Hannah’s P.O.V
I couldn’t stop staring at Erin’s hand on my leg, her wedding ring and then up to Brian’s hand where he wore a wedding ring too. They got married?

“Oh my God,” I squeaked, looking up at Erin’s face as my eyes filled with tears.

“Oh no, no, we didn’t want to make you cry we did it because-“

“No,” I beamed “These are happy tears,” I told her, fanning my face in an attempt to keep the tears in my eyes “You’re Mrs Haner,” I let out a little laugh and covered my mouth with my fingers and let a few tears slip before I opened my arms for both of them to hug me, which they did instantly.

“But I mean it, we will always have this,” Erin said, gesturing between the two of us when she finally pulled away “I love you Hannah, and although I got married and you’re getting married, this,” She took my hand “Is forever,”

“I love you,” I told her with a huge smile.

“I love you too,” She smiled back.

“What made you want to do that, just, out of the blue?” I asked as everyone got comfortable and Matt started to congratulate Brian.

“I knew that Sarah wanted me, she wanted to kill me when I came for you, and I didn’t want to die Miss Taylor, I wanted to die Mrs Haner, I wanted to be a married woman,”

“But you didn’t die,” I told her “And you’re still happy with your decision?”

“It’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” She beamed, getting comfortable on the sofa and playing with her rings.

“Well I’m happy for you, I don’t know why you felt the need to hide it from everyone because of course I was going to accept this,”

“Thank you,” She exhaled “That means so much,”
~~~~
It’s been a month. I’ve been in this chair for a month, I attend physiotherapy twice a week and Matt never misses an appointment, but when we’re not in therapy, he always finds something else to do. Erin is healing nicely and has almost made a full recovery, she’s even enjoying married life. But I’m still limited in what I can do, I can sit in front of a computer and look for Sarah and her minions, I can watch TV or sit at the table and eat everything we have in the house.

Today, I was left home alone with Brian. Matt, Zack and Johnny were out ‘running errands’, Brian offered to go in Matt’s place so he could stay here and look after me but he was persistent in going and Jimmy had taken Erin to the hospital for another check-up because he wanted to go for a change, and she let him, knowing that he would lighten the mood and ‘wouldn’t be as tense as Brian’.

I was in the kitchen and I was hungry, so I decided just to have some cereal, which was kept in the cabinet… above my level of reach, but I didn’t want to have to shout Brian through from the living room so I was attempting to push myself up out of the chair with one hand on the counter and the other arm outstretched to reach the box of cereal.

“Come on,” I chanted to myself as I slowly got closer and closer to grabbing the box but as soon as my finger hooked inside the box I lost my balance and went down like a ton of bricks, landing on the floor and bringing the cereal down with me.

“Hannah?” Brian called from the living room “Are you alright?” He asked, his voice was closer that time and I knew he was coming to check.

“I’m fine,” I said as I sat myself against the counter and brushed the cereal off of me, when Brian appeared in the doorway.

“Let me help you,” He said softly, leaning down and holding out his hand so he could pull me up a little and sit me in the chair, but I started crying silently… again. I swear, I’ve been dehydrated for a month because all I do I cry “Whoa, whoa, what’s the matter?”

“I wanna be held, Brian,” I sniffed “I sit in the chair and everyone gives me cuddles, but nobody holds me,”

“Matt doesn’t hold you? Like, not even at night?” He asked, in disbelief.

“He either sleeps as far away on the bed from me as possible, or he sleeps on the sofa and comes back in the morning, thinking that I don’t notice he is gone,” I sighed.

“Why?”

“I asked him to hold me one night and he said that he was too scared, that if he did he would do it too tightly and he’d hurt me or roll on top of me or something,”

“That’s stupid,”

“I know,” I sniffed, wiping away my tears.

“Here,” He said, getting on the floor beside me, hooking one arm under my legs and another around my back and then he lifted me onto his lap and cradled me like a child. I wrapped my arms around his torso and laid my head on his chest “Better?” He asked and I just nodded.

“You really love her, don’t you?” I asked.

“I do,” He admitted.

“You promise to take care of her, no matter what life throws at her, even if she, God forbid, ended up like me?”

“I promise, I can take care of you, can’t I?”

“That you can,” I laughed.

“I’m gonna kick Matt’s ass, he proposed to you and is going to make his vows to you about sickness and in health, but if he can’t be here for you now, he needs put in his place,”

“Don’t kick his ass,” I pleaded “I need to speak to him when he gets home or something, I just feel that nobody knows how to act around me and I can’t deal with that”

“Well, Erin I still there, she still shows how much she loves you, doesn’t she?” I nodded “The guys are still the guys, but they’re being a bit more gentle, and Matt? Well he proposed to you, he wants to spend the rest of his life with you and he wouldn’t do that if he didn’t love you,”
~~~~
Matt’s P.O.V
The guys and I got back to the house at the same time as Jimmy and Erin. Erin looked better, healthier and happier, Jimmy looked pleased with himself. I and the guys had groceries and beers.

