You're hurt! Andrew...you were shot! You shouldn't be here with me! You need to see a doctor!"

"Shh. I already did, baby. Please calm down," Andrew could easily tell how deeply confused she was and he so wanted to put all her fears to rest, but right now, she was crying so hard, he was afraid for her fluid filled lungs, especially when she started coughing. Relief flooded his weary features as Katie finally flew into the room.

"Katie, thank you...Monica woke up, but she's very confused," He explained softly. He had moved closer to his angel to tenderly rub her back as she coughed violently.

Katie smiled tenderly at her patient, "Well, Miss Monica, it is good to see you awake at last, but all this crying isn't good for you at the moment."

Seeing that Katie was preparing something for her IV, the weakened angel resisted, "No, please! I don't want to sleep!" Her anguished eyes searched out Andrew's, "I need to talk to you!"

Seeing the broken hearted look in Andrew's eyes as well, Katie reached over and laid a gentle hand on her patient's trembling shoulder, "Monica, I just need to give you a little to calm you, but it won't put you to sleep just yet. It's obvious that you two need to talk and he has been waiting so patiently for you to wake up that I am not about to stand in the way of that happening."

Only those words seemed to calm the little angel down a tiny bit as she struggled to stop crying as Katie checked her pulse and temperature as Andrew looked on anxiously.

"You're still running a high fever, but you're awake and that is a good thing," Katie explained, "You need to drink plenty, okay? And Andrew, have you taken your meds?" Seeing him nod, she nodded in satisfaction, "Then I'll leave you two alone, but call if you need anything at all, okay."

"We will," Andrew promised, unable to take his eyes off of Monica. Just before Katie left the room, she lowered the bar on the side of the bed where Andrew's chair was, allowing him to be able to sit more comfortably, yet giving him access to Monica.

Sitting on the edge of his chair, Andrew leaned forward, one arm resting on her pillow where he could stroke her hair in an effort to soothe her, while his other hand, he wrapped tightly around hers. The motion of his hand in her hair combined with the mild sedative Katie had administered began to calm her, though the occasional tear continued to fall.

"A...Andrew..please.." Monica's voice was both weak and hoarse but she clutched his hand as tightly as she could and he wasted no more time in talking to her in a calm, gentle voice.

"You called 911 before you left the barn," He began, his green eyed gaze holding intently to her own teary eyes, "And you left me your coat. The paramedics apparently arrived soon after and they took both Annie and I to the hospital."

"Annie?" Her voice trembled so much that the word was nearly non-intelligible.

"She's alive, baby. She hasn't woken up yet but Tess went to check on her today."

Monica brought her other hand to her face and wept softly again, "Annie's alive...she's alive..."

"Yes, sweetheart. He didn't kill her. They got there in time. They took us both to surgery, from what Tess told me and I didn't wake up until the next day. That was when I found out that they hadn't found you," The pain he had felt in that moment was now reflected in his eyes once more, "Angel, I had never been so afraid for you. They hadn't found you or Phil and all I could do was think the worst had happened."

"I didn't want to leave you, Andrew...it was the hardest thing...the hardest thing I have ever had to do!" Fresh tears welled up in her already reddened eyes and when she felt his hand against her face, she closed them, allowing the tears to escape, "I felt like the most wretched creature in the world. You needed me...and I left you..."

"You did what I asked you to do," Andrew corrected her softly, "But you called for help and left me your coat and you took the weapons away. You even led him away from there. Baby, I couldn't have asked for any better protection than that."

Still unsure if she was ready to absolve herself of that bit of guilt for leaving him, she looked into his eyes, "How did I get here? How long have I been here?"

"A family found you the next morning and brought you here. No one knew your name and I was at the other hospital, but..you were calling out for me in your sleep and because of that, when I woke up and talked to the police, they were able to figure out who you were and I insisted they transfer me here so I could be with you. There was nowhere else I could imagine needing to be than by your side." Bringing her hand to his lips, he brushed a tender kiss over her fingers.

Though still rather emotional, the little angel's brow furrowed as she caught a glimpse of the plastic ring on her finger, "Andrew?"

