You Belong To Me
Chapter
Twenty
(Skipping ahead to about 9 days later... You didn't miss much. Mimi and Phillip
went home on Victor's jet, and everything else is boring hospital stuff. I just
didn't think going on and on about it was doing anyone good. I wanted to get to
the good stuff.)
Belle packed her last piece of clothing into her suitcase and zipped it tightly
shut. She quickly surveyed her hotel room for any left behind objects, but found
none. There was a quiet tapping at her door so she quickly ran to answer it. She
opened the door to a grinning Shawn, who immediately pulled her in for a long
and very passionate kiss.
When their kiss broke, Belle pulled away from him and smiled. "Boy, you
sure know how to tell someone good morning."
"Hey, not everybody gets this kind of greeting from me..."
Belle cringed slightly. "I hope not... because ewwwww."
Shawn looked over her shoulder and saw her baggage lying on the bed. "You
all ready to go?"
"Strangely enough, yes. Everything is all packed and ready."
Shawn glanced at his watch and then motioned towards the hallway behind him.
"Good, that means you have plenty of time to join me for breakfast
downstairs."
"Yes, I do. I'll just leave my stuff here for now, I guess."
Shawn put his hands on her waist and pulled her close again. "And then it's
back home to Salem..."
Belle smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. "And then I have to go to
London, and come back again... It's a lot of flying, but it's better than being
stuck in that hospital for another 10 days."
"And when you're done with London, I'll finally be able to have you all to
myself..." Shawn smiled and kissed her again, shorter than the last time,
but still as sweet.
"Well, sure. Of course, I am required to devote an ample amount of time to
the rest of my family who I have neglected over the years... But I'll always
make time for you. I've got a lot of time to make up for, remember? So, you may
have to make an appointment to spend some quality time with me."
Shawn looked at her in surprise. "You are kidding, right?"
Belle rolled her eyes and laughed out loud. "Of course I am. I have all the
time in the world for you. Now let's get a move on... I think I hear a short
stack of pancakes calling my name."
Shawn smiled and ushered her out the door and towards the restaurant downstairs.
***
Belle and Shawn were the last of the passengers returning to Salem to arrive on
the plane. Belle's parents, the Wesleys, Brady and Chloe were already seated and
waiting their arrival. Belle threw herself on one of the leather couches with a
groan and Shawn took the seat beside her.
Belle looked around at all of the expectant glances and smiled widely.
"Hey... We're not late. Not yet anyway."
John stood and headed for the cockpit. "Everyone's here, I guess I can go
tell the pilot to get ready to go."
Brady glanced at his watch and then looked at her curiously. "What the heck
took you so long? I'm the sick one, remember? I'm supposed to be taking
longer."
Belle gave her brother the once over. He looked almost like a different person
than the one they had found on the island ten days ago. His color had returned
and he could now move around normally, albeit a bit slower than usual. The
doctor had said he would be back to normal within a few weeks, as long as he
kept rested and healthy.
Belle gave him her patented sarcastic one-eyebrow raised glance. "Yeah, you
don't look sick. Just because we've been babying you lately, don't get used to
it. As soon as you're back to a hundred percent, it's right back to the way
things were."
"It seems like it already is. What, with you running late and then picking
on me... Yeah, pretty much the same."
"I will have you know, that this time it wasn't my fault... I was ready
like 3 hours ago. Then, Shawn wanted breakfast, so we went downstairs to the
restaurant. There was this really sweet elderly woman down there..."
Chloe raised her eyebrows curiously. "So, you're late because you chatted
with somebody's grandma for three hours?"
Shawn shook his head and then raised his hand as the guilty party. "No,
it's my fault... I don't usually have conversations with strangers, but she kind
of reminded me of my Grandma Horton. I couldn't be mean and tell her to go
away... She was really sweet."
Chloe laughed and stared at him in surprise. "That's so not like you,
Shawn."
Shawn shrugged nonchalantly. "I know... But, she thought we were newlyweds
on our honeymoon."
"You did set her straight, didn't you?"
Belle grinned and shook her head. "Oh no, Chloe... See, we told her that
Shawn and I met in Las Vegas. I told her that I'm a topless dancer in a
nightclub, and Shawn was in town for a plumber's convention and came to see me
dance. We fell in love at first sight, thanks to a twenty dollar lapdance, and
got married 4 hours later at a 24 hour chapel... by an Elvis impersonator of
course. After that, Shawn made 30 grand at the roulette table and that's how we
could afford to go on this lavish Mediterranean honeymoon."
