Because of happiness

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Lana's pov

It was the day we were going to meet Christie again after two weeks. We left the house at about six o'clock as it was a 4-5 hour drive to where she was. I woke up at five o'clock so I had time to sort myself out and get ready. I got up from my bed and I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I suddenly just got a huge wave of missing Fred. I'm not sure if that made sense. In other words, I started to really truly miss him. It was the longest I had gone without seeing him since we were married. I couldn't break down there and then. Not after how far all of us had come. Christie needed me at that time and I had to remain strong for her and the family. I found myself in a uplifting mood, and I don't know if that was down to getting to see Christie, or the fact I was feeling refreshed so early in the morning, but hey, I kept a hold on to it. I was so excited to see the boy Ellis she was talking so excitedly about in her letter the nurse read out. Everything seemed to just be working out for us all. Christie's mum, dad and I were all ready and about to set off to see Christie. We nearly made it to the car and just before I opened the door, Christie's mum stopped.

"No, wait, I can't. What if she's gotten worse?" She said welling up with tears of fear. I walked over to her and took her hand.

"Don't you remember that letter the nurse read out over then phone, huh? She's doing okay and there isn't any need to worry." I said as I pulled her in for a hug. She pulled away.

"But what if she was lying. What if she was saying that to stop us from working out she has got worse?" She cried sounding more worried with each word she spoke.

"If that is the case, then we'll deal with it. Look how far we've all come. Especially Christie. We have all made it this far, so a few more steps will seem like a walk in the park. I've promised you before, and I'll promise you again, I'm not going anywhere, okay?" I assured her while nodding. She looked at me for a few moments before nodding back and walking to the car with me.

We had about ten minuets left in the car until we got to the hospital and it felt like 300 butterflies were dancing around in my stomach. I could've easily backed out of going to see her, but I knew this was about her, not me. I sucked it up and found the courage I needed. I was anxious that she may have gotten worse during her stay so I think that's why I was worried about seeing her. I told myself I was being irrational because she was in the best place to recover. That made me relax a bit. I focused on deep breaths for the remaining minutes we had in the car. I tried to think about what Christie was doing at that very moment. I came up with loads of possible things. Drawing, reading, with Ellis, making something or talking with her friends. One thing did stick with me though and that was if she was just waiting for us. Turns out my instinct was correct. She was waiting for us. We pulled up outside the hospital and had to wait about ten minutes until it was visiting hours. No one talked in those moments as we were all anxious as to what Christie would be like. It turns out we had nothing to worry about. We finally walked into the hospital and we saw Christie sitting facing away from us in the reception. She was reading a leaflet of some sort. I had medium heels on so I was trying my best to walk over to her on my tip toes. Just as I got behind her, I put both my hands on her shoulders. She looked up and her face lit up. It was almost like she wasn't actually expecting us to turn up. As her face developed a glow to it, I felt mine glow too. It had never felt so good to see someone before. She stood up and hugged me the tightest she ever had before. I kissed her head as she snuggled her chin into the curve of my shoulder and neck. I felt her cheeks move as she smiled at her parents. She pulled away and looked at me as to say "I need to hug my parents now". I don't know how I got that from a look, but I did. She slowly walked over and broke down in tears and hugged them both. For just the second time in all of this mess, I watched her dad cry. Watching them reunite gave me a warm feeling inside, but also made me sad. It made me sad because I thought no family should have to be split up at a time like that. We had to sign in and tell the receptionist who we were. We were lead into the visiting room by Christie and we all sat down. There was a deafening silence until Christie's mum relieved us of it. She asked how she was getting on at the hospital and she told us she was thinking of going to study mental health. It made me so proud to think of Christie planning for her future. Just a few weeks before that moment, she was saying she was terrified for the future and she wanted to die. I was just amazed at how fast one person could turn her life around in such a small amount of time. It was Ellis. Ellis was the reason for her new found happiness.

Then the question came. Her dad asked about Ellis. She suddenly became very down and shy and started to look sad. She started to tell us how Ellis was in medical as he attempted suicide. Although, she did use the word 'tried to do something bad' but we all knew she meant he tried to kill himself. She was saying how he didn't want to see her and as she was just about to finish talking, I saw a young man standing in the door way. I thought maybe it was Ellis although I wasn't completely sure, but the slight smirk and redness on his face confirmed it. It was good to put a face to the name. Before seeing his face, all I could do was imagine what he looked like. He looked fragile, like he was about to break, but I could see he cared about her. I started smiling and Christie stopped talking mid sentence. Before she could look behind, Ellis wrapped his unusually long arms around her and kissed her head. He pulled away from the hug and went round to the front of her. He knelt down and put his hands on her cheeks. It looked like she shivered. He slowly went in and kissed her, but I found myself waiting for her to pull away from the kiss as I knew she was so scared of someone loving her. But no, instead she kissed him back. I looked at her parents and they were overjoyed. I was too. It was her first kiss and I witnessed it. I felt so proud and somewhat honoured to oversee it. She enjoyed how he loved her, and he enjoyed how she loved him. At that point, I knew they were going to be good for each other. As long as they got better together, nothing could go wrong. They stopped kissing and Christie looked at him.

"I fancy you too, idiot" Christie said while smiling. Ellis just smiled back.

Christie's dad went over to Ellis and started examining him from head to toe. When he got to his head, he smiled. It's like a huge weight came off my shoulders, and Christie's too because the smile told us that he approved of him. While Ellis and Christie's dad were having a mom meeting, she let go of Ellis' hand and walked up to me. She looked at me for a few seconds before hugging me tight. After five seconds of hugging each other, I pulled her away from the hug and placed a quick kiss on her cheek. We talked for a bit about how much she liked him. I couldn't believe my eyes. Her smile was so real. Even more real than when we first met at the convention over two months ago. I couldn't help myself but cry, and I could tell she was getting uncomfortable with it. She told me how thankful she was for me paying for her special care. I told her it was my pleasure and all I wanted her to do was be happy. If Ellis could bring her that, then it was something I approved of. We both smiled and took each other's hand to walk back over to the three mothers who were still having a meeting! I don't think she saw me watch her as she looked in the mirror. She smiled at herself and I saw a wave of happiness come over her. It looked like the burden of being ill was washed away as she looked at all of us, because she really knew we had her back.

We left her and Ellis, the lovebirds, sat in the visiting room. Once again, we were sat in the car leaving Christie behind. None of us were talking, just like the last time when we left Christie there crying. We left Christie crying this time, but because of happiness. We were all thinking about her, but not about how bad we felt leaving her. We were thinking of how good things were about to get. They were about to get a whole lot better.

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