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*Forever Love*

[Author Note: Song By Reba McEntire.]

He sat beside her bedside, placing a gentle kiss on her hand as she slept peacefully. “I don’t know if you can hear me,” he whispered to his wife. “But I wanted to tell you that I fell in love with you the moment I laid my eyes on you some fifty years ago. Ok, maybe that’s wrong, maybe it was a little gradual, but it was love and has been since the day we married. Sure, I didn’t always show it and I made mistakes, but all in all, Sheridan, I always loved you and always will.”

She didn’t reply, merely continued to sleep. She had been so ill for so long; sicker than he had ever seen her and that scared him. He had prayed often that God would take him first, spare him from the pain of losing her again…

But that wasn’t to be. She was so weak and pale and even Luis knew that this was the end. Cancer was going to take his wife away and it was killing him to lose her. Every day that he had to watch her suffer, watched her weaken, he could feel part of him dying along with her. His heart had gone first…and now his soul.

“Did I ever tell you how much I loved you, Sher? Did I tell you that from our first kiss at Mama’s party I knew that we were the real thing? That we would get married and spend forever together?” He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know why we tell our deepest darkest secrets and all our feelings on someone’s death bed. You’d think we’d learn from one death we should live each day to it’s fullest. I wish I would have learned this a long time ago, Sher. I’m going to miss you,” he sniffled, standing to kiss her cheek. When his lips met her cool, clammy skin he had to fight a sob.

“It’s all right to let go, Sheridan. Let go and go home,” he whispered in her ear.

“I love you,” she murmured in reply, her final breath released and her eyes remained shut. He looked at the monitor and watched as the line flattened…

She was gone.

“Dad, is she?” his daughter Valentine stood behind him, coming to see how everything was while the others sat in the waiting room. They had all be here for days, waiting for Sher’s final moment to come. Finally, she had let go.

He nodded. “She’s gone, Val. Go get the others…”

She nodded. “Dad, I’m sorry.” Tears began to fill her pale blue eyes.

He smiled weakly at her. “I’m not, Val. She’s in a better place now. She’s been suffering too long.”

Val nodded, offering a weak smile as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Won’t be the same without her…”

“No,” he looked at his wife’s body. “No it won’t.”

Val placed a hand on his shoulder, offering a little comfort before walking out of the room and going to find her brothers and sister.

Luis sighed, bending to kiss Sheridan’s forehead. He felt amazingly calm and at peace with her death, knowing that her pain was finally though. For once he didn’t worry about what tomorrow would be like without her. For some reason he knew he would see her again soon and he didn’t ever cry; how could he knowing she was better off now?

“Goodbye, mi amor,” he said softly as their children joined them. He watched them grieve, offering comfort to them before entrusting his wife to the care of the hospital. Suddenly, he felt drained and just needed to get back to their home.

He climbed into the car and turned on the radio, amazed when their song began to play. Chuckling, he drove along, remembering how it felt to hold her in his arms after making love, or to get up in the middle of the night with the twins. Her face had glowed when they discovered they were pregnant and the way she sang to her rounded abdomen amazed him.

“I miss you already,” he said out loud, driving along the coast road like he had so often before. The sun was setting and he felt as if it had taken Sheridan with it because it wasn’t bringing him joy like it once had. He remembered making up with her in the sunset all those years ago and hated himself for wasting so much time.

Still, he knew he would see Sheridan again one day and that is what kept him together. He could almost see her in a long white flowing gown, her hair curled the way she wore it when they were younger and a glow about her that was angelic…

She had always been his angel…

It was only suiting that she became one now.

He would never find another love, not that he would ever look, and he knew that he would spend the rest of his life missing her even though she would always be by his side. He could already feel her spirit with him. His eyes filled with tears as he pulled into the driveway and he had to force himself to get out of the car.

“Home sweet home,” he mumbled, looking the little house over and wondering what it was going to be like living there without her. Was he going to be able to face every day without Sheridan in his house? Probably, but it would definitely be hard.

“Forever,” he sighed, opening the door and stepping into the dark, empty living room. Even though it was May, the room seemed cold, but that was due to the missing person and not so much the lack of heat.

He stepped inside, flicking on the lights and shutting the door, looking at the chair where she had sat after chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She had always been so sick and he had always needed to carry her inside after the most recent ones.

“I wish I had better memories of our recent past,” he sighed, walking into the kitchen to find something to drink.

He could almost feel Sheridan as he walked past her little garden in the kitchen window. It had brought her so much peace towards the end, something she could leave behind for him. Didn’t she realize that she was already there spending every moment with him? Didn’t she know that her ghost would haunt him until he died?

Of course she did, because he could hear her whispering, “Someday, Luis, we’ll be together again someday, just like you promised.”

“Forever love,” he grumbled, opening the fridge and pulling out a can of soda. He chuckled, remembering how she would scold him for drinking from the can instead of using a glass.

“Luis! You should use a glass that’s why I have them…for liquids!”

