‘Yes,’ Sierra said.
‘And Nina.’ The surgeon smiled at her. ‘He said your name the moment he started coming out of anaesthetic.’
Nina slowly raised her eyes to meet the doctor’s, and what she saw there had her knees close to buckling. ‘He’s alive,’ she said even though she had clearly heard him say that Mav was coming out of anaesthesia.
‘Yes. And he’s doing great. We took a while because we had to do a full exploratory laparotomy and cardiac evaluation to assess the extent of his injuries. The bullet did some damage, but we’re confident that we found and repaired it all.’ He passed her a bag. ‘These were on him when he came in.’ The surgeon grinned. ‘Personal items I’m sure he’ll have some use for.’
‘Thank you.’ In her relief, Nina didn’t look at the bag or its contents. She threw her arms around the doctor, uncaring that she was a mess of blood and sweat and that she was blubbering all over him. ‘Thank you so much.’
He patted her on the back.
‘Can we see him?’
‘He’s in recovery now. But he should be fully awake soon. A nurse will come and get you.’
She exhaled in relief. ‘Thank you,’ she repeated.
The surgeon grinned. ‘My pleasure.’ He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. ‘This is so unprofessional, but do you think I could get an autograph?’
Nina laughed for the first time in what seemed like forever. Tears streamed freely down her face, and she didn’t even bother swiping them. ‘You just spent six hours saving my world. Yes. Of course. Anything.’
He passed her a blank piece of paper and a pen, and after a glance at his name tag, Nina wrote:
Dear Doctor Bently,
Thank you for saving my heart!
Love,
Nina Keller
He smiled when he read it. ‘This is awesome. Thank you.’
‘Thankyou,’ Nina said sincerely.
‘The nurse will be with you shortly,’ he reminded her. And then he left.
Nina spun around. Every single one of them was crying, even Poppy, who had just woken up and wasn’t even sure what was going on, and Juan, who had never even met Mav before. None of them spoke; they just met in a huge group hug.
Nina knew that they had all been listening as intently as she had to the surgeon, but she said, ‘He’s alive. He’s going to be okay.’ And because she needed to hear the words aloud again, she repeated, ‘He’s going to be okay.’
When she broke away from the group, Benji was frowning down at the bag in her hand. Nina’s gaze began to drop, but before she could look at what he had been staring at, he snatched the bag from her, ‘Ah, I’ll hold on to this!’
‘… Sure. Thanks, Benji.’ When he crossed his arms, hiding the plastic bag, Nina frowned. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yup.’
Sierra snort-laughed, and when Nina glanced at her, she only shrugged.
‘What did I miss?’ Nina asked.
‘Nothing,’ they replied at the same time.
‘Guys—’
Nina’s attempt to pry it out of them fell flat the moment she saw the nurse approaching. She hurried over to her. ‘He’s awake?’
‘Yes.’ The nurse smiled. ‘We can take you two at a time, but only for a few minutes each.’
