Chapter 18

Saturday, moments later.

He stopped moving, crumbled on the ground. So much anger, resentment, she barely registers before she's pointing the gun in his unconscious face. The dire consequences of her decision, he needs put down. Her hands shakes, knuckles bleeding.

That liability. 

Do it!

Just a target. She forces the words over and over to run in her mind until she's repeating it out loud. She sees herself with both of them as the words play on a loop. The image grows stronger. His words "grow old together". Had anyone ever said that to her?

All energy spent on holding herself back from pulling the trigger. Tears stream down her face, as she screams out in anger. The gun wavering, inches from him. 

Put him down! Put him down! 

Could she do it? Could she actually do it, to the one man who could make her smile? Images of his smile. Their bantering. 

Everything in her body telling her no, don't  pull. Her mind reminds her of the reality awaiting her if she doesn't. It makes the moment so much more, and before she knows it, she throws the gun out of the cell; instead screaming in his unconscious face.

After the unleashing of her rage, she looks down to him, spent from the whirlwind she just lived through. Unsure of herself, she waits for the spent tears to dry as she looks down on him blankly. Her hand touches his bruising face.

From behind a familiar voice asks, "Are we going to be okay?"

She looks back, unsure for the first time since she can remember, and it registers. She doesn't have to get up, she's held by a loving embrace that lets her know, and her decision was the right one. 

In that moment, it's only opinion that matters.