“Yea, but I don’t feel like washing them, Sher, especially just for me,” he looked at the flowers in the window that were wilting and sighed. “Right, kill her flowers Luis, that’s exactly what she asked you to do.”

Sighing, he grabbed the watering can and flower food to give the flowers the nutrition they needed to stay alive and grow. “Please, little flowers, don’t die. You’re all I have left of her.”

He was determined to hold onto every piece of her he could until he met her again, because he knew it might be awhile before he saw her. He wanted to be with her now and wished he could see her again. Leaving the hospital hadn’t been as hard as staying there and watching his family grieve. Sheridan wouldn’t have wanted them to mourn her like this; she had been amazingly accepting of her fate.

“Don’t cry, Luis. I’m going to see my mother again…and we’ll be together in heaven. I’ll wait for you by the gates, I promise. Just hold on to our love…remember me.”

Like he had a choice! How could he ever forget her? She had been his whole world for over fifty years...

Ok, so they hadn’t been married for the entire time, but he did love her…

Even when he hated to admit it!

Still, knowing that she wasn’t come home this time hurt him deeply and made him feel empty inside. With a sigh, he picked up his soda and headed into the living room.

He just felt like sitting down for a while…

He watched the time tick away on the clock…one minute, two…ten. Slowly it made it’s way through and hour and not a thought in his head didn’t involve Sheridan and how much he missed her and his time with her. The phone rang twice, but he never answered; he merely sat in his favorite chair, facing the place where Sheridan had learned to knit blankets for their grandchildren and remembered the way she would sit there and tell the children stories in the afternoon.

Closing his eyes he could see her beautiful smiling face and felt tears begin to pool in his eyes. Why did it hurt so much to lose her right now? Ok, so it would have hurt to lose her ANYTIME, but right now seemed especially painful. He had been retired from the force for years and he had planned to take Sheridan on vacation this summer after her chemo was over.

But she had decided against the chemo over the last few days.

He opened his eyes and looked at the clock, the ticks seemed to be in time with his heart. One…two…three…four…

He sighed. Did time always move this slowly? At this rate he’d see Sheridan again in the next millennium.

His eyes moved from the clock on the mantle to the giant oil painting she had commissioned form a friend of hers. It was a painting done from a picture that they had taken when the twins turned five; a family photo that they had posed for, though it had been hard to get the four children to sit still.

He chuckled remembering how Ian refused to look at the camera and instead tugged on his twin sister’s hair, causing her to cry in a fit of rage and then smack him. This had, of course, made Ian cry and the two ended up in a crocodile tear screaming match that had most of the studio looking at them…

Sheridan had somehow managed to diffuse the situation in mere minutes, but the embarrassment she suffered was clear by the red hue of her face. The pictures were quickly snapped and Sheridan nearly dragged Luis out by his arm, the children tagging behind, sucking on sticky lollipops…

Mistake number two of the day!

Sighing, his eyes scanned her beautiful features in the oil painting and he found himself no longer chuckling softly at the memory of the day, but fighting tears because those same memories were haunting him and making him feel a pain so great that it stole away his breath.

He loved her so much and now she was gone…

He only wished that she knew the extent of his love…

This was his worst nightmare come true and he wished he knew how to make the pain go away. Getting up, he headed back in the kitchen to toss his can in the trash before heading up to his room. He didn’t feel like watching the clock any more, he felt like sleeping now.

Turning on the lights to their bedroom, he saw her diary sitting on the pillow with a note on top. He hadn’t been home since the day she came downstairs and begged him to take her to the doctor, complaining that she felt weak. Of course, he had immediately rushed her to the hospital and only came home to change before returning to stay with her.

Going over to the bed, he swept up the note card. Scrawled onto the piece of pink notepaper was a small letter from his wife. She must have written in recently and it immediately brought a smile to his face.

Luis,

I know that if you’re reading this note it means I didn’t come home from the hospital, which means I probably won’t make it out this time. Can you believe that we’ve known each other fifty years my love? I can’t, but then again I wouldn’t have believed that you and I could have ever fallen in love either.

Anyway, written here in this journal are my memories of the last fifty years. I kept note of all the amazing times we shared…even the pain and sorrow. I know this book will keep you company in the time you have without me. I hope the words bring you comfort…and I hope you know I have every intention of seeing you again. We’ll be together forever.

Love Always,

Sheridan

He shook his head. She was amazing. Even in her sickest moments where the disease totally took control of her body, she managed to bring him joy by leaving him such a precious gift. Quickly changing for bed, he crawled beneath the sheets and opened her journal, ready to settle in for some reading of the memories as she saw them.

He opened to the first page and was surprised to learn that this particular journal began on the evening she hit his car; well the evening after seeing has how her first night was in prison. He laughed at that angry, loopy letters that he encountered. She was DEFINITELY angry with him for arresting her and punishing her for being a Crane. Like she didn’t deserve it anyway.

