Come Back to Me by Jody Hedlund

~ 30 ~

“I’MDYING.” Marian managed a whisper through her tight throat.

“No!” Tears fell freely down Ellen’s cheeks. “No! I won’t let you.”

Back on the hospital bed the rental company hadn’t yet picked up, Marian was suffocating. Even with the oxygen tube as well as the medicines pumping through her IV, she was sinking and drowning, and nothing could pull her to the surface.

She struggled to keep her eyes open so she could look on Ellen’s face for what she knew would be the last time. Sorrow tinged every breath. She would miss her sister. Yet at the same time, Marian understood with a clarity she hadn’t before that even if she had survived, she wouldn’t have been able to return to her job and apartment and carry on with life the way she’d always known it.

Her trip into the past had altered her life forever. She no longer wanted to bury herself in work and research. And she didn’t want to be a self-sufficient woman who kept people at arm’s length because she was afraid of getting hurt.

Instead, living in the starkness of the Middle Ages had taught her there was something special about needing others and being needed in return. She’d learned it took courage to open her heart and allow people in. And it took the stripping away of everything she depended on to realize she didn’t need any of it to be happy.

She could see now the emptiness of the way she’d been living, like a paper doll flat and one-dimensional, simply flopping along and playing at life. That kind of existence hadn’t been real. In fact, she hadn’t really started living until she’d arrived in 1381, until she’d opened herself up to the possibility of having friendships, love, children, and a genuine faith in God again.

As it was, she was thankful she’d had the experience, even if it had been brief. She could go to the grave knowing she was at peace with life and God, as well as knowing she’d soon be reunited with her dad. The first thing she planned to do after hugging him was apologize for pushing him away and being insensitive to his heartache. Now after experiencing her own heartache, she could finally empathize with his.

Her biggest regret in the face of death was the pain she was causing to those she was leaving behind.

She held the strand of pearls that had been among her things at Chesterfield Park when she’d awoken from her coma. She’d never recovered the necklace from the prioress of St. Sepulchre. The phenomenon of the items existing in both eras puzzled her. When she’d posed her question to Harrison, he’d launched into another physics lesson about minuscule wavelets that disappear and reappear according to the laws of quantum mechanics, allowing for such anomalies.

“I want you to have these.” Marian pressed their mother’s pearls into Ellen’s hands.

Ellen glanced down and then recoiled. “You’ll wear the necklace again.”

“I don’t need it anymore.”

Ellen hesitated for another moment before taking the strand. “Oh Marian.” Her voice was laced with agony. “You and Dad never should have swallowed the water in those flasks. It was poison.”

Marian wanted to argue with Ellen and convince her otherwise, but she didn’t have the strength. The truth was, Marian needed another dose to survive, just as she’d suspected. As her 1381 body lay dying, she was experiencing the deterioration in the present. In order to live, she needed that second drink of holy water to heal and restore her.

Too bad she hadn’t figured out exactly how it all worked earlier, how to bridge the time gap safely. Not that it would have made much of a difference, because if she’d discovered more holy water, she would have insisted Ellen drink it—even if she’d had to pry the liquid through her sister’s lips.

When her heart attack had started earlier, she’d begged Harrison not to take her to the hospital. She wanted to die at home. Though Ellen had objected and claimed she’d be better off at the hospital, he’d understood and had called in the private staff again.

Now the physician and nurse stood on the opposite side of the bed studying the ECG, keeping tabs on the electrical activity of her heart, and watching the waves on the monitor.

At some point during all the examining, Harrison had disappeared, and she hadn’t seen him since. She wanted the chance to give him the location of the wellspring. She had to do it for Ellen’s sake, and pray that when he uncovered it, he’d never let it fall into the wrong hands.

“Where’s Harrison?” Marian could hardly get out the question.

“Looking for me?” He steered his wheelchair at top speed through the door. A coating of dust covered his suit coat, and wood shavings stuck to his dark hair.

Marian couldn’t find a breath to answer him. Instead, when he arrived at the side of the bed, she held out her hand. He took it in his, which was just as dusty and dirty as the rest of him.

As he studied her, his eyes turned watery behind his spectacles. He cleared his throat before forcing a smile. “I’m excavating the closet off the entryway.”

He’d arrived at the same conclusion—that she needed another dose of holy water in order to fully return to the present. And now he was scrambling to find an ampulla in the vault in order to save her. She didn’t know how he’d managed to get a crew of workers there at such short notice, but it was too late. She wouldn’t last long enough for him to excavate the vault. Besides, even if he managed to get it cleaned out today, there was no guarantee he’d locate another ampulla there.

His smile wobbled. “You hang on tight. Keep fighting, and we’ll find a way to save you in two ticks.”

“Marian is going to live.” Ellen smoothed back Marian’s hair, even as tears continued to trail down her cheeks.

Marian glanced at the doctor and nurse.

As though sensing Marian’s need for privacy, Harrison spoke a few words to them, and they stepped into the hallway.

As soon as they were out of hearing range, Marian forced the location out. “St. George’s.”

“St. George’s?” Harrison watched Marian’s face expectantly.

Digging deep, she summoned enough strength to speak again. “Tower.”

“St. George’s Tower, yes?”

She blinked in answer.

“So that was your hideous carving on the piece of clay?”

She tried to nod.

“It’s a good thing you’re a brilliant scientist and not an artist.” Although he maintained a smile, the merriment in his tone was strained.

Marian held his gaze for a long moment, hoping he could sense her charge to save Ellen.

“Many thanks, love. You know I’ll do everything I possibly can.” His voice was low and raw and filled with an agony that confirmed what she’d begun to suspect—Harrison was in love with her sister. Now it was up to him to save Ellen.

Blackness began to push at the corners of her mind like floodwaters waiting to overflow. She switched her attention to Ellen. Marian would never be able to look into her sister’s eyes again. This was it. She held Ellen’s gaze and mustered the energy of a dying soldier readying for one last charge. “I love you.”

Then her lashes fell. Somewhere she heard Ellen release a cry of protest. But Marian had no more strength to hold back the murky waves that had been threatening. They flowed over her, submerging and dragging her along where they would.