“No fun,” Bo lamented. He snagged Aaron’s surgical gown and held it. “I wanna go home.”
“We’re going to be home before you know it,” Aaron promised. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Gage, frozen, likely afraid to interrupt the moment. “And once we do go home, it’s going to be me, and you, and your dad, and we’ll all have fun watching whatever you want to watch. Maybe we’ll even let you stay up past your bedtime… but just once.”
Bo’s eyes brightened. He smiled, and Aaron fell in love all over again. When he’d first met Bo, he’d only seen Gage—from his blue eyes to his golden hair to the shy manner in which he conducted himself. But in his smile, Aaron saw his mirror image.
“Really?” Bo asked. His smile persisted. “Really really?”
“Really really,” Aaron promised. He sneaked a look at Gage. “As long as it’s okay with your dad.”
“I’ll think about it,” Gage said, but he was already smiling. “If you’re a good boy for our friends, the doctors, then you can stay up past your bedtime.”
“Wow!” Bo grinned.
There was a feeling in the air—a kind of spark that Aaron usually associated with Gage—that took him by surprise. He reached for Gage’s hand, seized by the feeling, and was thrilled when Gage wove their fingers together and squeezed. It was love, Aaron realized. Not the kind he reserved for Gage as his partner, which was nuanced by sexuality and complicated by the history they shared, but a pure, sweeping kind of love that filled in every one of Aaron’s cracks and smoothed over the roughness in his soul.
It was love for his family—a love that would soon grow to include the new life inside of Gage.
“We’re ready to begin,” the anesthesiologist told them as she approached the operating table. “Are you ready?”
The question was directed at Aaron and Gage, but it was Bo who answered. He made a frantic, nervous wheezing noise and dropped his hand from Aaron’s robe, curling in on himself in terror.
“Hey, hey now,” Aaron said softly. He reached for Bo and took his hand, and was floored when Bo clutched onto him. “It’s going to be okay. The doctors are our friends, just like your dad said. We’re going to be here with you. Your dad and I aren’t going anywhere.”
“And we’re going to be right there when you wake up, too,” Gage promised, taking Bo’s other hand in his own. The backup was appreciated. Aaron glanced at him, affection stirring in his heart. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’ve got you, baby boy.”
Bo settled, although tension still kept his shoulders stiff and his body rigid. Gage nodded at the anesthesiologist, who stepped forward and introduced the sedative to Bo’s IV. Most times, the surgeon had explained when they’d come in for a rundown of the procedure, children were induced through gas introduced to the lungs. With Bo’s condition, it would be nowhere near as effective, and their safest choice was to sedate through his IV.
“You want to know the funnest part about this procedure is?” the anesthesiologist asked as she depressed the fluid into the line.
Bo nodded slowly. He blinked, taking longer than he should have to open his eyes again.
“The funnest part is that you get to sleep through it, and then afterward, your parents give you lots and lots of cuddles.”
“Cuddles,” Bo mumbled. His syllables blurred one into the next.
“What are your favorite animals, Bo?” the anesthesiologist asked. The stopper had reached the bottom of the syringe, and she took her hand away.
“Lions,” Bo declared, fighting his sedation just enough to say the word forcefully. “I eat lions… with Dad.”
His eyelids drooped, then closed. The tension in his body released.
Aaron glanced in Gage’s direction to find there were tears in his eyes. It didn’t surprise him—Gage wasn’t the only one who was misty-eyed.
They left the operating room together and went to wait on uncomfortable plastic chairs in the hall beyond the door.
Lions.
Aaron would remember.
One day soon, he’d eat lions together with Bo, too.
* * *
Static pulledat the back of Aaron’s shirt. He shifted his weight on the uncomfortable plastic chair he’d settled on, and the metal frame shocked him. Gage, who’d rested his head on Aaron’s shoulder, jolted upright.
“It’s okay, BP,” Aaron said. His hand found Gage’s, and he squeezed. “It was just the chair.”
“Mm.” Gage rubbed the sleep from his eyes with his free hand and turned his weary gaze on Aaron. “How much longer do you think it’s going to be? My body keeps trying to fall asleep, but my head is too anxious. I keep having these waking nightmares…” He sighed. “Do you think Bo is okay?”
