She's Mine

Chapter Forty

Josie POV-
It is the middle of the night when I find myself unable to sleep any longer. I crawl out of bed and decide to go check on Hope. I quietly try to open the door and slip inside. She appears to be asleep as I take a seat in the chair next to her bed. I miss her so much. Maybe Dad is right. Hope and I definitely need to talk.
A tear rolls down my cheek as Hope opens her eyes slowly and sees me. "Hey Jo, why are you crying?" I pushed her away as far as I could and she is still concerned about me. Hope reaches over hanging her left hand off of the bed. I instinctively grab it interlocking our fingers. "Want up here?" Hope nods to the bed and tries to scoot over to make room for me.
I do my best to crawl up into the bed next to her without causing her pain. It has been almost a full week since we last did this. Hope wraps her arm around my shoulders curling me into her. My head is laying on her good shoulder, my arm draped across her stomach. "We don't need to talk now, Jo, but I would like an explanation eventually." I nod my head. "I missed you, Hope." I tuck my face into her shoulder taking in her scent. This is home. "I missed you too, babe."
Lizzie POV-
I walk into Hope's infirmary room with some food in the morning but find Josie and Hope sound asleep cuddling. I am pretty sure this is the first time Josie has slept like this since our parents told us about the merge. I set the food down and leave again.
Hope POV-
I wake up and wince slightly when I try to move my right arm. I look down to see I thankfully didn't wake Josie with the movement or the pain. I can't help but watch her. I don't know how long this will last, if she is going to leave me again but I couldn't resist having her stay with me last night.
Josie starts to move a little bit before yawning and opening her eyes. She looks down at her arm to see she is still curled up laying with me. "Hey babe," the nickname still rolls off of my tongue. "Hey," Josie looks up at me before relaxing her head into my shoulder again.
"So, can we talk about this?" I am a little impatient. I am here in the infirmary right now because of our fight. Josie reaches over and grabs my right hand careful to not move my shoulder and interlocks our fingers. Josie starts rambling, "I'm so sorry, Hope. When Mom and Dad told us about the merge the only thing I could think about was you. How you could lose me again and I freaked out. I don't want you to lose me like how you lost your parents and your uncle. I don't want you to feel like every time you open up to someone you will lose them." She pauses taking a deep breath. "I thought if I pushed you away myself and if I died in the merge it wouldn't wreck you. That you would be mad at how we ended and that my death wouldn't destroy you. I was scared and I am sorry."
Josie buries her head back into my shoulder trying to hide the fact that she was crying. "Jo, I love you, and I told your mom this. I am in this for the long haul whether it is a couple of years or eternity. I proposed because I want to spend the rest of our lives together. I don't take that lightly. I imprinted on you, Jo. Whatever happens we can figure it out. I want my life to be with you." Josie lets out a huge sigh. "This week has been terrible without you, I haven't been sleeping, and pushing you away hurt me every time I did it." I move my hand down so it is on her waist. "Can you forgive me, Hope?" She looks up at me, her eyes red and her cheeks puffy from crying. "Forever and Always, babe." Josie moves her head forward enough so we can kiss.
"I'm sorry I broke my collarbone, it wasn't intentional." I felt like I needed to apologize because I knew we had the bond and that she would feel pain but I still was running reckless. "I deserved it, but, are we good now?" Josie sits up resting with her arm holding herself up.
"Not quite." I could feel Josie's heart rate increase. "What do you mean?" Her voice cracks a little. "Josie Saltzman, will you marry me?" She lets out a little laugh. "Yes, Hope Mikaelson, always and forever."
Josie POV-
Hope and I are good again. I curl back into her  with a huge smile on my face. "So, I would just like to point out that YOU said that we can't leave each other any more after the whole Peryton incident. And you broke your own rule. You also said that I have to talk to you when something is on my mind because that is what successful relationships do. But you failed to do so yourself." Hope has a huge smirk on her face. "I'm just saying, you owe me." She pokes my side lightly causing me to scoot up closer to her face. "I think we can come up with an arrangement that works for us both." I lean forward bringing our lips together again.
Hope pulls away after a couple of minutes. "What's wrong?" I put on a huge pouty face right as Lizzie walks back in to my infirmary room. I hear her in my head, "That's why."
"Awh, did the lovebirds make up finally?" Lizzie sits down in the chair next to me. "Yes, we did, I need to put that ring back on." Hope is smiling hard as she kisses the top of my head. "Yay! The plans I made for your wedding don't need to be trashed!" All three of us begin to laugh. "Oh Hope, Mom told me to tell you that she'll be home later today and that she might have find a loophole." I look back at Hope confused. "Wait, where did you go the other day?" Hope is still smiling like crazy. "Let's just say, you might have pushed me away but I wasn't done with you." Josie leans back so she can look at me, "I love you." I give her waist a quick squeeze. "I love you too."