Ch. 2 - After 3 Years They Finally Meet

Chapter Two:

After Three Years They Finally Meet

         Erick emailed Pastor Chris Markham as soon as he hung up the phone, explaining the urgency of the situation, including the fact that Crystal would be there in a few days if he wanted to meet her.

         The next night, about 7:00, Erick’s phone rang.

         “Hello?”

         “Hi, darling!”

         “Hi, my love! Are you doing OK?”

         “Much better now that I’m talking to you, sweetheart!”

         “Any news yet?”

         “Yeup, that’s why I called. I fly out of here at 10:05 tonight. Will arrive in Lexington about 12:20 AM. Delta flight 437. Got it, my love?”

         “You bet, gorgeous! I can’t wait to see you face to face for the first time. Much less hold you in my arms.”

         “I’m counting on that, darling, in more ways than one!”

         “I LOVE YOU, BROWN EYES!” Erick shouted.

         “I love you, too my Little Firework. Gotta run, honey. I have to pack yet.”

         “OK, my love. See you in a few hours and we’ll start that life together! I love you!”

         “I love you more!”

         “Smarty! Bye, honey!”

         “Bye, love!”



         Erick was at the airport by midnight, watching the flight monitors like a hawk. He didn’t want to see the word “delayed” show up for flight 437. That would totally piss him off after waiting three long years to get his arms around his Brown Eyes.

         Her 12:20 arrival time came and went. The monitor still read “on schedule”. Now Erick was getting worried. He wanted the word “delayed” to show up now. At least that would mean they knew where the plane was and that… nothing… drastic… had happened. With each silently passing minute his nervousness and fear grew. Finally, at 12:43 AM, on August 16, 2001, he heard the words he’d waited for since midnight: “Delta flight #437 now arriving at Gate 12.”

         Erick pushed the wheelchair as fast as he could to that gate. When he got there, he stood at the window just four feet or so from the ticket desk, his face all but pressed to the glass looking for his Brown Eyes.

         “Will Mr. Erick Metcalf. please report to the ticket desk at gate 12?”

         Erick jumped at the sound of his name, and dove the short distance to the desk. “Right here,” he announced, loud enough for the whole concourse to hear. He wanted to make sure they knew he was there. His heart was in his throat, thinking something had happened to his Crystal. But then the flight attendant approached him, smiling.

         “Mr. Metcalf, we have a physically challenged passenger requesting your help at the foot of the steps from the plane.”

         “You better have a young lady making that request,” Erick laughed. That’s my fiancée!” Erick could tell he’d just made that flight attendant’s day. She laughed with him.

         “If you’ll come with me, I’ll escort you so they know you belong out there.”

         “Thank you,” he said as they went through the gate. The only problem he had was she wasn’t walking fast enough to suit him. He eagerly watched for Crystal as they walked.

         Then, there she was. They were bouncing a wheelchair, with her in it, down the steps from the plane. He took off at a run, reaching that staircase before she was at the bottom. It hurt that he couldn’t embrace her the way he wanted to, but she couldn’t stand, for obvious reasons. Undaunted, he leaned down, took her head in his hands, looked into those big, luscious, sensitive brown eyes that he’d seen only in PC photos in recent weeks before the accident, and said lovingly, “Welcome home, my precious little Brown Eyes! I LOVE YOU!” Before she could respond, Erick put his lips firmly on hers and they shared a short, but very searching, very meaningful, and very important first kiss.

         “I love you, too, my Little Firework!” she beamed. “They wanted to carry me down the steps and I said ‘No. Nobody carries me until my fiancé does.’ I want you to be the first one to hold me. I LOVE YOU!”

         He was all but crying, now, from just having her with him at long last, to the idea that she didn’t want anyone else to hold her until he had.

         “Thank you, darling. That simple gesture means a lot to your future husband,” he said haltingly. “I’m just glad to have you with me after these three long years. I’m crying for both of those reasons. I love you, darling!”

         “I love you, too, sweetheart.”

         “Is this your wheelchair, honey?”

         “No, it’s the airline’s.”

         “No problem,” he said. “Lean forward.” Once she had, he put his right arm behind her, his left arm beneath her left leg, and lifted her 110-pound, gorgeous, loving and definitely sexy body into his arms. She put her left arm around his neck. “I have a chair waiting for you inside the gate, my love. Giving them back their chair right now gives me a perfectly good excuse to hold you in my arms for a while. I may never put you down now that I have you in these arms,” he said warmly.

         “I may never let you put me down,” she laughed. “I like it here.” She leaned over and kissed him. They held that one till they got to the gate.

         “Your chariot awaits, my darling!” he intoned as he walked up to the wheelchair he’d brought with him.

         “Thank you, my Prince Charming!” she laughed.

         He sat her ever so gently in the chair, but she stopped him before he could start taking them toward the baggage area.

