Apparently realizing Megs wasn’t interested in people’s private lives, Rose changed tack. “How is Mitch? When are we going to see him? I brought sage and my eagle feather to hold a healing ceremony for him.”
Megs shared a glance with Rain. “He can’t have visitors in the ICU.”
That wasn’t true, but Megs didn’t want Rose anywhere near Mitch. Though Rose meant well, she didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut. She would share every detail of what she saw with anyone who asked—and anyone who didn’t.
Mitch deserved better than that.
Sasha asked the question Megs hadn’t answered. “How is he?”
“He’s making steady progress. He squeezes my hand when I ask him to. He follows me with his gaze, and, yesterday, he smiled.”
Sasha’s face lit up with hope. “He smiled?”
“Oh, Megs!” Rain raised her hands to her face, and for a moment, she looked like she might cry. “Thank God!”
“They’re going to start weaning him off the ventilator soon, possibly even this afternoon. They say he’s recovering rapidly—more quickly than they had anticipated. That’s a good sign.”
“Do you think he’ll ever be the Mitch we love again?” Rose’s question, asked in an innocent voice, hit Megs hard.
“Rose!” Rain glared at her.
Megs’ temper sparked hot. “He’ll always be the MitchIlove no matter what.”
“Yes, of course, he will.” Rose squeezed Megs’ hand.
Sasha’s eyes narrowed. “He’s like a father to me. Nothing can change that.”
“He would be touched to hear you say that, sweetie.” Megs glanced at her watch, got to her feet. “I need to get back upstairs. I want to be there when they start weaning him off the ventilator.”
Megs thanked them for coming and said her goodbyes. She hadn’t yet reached ICU when her phone buzzed with a text from Rain.
I’m so sorry, Megs. I won’t bring her again.
Megs replied.
It’s not your fault. Thanks for lunch. It was good to see you and Sasha.
Back in the ICU, she found Mitch awake, earbuds in his ears. She removed them, turned off the recorder, her heart swelling to see him looking straight at her. She took his hand. “Rain was just here with Sasha and Rose. Sasha said you’re like a father to her. I told her you’d be touched to hear that.”
She brought him up to date on the news, stopping when Debby appeared.
“Okay, it’s time. I’m going to set the ventilator for a spontaneous breathing trial—what we call an SBT. The machine will still give him oxygen, but it will stop breathing for him. He’ll have to initiate breaths himself.”
“What happens if he doesn’t?”
“I don’t think that will be the case, but if it is, an alarm will go off, warning us, and we would cancel the trial and put him back on his previous settings.” The monitor beeped as Debby programmed it. “The machine will collect a lot of data that the doctor can use to decide what happens next. Here we go.”
A series of beeps and then…
Debby watched the monitor for a moment and then smiled. “For now, he’s breathing on his own.”
Megs stood beside him, watched his chest rise and fall, her hands wrapped so tightly around his bedrail that her knuckles turned white. “You’re doing it, Mitch. You’re breathing.”
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Debby came in to check his progress. “You know, you should breathe, too.”
