Electric Blue

I woke up in the morning, arms around Poppy. I kissed her on the cheek and made us some breakfast.
“Knock, knock.” I said, returning with a tray of bacon, eggs and sausages. “Good morning Poppy,” no movement. “Wake up,” still nothing. I felt her forehead, she was cold, not like, going to bed with a wet bikini cold; but actually cold. “POPPY!” It became urgent. Still nothing, she was breathing at least, but I’d been in this situation before, with someone else and it wasn’t going to end like this again. Her breath was short and her lips were turning purple.
I ran upstairs, and woke Burley up. “Burley!” I said, “I need your help.” Tears were welling up.
“What’s wrong?” he grunted, rolling over.
“Poppy, she needs your help. She’s cold Burley.”
“What do you mean, she’s cold? Put a blanket on her.”
“Burley, she’s cold.” My voice quivered. Burley was there with me the last time this had happened to my close friend, and knew what I had meant about ‘cold’ now.
“Where is she?” he said, pretty much leaping out of bed.
“In her bed,” I followed him downstairs, but also hesitant to go into the room again. I didn’t want to see her like this, but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing and let her die. I followed Burley’s instructions and ran her a nice warm bath and a cold glass of water. I lifted her into the bath, where she twitched slightly. I wet a face washer and wiped her face, before placing it on her forehead. Burley left to get Lana and see what else he could do to help. I grabbed her by the hand and squeezed it tight, I calmly spoke to her, not about anything, just words, I’d hoped that a familiar voice would help her come back to earth.
“-GASP-“ her eyes opened suddenly as she tried to gain her breath again.
“It’s okay Poppy, just relax.” I said. Still gasping for breath, she smiled. “You’re okay,” I smiled back, reassuring both of us that everything was okay.
Lana and Burley knocked on the door. “Come in.”
“Everything okay now?” Burley asked.
“Yes, thanks guys.”
“We’ll leave you guys to it then, if you need us give us a yell.” Lana kissed Poppy on the cheek and gave her a worried look. “Love you sis.”
“Love you too Lana. I’ll be fine.” She said as Lana and Burley left the room.
“Thank goodness you’re alright. I was so worried about you. How do you feel?”
“Really wonderful,” she said.
“Wonderful? Poppy, do you realize you could have died just then?”
“Please sir, can I have some more?” she said, closing her eyes.
“Poppy, no. Stay awake honey. Keep your eyes open.” I soaked the face washer in warm water again and wiped her eyes and face with it once more. She opened her eyes, and looked me dead in mine. I gave a slight smile, to show that I wasn’t mad, but I was still worried.
“I love you Lindon.” I took the packet of cigarettes out of my pocket and lit one up for her.
“I love you too Poppy,” Yes, I did love Poppy, a lot. But at this point I needed to let her process what was going on, so I left it at a “I love you sis” kind of approach.
She drank some of her water and smoked her cigarette, sitting in silence, eyes open. I turned some calm music on for her and sat with her until the water was cold, then I helped her out, helped her dry off and got her some warm clothes and took her back to bed, where I held her for a few hours while she juggled trying to sleep and eat, but having to get up to be sick a few times over.
“How you feeling Poppy?”
“Like I nearly died this morning.”
“Well, I wonder why that might be. Maybe next time, we’ll both think about this before we go and be so silly. I’m really sorry for putting you in this position, and I hope you still trust me.”
“Of course I still trust you, and I can’t thank you more for not leaving my side, Lindon.”
“I’d never leave your side when you need me most.”
“Knock, knock guys.” Burley said, coming in. “Just checkin’ up on you guys.”
“We’re okay.” I said. “Poppy’s still pretty under the weather but she’s feeling a lot better, I’ve kept her hydrated and warm.”
“Okay great. Look, I know it’s been a rough morning for the both of you but I need you to go out on a job Lindon. It’s pretty important.”
“I can’t leave her, Burley.”
“No, Lindon it’s okay, I’ll be fine. I’ll probably just put a movie on and try to sleep.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah I’m sure, I’ll be fine.”
