Chapter XXIII

In the years to come when Di would come to think of that particular day, she would think of herself as a complete idiot and a lunatic. She didn't have any breakfast, her hair was hardly touched by a hair brush, her dress was the dress she wore three times already during that week, and only God knew why she put on those pink gloves which didn't go with her outfit on that day at all.

But she didn't care in that moment, she didn't even look in the mirror before she stormed out of Inglside and made her way to the hospital. She was the happiest person alive, she felt as if she could finally breathe. She finally knew why she felt so… tight in her chest for all those long months of her heart's and soul's misery and she felt so relieved that she eventually found out why.

But the greatest joy in her life in that moment was the improvement of Carl's health. Oh, thank God she had such a headache the day before, a headache which enabled her to sleep during the night. So that must have been how her Mother felt when she heard that Father "got de turn". It was a wonderful feeling, a feeling a butterfly must get when it escapes its pod and realises that it has beautiful wings.

Di asked a nurse, a different one from the nurse from the day before, whether she could check on Carl Meredith or rather Mr Thomas Meredith. The nurse was tough and she declined, causing Di's face to turn positively crimson from fury. Di stormed out from the reception, outside and started to walk up and down. No, she wouldn't give up, she would not! Not when Carl was better, and awake, and ready to hear her say that she loved him after all of those years of him waiting for her so patiently.

Suddenly, Di's mind clicked and she looked up and saw a wall full of windows. Which one could be the Carl's window…? She must be mad! But that was the only way. Di knew the hospital quite well, it was an old hospital and she spent there many hours when Walter was sick with typhoid all those years ago. It was more than ten years earlier the last time she was there, but she wouldn't forget any of the halls, any of the rooms she looked in, just to keep her mind off the critical state her brother was in.

But which one was Carl's room? Oh! She knew! Di clasped her hands together and squeaked like a little girl. She remembered what Rosemary said the day before, when Di was sitting very still on the chair for the three hours while waiting for the nurse to finally allow her into the room where Carl was in, Rosemary said that Carl's room was on the west side, room number thirty four.

Di looked more to the left and saw the window she knew, it was the room next to the room where Walter was put in all those ten years earlier. How could she not know where it was? Di made her way to the gutter and looked around her just to check if someone would be there to witness her committing a crime. But was it a crime? she thought. Was it really? But she decided that she didn't really care, when she put her both hands on the gutter and held on tightly.

Even to the very day when she was telling her own grandchildren and great-grandchildren about that night, she didn't know how she did it, how she managed to climb two storeys high without looking down even once, without any fear. All she knew was that she was so proud of herself, and so very nervous to tell Carl those three perfect words when she reached the window of his room.

The window was fortunately slightly opened and Di slipped inside as quietly as a cat would do it. "A miracle." she breathed out happily, forgetting entirely that Carl himself was lying in his bed just next to her, with his eyes opened.

"Di?" a weak voice filled the whole room and Di jumped before turning her head to the man she loved.

"Oh, Carl! Carl!" she gasped and started kissing him all over his face, his bruised cheeks, his bandaged head, his blind eye and the eye which was observing her every move. She omitted his lips of course, she couldn't be too brave to kiss them just yet. "Are you alright? Oh, Carl I thought you wouldn't make it!" she said through her tears.

Carl looked at her in disbelief. He didn't look very pleasantly of course. His head was in a bandage, his cheeks were quite purple, his lips were scarred, and his hands were a bit red, but his eyes were just the same and to Di he was the most handsome man she had ever seen, even in that very second "Di… Did you… just climb here?" he asked her slowly, his voice sounding a little tired.

Di chuckled then "Yes, I did." she said "I don't know how, Carl, I don't know but the nurses wouldn't let me in." she explained as if it was something obvious to do.

Carl's lips formed into a smile and his chest shook, as if he was laughing inside but was to weak to laugh outloud "You are ridiculously wonderful." he whispered tenderly and his hand reached Di's.

Di squeezed it hard and smiled at him, like never before. Di didn't say a word but Carl knew it, he saw it and he felt it. He knew it before she said it and his eyes turned teary "Carl, I know it took me a long time. I know that I've been a torture to you, but believe me I was a torture to myself as well." she said passionately "But it's better for me to realise now or never so I suppose it's still not too late. I hope." she sighed heavily but smiled at him nonetheless "I love you, you crazy bugs-friend." she chuckled.

Carl looked at her meaningfully and it was as if he just received a new portion of energy. He put his hand on Di's back and pulled her closer, so that their foreheads were touching "Do you want me to kiss you?" he whispered to her, his eyes laughing impishly.

"Yes." she whispered back, a soft grin on her lips.

"Then you have to first agree with me on something." he whispered again, more seriously.

"Anything." she murmured tenderly.

"Diana Blythe, I will kiss you if you'll agree to become my wife." Carl said eventually and his hand wondered off to her cheek and he caressed it gently.

"Then you could have kissed me even yesterday." Di whispered to his ear and they both chuckled softly.

"I should have done it years ago." he said "But as you said, better now or never." and he kissed her, eventually, the very first kiss they both felt was right. What both Carl and Di didn't realise was that a bunch of nurses surrounded near the door of the room thirty four and were clapping and cheering behind the door, while the two of them were writing the very first chapter of their own book, a book called "Life".

Two months later

"Next year this time, you will become Mrs Meredith. How does it feel like?" Carl squeezed Di's hand as they walked slowly together across the bright Rainbow Valley which was in its centre of blossoming.

