Until the Very End

Chapter 22

Meryl was starting to get worried, thinking Don had done too much too soon. She was about ready to call his cell phone, AGAIN, when she couldn't find him until she came upon their indoor gym. She couldn't believe what she saw: sweat pouring from her husband, him gasping for breath but he kept running and running and running. She immediately ran over to him. "Don! Stop! What are you doing?"

"Working...through..." Don breathed. "Things. Getting....shape."

Meryl stopped the elliptical and put her hands on his shaky ones. "You haven't been released. What in the hell are you thinking? Have you lost your ever-loving mind?"

"No...you." Don breathed heavily as he finally stopped. "You...I've lost...you." Don waited for some sort of reaction but instead, he watched as his wife ran out of the room. He wanted to yell for her to go see Roger but he didn't have the breath. He was so shaky he didn't know if he could make it off the elliptical, but he was going to try. "Damn it!"

Meryl quickly ran back into their home gym, placing his medications and water bottle on the end table, before going back to her husband and helping him off the elliptical. "Come on, baby, we need to talk but first you need your meds. Here, let's sit."

"Meryl?" Don breathed as he opened his eyes to see his wife helping him to the overstuffed chair in the corner of the room. "Thought you...left..."

Meryl shook her head as the tears came once she thought about what he said, how he thought he lost her. She was too worried about him at first to process what he said, but now that she did, it broke her heart. She had no idea where all of this was coming from. First, she needed to get him breathing again. She handed his inhaler to him. "Here, baby, take this. We need to see if we can get this under control, then I can get the nebulizer if you need it."

"Don't need...stay." Don breathed. "Be fine."

Meryl shook her head as she pressed it to his once he took his medications. "I am NEVER leaving you, Donald Gummer. I'm sorry for just running out earlier, but I needed to get your meds. You scared the hell out of me. You haven't lost me, baby, you never could."

"Roger..." Don croaked as he tried to catch his breath. "Handsome. You lit...up."

Meryl closed her eyes at hearing the brokenness in his voice as she placed her finger on his lips. "No one lights me up as you do, and you are the perfect one for me. Don't talk, baby, we need to get you breathing regularly first. I just want to hold you."

"Okay." Don finally smiled as he felt safe in his wife's arms. "Sorry."

Meryl shook her head as she kissed Don's neck. "Just breathe, baby. That's the only sound I need to hear right now."

***

"Baby?" Meryl finally broke the silence once she could tell he was breathing better; she didn't want to upset him but she needed to know what happened. The way he held onto her broke her heart. She was trying to figure out what happened, but she couldn't. "Could you please tell me what this is all about? You haven't been cleared for physical activity and here you were pushing yourself into not being able to breathe. You thought you lost me. I'm not following. I don't understand."

Don took a deep breath, he knew he needed to be honest. "You keep pushing me away, and yet as soon as you saw Roger your hands were all over his arms and you hung on his every word. I was trying to talk to you about how I was worried about you when he walked up, and I didn't get a second look all night."

"Don..." Meryl thought she was going to throw up. "Baby, I haven't been pushing you away. If I was flirting with him I certainly didn't mean anything by it. We grew up with each other."