I knew she’d be fine, and that Burley and Lana would check in on her every ten minutes, but how ‘bout the timing on that one? I got dressed and ready and had to leave. I really didn’t want to leave her, not today.
“I won’t be long, I promise.”
“Take your time Lindon, I’ll be fine. If we need you that bad one of us will call.”
With a peck on the lips, I went upstairs and got the instructions for the day. I had to go pick up a package for Burley. “Great,” I thought, another thing getting in the way. I wasn’t off to a good start, telling Poppy to trust me, and it nearly killing her, and then saying I wouldn’t leave her when she needs me and having to go to work and to top it all off all I wanted to do was spend the entire day with her. I still didn’t know how Poppy felt about me properly, I wondered if I was a rebound for her and I also wondered whether this thing between us was all in my head.
I got in my car and drove off. I was frustrated and worried, but also at the same time thankful for the time I got to spend with Poppy, even though it ended not quite on the note I had thought it would.

Poppy’s P.O.V
I woke up, rubbed my eyes and rolled over to see if Lindon was back yet, he wasn’t but I was feeling okay to get out of bed and possibly eat.
“You’re awake,” Burley said as I approached the kitchen.
“Yeah, and feeling so much better already.”
“Are you ready for round two?” he joked, but I looked up at him, with a serious look. “It was a joke Poppy, here have a coffee.”
“Thank you.”
What was merely hours, seemed like days; I wanted Lindon home and I felt like shit, emotionally. My head was cloudy on the events of the night before, it all seemed like a strange dream.
“What’s on your mind, sweetie?” I looked up and Lana was standing in front of me, Burley was gone.
“Just thinking, is it even right for me to feel like this?”
“Feel like..?”
“That only in a matter of hours I’ve completely accepted the idea of Laretta leaving, so much so that I feel like I’m ready to move on already.”
“Emotions are a hard thing to deal with Poppy, and it’s okay to feel however you feel at the time without adding guilt to the equation. Are you scared that you don’t love her?”
“No, not one bit. I know that I truly love her, but I feel like I’m accepting the situation as it is. I don’t want to linger on something that obviously isn’t going to happen anymore, but at the same time I don’t want to force myself to move forward too quickly and have it all come crashing back down on me later. I don’t want to put my emotions on hold, but there’s no point crying over it either.”
She didn’t respond, and I looked up and saw my bedroom surroundings. “Another strange dream” I thought to myself.
“You’re completely right, there’s no point crying over me.” I heard echo through the room, like a bad trip was coming over me. Images were flicking over and over, different scenarios and sounds, voices. I was going crazy.
“Laretta,” I said, and her face was in front of mine, her smile gleaming like the first time we met. There were white walls surrounding us, caving in on us. I started screaming.

Lindon’s P.O.V
After work on the way home I drank at the bar for a while. I pulled my phone out to call Poppy to see if she was feeling better. I noticed I had four missed calls from Burley. I called back instantly. “Burley, what’s up?”
“I need you to rush down to the hospital, Lana’s there with Poppy. She’s not herself.”
“What do you mean not herself?”
“She’s delirious Lindon, you have to get down there.”
“Okay, right away,” I left my half empty beer and ran to the car. When I got in, I was shaking like nothing else. I had to chill out, for Poppy’s sake, and as ridiculous as this sounds, I needed to call Laretta. I tried once, and she didn’t pick up, but I knew exactly how to find her. I went onto her facebook account and saw that she had checked into the beach just down the road from another coworker. I called them up and did what I had to do to get her there. I organised to meet them at the hospital in the car park. I drove as fast as I could to get there. I ran up to the emergency ward to find Poppy, running into Burley on the way up there.
“You can’t see her right now Lindon.”
“What the FUCK Burley? Is this some kind of sick fucking game!?” I whispered sinisterly, kicking the hospital wall, and breaking the plaster off. The nurses in the hall turned to look at me and shortly looked away.
“She’s basically a zombie Lindon, she doesn’t even understand her own name at this point. The doctors decided they were going to give her some drugs to calm her down.”
