Wednesday, November 9th 2005

I sit by the window in the front of the house curled up in a chair and wrapped in a blanket.

Mel tells me it’s snowing outside. I can feel the slight chill radiating off the glass of the window. The house however, is quite warm. I’m slowly healing. I’m still covered in stitches and fading bruises. I’m still blind. My ribs aren’t in as much pain as they were, and my nose is slightly crooked now. . .

Link is slowly healing too. Inside and out. But sometimes he says things that let me know he hasn’t forgotten, and it still hurts. He’s holding the pain inside, he won’t talk about it. I sigh. He’s got to talk about it. If he doesn’t it’ll tear him up inside. I suppose it’ll just have to happen at the right time.

I close my eyes, though it makes no difference, and listen to the noises of Melody cooking in the kitchen, laughing with Jade. Then she speaks to Link and I smirk. Poor boy. She won’t leave him be.

“Link, you’re a twig. Eat dang it!”

“Mel. . .” Link chimes in, in a bored tone, “I’m not that hungry. I can’t eat all that Melody!”

“I swear man! You’re anorexic! Now eat it!”

Link makes an interesting growling noise and says, “I’m not anorexic. Mel, anyone who can’t eat every single scrap of food off of their plate, even if its been loaded to the brimming, is anorexic to you.”

I can’t help a soft laugh as I listen. Links right. Melody makes a huffing noise of exasperation, then sighs in defeat. “Fine,” she says in a tone bordering annoyance, “but eat as much of it as you possibly can.”

I close my eyes and my smile fades. I jump when I feel her hand on my shoulder. “Come on, you need to eat too mister.” I feel her take my hand. I stand up slowly and stiffly, trying not to pull anything too hard. My body still aches. Melody leads me slowly to the dining room and helps me find my chair.

I hate this part of the day. No, I hate meals now. I can’t see. . . I never know if I’ll get food on my fork, and if I do I never know what it is till it gets to my tongue. If I can get it into my mouth without making a huge mess, that is.

Melody is infinitely patient with me, helping me when it’s obvious I need it. But I feel like a child sometimes and its making me crazy. The meal progresses in silence for some time , ( it usually does. Melody’s food shuts everyone up) me actually managing to eat my mashed potatoes and pork chops (already cut for me. . . ) without too many problems.

Dinner passes and Jade and Link leave the table. I have no idea what they do. I think she’s been trying to get him to understand the Internet. I sigh and put my head down on the table and close my eyes. I listen as Melody cleans up the dishes and the kitchen.

After a little while I hear her stop and its quiet. “You tired, Jack?” she asks me suddenly. I jump slightly and lift my head up.

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Come on.” I feel her hand on my shoulder. She leads up upstairs to my room. I crawl into my bed and sigh. I smile as she kisses my forehead. “I love you Jack.” She whispers. Her words bathe my skin with goose bumps. I believe her. She means it.

“I love you too Melody. More than you’ll ever know.”

“I know, Captain.”

I raise an eyebrow and smirk slightly. “You haven’t called me that in a very, very long time.”

“Yes, I know. But I think you still deserve the title. You love it so very much” She sits on the edge of the bed.

“Yes, I do. But I don’t have a ship anymore.” My tone is slightly biting as the words come from my lips. She doesn’t seem to notice.

“Maybe you can get a boat or something sometime. Hmm?”

“I suppose. But then, not many blind men sail Melody.” I sigh sadly. I can’t deny my fear in living blind like this. It would have been bad enough in a world that I knew well and understood. But now. . . in this new era, this new way of life. . . its terrifying me.

“You’ll be fine, Jack.” She says. I feel her hand come up and stroke my face and hair. “We’re gonna make it. I’ll always be here for you. I promise.”

I turn my face slightly and freeze for a moment as I feel her lips on my cheek, very close to my lips. I close my eyes, pointless as it is. Her hand cups my cheek. I feel my heart start to pound. I haven’t been this close to her in nearly a year.

The thought alone hurts. Terribly.

I take a deep breath as I find myself burning inside. I want to beg her not to leave me. Her fingers slide from my cheek and entwine themselves into my hair. “Jack. . .” she whispers. I feel a tear hit my cheek. I swallow the lump in my throat and take in another deep, shuddering breath. My hands come up and touch her face. I open my eyes and blink as tears slide from my eyes and glide down the sides of my face into my hairline. She kisses one of them away. Then the other.

Then her lips come down on mine. On impact I freeze as electricity, so new and yet so familiar, races over me, bringing me to life. The kiss starts of slow and tender, and quickly becomes more heated, searching for the love and life we lost.

I ignore the pain and pull her fully into my arms. The rest of the world dissolves into a meaningless nothing as I find myself understanding us again. I cry as we hold each other in the fading light. When its over I bury my face in her neck and cling to her. I’m still crying. I swear, I didn’t know I had this many tears inside of me.

“Jack.” Her voice is twinged with humor. “Why are you crying?” she whispers.

I shake my head slightly. My throat is closed off with emotion. I can’t speak. And I couldn’t begin to explain to her how much I love her, how much I’ve missed and needed her. She takes my cheek and pushes my face up to where she can see me. I try to hide my face again, and she laughs silently. “Jack, its alright.”

I nod slowly and take a deep breath, a small smile creeping over my features.

“What is it?” she whispers in a tender voice.

“I just. . .I love you Melody.” I hide my face again and she wraps her arms around me tighter.

“I love you too, Jack. I always did, and I always will.” For the first time, in nearly a year, I feel her complete and unyielding acceptance of me. I feel completely alive and free. No matter that I cannot see, with her beside me I can do anything.

I laugh suddenly. I take a disbelieving breath. That feeling . . . laughter. So distance and old. Forgotten.

Not anymore.

There is so much joy inside of me suddenly I feel like I can’t contain it. I laugh again, harder this time, the sound ringing from deep down inside of me and escaping with the sound of a song.

“You’re laughing!” Melody nearly squeals in disbelief. “You haven’t . . . for so long.” She touches my face again as I laugh. She laughs too suddenly. I pull her into my arms, grinning from ear to ear and laughing in perfect and absolute bliss.

A/N: YAY, see happiness. Uhm. . . any questions? Leave me reviews and when I post the next chapter I'll do my best to answer them. No flaming please. I'll ignore you. And, this isn't the end! There is still more to come. I just havn't gotten farther than this. Anyhoot! check back soon. I'll hopefully have more up. I'm really busy lately though! School is almost over and I'll be free to write more. I wrote all this over a period of like a year. I was just nice and didn't post it till I had a lot written. Thanks friends!