“How about this afternoon?”
“Can we bring her lunch?”
“Let’s see how she’s doing first.”
While he played with his toys and the cats, I slept on and off on the sofa. My sleep deepened, dropping me into a nightmare in which I couldn’t save Jacy. I wept as her blood and her life gushed out from under my hands.No! Jacy, no! Stay with me, don’t leave us –
“Dad!”
I woke abruptly, covered in sweat, blinking as Declan shook my shoulder. “What?”
His lower lip quivered. “You were crying in your sleep.”
Upon wiping my face, I discovered it was wet with my tears. “Sorry.”
He crawled onto the sofa with me, his small face crumpled. “I want Mom.”
Lying on my chest, he burst into a fit of crying. I held him, trying to find words of comfort when my own terrors of losing Jacy still wracked my soul. I smoothed his tangled hair, unable to say much beyondit’ll be all right.
I sat up with Declan in my arms. Grabbing a tissue from the table, I wiped his face, held it so he could blow his nose. “How about we get ice cream?” I suggested. “On our way to see Mom.”
“I don’t wanna.”
“Well, I do. Come on, time to get out of your jammies. Go upstairs and get dressed.”
While he stomped his way to his room, I stared out the kitchen window at the sunlight melting the snow from the previous night’s storm. The nightmare clung to me like a heavy spider web, nor could I shake free of its grip. Was it a premonition that Jacy had died while I slept?No, the hospital would have called.
I still couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom as I drove the miles to the city hospital.
Holding Declan’s hand, I strode through the sliding doors and crossed the lobby to the elevators. Declan gazed around at the hospital staff in wonder with a few nurses smiling at him.What an adorable little boyI heard murmured around us. If Declan heard the compliments, he gave no hint of it.
I glanced toward unit C as we walked to the ICU nurses’ station. A different nurse glanced up in askance.
“Jacy Maxwell?”
“Oh. You’re too late.”
My heart thudded in my chest.No, no, no, no.“Um.”
“She’s been transferred to a regular room on the second floor.”
My head spun sickeningly. “Do you know what room?”
“No, but you can ask there.”
“Um, thanks.” I managed a crooked smile while my knees wobbled.She’s not dead, not dead, not dead.
“Where’s Mom?” Declan asked, his voice rising as we headed back down the corridor. “Is she okay?”
I punched the elevator button. “She must be getting better if they moved her, little man.”
We not just found Jacy on the second floor, we found her awake. The oxygen mask was gone, as were the tubes going into her chest. She wore a hospital johnny under the light blanket, and only a single needle buried under her skin led a slim tube to a bag hanging nearby.
“Mom!”
Jacy’s green eyes lit up in instant love. “Baby.”
I grabbed his arm before he could leap onto her bed. “Easy, easy. She’s fragile. Just give her a careful hug.”
