8The Art of a Full Recovery.
Time moved slowly without her, he listened to the clock on the mantel with it's incessant 'tick-tock'-ing that filled the otherwise silent room. He sat dutifully by her side, holding her hand...waiting and watching.
"Please, love", Tom had found himself whispering more than once. "Please don't leave me."
After about three days, Dr Clarkson had informed them all that Sybil was all but out of immediate danger and would only need to be given some time to wake up from her last seizure.
The Crawleys collectively released their first breath of relief in days.
It would be a waiting game, Dr Clarkson had informed them, but with luck she would make a full and unconditional recovery .
Smiling humourlessly, Tom remembered how he had once told Sybil that he would wait forever for her...and wait for his darling wife he knew he always would.
Tom sat with Sybil, only moving from his place to look after and entertain their beautiful baby daughter.
He listened to his wife breathe, a comforting sound that assured him that he hadn't lost her.
In and out, up and down...
Sybil's chest rose and fell, a constant reminder to her husband that their little girl would not grow up without her mother.
'Oh Thank God!'
A part of Tom thought that he was dreaming the first time he saw Sybil's eyelashes flicker open.
Relief, pure and unadulterated, welled up inside of him.
Nothing in the world could have stopped the tears of happiness that instantly sprung to his eyes. Nothing in the world could have prevented Tom from sobbing into his wife's hand as she smiled weakly up at him, clearly having been through hell and back to remain with her family.
Her eyes were red and tired but were still as blue and as filled with love as he had ever seen them.
"T—Tttom", she whispered, her voice cracking from a lack of use.
Sybil's hand was warm beneath his wet and tear stained face, Tom could feel her pulse thrum against his jaw.
Thumping, beating, sounding, pounding ...alive, so alive.
He held on tightly to her hand, burying his face in her fingers.
Tom could feel her other hand move across the blankets and come to rest in his hair. It was as though Sybil needed to cling to some part of him as much as he had to her.
She was his life line...and he was her's.
Without saying a word their silent actions conveyed their mutual terror upon realising how far they had come to the end...the end of all things.
Sybil and Tom had almost been lost to one another forever...it was a startlingly truth that they both knew.
For years to come, the couple would be haunted by how close they had come to being made the victim's of life's most cruel form of robbery.
It was only by some miracle, some fortunate luck of the draw, that their family was allowed to endure. It was a miracle that they would both forever be grateful for.
"Oh Sybil...Oh my darlin'!"
Author's Note: Yeah, do you know when you write something, decide not to publish it and then find it weeks later...yeah this is one of those stories. Originally it was meant as a second chapter to my 'Her Two Anchors' oneshot but i decided against publishing them together. Does this still make sense a standalone? Let me know what you guys think!
Either way, I truly hope you didn't hate it.
Pearlydewdrop xx