“Drugs, to calm her down, now that’s irony right there is it not?”
Lana put her arm around me, to comfort me, they were going home and I waited not only to see her, but for Laretta to turn up.
I walked down to the carpark, and almost simultaneously the car pulled up. Out stepped Laretta, she closed the door and the car drove off.
“We can’t see her just yet.” I said to her.
“I didn’t come here to see her,” she said, her voice stern. “I came here to see you.”
“Oh here we go, what the fuck did I do wrong?”
“I trusted you Lindon, I trusted her with you and she ends up here.”
“Yes, lets blame the protector rather than the one who left. Maybe I should take you upstairs and do a trade in, get the nice girl out and lock you in a padded cell to be sedated, because right now, you seem like the crazy one.”
“I had to leave, you don’t even understand the gravity of the situation here okay?”
“No, I think I do, you decided you didn’t want her anymore, and that’s it. You didn’t even have the decency to say goodbye to her.”
“I’m pregnant Lindon!”
I blinked a few times more than normal, shaking my head in disbelief. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me, I’m pregnant.” She calmed down for a few minutes to tell me about the cop who did awful things to her and Poppy, no details spared. “I can’t face Poppy, I can’t tell her.”
“It’s your obligation to tell her. You’re the person she adores and loves.”
“The cop is my husband, Lindon… The day he did things to us, I knew it was going to happen, I planned it and never told her. I’m not at all the person I showed her.”
“Well, the plot fucking thickens doesn’t it. You’re lucky I don’t put a fucking bullet in your head right now!”
“How about I put one in yours?” she said pulling out a gun.

-days later-
Poppy’s p.o.v
I had finally come back to reality, and today was my first personal contact since I went in there. Lindon was the first to see me. Dressed in a white hospital robe and a bandage around his head, sitting in a wheelchair, he came in and cuddled me tight.
“What happened to you?”
“It’s a long story, which I’ll have to tell you later.”
“Okay, its so good to see you, and I’m sorry that you’re in here too. Hospital food sucks.”
“They give you food here? Maybe I should move in, all I get is a drip at the moment, but they think I’ll recover soon.”
“I love you Lindon,” I said.
“I love you too Poppy.”
“No, Lindon, I LOVE you. As in, I’m in love with you.”
“I know,” he said with a smile, grabbing my hand.
We spent as much time as we could together while we were in hospital together and soon after that I was able to go home. Lindon still had some recovery to do. I went in everyday to see him, and he was getting so much better. He told me that he got shot while at work. He was paralyzed from the waist down and had suffered some pretty horrible head and face injuries, but I still loved him.
When he was finally off the drip, and sick of hospital we decided that I’d kidnap him and take him down to the lake for some decent homemade lunch. We laughed and spoke like nothing bad had happened to either of us. We were in a perfect place in our lives emotionally now, at peace with being alive and standing up against all odds.
Months followed where Lindon was still recovering, he started physiotherapy and was learning how to walk again, then came the home visits. He still had his wheelchair for his weaker moments, but was making incredible progress.
Then the day came, it was time to go home.
I picked him up from hospital and helped him into the car. All he could talk about was getting home and seeing his family and having a fresh start, and having some decent food. I knew exactly where he was coming from.
We got home, and after he said hello to Lana and Burley he went to bed, I went with him.
“Lindon,” I said.
“Yes?”
“You know, sometimes it’s just time to end it all.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t live a life of pain anymore, we’re in a good place and I don’t want it to ever end.”
“Me either,”
“We should leave together, leave this cruel world in a beautiful state of bliss where nothing matters and we don’t have to be scared anymore. Enter a new universe together, on a new start just like you were talking about.”
“I understand what you’re saying Poppy, but where are you going with this? Are you going to kill yourself?”
“In a sense yes, and you too, but our souls will be moving on together.”
He not once looked at me to tell me I was crazy, in fact he agreed with this ‘out-of-world’ proposition I had given him, nodding quietly, giving me one last kiss before we let an unspeakable amount of that golden girl into our veins and let life take its toll.