Love is the Best Medicine

Chapter 15

After the kids, Larry, and Dana all got a chance to BRIEFLY see Don, Meryl sent them all home to get some rest. She gave Ben strict orders to make sure Mamie ate a good dinner and got a good night's sleep now that she knew her father was and would be okay. Meryl knew the cloud of Diane's death hung over all of them, and was happy that all the kids decided to stay together at their apartment. She thought they would all rest better there, and being together. Dana said he would check on them later. Don tried to talk Meryl into going home with the kids, but he knew it was futile. He also knew that if he had gone through what she had, then he would sit next to that bed holding her hand and not let go until she was released. He was happy she was staying with him he just worried about her and wanted her to eat and get rest. She promised him she would now that she knew he would be okay. She just couldn't leave him, not now, not after everything. Not only did she want to be there just to be close to him, she wanted to be there in case anything happened again, she wanted to be there in case he needed anything. She knew of things he needed before he even did.

***

She was laying in the hospital bed the staff brought in for her and pushed it next to his. She thought about her life for the past 32 years as she ran her fingers across his face and smiled whenever he would smile in is sleep; she knew how much he liked it when she would do that to him, it calmed him, just as it calmed her when he would run his fingers through her hair. He was her life. They had built a life, a family, together 32 years ago and she never looked back. He was everything she never knew she wanted. She thought of all the small moments in their lives and was so grateful they would continue to make memories. She had been asked during many interviews what the secret was to a long marriage. It always made her uncomfortable as she didn't want to talk about their private lives. But laying there watching the love of her life sleep she reflected on that. They had a deep and unconditional love for each other, trust, adoration, an intensely hot sexual life, and a bond that could never ever be broken. In her mind he really was the perfect husband and father. She was so grateful for him. She had told him many times that she didn't know where he had come from. He was the exact opposite of his father. The truth was she didn't care, he was hers now and always. For some reason, she started to think about when James Gummer left their lives forever, and the world.

***

It was a cold day in early November 2005.  Meryl had just wrapped filming on A Prairie Home Companion and The Devil Wears Prada and was enjoying being a wife and mother.  She had dinner in the oven and was setting the table, her husband should be home any minute as would Louisa. She had spent all day cleaning the apartment and putting away laundry. She was looking forward to a relaxing evening with her husband and daughter after a home cooked meal.  It would be just Meryl, Don, and Louisa. Something she was getting used to as this was Grace's first year away at school.  She was looking forward to helping Louisa with homework. Sharing some wine with her husband. Going to bed with her husband, at the same time; something they always didn't have the luxury of doing.

She stopped what she was doing when she heard the house phone ring.  She smiled when she saw on the caller id that is was the youngest of the Gummer boys, Don's brother Danny.  Meryl hadn't always gotten along with Don's family. Of course there was James who was not only beyond awful to his own son, but also to Meryl and at many times the kids; then the other brothers and Jane who took James' side over things. She and Jane also had run ins when Jane didn't think Meryl was a good enough mother or wife; Don was always quick to jump to his wife's defense whenever that would happen. Then there was when Jane said Meryl deserved to be raped and tortured; something that was still hard for Don to look past.

 Meryl disliked James Gummer before she even met him as Don told her some stories of how he was treated. Then Meryl's distaste for James increased with every stunt he pulled. From trying to ruin their wedding, to physically abusing Don, to kidnapping Henry, to telling Don he would rape Meryl, to almost killing Don, to denying Louisa, to trying to fill their kids' heads with lies, and even trying to help free the man who had terrorized Don and Meryl and tried on many occasions to rape her, and even shot her to even housing the awful Kevin Mann and telling him how he could get to Meryl. Don tried to keep James out of their lives as much as possible, but he somehow always managed to weasel his way in. If there was one steady hurdle in their marriage they had to jump it would be James Gummer. However, every time James would try to come after them, their kids and their marriage, it always brought Don and Meryl closer together.