46. Story Time

"Remind me why I'm doing this?"

El frowns and watches Mike's knuckles grow white as he grips the steering wheel tighter.

"If you don't, the pain is going to get worse, remember?"

He hums absentmindedly and she can see that his shoulders are still stiff with tension.

"Are you...are you nervous?"

"What? No, why would I be nervous?"

He's totally nervous.

"It's gonna be okay, Mike," she continues, her hand resting on his thigh. "You'll be asleep for it and then I'll get to take care of you when it's over. All you'll have to do is lay there and eat Jello."

That earns her a smile and he lets go of the steering wheel with one hand to hold hers.

It's the first day of their college freshmen spring break and her boy (er...man) was getting his wisdom teeth out. It's a simple procedure—Jonathan had just gotten his out over winter break and it wasn't enjoyable, but he survived.

"Why are you nervous?"

"I dunno—I just don't like the idea that they're gonna knock me out so they can rip teeth out of my head."

Fair enough.

"And you're still sure you don't want your mom there? We could turn around and—"

"No, hell no. She'd be all frantic and sappy and treat me like I was five years old."

"She cares for you," El says simply, leaving a kiss on the back of his hand.

"Yeah, I know. But I'd rather have you be frantic and sappy," he remarks cheekily and she laughs.

"Seriously though, thank you for coming with me," he adds, squeezing her hand.

"Anything for you," she murmurs and her heart flips at the blush that paints his face. It's been six years and she'll never get tired of that.

He blows out a breath when they arrive at the dentist's office and she leans over to peck him on the cheek.

"It'll be over before you know it," she tells him reassuringly as they get out of the car.

"What if they stab me and I die?"

"Mike," she chides, giving him a pointed look as she slips her hand into his, opening the door with the other.

The secretary greets them warmly and El takes a seat on one of the couches as Mike checks himself in. It isn't lost on her how his hands are shoved deep in his pockets and he keeps glancing behind the secretary to what little he can see of the operating area as if they're going to come out any second to drag him away.

She understands his anxieties, she really does. Being poked and prodded and giving up control of your body to someone you've never met is scary. He's been a relatively healthy guy for most of his life, so besides the medical attention he received for his injuries at Starcourt when they were younger, he hasn't had a chance to build his tolerance to this environment. He's safe, though. She'll make sure of it.

She smiles at him as he walks over and he plops down next to her with a sigh. It doesn't take long for his leg to start bouncing and he fidgets with her fingers when she offers her hand to him.

"Mike?"

"Mmhm?"

"If you say silly things because of the drugs, I promise not to make fun of you."

He groans, sinking into his seat, and she giggles.

"You're not making this better," he says playfully.

"I know," she replies, leaving a kiss on the back of his hand.

It isn't too long after that when a nurse comes around the corner and asks for him.

"Alright, just follow me, Michael," the nurse says, turning to walk down the hallway. Mike stands up and shoots her one last anxious look as he hesitates, his footsteps faltering.

"I promise I'll be here when it's over, love," she whispers, her voice tender as she squeezes her hand. Finally, his shoulders drop, his breaths begin to flow regularly and he squeezes her hand back before he's making his way down the hallway.

The procedure takes about an hour, during which El thumbs through the magazines they have sitting on the table until she gets bored and people-watches instead. There aren't that many people to watch but she amusedly observes frantic mother after frantic mother bringing their teenagers in and she's starting to see Mike's point about not coming with Karen. Holly Wheeler had hit a bit of a rebellious streak now that she had started middle school and Mrs. Wheeler just needed someone to take care of again.

"Excuse me, ma'am," a kind voice says, breaking through her thoughts and El turns to see the nurse that had taken her boyfriend back. "Are you with Michael?"

"I am. Is he doing okay?" El asks and the woman nods, before gesturing for her to follow.

"He's just now waking up and the procedure went smoothly," she explains as El collects her things and stands to follow her. "He might be a little loopy, but that'll wear off in a few hours. I'll explain the recovery process with the two of you, alright?"

El nods and the nurse smiles, pointing to a doorway on their right.

"He's right in here," she says. "I'm going to go grab his paperwork and then I'll be right back." She thanks her and steps into the room.

