Witness (50 page)

Sam entered her room, leaving the door behind him open. J.T., Manton and Julian hovered in the doorway. Sam walked
slowly over to Jeannie and sat down in the chair beside her bed, then lifted her hand and pressed it against his lips.

“I'm here, angel. I'm right here with you,” he told her. “Come on, Jeannie, wake up.”

Her eyelids fluttered.

“That's it, come on, wake up.” Standing, he clasped her hand to his heart.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. A faint smile curved her lips. “Sam.”

Holding her hand, he leaned down and kissed her lips, the touch feather-light. “You've got to fight, angel. You can't let go. You have to live. What would I do without you?”

“You…you're…all right?”

“I'm fine.” He rubbed the back of her fragile hand across his cheek. “You saved my life again.” Tears lodged in Sam's throat.

“I love…you,” Jeannie whispered.

“Please, Jeannie, don't die.” Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he lifted her into his arms, kissing her tenderly on her forehead and cheeks. “I don't want to live without you.”

“The baby…she's all right.” Jeannie brought Sam's trembling hand down across her stomach. “We need you, Sam. Your little girl and I. You can save us.”

“How? Dear God, Jeannie, tell me how!”

“You know how…you know…” Her voice drifted away as she closed her eyes and sank once again into an unnatural sleep.

“I don't know!” Sam shouted. “Tell me! I don't know!”

He clasped her to him, holding her against his chest, stroking her back, whispering her name. Tears welled up in Sam's eyes. A drop fell on his cheek. He swallowed hard. Another tear fell, then another, and another. Tears flooded his eyes, ran into his mouth, dripped off his chin.

Sam allowed his mind to delve into Jeannie's, seeking a response when he telepathically called her name.

I'm here, Sam. Help me. Save me. Save our baby. Take care of us.

“How?” he asked aloud, then repeated the question silently.
How?

You know how.

He held her close, strengthening their physical connection as he kept their mental link intact.

I love you, Jeannie, my angel. I love you. Please don't leave me.

He felt her love invade his mind, conquer his heart and lay claim to his soul.
Don't let us go, Sam. Give us your strength. Take away our weakness.

“I'll do anything to save you.” Clutching her in his arms, holding her weak, lifeless body against the strength of his, Sam trembled with sorrow, crying from the depths of his soul as he had never cried before in his life. Not even when he was a child and his mother died.

“Please. Please. She's suffered so much for so many people. She gives and gives and asks nothing in return. She's saved my life twice, and shown me the meaning of real love. I can't live without her. If she dies, I die.”

J.T. touched Sam on the back. “Come on, Sam. Don't do this. You aren't helping her.”

Sam eased Jeannie down on the bed, stood up and turned to J.T. “I would give anything, even my soul, if I could do for her what she's done for so many others. If I could just reach inside and take away her suffering, make her whole again, give her all my strength.”

“You're asking for a miracle,” J.T. said.

“Yes, I know.” Sam shoved J.T. away. “I'm not leaving her. She believes I can save her and our baby.” Sam clamped his teeth together, choking on his pain, tears pouring down his face.

Sam fell to his knees beside Jeannie's bed in a mirror image
of her vigil at his side in the storm shelter on Le Bijou Bleu. He held her hand.

“I love you. Do you hear me, Jeannie? I love you.”

Manton and Julian entered the room and stood next to J.T., all three men standing by helplessly. Several nurses stood in the doorway, tears in their eyes.

“Just this once, angel, let someone hurt for you. Let me remove all that suffering inside you. I'm strong enough for both of us, and for our baby. Give me your pain, Jeannie. Do it for us. Do it for…our little girl.”

Sam felt the first faint glimmer of pain, a deep, emotional need, and a physical weakness so great that he cried aloud when Jeannie's suffering began slowly draining from her body.

“That's it, angel. Let it all go. Don't be afraid. Our love is more powerful than anything. We can do this. Together.”

Her pain swirled around inside him, sharp and jagged, ripping him apart. He moaned in agony. Suddenly he felt her withdrawal.

“Don't, angel. You've suffered far more for me. Love me enough to give me your pain. Please.”

She returned to him, allowing him to take more of her suffering into his body and mind and heart. And when the deed was completed, Sam fell to the floor, unconscious, as his soul joined with Jeannie's forever.

Slowly, Jeannie opened her eyes. “Don't touch him. Leave him where he is,” she ordered the others.

She eased off the bed, dragging the sheet and blanket with her. She crawled over to Sam, lifting the sheet over them as she put her arms around him.

“Everyone, please leave,” she whispered. “He's all right. He just needs rest.”

When the nurses tried to enter Jeannie's room, J.T. demanded they leave. “I don't think Jeannie and Sam need any medical assistance right now.”

“Mr. Blackwood is right,” Julian said. “Jeannie and Sam
will be all right. The miracle of love has proven to be more powerful than medical science.” Julian gripped Manton's arm, and guided him out the door. The room emptied quickly. J.T. closed the door when he stepped into the hallway.

Jeannie kissed the side of Sam's face, then drew his head into her lap. Placing her hand over her stomach, she smiled, knowing their baby was safe.

Sam's eyelids quivered, and then he opened his eyes slowly. “I'll always take care of you.” Lifting his hand, he laid it over hers on her stomach. “Both of you.”

“Your love saved us,” Jeannie told him.

“
Your
love saved all three of us,” he said, then closed his eyes and drifted off into a restorative sleep. When his limp hand slipped off hers, she grasped it and laid it on her stomach.

“Everything is all right, sweetheart,” Jeannie told their unborn child. “Mommy and Daddy are here, and we love you as much as we love each other.”

T
HEY MARRIED A
month later in the small Congregational church on Beach Boulevard. Sam was devastatingly handsome in a gray striped morning suit, and Jeannie angelically lovely in Miriam Howell's ivory satin wedding gown. They honeymooned on Le Bijou Bleu, putting the horrors of Maynard Reeves's madness behind them.

Seven months later, little Miss Samantha Dundee came howling into the world, after having made her mother and father suffer together through ten hours of labor. But once they held their daughter in their arms, they agreed that they just might give her a brother or sister in a few years.

After enduring the torment of the damned, Sam and Jeannie found heaven on earth. They loved deeply and completely, sharing every joy, every sorrow, every pleasure and every pain. He would forever be her elegant savage, and she his angel of mercy.

Sam didn't take their happiness for granted. As he had once guarded Jeannie from a world gone mad, he now guarded Jeannie and Samantha, making it his mission in life to surround them with the shield of his loving protection.