On The Line (Ashton Irwin)

Chapter 16- Now

Chapter 16- Now

-Ashton's POV-

It's been two weeks. Two weeks since Maddy's been awake, two weeks since I've come home to be with her. Two weeks since she's done anything, really. And every moment of it's been absolutely killing me, to say the least.

I've been eating more. I'm still losing weight from not eating as much as I should be, but at least I'm eating more than I used to. A lot more, in fact

Today I was alone with Maddy, unlike most days. But, the boys were spending today with their families, so here I was. With my family, my home, the love of my life. The only one I'd want to spend time with on a day like this.

I couldn't help but just watch her. Even like this, laying down in a hospital bed with her dark hair splayed around her, she looked beautiful. She always looked beautiful, she was Madison. And Madison was pretty great.

"Is it time yet, Maddy?" I asked her, my hand clasped tightly around hers as I brought it up to my lips, kissing it softly. "I can't wait much longer, but I will if I have to. I just want to be here when you open up your eyes, have me be the first thing you see."

She didn't respond.

I didn't actually expect her to.

But it would've been nice to see.

I don't know what I expected to happen. If I expected her to magically open up her eyes or something, to tell me that everything was alright and that she was perfectly fine. That she was ready to go home, and we could resume our normal lives like nothing ever happened. Just Maddy and Ashton, that young couple that lives in apartment 4B.

Something did happen, I guess. But it was the one something I was never prepared to have happen. You know her heart monitor, the one that controls the beating of her heart, and it moves up and down? It went flat.

"Help!" I yelled, jumping off the chair and opening up the door, where doctors and nurses were rushing inside to help her.

"Mr. Irwin, you can't be in here right now," one of the nurses said. "You need to wait in the hallway."

"Maddy!" I yelled as I was ushered outside, the door slammed in my face. I slid against the wall until I was sitting against the door, knees pressed against my chest.

This couldn't be happening. She couldn't die, not now. There were so many things we never got the chance to do. I never got the chance to ask her to marry me. I had everything planned for when I came back. The ring, how I was going to ask her, everything.

I had gotten the ring at a jewelry store a couple months ago while we were touring in England. And then while we toured around the US, I kept it in my bag, and I'd open up the box every night, just to look at it. I even used the boys as practice dummies on how I'd ask her.

I was planning on doing it at the airport, when I was going to see her for the first time. When I saw her, we'd embrace, after so many months of not seeing each other. Then I'd give some speech she'd probably think was totally random, of how much these past two years had meant to me, and then I'd do it. I'd get down on one knee, and ask her to marry me. Hopefully she would've said yes.

But now she might not get the chance to say yes. And I'll never know if yes would've been the answer she'd have given me. She might've said no, I guess I'll never find out.

And in that moment, I did something I hadn't done in awhile. I cried. Cried for Madison. Cried for myself. Hell, I even cried for little Austin.

-Madison's POV-

"It's been two weeks," Milo said as we sat cross-legged on the clear ground, looking downstairs at where Ashton was sitting by my bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"Physically or emotionally?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "Either."

"Well, physically I feel no different. I guess I'd need to physically feel better to return downstairs, am I right?" I asked.

He nodded. "That is correct, yes."

"Well, emotionally I feel awful. This is killing Ashton, can't you tell?" I asked then.

He nodded. "I can. I mean, I can't imagine how he must be feeling, but I can tell that it's taking a huge toll on him. He loves you Maddy."

"And I love him." I said, brushing a tear from my eye. "I just wish I could go downstairs and try to comfort him, something," I said, standing up and pacing around.

"Maddy," Milo said sympathetically, standing up and putting a hand on my shoulder. "Don't make me feel bad about the fact that we can't do that anymore. It's one of the rules. If we're seen, then the trips come to an end. I don't want it to be that way..." he trailed off.

"I know, I know, you wish we could still go down," I said, shrugging his hand off my shoulder.

It was silent for a moment, before one noise could be heard, almost like a piercing siren. But it wasn't coming from anywhere upstairs. Instead, it came from downstairs, and looking down, I could see one thing: my heart monitor going flat.

And the next thing I knew I was falling. Milo wasn't there anymore, I wasn't upstairs, I wasn't anywhere. Just falling through pitch darkness.

Falling.

Falling.

Falling.