Realizing what she was referring to, a slow smile crossed his handsome features as his thumb brushed across the ring on her finger, "Well, it's not really official because the ring isn't real and because you haven't given me your answer, but only because you didn't hear the question as you were still asleep."

Monica had no idea how there could be any more moisture left in her dark eyes, but a second later the tears were back as she squeezed his hand tightly, "No...I didn't hear you."

As Andrew gazed into her eyes, he felt the wealth of emotions pass through him once again; relief that she hadn't been raped, joy at finally seeing her awake again but greater than anything was the tremendous love he felt for her. The overpowering feeling was enough to bring tears to his own eyes.

"Angel, I would have liked to have done this in a much more romantic way, but, the thing is that I thought Phil had raped you and all I could imagine was the incredible pain that dealing with that was going to cause you," He swallowed, trying to clear the emotion from his throat, "And I just love you so much and I needed you to know that no matter what, that was never, ever going to change. I know...I know that what we have isn't perfect and all I can promise is that I will try to never let my protectiveness of you hinder you or us in anyway. That's the best I can do, baby. Nothing is going to ever stop my need to protect you; Monica, it's as natural as breathing to me and I don't want us to be apart because of it."

Reaching for her again, Andrew cupped her bruised cheek in his hand, catching her tears as soft sobs escaped her, "The one thing our time apart taught me, Angel, was that I never want to be apart from you deliberately. What I want instead is to be joined with you for the rest of eternity and though I am only assuming that it is allowed, I want you to marry me, Monica. I want to spend the rest of my existence loving you and taking care of you, making you smile and wiping away your tears if you should cry. So, though I know I am completely undeserving, would you do me this great honor, my beautiful angel?"

It was all she could do to form the word "yes" on her lips and then she was throwing aside the blanket, and ignoring the pain in her leg to get into his arms. When Andrew drew her to him, he should have felt the discomfort of his very much still healing incision, but instead, all he could feel was that the ache of not having her in his arms for so long had finally subsided. He could feel her heart beating up against his and could just make out the quiet, happy sobs that she was still unable to control.

"I love you so much," Monica uttered after several long minutes had passed, "I was so wrong about so many things and it caused us to be apart."

"No, you were scared, Angel, and so was I. It isn't like this has ever happened before; this love we have been allowed, so all we can do is learn from our mistakes, of which I have made many."

"You weren't the only one," She whispered, lifting her head just enough to peer up into his face, "But I know we can do better, Andrew and we'll learn together. I know we can."

The gentle Angel of Death gazed down into her pale and drawn face, though he was pleasantly surprised to see a certain sparkle in the depths of her dark eyes, "Me too, Angel. But now, you need to rest. You're still running a fever."

"Kiss me first," The words were so soft yet so needy as she looked up at him pleadingly and a heartbeat later, he was lowering his head to brush his lips up against hers. The kiss was sweet and tender and though he would have loved to kiss her with all the passion he was currently feeling for her, he knew better than to leave her breathless while the pneumonia was still raging through her body. So instead, the single kiss turned into several small ones, though not lacking in love.

As the moment ended, she looked into his eyes adoringly, "I so want to marry you, Andrew."

"Then you've just made me the happiest angel in all of heaven or earth," He replied seriously as he moved from the edge of her bed back to his chair. Immediately, he was all too aware of the distance between them, "You know, I think there is plenty of room here as I would love nothing better than to just hold you for awhile."

Monica blinked, and then bit her lip, obviously uncertain, "I don't want to hurt you."

"I don't think there is any chance of that," Andrew replied steadily. Standing up, he rolled her IV pole carefully closer to the chair and then took her hand to help her. As he sat back down, he helped ease her in next to him, steeling himself against her sharp intake of air as she moved her wounded leg, but soon after, she was snuggled into the chair with him and the recliner served as a place for her prop up her leg. With Monica cuddled up against him, tucked in beneath his arm, he knew he was finally home again after far too long a time.

"Comfy?" He asked as he carefully covered them both with a blanket.

"Mmm hmm," The little angel murmured as she felt the warmth of his body radiating through her. Letting out a tiny sigh, she added, "Perfect."

Brushing her bangs aside with tender fingers, Andrew kissed her forehead repeatedly, each kiss a silent thank you to God that she had not been hurt any worse than she had and that she was now safe within his arms once more.