Chloe's eyes were wide open and her jaw was dropped in shock. "You have to
be kidding. You did not tell some stranger that story, did you?"
Belle rolled her eyes and laughed out loud. "No, we didn't. I'm just
kidding, but it sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"
Shawn chuckled and laid his hand on top of Belle's. "What we actually told
her was the truth... How Belle and I are lifelong friends who fell in love, and
then we were separated, and now we're together again. Plus, all the stuff about
you two getting robbed, shot and left for dead."
Brady grinned crookedly. "You make it sound so uncomplicated..."
"She was pretty fascinated by it all. Said she hadn't a heard a true story
like that in a long time."
Belle nodded in agreement and interjected. "Yeah, and then she started
babbling about how the same thing happened to some character on All My
Children... I don't know... I got kinda lost when she started talking about soap
operas."
Chloe smiled and winked at her. "Well, you have to admit it does kind of
have that Lifetime Movie of the Week feel about the whole thing. Two lost lovers
on a deserted island, their friends and family coming together to rescue them,
and in the process, finding love for themselves. I just hope they cast someone
good in my part..."
Belle chuckled and nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah. As long as they don't
cast Tori Spelling as me, I'll be fine."
Shawn shrugged nonchalantly. "That may not be as much of a joke as you
think. Mimi's a writer and Phillip works in publishing... Maybe they'll write a
book that will get turned into a movie."
Brady scrunched up his nose and made a disgusted face. "Oh God... Let's
hope not. It's bad enough to live through it once."
John returned from the cockpit and interrupted their conversation. "We're
going to be taking off soon, so everybody find your seat and get buckled
up."
John and the three other parents adjourned to the other side of the plane. The
four younger people stayed where they were and buckled themselves in
comfortably.
Brady pulled his seatbelt tight and sighed loudly. "Geez, I can't wait to
get home."
Belle nodded in agreement. "It's just too bad you guys didn't get a real
honeymoon..."
Chloe's eyes widened and she grinned at Belle. "Oh no, we're going to get a
real honeymoon. As soon as Brady is fully recovered and before I get too
pregnant to travel."
Belle stared at her in shock. "You are? Where to? Please don't say it's
somewhere dangerous."
"Oh no, it's the happiest place on earth. I want to go to Disneyworld."
"Disneyworld? You're going to Florida?"
Chloe nodded happily and smiled. "Uh-huh. I've never been to Disneyworld,
and I don't want to wait the five or six years it's going to take before the
baby is old enough to enjoy it."
Shawn put a hand out to pause Chloe's explanation. "Wait a minute. You've
been to Paris for the coronation, Brady took you to Italy last year, you've
visited Belle in England... But you've never been to Disneyworld?"
"No..." Chloe frowned slightly and continued, "My adopted parents
weren't big on family vacations. And by the time I came to Salem to live with
Nancy and Craig, I was too old to beg to go see Mickey Mouse."
Brady smiled and patted her knee gently. "You're going to love it, Chloe. I
have some great memories of that place."
Belle laughed out loud at her brother and then turned to Chloe. "Oh,
Chloe... I have to warn you. My brother, as you may well know, can eat like a
horse. He made us stop at every nation's area in Epcot center so he could sample
the 'international' cuisine. I have never, in my life, seen one person eat that
much."
Brady grinned proudly and nodded. "It's like a trip around the world in
just a day. A little bratwurst in Germany, taquitos in Mexico, croissants in
France, sushi in Japan and eggrolls from China."
Shawn groaned and slid down in his seat just a little. Belle laughed again and
patted Shawn's hand reassuringly. Chloe threw a glance of confusion between the
three others and raised one eyebrow. "Uhm... I feel like I'm missing
something... Why did Shawn turn pale all of a sudden?"
Belle tried to suppress her laughter long enough to explain Shawn's behavior.
"Well, that year, my parents decided it would be a good idea to invite the
Brady's along. So, Hope, Bo and Shawn came with us to Florida. Brady thought
that since Shawn was a boy, he'd be tough enough to eat everything that Brady
did... He practically force fed him everywhere we went."
