Live For Me
by Binkeee and Darkchilde
Disclaimer: We don't own these characters, except for the ones that we do own. You'll know the difference. :)
This was written at about three in the morning by myself and Binkeee. This our second time co-writting together, and I rather like it. :)
The wind was hollowing in the trees. The leaves blew off their branches, and lighting arched thorough the air. Rain poured from the sky, splashing into puddles all over the ground.
It was the kind of night you didn't want to be out in.
A lone figure stood in the midst of the raging storm. Unafraid and heartbroken, the rain kissed his face, and the leaves swooped down to slap at his soaked leather jacket.
His blond hair was knotted and a shade darker than usual.
The lightening flashed, casting an surreal glow in his eyes.
The rain pounded down on his shoulders, cold as the hand of death. A single red rose hung from his finger tips.
He stood in front of a simple grave, staring at it with pained eyes. Sighing to stop from sobbing, he kneeled down next to it, laying the rose down.
"Ah'm sorry, Tabitha. Ah'm sorry Ah couldn't protect you. Ah should have. Ah'm so sorry." Sam said softly, staring at the words on the grave.
The wind howled a mournful cry through the branches, tugging at his damp clothes.
It was a night like this when he had lost his wife, the love of his life, the mother of his child. He had lost his wife to the rain.
Unyielding in it's assault, the rain increased in its efforts of watering the ground. The tombstone was cleansed of the dirt and grim that had collect upon it since the last rain fall.
Sam gently brushed his fingers over the petals of the red rose, which lay on top of the soft earth. Only when it rained could he hear her Heavenly laughter, and the horrible sound of metal slicing into metal.
The thunder clapped.
It thundered her name. Over and over again, it would whisper it, or shout it out with a raging boom, which shook the earth.
Sam continued to stare at the grave, his eyes filling with tears. His wife. His love. His Tabitha.
"Oh mah love..." Sam wept softly, pressing his hand against his eyes. "Our little girl...she's so beautiful. She looks so much like you...she is so much like you."
He thought he could still hear Tabitha's voice whispering in his ear, the way she had done a thousand times before. He thought he could still hear her Heavenly laugh as he played with their tiny daughter on the floor of their apartment. He thought he could still hear her painful scream as the semi smashed into their car on the way back from the doctors.
She had been expecting another child, and a driver that had had far to much to drink ended her life. That, coupled with the pounding rain, had been the instruments of Tabitha's demise.
He still remembered waking up to see her lying in a puddle of her own blood. He remembered forcing himself to crawl to where she lay, kissing her softly. He remembered the look in her Heavenly blue eyes when she slipped away.
Samuel Zachary Guthrie threw his head back and howled his pain as the thunder crashed overhead.
His heart clenched tightly into a little ball within his chest , remembering the day they had to put her into the confiding earth. It held her small frame, in a small coffin, in it's brown hands.
The lightening streaked across the sky.
Sam's eyes narrowed, thinking of the truck driver as he swaggered out of his vehicle, the damned man had come to Tabitha's funeral to pay his respects.
Tears poured as Sam shook his mind free of the vengeful thoughts that wove into his scornful mind.
He was here for her. His blond haired, blue eyed angel. The angel, that no longer resided on Earth, but flew away, far away from his grasp. Into Heaven's waiting gates.
The thunder shook the earth below Sam's knees.
Only one thing went right that night, their baby was not in the car with them. She was left with a baby sitter.
But, Sam's mind reminded him, if the truck driver had only had his lights on, Sam knew deep in his heart he could have missed that damned truck.
And how is heart ached, with everything in him, he wished with his soul to take Tabitha's place in this field of stones.
Why? Why?" Sam suddenly sobbed, pounding the earth under his hands. "Why did you have to take her from me? What did I do? Oh my Angel, my sweet, sweet love!"
Sam collapsed onto the ground, laying face down in the dirt, sobs still shaking his body. Tears flowed like rain down his face, as he continued to pound the earth, damning the rain, the driver, himself.
"If I had only seen him! If I had only..." Sam sobbed, sitting up and crossing his arms over his chest.
Sam cried harder, hating himself, the truck driver, the rain. He hated the rain, oh how he hated the rain.
"You gave her to me! But then you took her from me!" Sam screamed at the uncaring rain, clenching his fists, shaking them at the rain.
The thunder boomed, and with it was a single word.
"TABITHA!"
Sam's eyes filled with furry at the nerve of the mocking sky as it called out to him. So forged with a frozen hate, Sam hardly realized that he was climbing to his feet.
He only noticed he was away from his deceased love's grave once he stood near the small fast flowing river bank.
Mud caked up on his tennis shoes. The raging and furious river laughed at him, splashing him with tiny droplets from below, while the sky let out it's fury from above.
The river bank held so many dear memories of his love. Their first time together, the place where he proposed, the place where they brought there baby girl to play in the calm waves of the shallow river.
So much was caused by the rain, it washed away his happiness. The water grabbed his memories and drug it into the under current. Keeping it away from his lonely mind.
The thunder shook the ground, and the lightening shot forth striking a tree near the river bank on the other side of river from where Sam stood.
He was memorized by the dead tree. Shaking his head as to clear it from the thoughts, Sam turned around to go back to his love's grave, but found it impossible to do so.
