Chapter 1 - Honey, you should know that I could never go on without you.
"I don't feel like going today," Sarah murmured while rubbing her eyes, followed by a yawn. It was just another Tuesday morning and a strange sort of gut feeling screamed at Sarah to not go to the hospital today. She felt Olivier's arms slowly wrap around her waist, and before she knew it, he had pulled her back by the waist and she could now feel the heat of his body on her back.
"Then don't," Olivier whispered into her ear as he snuggled his face into the crook of her neck.
"There's a 5 hour long surgery scheduled for this afternoon, the patient told the doctors she won't be going into surgery if I'm not next to her, I have to go" Sarah put her hand on Olivier's, which was around her waist.
"Well, I'm not gonna move from this bed if you aren't next to me, what now?" Olivier kissed Sarah's neck, that ticklish feeling left goosebumps on her entire body. Sarah turned around to face Olivier, his arm still around her waist.
"You and your drama," Sarah exclaimed, a wide smile on her face as she softly boop-ed Olivier's long and sharp nose. Reservation tonight is at 10, right?
"Yep, be back in time, okay? You know tomorrow is a special day and as every year, we'll be sitting there at the Aqua Shard, a beautiful view of the city for you, and an even more beautiful view of you for me," Olivier said, his trademark wink quickly following.
"I can't believe it'll be 3 years tomorrow, Olive. Feels like just yesterday I met this cocky, hilarious and at the same time heartbroken guy who seemed like a dream the moment my eyes met his. And now, we're together, in the same bed, next to each other. How did I get so lucky with you?" Sarah's face wore a sincere smile, as she cupped his face with her hands. For some reason, she constantly felt like no matter how closely she was looking at him, it still wasn't enough.
Olivier could read the distraught look on Sarah's face, but thought it was probably the stress of work that was getting to her. Sarah was a head nurse for one of the city's biggest hospitals, her extra care and kindness ended up having most of the patients, especially young ones, being really attached to her - and therefore, she'd have to end up doing a lot of overtime, and being kind enough, she never complained even once, no matter how tiring it got.
"I'm the one who got lucky. I can't imagine my life without you," Olivier looked straight into Sarah's eyes, that one exchange of look was deeper than hours of conversations could ever reach. "Honey, you should know that I could never go on without you," Olivier sang, he engraved every detail of Sarah's face into his head, the way a smile slowly formed on her face, the way her green eyes twinkled whenever she looked at him, the way she just was. He suddenly felt his heart clench, a sharp pain went through it even though absolutely nothing was wrong. He quickly changed his expression back to normal, he didn't want Sarah to notice it and he himself didn't know why he felt that way.
Sarah was about to sit up when Olivier pulled her back down. "I really, really don't feel like letting you go today."
"And for the first time, I don't want to be let go by you today. But I have to, baby, duty comes first," Sarah said. She placed a warm kiss on his cheek, feeling his scruffy beard brush against her face.
"I want you next to me even more than your patient does," Olivier said, as he put his hand around Sarah's neck. Sarah's upper body was lifted, and she was taking positions to get up once and for all.
"I promise you, tonight by 9, I'll be next to you, by your side, preferably holding those rough hands of yours. Wherever in the world I am, I'll leave all of it to be with you," Sarah didn't even realize what she was saying until she had said it all, the sudden thoughts worried her but she brushed them off in the end. "But I have to go now. I'm getting late, okay?"
Sarah still felt her heart sinking, she kissed Olivier and he put his arms around her waist. She was now on top of him, he held her as tight and close to him as possible, his mind constantly telling him to never let go. This was probably one of their longest kisses, with neither of them wanting it to end. They finally broke the kiss and gave each other one last smile before Sarah got up, Olivier lay in bed as he had sore legs from extra gym sessions the day before.
Sarah switched the iPod dock on, which was on the table right next to the closet's entrance. "Green eyes" by Coldplay started playing; both of them flashed each other a look before Sarah rushed into the bathroom. When she walked back out, Olivier had fallen back asleep. She stopped and stared at him, his face looked like it'd been carved to perfection. Her heart had that sinking feeling again, she let out a deep breath and closed her eyes for a few seconds, before picking up her bag and setting out for the hospital.
The day just wouldn't pass for Olivier, he watched some TV and then some shows on Netflix, worked out a bit but it felt like the day just wouldn't end. He lay down in bed after lunch and before he knew it, he had dozed off. He dreamt of Sarah - He saw that he was standing in a field of green, nothing but greenery all around. He found himself desperately calling out for Sarah, as if she was the only thing that he knew of and the only one he wanted to see. After calling out for a while, he finally spotted her standing quite far away, in a beautiful red dress, that same enchanting smile plastered all over her face. He ran towards her with all the speed he could possibly muster up, but somehow, the more he ran towards her, the further she went. He felt himself running out of energy, but kept telling himself that he had to get to Sarah. At one point, he tripped and fell, and that's when he woke up. He had never felt his heart race like this due to a dream, he had had worst nightmares than these but the fear in his heart was too strong. He looked over at the sleek black wall clock to check the time, and realized it was already 5 PM - he'd been sleeping for 3 hours. He jolted up and turned back to get his phone; he grabbed it and realized it'd been getting flooded with notifications. Messages after messages, countless missed calls from several people. His heartbeats started getting faster, just as he tapped on "Messages," a phone call interrupted his action. "Morgan" was the name that flashed on the screen, Olivier instantly tapped "answer."
"Olive, bro, where have you been? Have you seen the news?" Morgan's concerned voice scared Olivier some more.
"I was sleeping but my phone's bombarded with messages and calls, what's going on?" Olivier asked back.
"That means you don't know. Switch on your TV and switch to the news channel right now."
Olivier frantically looked for the remote only to realize he had fallen asleep with it next to him, the TV auto switched off after an hour. He switched it back on and the moment the news channel appeared, chills went down Olive's spine as he felt his whole body freeze. The TV's screen displayed a live telecast of somewhere with lots of police sirens going on, the reporter's constant speaking didn't make it any better. "Olive, is Sarah there?" Morgan asked, worriedly.
Olivier stayed quiet, his heart was beating even faster and he could slowly feel himself losing all control of his body. He recognized the place on the screen very well, he had dropped and picked up Sarah from there countless number of times, Sarah called it her second home. "Olive, you okay? Answer me, please," Morgan was getting even more worried, all he could hear from his side of the phone was the sound of the TV.
Olivier's breathing got heavier and he felt like the whole world was crashing down on him, the hospital surrounded by at least 50 police officers and their cars made Olivier think of how Sarah was inside, he somehow found it in himself to speak up. "Sh-she... She's there. She's there, Morgan. She's there and she needs me. She..." Olivier gulped down a lump in his throat, nothing else would come out of his mouth.
"Okay, Olive, I'll come pick you up right now and we'll go there together. Just be fine, please, I need you to be strong, alright? Sarah's gonna be okay, but I really need you to be stable," Morgan told Olivier before cutting the call and heading straight out, he could tell from Olivier's voice that he was no longer in a right state of mind.
Olivier sat there, blankly staring at the TV and thinking of that morning, the sudden jolt of heart he felt once was now constantly recurring every minute in his heart. He tried calling Sarah but couldn't reach through, making his fears grow bigger than ever. All he could think was - she needs me, she needs me, she needs me. And I need her even more.
