Page 38 of Twister

Marshall

“Mr. Porter?”

“Which one?”

My brain felt like it was glitching. Every so often, I’d be pulled out of the heavy darkness that had been dragging me down. Each time, I heard Daniel’s voice pierce through the emptiness.

Baby… please wake up.

Please don’t leave me.

He can’t be alone. I won’t let him be alone.

You can’t keep me from my husband.

I couldn’t feel anything except a pressure to my left hand. I didn’t know why, but it seemed to correspond to the strength of Daniel’s voice.

Nothing else was making much sense, though.

And so I drifted back into the blackness.

“I’ve been sent to assess you.”

Daniel needed to be assessed? Why? By who?

I felt my fingers twitch, then the pressure of them being squeezed.

The darkness took me again.

Pain.

So much pain.

Why did I suddenly hurt ?

“Sorry. It’s been a long day.”

“I could imagine.”

The pain increased tenfold until I felt like I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear my voice.

Why couldn’t I scream?

I needed to scream .

“… caught in the twister…”

Pain.

“… but we weren’t quick enough…”

Agony.

“… Marshall landed wrong…”

Torment.

“… started bleeding. He’s been unconscious…”

So much misery.

“… your husband’s chart?”

Why did I hurt so fucking much ?

“… happened to my wife.”

Why was I being tortured?

What had I done to deserve this? Was I being punished for something?

Burning flames licked up my right arm, adding to my anguish, then…

Relief.

“He’ll be fine.”

Darkness swallowed me once more.

“… you have a mild concussion.”

“I figured as much.”

Daniel had been injured badly enough to get a concussion? What?

I felt my fingers twitch again.

“Marshall? Baby?”

I felt a gentle pressure against my jaw and cheek.

I tried to lean into his touch. I tried so damn hard.

He needed to know I could hear him.

But the darkness kept taking me.

“… was a twister, Hen. It flattened the house. Everything’s gone.”

What? Daniel’s house was gone ? Had the twister really been that bad?

“… will Blue once I tell…”

Who was Blue?

Please wake up, baby.

“I met someone, Hen.”

He better fucking not have. He has me, and I’m not planning on going anywhere.

“His name’s Marshall.”

Oh. That’s all right, then.

“And I love him, Hen.”

Oh….

I felt my hand move and the slightest pressure on my palm.

And moisture… why was there moisture?

“Why won’t you wake up, baby? Please wake up….”

I’m trying, Daniel. God help me, I’m trying.

I love you too.

“Why does the nameplate thingy say Sparkle Marshall’s last name is Porter?”

Because that’s my married name, Rosey. Daniel just jumped the gun a little. I still want my proposal, damn it.

“… quiet so he can sleep, okay?”

Yes. I like Jackson. He has the best ideas.

“It’s okay. I’m awake.”

Well, shit.

“Like I was hit by a tanker.”

Welcome to the club, buddy, although you do sound like crap.

You should have kept sleeping, Daniel.

“You gave him your last name.”

A fluttering pressure at my wrist.

“I did.”

“Can I ask why?”

Oh, silly Jackson. You know why.

He’s mine now.

“Are you sure? Marshall mentioned yesterday that he wanted to stay in Rockdale for a while, but with what happened this morning….”

Why did Daniel sound unsure? Of course I was staying in Rockdale.

There was no way a little twister would separate us.

I wasn’t going anywhere.

“… you’ll need to talk to Marshall’s mom first. She’s got ideas about the wedding.”

Oh, I bet she has. I hope she pulled her head out of her ass before she ruined my future with Daniel.

It’d be our wedding. Not hers.

God damn it.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

“… my 100 percent confirmed-to-be-good-looking future son-in-law! What can I do for you?”

Was that my mom? Was she in the room?

No. Her voice sounded a little tinny. She was on speaker.

There was that pressure to my hand again.

With as much effort as I could muster, I squeezed back.

“Marshall?” And that was a soft flutter to my jaw. “Baby?”

I tried to squeeze his hand again, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t.

Why couldn’t I squeeze back?

Come on, hand. Work with me, damn it!

“What?!”

And that was my mom getting all hysterical.

I focused every effort on squeezing Daniel’s hand again to let him know I was listening and Mom didn’t need to worry.

Her screeching when she was really freaking out could be heard in the next county.

No one needed to be subjected to that. We all needed to keep our eardrums. She never did know a situation she couldn’t completely overreact to.

I was fine .

I mean… other than the whole not being able to wake the fuck up thing.

“Keep talking, Evelyn. He’s reacting to your voice.”

Of course I was. I was trying to tell you that she could shut the fuck up. Christ.

“Marshall? It’s Mom.”

Yes, I know.

“Ev? What’s wrong?”