His foot his stuck in the tightly packed mud, and sinking fast into the deep murky waters.
Sam stared in horror as he continued to sink deeper into the water. The water pulled him in deeper and faster, capturing him to his waist. He struggled to extract himself from the churning river, his hands grasping for anything he could grab hold of.
His fingers wrapped around a root of an old tree, and he struggled to pull himself out of the river. The water rushed across his legs, pushing against him.
Sam continued to pull himself from the water, inch by agonizing inch. The lighting struck near by, distracting him from his slow climb.
He turned his head...and saw his wife silhouetted in the lighting. His eyes widened, and he reached out a hand toward her, his mouth agape.
The removal of his hand from the vine caused him to slip further down into the river, the ever quickening water still trying to claim him.
A single thought danced through his mind as the silhouette of his wife faded from his eyes. If Ah drowned in this river, Ah would be with her.
The thought distracted him for just a few more seconds, long enough for the water to pull him in even deeper. Sam grasped the vine tighter, and tried to pull himself out.
The water moved ever faster determined to take its struggling victim with it. The rain continued to splash down around him.
And then his hand slipped, the vine falling out of his reach.
"No!" He cried, the water dragging him deeper. His scream barely escaped his trembling lips when the water rushed in.
Cursing with in his mind, Sam wished that he hadn't been cured of his mutancy. The blackness came grinning up at him, wrapping its chilly fingers around his mind, as the water pulled Sam under, deeper, faster.
Ah'm going to die. His mind whispered throughout the fingers of black. His heavenly blue eyes looked up to see the break of water become further and further.
The lightening shot spikes throughout the ebony sky, the same ghostly figure appeared on the bank, a small woman. It was the last image Sam saw before the water and darkness claimed his conscious mind.
"Sam" A soft voice whispered.
Opening his eyes, Sam felt groggy and weak. His light blue eyes searched the strange terran. He was in the car, the same forest green Blazer which Tabitha had died in.
"Sam." Looking over, to the passenger seat, Sam's heart stopped.
Tabitha Guthrie sat beside him, stroking her swollen belly, and smiling gently at him.
"Tabitha--?" He asked, reaching out to gentle touch her face.
"Yes Sam." She reassured. Pressing his questioning hand to her warm flesh.
"But your---am Ah?" Tabitha smiled, as the tears crawled down her husband's face.
"No."
"Then This--this is a dream?" Sam questioned, leaning closer to his wife's beautiful face.
"No, it's more like, a message." Tabitha clarified.
"What kind of message?"
"Live Sam. Live for me if you won't live for you. Live for our daughter. She needs you, and you can be there for her." Sam felt his heart tighten with sorrow, as his mouth became dry.
"But she needs you, too."
"But I can never hold her again. You can. You can show her the love that I can only feel, in here." Tabitha said patting her hand over her heart.
The sound of happy birds broke the dead silence. Tabitha looked stricken, she quickly leaned forward, and kissed her husband on the lips.
"Don't worry Sam. We'll wait for you."
Sam eyes slowly opened, his face covered with dry tearstains. "Ah will Tabitha. Ah will. Ah'll live for mah daughter, and Ah'll live for the memory of our love."
Sam slowly pushed himself to his feet, turning toward the graveyard where they had laid his wife to rest. He walked through the field of stones, stopping in front of his wife's grave.
"Ah love you." Sam whispered, pressing his fingers to his lips, and pressing it to the gravesite. "Ah will always love you."
Sam turned and walked toward his car, happy memories running through his mind. He knew that he would always carry Tabitha and their unborn child with him, deep inside his heart.
Epilogue: 25 years in the future...
Sam Guthrie lay in bed, still as death. His daughter and her husband stood next to him watching him with tear filled eyes.
"Daddy..." Lucida whispered, taking her father's hand, and squeezing it tightly.
"Hush, baby." Sam whispered, his voice barely above a whisper. "Ah want you to listen to me. When Ah die...live. Live for me, for your mother, for your brother who never got a chance. Please, Lucy. Please."
"Ah will, Daddy." Lucy whispered, looking more like her mother then ever before.
"Thank you. You take good care of mah little girl, Emmanuel." Sam whispered to his son in law.
"I will, Sam." Emmanuel Da Costa promised, wrapping an arm around his wife's thin shoulders.
"Ah love you all." Sam whispered, his eyes dropping shut. "Oh, mah Tabitha..."
The heart monitor that rested next to his bed slowly stopped beeping.
"Daddy? Oh Daddy!" Lucida cried, burying her face in her husband's chest.
Samuel Zachary Guthrie was laid to rest next to his wife three days later.
Sam walked through the park, quicker then he had in a long time. He knew she was there...but where?
Suddenly, he spotted her, looking exactly as she had the last time he had seen her, that fateful night.
"Tabitha!" Sam cried, racing toward his beloved wife.
"Sam!" Tabitha meet him half way, her swollen belly not slowing her in the slightest.
Sam swept her into his arms, kissing her hungrily, hugging her body to his. Tabitha clung to him just as tightly, her belly pressed against his.
"Ah love you so much!" Sam sobbed, after they broke.
"Not as much as I love you." Tabitha wept, kissing him again.
Sam held her to his body, finally fully at peace, since the night she had been taken from him. And this is how he wanted to spend the rest of eternity.