Ecstasy

Epilogue

I twisted the handle to lock the door, just wanting some privacy in the room. I stayed at the door for a while, my back leaning hard against the metal object as we stared at each other for a while. I was unsure of what to do because I was not aware how much of this he had processed. In most cases, patients in his condition would not have a flipping memory of who the person in front of them would be.

Was he glad to see me? Did he know what happened to him? Did he know he had little time to live? If he did not know, that was all that could cross my mind.

"You're supposed to be in Thailand", he finally spoke, voice low and hoarse, throat hard and lips pale. I looked over at him and walked closer to him slowly, as if I feared my footsteps would be the death of him instead.

It was then I remembered that that day was Stephanie's birthday.

"With us. You're supposed to be with us", I pointed out taking a seat on the bedside, his lower limbs casted and placed high above him, a bandage wrapped around his head and cervical collar on his neck. This was the first time I was witnessing Dominic in the hospital.

And it would be the last.

"How bad does it hurt?"

"Like a truck hit me", he said, his words almost hard for me to hear due to the oxygen mask. "Ten times".

"Who would survive something like that?" I cried with a laugh.

"No one. No one can", he sighed with a frail smile. I looked over at him, reality killing us both in the moment. I looked down at the floor, soon realizing that I was sobbing. Oh how I was tired of it all, I couldn't seem to get enough of crying. I wanted to cry for days, maybe weeks or months.

"This was not supposed to happen", I finally wiped my tears away and faced Dominic who had been watching me silently. "It's my fault I didn't show up earlier, maybe you wouldn't have been in this situation anyways—"

"It was either you or me, Mike would not chose neither".

"What—what do you mean? Mike pushed you off the building?" I stood to my feet utterly flabbergasted.

"Seems like David was nothing but a mere puppet. You have to tell Xavier that".

"He was already on his way to question Mike", I informed. Xavier had always said he had a hunch that Mike had something to do with this, but of course I never took him seriously. Did I forget that he was the professional detective here?

It looked like it was my fault anyways.

I took a seat back down, rethinking my whole existence and how truly stupid I had been.

I reached into my jacket and took out a blue box, reaching it towards my eyes and opening it to examine the ring inside. "The doctor gave me this last night, said they found it in your clothes", I faced Dominic, an embarrassing smile spread across his face.

"I wanted to ask you to remarry me in Thailand, though I couldn't help but contemplate on it", he admitted.

"I would have said yes", I mumbled to myself, but loud enough for him to hear. He did not say anything more, only rolled his eyes away from me and stared at the roof high above. There was silence for a while, not the uncomfortable one, just one where we needed to exhaust each other's presence for the last time.

Not a while later, I stood to my feet, placing the box on the table next to him, about to walk out of the room before he stopped me. "Don't go".

"Your mother, she too needs to see you".

"Stay a while longer", he persisted. I took my hand off the handle and did as he asked, walking back to him and siting right next to his legs.

"Lay with me... one last time". His eyes were still fixated on the roof, unable to look me in the face. I silently did so, taking my jacket and shoes off, leaving myself in bottoms and a vest. I slowly made my way to the less crowded side of his, the bed being fortunately large enough for us both.