         “Erick?”

         “Yes, honey?”

         “Look at me a minute, honey, it’s important.”

         He knelt down beside the chair, intentionally doing so on the right side. He wanted her to see for herself that the missing limbs did not deter his love for her. “Yes, sweetheart?”

         “Erick, with being nervous and excited about the flight, and getting into your arms, I’ve forgotten all the wonderful words I was going to use to say this, but… I just want you to hear from me, first thing, how very much I love you, and that I love you even more for not walking away when you found out about… these,” she said, gesturing toward the stumps of her missing arm and leg with her left hand. I LOVE YOU!” She almost shouted.

         “Darling, you don’t have to thank me. This is how real, authentic, true love works. I’ll prove it to you.” He took his right hand and slowly, gently, ran it over the stump of her missing right arm, then gently kissed her there. Then he did the same thing with the stump of her missing right leg. “I love you, Brown Eyes. And these are a part of you. I love you, Crystal, and nothing will ever change that. Least of all these.” She had watched his every move, and by the time he’d finished, she was grinning from ear to ear, and tears were building in her eyes..

         “God, I love you, Erick!” she wailed as she started crying. He hugged her as best he could.

         “I’ll give you a better, longer, much more romantic hug when we get to your new home, my love!” he promised as he wheeled her toward the baggage area to pick up her cases.

         “Which ones are yours, honey?” he asked as they reached the rotating luggage rack.

         “They’re not here yet,” she said. “Oh, wait! Here they come. The two small blue ones and the big one with the wheels and handle. The black one.”

         He pointed to the ones he thought she meant.

         “Yeup, that’s them, sweetie!”

         Erick decided to have a little fun with her and give her a gentle head start on her therapy at the same time. “You.. um… don’t mind doing your share of the work, here, do you, darling?” he laughed.

         “How am I going to carry anything?” she laughed back. He could tell she’d heard the laughter in his voice.

         “I didn’t say ‘carry’, honey. I’ll show you.” She watched as he hung the two smaller bags on the handles of her wheelchair. Then he took the seat belt off the wheelchair, since she wasn’t using it anyway, looped it through the handle of the large roller suitcase, and handed her the other end. “You’re pulling this one,” he smiled warmly.

         “Why can’t you loop this over the handles and pull it that way?” she asked. “I’m just curious, of course,” she said with a grin.

         “Sure, you are, sure you’re just curious,” he said smiling. He took the strap from her, and knelt down at her side. “Honey, I’m going to ask you something, then I want you to tell me which way we’re going to pull this thing. Okay?” he asked, smiling and with love.

         “Um… okay, honey. What are you getting at?” He could tell she was a little nervous. She had no clue where this was going.

         “Darling, you certainly want to get as much of your independence back as you can, don’t you?”

         “Yes, I do, honey, of course. Why? Who wouldn’t?”

         Erick put his hand on her left arm. “For you to do that, this arm will have to do most of what you did with two arms. Because your new one will help, but there will be things your new right arm can’t do that this one’s going to have to do. This one’s going to have to do its own share of the work, and pick up the slack for your right arm’s shortcomings. And right now it’s not strong enough to do that. Because it’s never had to be.” She smiled a warm, knowing, loving smile.

         “God, Erick, you do really love me, don’t you?” she wailed as the tears started flowing from her eyes again. “You’ve even thought of what’s ahead for me, haven’t you?” Crying openly now, she motioned for him to come around in front of her. “I… have to hug you, honey. Please. Help me up.”

         “Gladly, my love. I’ve wanted to hug you like this for three years, Brown Eyes!” He put his arms around her, and helped her up, directly in front of the wheelchair. When he got her upright, he embraced her with everything he could muster. And she did the same. For a girl with only one arm, she squeezed the daylights out of him, and he ate it up.

         “I… know you always loved me, Erick, but I never realized how very deeply you really meant it,” she sobbed, still crying heavily. “I LOVE YOU, MY LITTLE FIREWORK!” she all but shouted.

         They just stood there for about ten minutes in a wonderfully tight embrace. This time they didn’t even have to kiss to understand and enjoy the depth of their love. They simply didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just enjoyed the closeness of that love.

         “Okay, sweetheart, let’s get moving. I want to see my new home!” she fairly laughed.

         “Your wish is my command, Princess!” Erick laughed, seating her in the chair once again.

         “And hand me the strap, please,” she added, a loving smile on her face.

         “Here you are, darling.”

         She took a grip on it, looked up at him and said, “Erick, I still don’t think I deserve you, I never did think so. But I’ve never been more glad, or more grateful than right now that you think I do, and that you love me so very much. I LOVE YOU, darling! With all my heart and soul. Let’s go home.”

Ch. 3 - Getting to Know Each Other  (18+) Their first special moment. In an unexpected place. #336194 by Incurable Romantic