Levi's POV

Nine agonizing hours! That is how long I waited to see if fate would be on our side.

The day Charlotte went in for life-saving surgery, was one of the worst and best days of my life.

Her agreeing to my marriage proposal the night before should have been a more blissful moment, but the unknown was looming over our heads threatening to take away the only thing that mattered...Life!

To some people, Nine hours is a relatively short amount of time, but for me, it was eternity. Waiting in that cold hospital room to find out if the love of my life was going to survive was more harrowing than suffering through the last year learning how to walk again.

Charlotte's parents stayed and waited with me. Neither I nor them brought any comfort to the situation. They were just as anxious as I was; her father periodically glancing over at me with his disapproval.

I'm sure there were a few reasons for the disappointed looks he gave me. The first was that my left leg was giving me uncontrollable painful spasms, brought on by a mix of anxiety, fatigue, and lack of therapy. I couldn't decide if I wanted my leg brace on or off, or if massaging my muscles verses walking around would help resolve the pain, so I tried it all. Charlotte's father probably wondering why his daughter is in love with someone like me. My legs may not always work, but that doesn't mean I can't take care of their daughter.

Then there is the fact that they heard me call Charlotte my fiancé just before she was escorted to the operating room. We didn't have a chance to tell her parents that we will be getting married. Customarily, I would've gotten her father's blessing first, but our circumstances were special and I doubt he's ready to give me his approval.

Her mom keeps nudging his shoulder when I catch him staring. I know he has questions for me, but now isn't the right time to ask them. Maybe her father thinks I'm a terrible person for not being here for his daughter during the past month. Did Charlotte tell them she hid this from me? Just thinking about it causes me more anxiety than I can handle.

I lower my head down in shame when Charlotte's mother decides to look at me too. "I didn't know she had a brain tumor," I solemnly say.

"We know Levi, we only found out a few weeks ago. Charlotte is very independent and strong willed, she doesn't like to be the one in need," her mum says to me. She then wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug.

"She's been through this before, we didn't think it would happen again," she sobs.

"What do you mean she's been through this before? She's had a brain tumor before?" She nods, now I'm anxious and totally confused.

"When?"

"When she was 16. She had a seizure while driving. Her younger sister was in the car with her. They got into an accident and that's how we found out she had a tumor," She blots her eyes with a tissue.

Bloody hell! That's how her sister became paralyzed. That's why Charlotte blames herself and makes it her life's mission to try and heal people with spinal cord injuries.

When she survives this surgery I'm going to make it my mission to help her realize that accident wasn't her fault. We're going to tell each other everything. No more secrets, no more regrets. We will take care of each other no matter what.

There were many more things I knew they wanted to say to me and so many more questions I wanted to ask that day, but we had a silent understanding that we wanted to wait for Charlotte.

Listening to her mother sobbing every so often and watching her father pace around the room, I needed to get out of there. My phone vibrated in my pocket non-stop, I knew it was either my mum or Landon trying to get ahold of me. Landon was concerned for Charlotte too, so I grabbed my crutch and hobbled out of the room to go outside and give Landon a call.

The fresh air brought a slight sense of relief. I sat outside on a bench near the hospital entrance for more than an hour talking with Landon.

"How is she Mate? How are you? What's the doctor saying so far?" Landon blurted out question after question as soon as I dialed him.

"I don't know. It's been hours and still no word! This is killing me!" I told him.

Landon stayed on the phone with me trying to calm me down even though he felt like panicking as much as I did. I told him about yesterday and how Charlotte was happy to see me when I got here.

" I asked her to marry me and she said yes!"

"No freaking way! That's great!" Landon shrieked through the phone.

He acknowledged my silence and tried to lighten my mood. "Don't worry too much, Charlotte is strong, she's a fighter! Just think of everything she was able to do in the last three months while also going through radiation treatments! This surgery is like a walk in the park for her," Landon reminded me.

" I know, I can't believe she went through all that alone," I sighed heavily into the phone.

"Listen Mate, don't keep beating yourself up about that, there is nothing you can do about it now, so just focus on today and the future. Now get back inside and text me as soon as you hear any news," Landon encouraged me before hanging up.

The next few hours I spent drinking more than my fair share of coffee. I tried to eat but I couldn't stomach anything. I was a train wreck, alternating from pacing the hallways to limping around the waiting room.

Just as the clock on the wall struck 4:00 pm, the surgeon walked in. The three of us unknowingly huddled close to each other; anxiety spread across our features while we impatiently waited for the doctor to speak.

"The surgery went great! I removed the whole tumor, Charlotte will be just fine!"

Charlotte's mum lunged forward, flinging her arms around the doctor's neck, while crying and thanking him. Her father shook the doctor's hand, while I just stood there like a statue in shock. Charlotte's mum released her grip on the doctor and then grasped tightly onto my shoulder. It was only when she whispered, "Levi, Charlotte made it! She's okay!" that caused me to snap out of my frozen state and thank the doctor as well.

"Does Charlotte know that you got the whole tumor?" I asked the doc.

"Not yet, she isn't fully awake yet."

"May I tell her?" I asked him.

Charlotte's parents offered to wait so that I could go see her in the recovery room.

Her beautiful fragile body lay perfectly still on the bed. A bandage wrapped around her head, an oxygen mask attached over her mouth. I felt a tear slide down my cheek as I approached her.

I gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead and whispered into her ear, "You made it my Love! It's my turn to tell you how proud I am of you!"

I sat in the chair next to her bed and held her hand waiting for her to wake up. I spoke softly to her, telling her how much I love her.

Thirty minutes went by before her eyes started flickering and she moved her free hand up to grab the oxygen mask.

I helped her remove the mask from her face and she opened her eyes and smiled when she realized it was me with her.

"Hey," she managed to say then tried to clear her voice.

I helped her take a small sip of water and waited for her to wake fully before saying anything.

She squeezed my hand and spoke first. "Did they get the tumor?"

"Yes! They got it all! You are tumor free!" I smiled at her. I'm still not sure what causes her to have these tumors or if it will ever come back again. I'll need to find out more, get the real story from her when she recovers enough to tell me.

She raised her arms up towards me and said, "Come here."

I moved close to her and she pulled me into a hug.  That was the moment I let go of my fear, embraced her and cried.

"I'm sorry I worried you all day, I'll make sure we don't go through this again," she chuckled. I'll make sure of that too now that I know this happened once before.

I pulled away so I could see her beautiful hazel eyes and cupped her face so I could kiss her.

When she stopped kissing me to catch her breath she asked, "How are my parents? We still have to tell them we're getting married."

This time I chuckled, "Yes we do! but we have a few more minutes," I laughed while kissing her again. She needs to rest now. She just had major surgery and won't be feeling very well when the anesthesia and pain meds wear off.