Light In The Darkness

I woke up gradually from the anaesthetic and immediately knew something was different. Through the skin of my eyelids I could see light. Not the light that radiated from Cole. This was different. This was sunlight. I turned my head slowly. "Lauren?" Cole whispered from next to me and I realised my hand was in his already. I smiled.
"Cole," I whispered. I realised that I had to open my eyes but I couldn’t. I was too scared.
"Open your eyes, baby," he whispered. He had said that phrase so many times to me, I hoped that this was the last time I would hear it.
"I can't," I whispered. "I'm scared." I felt Cole's lips on mine softly.
"It's alright, baby," he whispered. "I'm right here, you don’t need to be scared." I took a deep breath and then slowly peeled my eyes open. The bright light dazzled me as Cole said it would but then they focused and I gasped.
"Oh, my God," I whispered.
"What? What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.
"You're gorgeous," I whispered as my eyes roamed all over his handsome face. I could see him. I could see. Cole grinned and the breath caught in my lungs. I vaguely thought that my imagination hadn’t even gotten close to the real image. He was...gorgeous. There was no other way to describe him. He was, basically, how he had described himself, but there was something else, a quality that can't be put into words that made him...beautiful. It was like trying to describe why a sunrise was beautiful. You can't say exactly why, you just know.
"Guess what, baby?" he said softly as my eyes continued to feast on his handsome features.
"What?" I whispered.
"It's 6 o'clock in the morning," he said and I frowned slightly.
"So?" I asked and he smiled slightly.
"The suns about to rise," he said and I grinned. I wanted desperately to see a sunrise, but right now, I don’t think I could look at anything else except Cole. I think he knew what I was thinking because he suddenly grinned and pushed the blankets off of me. He took my hands and pulled me out of the bed. I laughed and Cole took me over to the window.

The sky was dark until the horizon. It was the most perfect sunrise to come back to. The clouds were white and frothy, and there was pink and orange and yellow layers coming up from behind the trees. I smiled and leant against Cole's shoulder as I stared out of the window. I could have looked at that sight forever if it weren’t for the better sight standing next to me. I turned and looked at Cole to find him already watching me. I smiled and stared into his eyes. "I love you," I whispered.
"I love you," he said softly and kissed me tenderly, making my knees weak and my head spin. As much as I tried to fight it, I couldn’t help but close my eyes as Cole deepened the kiss. He pulled away and then we walked back over to the bed and I climbed back in. "I have something for you," Cole said and I frowned slightly.
"What?" I asked him. He sat on the bed next to me.
"You want to see a sunrise first-" he said and I frowned.
"I wanted to see you first," I corrected him.
"Alright second, then," he smiled and took my hand. "But I have something I want to show you." He took something out of his pocket and I looked at it briefly before looking up at Cole's face. He was staring at me intensely. "It was my mother's." He opened the small jewellery box and revealed a beautiful engagement ring. I gasped and then looked back up to Cole's eyes.
"It's beautiful," I whispered. He smiled and picked up the ring and my left hand. He slid the ring into place and I stared down at it on my finger. I smiled and looked back up to Cole. "I would have missed a sunrise for this," I whispered and Cole grinned. I wondered if I would ever get used to his smile or if my heart would always flip when I saw it. Cole leant in and kissed me tenderly and I immediately responded and wrapped my arms around his neck and held him to me.

I pulled away to catch my breath and looked down at the ring on my finger. "It looks really expensive..." I said softly.
"My father loved to spoil my mother," he said softly. I smiled and looked up at him. "And I'm going to love spoiling you." I laughed softly.
"I don’t need spoiling," I smiled. "I just need you." I looked at his face and gently put my hand on his cheek. "I could look at you forever," I whispered.
"Good, because you're going to," he smiled and I grinned.

I stayed in the hospital for the next several days. On the third day Les and Kim came to visit me. "Hey, honey," Les said as he walked through the door. I looked at him for the first time and I smiled.
"Hey, Les," I smiled. He had greying black hair and quite tanned skin. "You look younger than you are." Cole laughed but tried to hide it
"Thanks," Les said uncomfortably.
"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Kim asked as she stood next to my bed, the opposite side to Cole.
"I'm good," I smiled. "Great actually." I studied Kim as well. She had shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes and I imagined that she was a classic beauty when she was a teenager. "You're pretty," I said and she smiled.
"Thanks, sweetheart," she said and kissed my forehead.
"Looking forward to getting out of here?" Les asked, standing next to his wife and I nodded.
"I can't wait," I smiled. I knew where I wanted to go first, I just wasn’t ready to tell anyone, unsure of how it would be received.
"Honey, your ring!" Kim cried and picked up my hand. She smiled at Cole as she spoke. "It's beautiful." Cole smiled.
"It was my mum's," he said and everyone was silent for a short while.

I thought about how strange it all was. I had spent so many years hearing these voices and now I could match them with the faces, it was all a bit disorientating. I had to get rid of all the old images I had made out of people's descriptions and think of the real thing. With Cole it wasn’t so bad because the real image was so overwhelmingly gorgeous that it easily replaced the original I had, but Les and Kim were harder. I already had ideas of what they looked like and it was hard to think of their voice coming out of someone else. "You alright, honey?" Les asked and I smiled and nodded.
"It's just weird," I smiled. "But yeah, I'm good."

On the last day before I was to be discharged Dr Reece came to see me with a few exercises. She stood the other side of the room and held up a card of letters. "Can you read this for me, Lauren?" she asked and I read all the characters easily. Dr Reece nodded and then came and stood beside me and passed me a small card with writing on it. Reading words was a bit harder, after 13 years of reading nothing, my reading was a bit iffy, but I could see no problem. "Very good," Dr Reece said. "You're vision seems to be completely fine. I would like you to come back in about a month. She looked at the clipboard she was holding. We will phone you once you are settled to work out the details." I nodded smiling.
"Thank you," I smiled and she smiled back. She was a friendly looking woman and I felt comfortable with her.

After she had left the room Cole sat next to me on the bed. "So where do you want to go first tomorrow?" he asked. "The beach? To see Pacca?" I shook my head.
"I want to go to my parents' graves," I said softly. I looked up at him to see he was frowning slightly. "I've never seen them before. I want to go there first and then see Pacca and then the beach." He smiled and nodded.
"Whatever you want," he said softly and kissed my head.