He's propped in a dentist's chair and El feels her heart clench at the sight of him. His cheeks are puffy underneath the cloth that holds an ice pack to his face and his eyes are all droopy and unfocused. He's breathing through his mouth and it looks painful, but the edges curl up anyway when he sees her.

Cute.

"Hi El," he murmurs, except with his swollen cheeks, it sounded more like, "Ah El."

"Hi," she replies, taking his hand and tracing circles along the back of it. "How are you feeling?"

He shrugs. "Little weird. My face is numb," he observes and raises a hand to poke at his cheeks. She suppresses a giggle and clasps that hand as well, bringing it down from his face.

"I don't think you should touch it, love," she tells him. "You might irritate it."

His brows furrow and the look he gives her is so utterly confused and put out that she presses kisses to the back of his hands, hiding her smile there. After a beat, his features relax, and the dopey half-smile returns. He goes quiet for a little bit, his eyes glazing over again as he lazily glances around the room and she takes a moment to drag the chair in the corner over to him, plopping down and taking his hands again. Her movement pulls his gaze back to her face and even though he's a little out of it, she still feels her cheeks heat up at the intense way he's looking at her.

She smiles at him, squeezing his hands tightly before she realizes his lips are twitching. It looked like he was trying to close them and she frowned as he shuffled closer to her, his mouth moving strangely. His eyes shine with something that looks like hope and it finally clicks.

"Mike," she says, unable to help the laughter in her voice. "I'm not going to kiss you, not when you're like this."

He looks crestfallen and she giggles again, before leaning forward to brush the bangs off his forehead. She places a kiss on his skin, once, then twice, and smiles at the sound of contentment he makes. He's pouting or, at least, trying to when she pulls back, and she boops his nose with a grin.

"It's just for a few days, then you can kiss me all you want. I don't want you to hurt yourself," she reassures him. He sighs, then goes to say something when his nurse walks back in with their paperwork.

He fidgets with her fingers as the nurse goes over what he's allowed to eat, how long he should rest for and any symptoms of infection to look out for. El pays careful attention, knowing she'd have to relay all this to Mrs. Wheeler when they got back.

"Any questions?" she asks once she's finished.

"When can I kiss my girlfriend again?"

"Mike!" El scolds, but the nurse just looks amused.

"I think that's for her to decide. Any other concerns?"

El shakes her head before Mike says anything else stupid and the nurse smiles.

"Alright then. Michael, you are all good to go. Do you think you can walk?"

He nods and even though she doesn't entirely believe him, she steps back to give him space, still holding tight to his hand. He stands up slowly, looking at the ground in concentration and groans when he's fully upright, swaying slightly.

"Hey, hey, hey, I got you," El rushes to reassure him, looping her arm around his waist and his arm wraps tightly around his shoulders.

"Are you sure you don't need a wheelchair?" their nurse asks, her brow creased with concern and Mike shakes his head.

"Just a little dizzy, I can make it."

She knows he doesn't want to be babied, and if he is, he only wants her or his mom to do it. He shifts some of his weight off her, takes a step and she hastily moves with him.

It's slow going, but he wasn't lying, he was strong enough to at least make it to the car. She fishes the keys out of his pocket and keeps her arm around him as she unlocks the passenger side.

She's alarmed to find that his face has grown paler since they left the room, but he climbs into the car without complaint and she buckles his seat belt for him when he makes no move to do it himself.

He's relatively quiet on the way home, save for the few times he whines when she has to pull her hand away from where it was laced with his to turn a corner, to which she playfully rolls her eyes and grasps his hand again when she's able to.

His eyes are all droopy and she's pretty sure he's half asleep by the time she pulls up in the Wheeler driveway. She considers walking over to Lucas's to help her get her boyfriend to the basement door, but as she's walking over to the passenger side, Mrs. Wheeler pokes her head out the front door.

"El, honey, how did it go? Is he doing okay?" she calls, shutting the door behind her as she makes her way over to the car.

El opens the door before answering and she giggles when he waves.

"Everything went fine, he's just a little dizzy," she replies, watching as he slowly unbuckles his seatbelt and she steps back to give him space to get out, watching his movements closely.