Continuing on through her pages, he found the moment she first realize it was more than hate that bound them together and, ironically, it began with their first tango. From there he read on through their New Mexico journey, their adventure on New Years Eve, the escapades in Paris and his time as her body guard. He and Sheridan really never discussed that time and reading her deepest feelings, though it seemed like he was invading her privacy, was giving him a side that he never had seen before. Sheridan hadn’t hated him in the least at the time, despite the cold shoulder she had turned to him. In fact, she admitted repeatedly that she loved him…

And very much so!

“Now why couldn’t you have told that to me before, Sheridan?” he sighed, tracing the words she had written.

I could wait forever to be with Luis and I know that it would be special because he is special. I don’t understand why he seems like two different men, but I do know that he is the one I was meant to be with and that somehow we will end up together. Yes, I admit it, I’m in love with that pig-headed cop, Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald.

“So much time wasted,” he whispered, turning the page to read another entry.

He didn’t finish the journal because what little he read had made him laugh and cry, angered him and pleased him. Before he knew it, it was nearly midnight and he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. With a sigh, he placed the journal back on her pillow, his hand taking a moment to trace her side of the bed. His hand gently followed the sheets, wishing she was laying there beside him. Reaching over, he quickly shut off the light and then turned to face her empty half of the bed.

“Good night, Sheridan,” he silently stated, his hand pulling one of her pillows close to inhale her scene. “Sweet dreams for your first night in heaven and remember I love you.”

He swore he felt something brush his cheek, almost as if he was receiving a kiss. He smiled and closed his eyes, remembering how his sister Theresa told him that it was destiny for him to meet Sheridan, fate for them to marry and be together.

He hadn’t believed her then, but he did now. After all, Sheridan Crane had changed his life but Sheridan Lopez-Fitzgerald had become his everything. She owned his heart, his mind and his soul. No one and nothing could have kept them from marrying because it was written in the stars.

Before long, Luis was in his own little world, but it wasn’t a land of sleep and dreams. Instead, Luis found himself lost in the brightest of lights with someone calling to him. He couldn’t believe it, but as he made his way through the fog and into the light he found her.

“Sheridan?” he asked in disbelief. “Is that you?”

She nodded, smiling at him. She was just as she had been years ago, her blond hair curled neatly to frame her beautiful face and her eyes sparkling with love and devotion just for him. “I’ve been waiting for you, Luis, what took you so long?” she laughed, offering him her hand.

He gripped it, feeling himself changing. Suddenly he was just as he had been when they met, young and handsome, strong and tall. “I hadn’t realized I was supposed to meet you,” he smiled.

“I promised to wait at the gate, Luis, it’s been so long…you forget how fast time goes here.”

Their hands linked and she pulled him along. “You’re going to be staying with me. We’re going to be together for eternity, just like we vowed. The angels won’t cry for us because we’ve been reunited the best way two people can be.”

He nodded, listening to her ramble. “I love you, Sheridan.”

“I love you too,” she turned and placed a gentle kiss to his lips. “Welcome to heaven.”

He looked around. “Sheridan, anywhere I’m with you is heaven.”

His son would find him in bed days later, in the same position he fell asleep the night he lost Sheridan. Anthony would know right away that the angels has carried his father home to be with his mother, because even death couldn’t separate two lovers that were so connected that they had defeated all odds to be together.

They were placed side by side in the cemetery where their bodies would eternally rest, though their souls were already free. Anthony would tell his siblings that it was the way they wanted it…the way it was planned.

Only two words were written on the headstone they placed where the caskets rested. Two words graced the slab of marble that marked their resting place. The words would have been exactly what their parents would have chosen, had they had a last request.

What words were they?

Forever Love…

Because their love truly was eternal.

And when the day they buried their parents was sunny and bright, not a cloud in the sky, the children would only be able to explain it as their parents smiling down on them. They knew that their father and mother were united in heaven and that there was no reason to cry.

“Mom always said she wouldn’t give up on Dad,” Emmy said, sliding an arm around her younger sister, Valentine. “She said that they were supposed to be together…”

“But it sure wasn’t easy,” Anthony replied, placing a rose on the headstone. “But they made it.”

“We knew they would,” Val replied with a smile. “Do you think she waited for him?”

Emmy smiled. “She would have waited forever.”

“She won’t wait anymore,” Ian replied. “She won’t have to wait ever again.”

The other three nodded and left the site where their parents were laid, their arms linked. They didn’t cry for there was little need to cry. Sheridan and Luis were together forever and the children thanked God for sparing their father the pain of life without his beloved…

His amor.

His forever love…

The End



Disclaimer:
This story in is in no way meant to infringe upon the rights belonging to , NBC, or any entity thereof. All rights to Passions and any related content, including characters used, belong to "Outpost Farms Production Inc", James E. Reilly, and NBC.
This story is the property of the author. Copyright 2001. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without the written permission of the author.
Forever Love- Copyright © 2001 - All Rights Reserved.