Di's eyes shone in this special new twinkling way when her eyes met Carl's and she smiled at him gently "Quite extraordinary." she whispered and then took his arm in hers "Do you think you'll manage me as a wife? This temper of a redhead and a 'Blythe', and all the others?" she asked her husband-to-be with laughter in her voice.

Carl chuckled and kissed her forehead tenderly "I think that I won't manage you as my wife." he said and then laughed again, his laughter alive and clear "Don't look at me like that, Di! What I mean is that I won't be able to tame you, but that's one of the many things I love about you." he said and Di's cheeks flushed with red, making Carl to grin at her again "And the temper of a redhead and a 'Blythe' are the two features I love very dearly." he added.

Di chuckled "I will never believe that you actually like my hair so much." she said.

Carl nudged her at the side "Di, how can I not love this hair of yours?" he asked her with a smile on his lips "Because of your red hair, I can easily spot you out of the crowd full of women with brown, black or blonde hair. Your hair and of course your ten frecles which I love to spend my time counting," that's where Di laughed at him again "-and your eyes which are green when you're happy or excited, and are gray when the sun shines more brightly or when a sudden blow of wind messes your hair."

Di looked deeply into his eyes and put her head on his strong shoulder "Nobody knows me more than you do, I think." she said softly.

"I hope that it's true." Carl replied and sighed with pity "Robert Keats doesn't know what he lost." he said.

Di looked at Carl again "Oh, don't you bring Robert into this." she waved her hands "It was all my fault and that's all we should say about it." she said and shook her head with embarrassment over what happened a year earlier.

Carl squeezed her shoulder assuringly "That wasn't anyone's fault, Di." he said "Besides if this split between you didn't happen, we wouldn't be engaged right now." he smiled joyfully.

Di smiled back at him "That is true." she said and kissed his cheek.

"Do you think that you'll be happy in Boston?" he asked her suddenly, his eyes full of worry all of a sudden.

"Carl, dear," she replied softly "-I will be happy anywhere you'll go."

Carl smiled with relief "I really hope so." he said readily "This three year contract at the university will give me lots of experience and who knows maybe we will even prefer to live in Boston rather than in the old Glen?" he asked and after a few seconds when the two of them looked in each other's eyes, they said in unison "Nooo." and laughed again.

They continued walking, their fingers interlaced together and their heads touching each other. The wind blew and blew and it felt almost like summer, but with the lightness of spring being still reconisable in the air. Di sighed lightly and Carl looked down at her "What is it?" he asked.

"I just never thought that a person could be so happy." she whispered tenderly, her green happy eyes looking directly into Carl's dark blue ones "I've never thought I could and would love a man a much as I love you in this very second."

Carl kissed her nose "I'm glad that you came to this conclusion after such a long time." he said and Di chuckled quietly "But Diana Ruby Blythe, there's one thing you don't know."

"And what is that?" she asked him with interest in her voice.

"You don't know that I love you even more than you can possibly imagine." he whispered mysteriously into her ear and they smiled at each other, in their own familiar way.

"I don't think that's true, but I won't argue with you." she replied sweetly and Carl sighed contentedly.

"Good, because there's nothing to question about that." and then he placed his hands on her cheeks and looked into her beautiful green shining eyes again "But I can promise you one thing and that is that I will do everything in my power to make you at least half as happy as I am now in this moment." he said, his eyes sparkling.

Di grinned at him cheerfully "You don't have to try very hard." she whispered "Because you are already a master of making me happy." and Di put her hands around his neck and allowed Carl to kiss her under the White Lady.

Suddenly, all of the Blythe, Meredith and Ford children flooded the Rainbow Valley with laughter and sweet childish screamings of the Indians and the sodiers. But the spell for Di and Carl wasn't broken at all, it grew even stronger. For a second Di thought that she could hear two more children laughing, a laughter different to the laughter of Gilly, Julia, Walt or Merry. Then she heard a soft distant laughter of a boy she would always love, a boy with black curls on his head and twinkling gray eyes.

Di tip toed to wrap her arms around Carl's neck and Carl wraped his arms around her waist and started to twirl her around. And then she laughed, he laughed, the children around them laughed, and for the first time in her life, Diana of the Rainbow Valley felt, really felt, and was so sure and right too, that everything in the end was right with the world, no matter how many things suggest otherwise. Di realised in that moment that time didn't matter after all, it was the people around her that mattered the most and when Carl put her down and started to dance a little foxtrot with Rose, Di knew that she felt and that she would feel for the years to come something as wonderful as the word sounds by itself. She was… happy.

THE END

And there we go, my third story is finished! I am so thankful to all of you, to all my readers, reviewers, people who followed and favourited my story, I thank you all (special thanks go to: Kim Blythe, Alinyaalethia, AvonleaBlythe, hecalledmecarrots and IrishPrincess for reviewing) :)

Now, I am going to continue with writing and I shall post a first chapter to my new story in around two weeks time. I know that I've already written about Anne's and Gilbert's grandchildren (go to "Julia of the Island" if you'd like to take a look at this story) but somehow I don't feel completely content with those series and because those two stories were the first ones I've ever written, I learnt a lot from writing them. That's why when an idea about a different generation of Anne's grandchildren popped into my head, I just felt that I should write it down. So expect the first chapter of "Hester of Golden Bells" in two weeks time ;)

Once again, thank you all, and see you all soon! - Bathsheba Blythe