Oh, Jesus. She’d gone to Dad.

What a shit show.

I squeezed the life out of Daniel’s hand to tell him to end the call. They didn’t need to know anything. It’d only make them worry.

“Okay, baby. Rest now.”

Finally.

“We’ll tell them everything.”

Fuck.

A tiny pressure to my forehead.

Was Daniel fucking kissing me when Mom and Dad were freaking out?

Get your priorities in order, man. Jesus Christ.

I tried everything to pull out of his hand so I could smack him upside the head.

It didn’t work.

I let the darkness take me again.

There was no point hanging around if he wouldn’t listen to me.

We seriously needed to work on our nonverbal communication.

“I’m glad my son has you in his corner, Daniel. Thank you for looking after him.”

“I agree. This wasn’t quite how I thought it would go, but you honor us, Daniel. I’m proud to be able to call you our son-in-law. We’ll see you soon.”

Mom’s and Dad’s blessings were what woke me from my doze.

They hadn’t even met Daniel face-to-face yet, and they still felt comfortable giving him their blessing?

What magic was this?

When I felt a harder pressure on my wrist, I squeezed back.

“I love you too, baby.”

Oh my God. Gripping his hand was getting easier. Was I finally starting to get better?

I gave another squeeze, putting everything I had into it.

“They know it’s a fake marriage, right?”

Fuck off, Jackson. It’s as real as we want it to be.

“Not for long.”

You tell him, Rosey.

You tell him.

I didn’t know what time it was when I was finally able to open my eyes, but the strange room I was in was dark, so I assumed it was nighttime.

It had still been morning when the twister had hit, so I’d been out for quite a while, then.

A slow, steady beep broke the silence. Mechanical.

There was a constant pressure on my right index finger that wouldn’t dislodge when I wiggled it. My middle finger slid up against whatever hard contraption was on my index finger before it registered that it was a heart rate monitor thingy.

That explained the beeping, then.

I blinked slowly, then focused on the pale wall opposite me. Plain and pale. No decoration. The darkness of the room wasn’t helping me determine the color, but I had a sneaking suspicion it was beige.

Weren’t all hospital rooms beige? Maybe it was a law that all hospital rooms were as dreary as possible, otherwise patients would want to stay longer than they needed to.

As each part of my body woke up, I felt Daniel’s head lying on my thigh, my left hand loosely encased in his grip.

My Daniel.

It took me a ton of time and effort to lift my right hand and place it on the top of his head, heart rate monitor and all.

Totally worth it, though, because I heard him sigh happily and felt him lean into my palm like a cat nudging me.

“Marshall….”

I opened my mouth to respond to the soft exhalation of my name, but my voice wasn’t cooperating just yet, so I gave his hair a scritch in response instead.

“Marshall?”

Another scritch. Maybe a light tap of the heart rate monitor against his skull wouldn’t go astray, so I gave his head a tap, my lips twitching at the resounding clunk.

“Baby?”

Daniel lifted his head enough to gaze at me quizzically before his sleepy eyes cleared and widened. “Oh my God…,” he murmured. “You’re awake.”

“Mm.” I wanted to say, “Of course I am, you idiot. My eyes are open, aren’t they?” but it wasn’t just my voice that wasn’t cooperating; it was also my mouth. Apparently, my lips could move enough to smirk but refused to open enough to form words.

Which was probably a good thing because the inside of my mouth felt like the Sahara. Dry and grainy and simply murky in general. I needed some water, but was I allowed to have any?

He sat up, dislodging my right hand enough that it dropped from his head and onto my stomach.

Which made me realize how hungry I was.

Holding my left palm to his lips, he pressed a kiss to my skin before he leaned forward enough to kiss my lips gently.

Oh so gently.

Like a butterfly had landed on my lips.

Like I was fragile.

There and gone. And nowhere near enough.

“I thought I’d lost you, baby,” he murmured, his eyes welling as they traced every inch of my face before he cupped my cheek, his thumb gliding softly beneath my left eye.

Slowly, I shook my head ever so slightly, just enough for him to feel the movement. Never. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Mm?” My tongue peeked out from between my lips. Water . I needed water. Would Daniel be able to decipher that request?

His eyes flicked down to my lips, then back to my eyes, his own darkening slightly.

The corners of my lips twitched. He’d spent so long fretting about the difference in our ages, but it was times like this when it was kind of obvious that his mind was younger than mine. He was still so much like a horny teenager sometimes.

I mean, seriously. Here I was, literally in a hospital bed, and he was making goo-goo eyes at me, fluttering his eyelashes like he was the damsel in distress, not me.

When he saw my smirk, his eyes widened in realization. “Oh, you need water, don’t you?”

My smirk grew slightly as I nodded slowly.