"Hi mom," he slurs as he scoots out of the car. "My teeth are gone."

"I can see that," Karen replies, shooting El a smile. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah, just give me a second," he replies as he pushes himself up and El wraps a hand around his arm to steady him.

She supports him as he shuffles to the back door, Karen rushing to open it for him once they get there and Mike's face lights up at what his mom had set up for him in the basement.

She's set up a bed for him on the couch, his favorite blanket (though he'll never admit it) draped over the sheets she's covered it in and the TV has been moved down here from upstairs. On the table to the right sits more painkillers than El's ever seen in one place and three stacks of VHS's that she knows they'll most likely get all the way through by the time he's recovered.

"All this for me?" Mike mumbles as he hobbles over to the couch and Karen grins.

"Of course sweetie. You thought I'd just let you suffer down here?" she asks. He tries to smile back, but it's more of a grimace and his attention turns to settling down on the cushions and slowly wiggling his way under the blanket.

"Mmm, this is nice," he murmurs and El kneels beside him, helping him get comfortable.

"Now, what did the doctor say about your recovery?" the older woman asks and El tells her all the information she can remember to her, taking extra time on the foods he's allowed to eat and what to do if he starts bleeding. When she finishes, she glances back at her boy, only to find him completely asleep.

"Well, that was fast," Karen remarks and El chuckles as she brushes a piece of hair off his forehead.

"Do you mind if I stay here for a little bit, Mrs. Wheeler?" She doesn't want to intrude, but any opportunity to stay by Mike's side was one worth taking.

"Of course. I'll go make sure we have all the foods he can have and I'll probably run to the store if I need to get him anything else. You're welcome to keep him company and you know you're always welcome in your fort." She gestures to the blanket structure that has literally stood the test of time and El feels her heart warm at the thought of spending a whole afternoon in the space that will always be hers.

"Thank you," she replies with a soft smile, and Karen nods, moving closer to kiss her son's head before she makes her way up the stairs.

Mike sleeps for the rest of the afternoon. El spends longer than she'd to admit sitting beside him and tracing the features of his face. Even with his cheeks beginning to swell, he was still devastatingly handsome and she never gets tired of looking at him.

He's still dozing by the time she has to go home for dinner and with a whispered promise to see him tomorrow, she tiptoes out the back door.

She'd expected him to look worse the next day, but nothing could've prepared her for just how puffy his cheeks had gotten overnight.

"Oh, Mike," she says sympathetically as she closes the basement door behind her. He's propped up on the couch, his back against the armrest and her heart twists at the small smile that twitches across his swollen face.

"How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Did you sleep okay?" she asks, crossing to him and taking his hand when he reaches out to her. He shrugs in response, his eyes half-lidded and his jaw limp and slack.

"Ah'm okay," he mumbles, before wincing and bringing his other hand up to his cheek. She frowns.

"Does it hurt to talk?"

He nods, looking sad, and defeated.

"Sorry," he whispers and she squeezes his hand.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Michael," she tells him and his lips quirk up into a smile because he knows she only uses his full name to tease him. "I'd still love you even if you never talked again."

He blushes and she grins.

"What would you like to do instead?"

Again, he shrugs and looks at her expectantly.

"You don't mind?"

He shakes his head.

She purses her lips and glances around the basement. Her eyes land on his DM manual and she knows exactly what they should do today.

"We could write a story."

He furrows his eyebrows, taking a second to ponder what she said before he gestures back and forth between them.

"Yes," she replies, "I want to write with you. Is that okay?"

His eyes light up and she grins.

"I'll go grab your notebook, start thinking of story ideas!" she tells him before she darts up the stairs towards his room.

He used to write all the time in high school. He loved telling her his latest story idea or the recent plot point he had stumbled across and she adored watching his face whenever he rambled on about how much he loved storytelling. He'd kept notebook after notebook of his scribbled ideas and she knows exactly where his half-used one is that he left behind when they moved for college.

His love for science won out over his love for words and he was happily pursuing a biology major with a minor in chemistry, but she knows he misses the free time to craft a story on the side. Now that he's stuck on a couch with nothing else to do, she knows that creative brain of his will come up with something incredible.

