Love Always Wins

104

Saturday December 5th.

It was a picture perfect scene: a husband and wife wrapped up in each other in bed, holding each other with their limbs entwined and their naked bodies loosely covered by a snow white, cotton sheet and at the end of the bed, a sleeping, fair haired baby boy who was the apple of his parent's eyes, snuggled in his travel cot with his small cuddly, cream coloured rabbit keeping a watchful eye over him.

It was scene that might never have happened if things had had very different outcome on this day, exactly one year ago and Seb knew that all too well as he lay there with his eyes wide open and his fingers lightly stroking the soft, warm skin of Chloe's shoulder. He could still picture the whole day in his mind, it was crystal clear, as if it had only just happened yesterday. He could see himself emerging from the bathroom, having showered, and hearing voices in the lounge. He could still feel his footsteps as he entered that room to see his wife faced with the man who'd once raped her, he could see the piece of white cloth that Stephen had had in his hand, contaminated with chloroform to make her pass out so that he could do it all over again. He remembered going to cross the room to get to her, wanting to protect her. Then he remembered the chilling feeling of a cold, metal gun barrel being pressed to the back of his head and the terrified expression of Chloe, who's body had been cocooned in a white fluffy robe that perfectly matched the snow outside. He still remembered Stephen's words to him that day, 'Ah good morning Sebastian, I'm just here to collect what I'm owed.' As his heartbeat started to gain momentum in his chest, the rest became a fast forwarded blur in his mind, one peppered with freeze framed moments like Chloe's blood splattered robe and ashen, horror filled face as she'd realised that she'd shot Antti, Michael turning up and throwing her into hysteria which had ended up with her pulling the trigger once more, aiming blindly before dropping the gun and fleeing the lodge - right into the path of Corinna. But most of all.... he remembered vividly the sight of Chloe laying motionless in the snow outside, her robe turning red where she'd been shot and her words to him shortly before she'd lost consciousness, 'Seb, the baby.' An ice cold chill spread over body as he remembered those words, how she'd looked terrified and then resigned to her death as a couple of silent tears had fallen from her eyes to roll back into her hair.

His hold on her had suddenly become so tight that he'd woken her up. With her head on his chest, she could hear his heart beating rapidly and she placed her hand on his arm to feel goosebumps on his skin. Was he having a nightmare? She rose her head, ready to wake him and soothe him back into a sleep filled with only the sweetest of dreams. Instead she found him to be wide awake, his eyes staring, unblinking at the ceiling above them and the most awful, haunted expression that she'd ever seen on his face - even more than it had been when he'd witnessed Romain's accident nearly a week ago. She managed to move in his vice like embrace to place her hand to his cheek and whisper softly to him, "Seb, hey, you ok?"

Just hearing her saying his name was enough to snap him out of the horror that was replaying itself in his mind and a look of reassurance and calm washed over his handsome face as he lifted his head from the pillow to seek her lips with his own.

"Have you had a nightmare? Only your heart is beating like crazy and you're covered in goosebumps." She stroked his face before accepting his kiss.

He wasn't sure what to say. Did she not remember what today was? But then she still couldn't remember that day herself anyway apart from what she'd learnt from himself and the media.

She noticed the look of uncertainty that now adorned his beautiful face. What wasn't he telling her? "Talk to me, you're worrying me."

After everything that they'd been through, he knew it would be wrong to keep this from her. He shivered as he thought about it once again.