Cael smiled. “No. I got it. We’re all good. Right, Tay-tay,” he said, and she just looked at him, pain glossing over her dark green eyes.
The nurse gave Zach a questioning look, and he nodded. She had him sign a few documents on her tablet, then handed Zach the discharge papers and just like that, Taylor was his responsibility until his sister woke up.
Ifshe woke up.
“Hey,” Cael said. “Abbeywillwake up.”
It baffled Zach sometimes with how connected they were to each other, and yet there were times in which they seemed totally clueless.
Still holding Taylor with one arm, Cael slung his other arm around Zach’s shoulder.
“C’mon, Pook. You think your stubborn-ass sister will give up a lifetime of messing with you, not to mention raising her daughter? She’ll come back before you know it. After all, she’s gotta see whether she wins that bet, right?”
Zach huffed a laugh. “Yeah.” He wished he knew what the bet was about, because he’d sure as hell make sure she won it if he did.
***
Zach sat in the ICU waiting room, staring at his dad as he held Taylor. Cael had left not too long ago to get a new car seat for the little munchkin so they could take her home. Well, not home. Back to his house where she would be living for who knew how long.
Before Cael left, they’d both gone in to see his sister. Zach probably shouldn’t have though, because seeing her fragile body bruised and cut, surrounded by wires and tubes and metal rods and all sorts of electronic equipment meant to monitor her and keep her alive, had shattered him. He’d become convinced that his sister was never coming back. He’d never felt so helpless in all his life.
Zach had broken down almost immediately. He just couldn’t hold it in anymore. That’s when Cael started rubbing his back, and when Zach couldn’t handle the pain of looking at her any longer, he’d turned to Cael, not knowing what to do or what to say. But Cael knew. Cael pulled him into his arms and held him, and Zach didn’t know why, but he couldn’t think of a better place to be in that moment.
Now, everything was happening in a haze, as if he wasn’t really there, but rather an observer. His eyes, glazed and strained, wandered in a vacant stare as he tried to keep the image of Abbey’s broken body out of his mind. But he couldn’t. She’s all he could think of. Her, and the fact that her daughter might grow up without her mom, and it fucking killed him to think it. After everything Abbey had gone through to bring that beautiful little angel into this world, she’d earned the right to live and raise her daughter.
Zach glanced toward the automatic sliding doors and breathed a sigh as Cael approached from the other side. Finally. Because it felt like fucking forever since he’d left, even though it had only been about an hour.
Cael carried two brown paper bags of food in one hand, drinks in a drink-holder in the other, and what looked like a pastel pink diaper bag slung over his shoulder. Zach laughed inwardly.
Pink. Mental note: tell him how adorable he looks carrying a pink diaper bag.
Glancing to his left to make sure his dad still had Taylor, Zach pushed away from the wall and headed over to meet him. The moment the doors slid open, Cael smiled, making him smile right back. Zach had no idea how he did that, but it’s as if he couldn’t help himself.
It was that smile Cael sometimes gave him. One that no one else ever had, and it was fucking weird, because there was this part of Zach that suddenly hoped he was the only one to ever be on the receiving end of that look, because Cael was looking at him as if Zach meant everything to him.
The realization stopped Zach short. He didn’t even realize he’d stopped walking toward Cael. Zach stood there, frozen, staring at his best friend as he closed the space between them, his heart pounding a million miles a minute. He racked his brain for some level of understanding. Some explanation about what he was seeing, or more so rather, what he was feeling.
This can’t be right, can it?
“Hey,” Cael said, stopping in front of Zach. He narrowed his eyes, searching Zach’s. “You okay?”
“Um. Yeah.”
Zach let out a heavy sigh, sweeping his thoughts under a mental rug, and tossed a quick glance over his shoulder at his parents and niece.
“Well, no. But, you know, today is all sorts of fucked up, so, whatever. Need some help?” Zach asked, reaching for the cardboard drink tray. He took it from him, and they made their way toward his mom, dad, and Taylor.
“Sorry I took so long. I picked up a few extra things for Taylor and then stopped for food when I realized no one had eaten since earlier this morning. Figured everyone might be hungry and I wasn’t sure how long you guys wanted to stay.”
“No worries. I hadn’t even though about food until I saw it in your hand, though Dad had mentioned getting Mom something to eat not too long ago, so your timing is perfect, actually.”
“Good.”
“Taylor, look who’s back,” his dad crooned as Cael and Zach approached.
Taylor rested in her grandpa’s lap, perking her head up and reaching her good hand out toward her uncles, opening and closing her fist and repeatedly grabbing at the air.
“Cael,” she said with her binky still in her mouth.