She finds the faded blue notebook in his desk drawer and grabs a pen, heading back down to the basement before she lets herself be tempted to go through what he's already written. This is private after all and she's honored that she's one of the few people who know that he continued this hobby past middle school.

He's just as she left him when she hurries down the basement steps and he curls up his leg to make room for her on the other end of the couch.

"What if you wrote a sentence and then I wrote a sentence and we went back and forth?" she asks as she plops down, flipping to a fresh page in the notebook and uncapping the pen. He nods compliantly and she hands both things to him when he reaches for them.

His first line takes him five seconds to write and she's suspicious as he hands the notebook back.

"Mike loves El", is written on the first line and she rolls her eyes, though she's sure the blush on her cheeks dulls the effect.

"No, dummy. A good sentence to start a story with," she tells him and he pouts as well as he can as he takes it back. "And I love you too," she adds as he scribbles more words onto the page and he smiles up at her so beautifully even with his swollen cheeks.

"Mike loves El and El loves Mike," is written when he returns it to her.

Alright then. She can work with this.

"Together, they started a family," she writes and worries for a moment that she's going too far, but she trusts him to tell her if she is. Her addition causes his eyebrows to raise, but he continues the story anyway.

"Mike always knew El would be a great mother, but seeing her hold their firstborn child made him want to cry."

"El loved the child her and Mike made."

"They named him Skywalker."

She laughs at that one. "You better not," she tells him, before writing, "He looked just like Mike—dark hair, dark eyes and lots and lots of freckles."

"He was beautiful like his mother."

"They promised their son they would always take care of him."

"We will," Mike murmurs after reading her sentence and reaches over to squeeze her hand.

"They promised their love to him like they had promised their love to one another at their wedding a few years prior," he writes next and her stomach flips.

They'd agreed at the start of college to wait for a little bit before he proposed. They had never doubted that they would get married and while they avoided the topic for most of high school, an emotional conversation their senior year had them admitting that neither of them wanted a future that the other wasn't in. Marriage, they concluded. They were going to get married one day.

El couldn't wait.

"Their wedding was the best day of El's life."

"She was a stunning, heavenly angel when she walked down the aisle and Mike had never felt so lucky to have earned her affections."

"And then she tripped."

Mike laughs, before wincing and reaching for the ice pack on the table.

"Sorry," she says between her giggles and he shakes his head in amusement.

"Worth it," he responds. "You won't trip, I promise." She watches as he scratches out her last line and eagerly waits to see what he writes instead.

"She glided down the aisle with the grace and beauty of a shooting star dancing across the night sky."

She can feel pink that heats her cheeks.

"Mike looked more handsome than she had ever seen him and she couldn't believe he was all hers."

"Forever, he promised her. He'd be all hers forever."

"And she was all his. Mrs. El Wheeler."

"The road to their happily-ever-after wasn't easy, but they never left the other's side as they traveled down it together, hand-in-hand."

"The road was built with promises and all the love in the universe."

"And it all began with a few raindrops and a light,"

"When she found her home with him."

"The End."

El swallows the lump in her throat and wipes a tear from her cheek. When she looks up, his eyes are rich with love and she sets the notebook down. He opens his arms to her and she crawls into them, curling up to his chest and nestling under his chin, being careful not to hurt his face.

"I like our story," she whispers, goosebumps rising on her skin as his fingers trace along her arm. "No matter how it actually turns out, I'm excited to live it with you."

"I like it too," he whispers back. "I don't want to do anything without you."

"Me neither," she responds and that was that.

They kept the story they wrote that day. Mike protected the notebook it was written in with his life and surprised El with it on their first wedding anniversary, three days after it was confirmed that there was a life growing inside her. She insisted they frame it and it would hang above their bed for years to come.

As for the present day, Mike healed quickly and the first thing he did when his cheeks stopped hurting was kiss the love of his life senseless.

"What was that for?" she asked when she pulled back, panting and breathless.

He smiles and kisses her temple.

"For being the best part of my story."

A/N: I hope you all are doing well and I apologize for not updating for a little bit. I just thought I'd say that you'll never get anything but love from me and I wish you peace and hope during everything that's happening right now.