Brady pouted slightly. "I did not..."
Shawn shook his head disagreeably. "Oh yes, you did. I remember it like it
was yesterday..." Shawn paused and then attempted to impersonate Brady's
voice, "Come on, Shawn... Be a man. If you want to grow up to be tall and
strong like me, you need to eat this."
Chloe looked at him with a smirk. "And you actually bought that?"
"Hey... I was eleven, and Brady was fourteen. I thought he knew everything
because he was getting ready to go in to high school that fall, and I was only
going to be in the sixth grade."
Belle grinned and squeezed Shawn's hand. "Well, Brady always thought he
knew everything too, so at least you two agreed on that."
Chloe laughed and prodded them for more information. "So, what happened?
Did you get sick?"
Belle nodded and answered on Shawn's behalf. "Oh yeah... There's this ride
in the Norway section, you sit in these little viking ships and it's kinda like
Pirates of the Caribbean. Well, near the end you go flying down this hill and
when we landed at the bottom... Shawn lost it right over the side of the
boat."
"Oh my God... How embarrassing..."
Shawn nodded and spoke with bitterness in his voice. "Uh-huh... Really
embarrassing when that's all your friends can talk about for the rest of the
summer."
Brady shrugged it off and grinned at Shawn. "Think about how embarrassing
it was for the rest of us. We had to spend the rest of the day with the kid who
smelled like vomit."
"Hey now... I felt a lot better after that and it didn't ruin the rest of
the trip. But, when you feed a kid raw fish, put him in a boat and throw him
down a hill... What do you expect?"
Belle interrupted them and grinned at Chloe. "You want to know the WORST
part? They don't even clean the water out after a kid throws up in it. That's
why they always tell you not to touch it. Kids probably puke in it all day long.
Echhhh."
Chloe wrinkled her face up in disgust. "Oh yuck... And, here I thought that
Disneyworld was also the cleanest place on earth."
"Well, maybe it was just the day we were there, but either way, I wouldn't
touch the water on the rides. Just to be safe."
"Don't worry... I won't."
Throughout the course of their conversation, the jet had left the terminal and
was now sitting on the end of the runway. Belle heard the familiar sounds of the
engines preparing for takeoff and shifted in her seat nervously. She wasn't
really a nervous flyer, it was just the takeoff and landing that seemed to get
to her. The group had stopped their conversation when the engines grew louder,
and sat in silence until the plane was in the air and had reached cruising
altitude.
Belle sighed in relief and let her head rest comfortably on Shawn's shoulder.
Brady cleared his throat to grab her attention and Belle shifted her gaze in his
direction. "Just out of curiosity, dear sister... You guys aren't planning
some surprise 'Welcome Home! Glad You're Not Dead!' party, are you?"
Belle shook her head slightly. "Nope. We are just as worn out as everyone
else, and I don't have the time or energy to plan some surprise party."
Shawn nodded in agreement. "Besides, there's no way we're going to plan a
party when we're thousands of miles away from home."
Brady smiled and pulled Chloe nearer to him. "Good, because you know how we
hate surprise parties."
Chloe frowned at him. "I don't hate surprise parties."
"Yes, I know. But, we're married now, so you should support me in
this."
Chloe laughed and shook her head. "Sure... whatever you say, honey."
Brady kissed his wife on the forehead and they cuddled up close to each other.
"Good, glad to see you agree. We've got a long flight ahead of us, I think
I'm gonna try and get some sleep."
Brady leaned his seat back and Chloe laid her head on his chest. "Sounds
like a plan..."
Shawn and Belle quietly watched them fall asleep in each other's arms. Belle
turned to him and whispered softly. "You don't think Mimi and Phillip would
throw a party, do you?"
Shawn shrugged and whispered back. "I don't know. I talked to Phillip
yesterday, he didn't mention anything."
"I hope not... I kind of want to spend every minute I have with you alone.
At least until I have to go back to London on Thursday."
Shawn smiled and quickly kissed her on the lips. "That's exactly what I had
in mind. We've got a lot of lost time to make up for."
Shawn wrapped his arms around her and she laid her head on his chest and sighed.
Belle gazed around the airplane at her friends and family, and also thought of
Phillip and Mimi back home. They were all safe, healthy and happy finally, and
she was finally back in the arms of the man she loved.