"On my way."
He hung up.
I sat down on the floor of the family lounge.
I sat with my back against the wall, knees drawn up, arms wrapped around them, the phone still in my hand. The lounge was empty.
I waited.
They came through the door at the same time.
Dr. Reyes came through one door. Beau came through the other. They were not, in fairness, a coordinated arrival, but the timing was perfect.
Dr. Reyes saw me. He crouched at the wall — slow, careful, getting his face level with mine.
"Sabrina."
"Yeah?"
"Bonnie is stable. She is alert, and is asking for you, but I want to keep her on the monitor for a few more minutes."
"Okay."
"I have an update on her markers."
I closed my eyes.
The markers had been something the cardiologist had been writing letters about. The markers were the reason Bonnie was on the ambulance instead of the kitchen floor.
"Tell me."
"They have moved. The wall thickness is at a value I'm going to call clinically significant. The exercise intolerance has worsened. Tonight's episode crosses a threshold I've been telling you we didn't want to cross. I'm not comfortable with the spring window any longer, Sabrina. I'm going to push for surgical acceleration. I'm going to push hard. I want her in for the procedure within four to six weeks."
I didn't move.
Beau was standing in the doorway. His coat was still on. His eyes were on me.
Dr. Reyes put his hand on my forearm. "I'm going to make the calls tonight."
"Thank you."
"I'll come back when she is ready for you." He stood and went.
Beau came across the lounge.
He sat down on the floor beside me, back against the wall, his shoulder touching mine. He pulled me into him and didn’t let go.
I broke.
I cried the kind of cry I hadn't let myself cry in years.
I cried until my sleeve was wet. I cried into the front of his coat. He had one hand at the back of my head and the other at my shoulder, and he was holding me up because I had stopped, in my head, doing the holding-myself-up thing.
When the cry slowed — when the air came in regular instead of in pulls — he asked me what the doctor had said in details. His voice was at the top of my head.
I told him, and he listened.
He didn't move.
