Dark Rider

“Does that mean you can go back to Heaven when you do die?” Kassie asked the question in a low tone as if she asked to loudly it would be taken away.

“That’s the thing, he gave me a choice, a great offer,” Rider started it off with a smile and it ended with a frown like he was breaking up with her. “If I picked coming back, I couldn’t be an angel in Heaven again; if I stayed I could come back. I figured if I came back, it would be easier to make up for the truths being fibbed.”

“The truths?” Kassie asked in confusion, she didn’t understand. What truth was worth more than being able to go to Heaven again? She couldn’t think of anything that was for sure.

“The truth, I never looked for your perfect guy like I promised, I didn’t want too,” he frowned with a shrug.

“You gave up Heaven for that pathetic excuse?” Kassie threw her arms out in frustration. “I mean, you could have just said you missed hanging out with me, I would have figured it a better reason!”

“But I’m serious, I promised you a lot that I never done and I regret it,” Rider honestly admitted with a whine in his tone.

“Promise me you’ll take me out to eat after this and we’ll call it even?” Kassie suggested with her left eyebrow raised at the proposition. “Deal?”

“What do I get out of the deal? You get a free meal and I get nothing but an eased soul?” Rider’s eyes widened so much that Kassie began giggling madly at the sight.

“Rider, what did you say to me about the guy thing? That you would find me the perfect guy right?” Kassie asked Rider who confusedly nodded in agreement; she closed her eyes and took a breath before opening her eyes. She was about to profess something she had not wanted to, her tiny crush on the angel had grew to a strong like and she was about to tell him. “Well you didn’t have to look far, you’re him. Now—we are even, can we go eat?”

“Deal,” he smiled calmly and pulled her up into a kiss, on the cheek. “I heard from a certain someone—a very special heavenly person—that you have always wanted a nice house on the coast of Florida with a family, was I informed correctly?”

The knowing smirk on Rider’s face made Kassie grin, “Jumping a couple stages aren’t you? I thought a few dates were traditional?” Kassie wondered aloud as Rider laid his arm over her shoulders and walked them towards the parking lot.

“Pumpkin,” Rider sighed heavily as he helped Kassie over the gravel, it was a miracle and task to get past it in her heels. “After everything we have been through, how can you assume we are anything close to traditional? That’s a normal thing and sweetie, we aren’t near normal.”

“You do have a point, but would you be willing to marry me, deal with me and the grown version of immature A.J. while all centering on a new house, dishes and cleaning up?” Kassie asked accusingly, she had to have an answer to the questions, even if it was a fantasy in her mind.

“I can do it,” Rider said confidently as he waved to A.J. who was at a car with Tiffany and his friends at the end of the parking lot, telling A.J. with a gesture that they were about to bid farewell, he turned and walked to Kassie and A.J.’s Ford Explorer. “And a couple dirty diapers wouldn’t be so bad…”

Shocked by the blunt hint to children being apart of the fantasy family, Kassie paused in step and turned fully to Rider. “You want kids? With me? I don’t even know your real name that your mother gave you!”

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know about me. My name is Francis James Bouvier the second and my life, is all about you, Kassie.” Kassie’s eyes turned soft and misted at his affectionate passage, she leaned up and in for a sweet brush of his lips against hers, their first kiss. The sweetest and most amazing kiss Kassie had ever had, it felt great, perfect, right.

“You could easily make me fall in love with you over and over again. You keep this up and we will get along great,” Kassie smiled at her joking response to the silence. She wanted to say she loved him, but she didn’t know if she did. She had liked him, crushed on him and well, she liked him more than just plain liked him, she realized with shock. She had had a connection to him, they had history together and chemistry between the two was magical. They were set for love, just like that. “I think I may just love you, Rider…”

“I just know I love you, Kassandra.”

------Years Later

[strike]Francis Rider[/strike] stood in the hallway outside the room, the room he grew to hate, ever since arriving in this self proclaimed hell he had been in that room, worrying and beating his brains out for no reason besides the unbearable silence getting to him. He hated not only the silence and the room but the lighting that blinded him and the smell that nauseated him, it was excruciating to endure. He wished he could leave but his loyalties laid in the hands of the person in the room ten feet to his left. He had to get back in there, he realized but he dreaded doing so, it was like eating glass to him but he would grow an appetite for the sharp slivers if he had to—his thoughts halted when a hand clamped down on his left shoulder and drew his attention elsewhere. “I hate hospitals,” Rider murmured as he shook A.J.’s hand in a brotherly embrace.

“So do we,” A.J. cleared his throat as he pulled the tall blonde beauty at his side closer. “I want you to meet my girlfriend, Tiffany. Tiff, I want you to meet my cousin-in-law, Francis.”

“Rider,” he corrected weakly as he shook Tiffany’s hand softly. “Kassie likes that name; it reminds her I’m—alive.”

“I don’t blame her on that, Francis was—well, not you,” A.J. commented before pointing at the door leading into the room Rider feared and loathed. “How is she?”

“She’s sleeping right now; it’s why I’m out here. I needed a break, its getting too much, plus the nurse just went in to check on her,” Rider explained as he stepped out of the middle of the floor and leaned against the wall. “When the nurse comes out, we’ll go in and wait till she wakes up.”

“Is she doing better since we last talked to you?” A.J. asked softly as he stared at the door like he could see through it, like Superman.

“A little, not much improvement though,” Rider blew out a gust of air, running a hand through his black mane that was a bit longer than ever seen before, a little past his shoulders. Kassie had forced him to keep it; she liked to braid it when she got bored.

“Do they know what’s wrong with her?” Tiffany spoke up with worried glances to both mentally exhausted men.

“She went into early labor and they can’t get the contractions to stop. They had to give her medicine to sleep, the pain was too much for her,” Rider explained, he tried to sound calm, cool and collected but his voice showed differently when it broke in the middle.

“Are the babies okay though?” A.J. asked looking to Rider with anxiety getting the best of him; he couldn’t stand the thought of losing her again.

“They say that a couple may be in jeopardy,” Rider bowed his head and rubbed his eyes, he was feeling the long nights of no sleep catching up to him.

“A couple?” Tiffany’s eyes widened as she gapped at Rider. “How many is she carrying?”

“The odds are slim, its usually extremely rare but she’s—we’re expecting six healthy babies,” Rider looked up when the door opened to the room, squeaking a bit as it closed shut and Linda the nurse walked out. “Linda, how are they, how is she?”

“They are doing really well today, she’s awake and not in pain, a very good sign Mr. Bouvier, a very good sign,” Linda the gray haired elderly nurse smiled at Rider and company he had behind him, listening intently in on any news.

“Thank you, big guy,” Rider turned to thanking the ceiling before he walked in past Linda with A.J. and Tiffany following him inside. “Kass?”

“Rider?” Kassie’s groggy tone was heard before they seen her, she smiled at Rider in a loving way from her side where she lay before she seen A.J. and it turned quickly to an expression of happiness. “A.J. you’re here!”

“I’m here,” A.J.’s tone was weak with surprise that nearly knocked him breathless. Kassie was no longer the tanned, tall and beautiful woman he remembered. She was—pale as the sheets she laid on, frail and she had no shape at all except the lump the size of four or five basketballs put together on her stomach.

“Come give me a hug, I’ve missed you,” Kassie held her tiny arms out, small as skin and bones. Having six extra lives living in her was taking everything from nutrition to blood out, but nutrition was the most, she looked half dead.