“How was the hospital?” Johnny asked as we walked up the path towards the house.

“Good, everything is looking well and I’ll be fully back in action in a week or so,” Erin told him excitedly.

Zack opened the door and let us all inside, where we found a very quiet house.

“Hello?” I called out, but there was no answer.

“Do you hear that?” Erin asked “In the kitchen,” She gestured for us to follow her, so we did and when we walked into the kitchen we found Brian, sitting on the floor, surrounded in spilled cereal, singing softly to Hannah who was asleep on his lap “What happened?” Erin asked, getting on her knees in front of them and brushed Hannah’s hair away from her face, she looked concerned and worried for her partner while all I could do was watch from the side lines like a goon.

“She couldn’t reach,” He said softly “She got upset over everything and wanted to be held, so I did it and he fell asleep about ten minutes ago,”

“How long have you been down here?” Erin chuckled softly.

“About forty minutes,” He smiled “Matt, I need a word with you later,” He said, shooting me a look of… disappointment?

“It’s time for her bath,” I said “Her hips will be getting sore so she needs to get in there,”

“Here,” Brian said as Erin moved out of the way. I leaned down and gently scooped her up into my arms and carried her up the stairs.

“I hate seeing her so helpless like this,” I heard Erin say.

“Don’t worry,” Brian said “She’ll be up and moving before we know it,”

I laid her down on the bed gently and went into the bathroom to run her bath, when it was ready to her liking I went back into the bedroom to get her but she was already trying to get off of the bed.

“Can you help me walk?” She asked.

“Sure,” I moved to her quickly and wrapped my arm around her waist and helped her move into the bathroom.

Once the was stripped off and in the bath, she let out a moan of relief as the hot water worked away the pain in her hips.

“Do you…” I trailed off as I dipped my hand in the water and made small waves in the water “D-do you want to talk to me about anything?” I asked and she nodded.

“Why have you been so distant towards me recently?”

“I don’t mean to be,” I sighed “I want to be there for you, I want to make you all better, but I can’t, there isn’t anything I can do to make you walk yet, and I feel so helpless, useless even,”

“But you’re not useless or helpless,” She smiled at me, taking my hand in hers “You come to therapy with me every time, you run my baths, you stretch me out at night and in the morning, you help me get around out of the chair and because of all of that, soon, I’ll be able to take my first steps on my own again,” The look on her face was sincere, she was serious.

“Those little things really help?” I asked and she nodded.

“Of course they do,” She laughed “Sure, I’m gonna be on pain meds for the rest of my life, we might have a little bit of bother getting out family started, but, you’re helping me get to where I want to be, I’m getting better,”

I leaned in and kissed her passionately, deeply and lovingly, she kissed me back immediately, a moan escaping her lips and I took that as my chance to slip my tongue into her mouth.

“Matt,” She moaned, reluctantly pulling away from me “I want to, so badly,”

“I know you do baby, I do too, but I can’t take any risks,”

It had been a month since we had sex, sure, we touched a little here and there, but we never had sex, at first she didn’t want to because it hurt too much and he was self-conscious, but now I didn’t want to do her any more damage, we would get back to sex when she was a bit better.

“How many?” She asked, rubbing her flat, empty stomach through the water.

“Three,” I smiled “A boy, a girl and then another boy,”

“Names?”

“We’ll decide when we see the for the first time,” I told her.

“I want a baby,” She said sadly.

“Me too,”

“I was thinking,” She said, looking down at the water again “We don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to get pregnant, right?” I nodded “So, maybe, if you want to, after the wedding, we start trying?”

“I think people who are trying jinx the whole thing,” She looked at me and frowned “It never happens for couple who are trying to get pregnant, so, why don’t we just… stop trying not to
have a baby?”

“Sounds good to me,” She beamed.
~~~~
Hannah’s P.O.V
I was laying in bed, reading The Fault in Our Stars, Matt had offered to stay in bed with me all night until we fell asleep, but the rest of the guys were drinking so I told him to go and join them, they all needed to unwind after the past month.

“You awake?” Erin asked, coming into the room.

“Yeah,” I chuckled “I can’t sleep,”

“Me neither,”

“Aren’t you drinking?” I asked, folding my page and closing the book.

“I can’t because of the meds, remember?”

“Oh yeah,” I nodded “I’d drink too if I’d built up my tolerance to mine already,”

Erin pulled back the covers and climbed in beside me.

“When can we start planning your wedding?” She asked.

“I was going to ask if you wanted to start in the morning,”

“Screw the morning,” She laughed, leaning over the side of the bed and coming back up with a pile of wedding magazines in her hands “Let’s start now,”

So we did, until we crashed from exhaustion, we looked through every magazine and website we could find, marking everything we liked, from dresses and hairstyles, to flowers and centre pieces. Already everything was coming together.

Notes

Looks like Hannah is happy for Erin and Brian! Hooraaay!!
Matt doesn't know how to deal with Hannah being in this condition!
Babies?!
More from E to come later on!! <3

- LMV x