Daniel arrived ten minutes after Evelyn called him.
He didn’t ask questions on the phone.
She had said Leon and hospital and he had said I’m coming and that was the whole conversation.
He found her in the corridor outside the emergency unit sitting in one of the chairs with her back straight and her hands folded in her lap and her eyes fixed on the doors they had taken Leon through.
He sat beside her without a word.
Then he put his arms around her.
She leaned into him.
“Hey,” he said quietly.
The word alone almost broke her.
She closed her eyes”It’s my fault,” she said.
“Evelyn-”
”It is.
I knew the review was delayed.
I should have pushed harder.
I should have taken him in yesterday and I didn’t because there were meetings and other things happening and I told myself one more day.” Her voice was steady and flat and that was somehow worse than if it had been shaking.
“One more day and he was on the kitchen floor.”
”Stop,” Daniel said gently.
“I’m telling you what happened.”
”I know.”
”I chose wrong.”
”You didn’t know this would happen.”
”That’s my job though, isn’t it?” She looked at the floor.
“Knowing what’s coming.
Being ahead of it.
You weren’t here to see.”
”No.” Daniel replied.
“He couldn’t breathe, Daniel.”
Her eyes filled again.
“He looked scared.”
Daniel didn’t argue.
She exhaled slowly and sat with her head against his shoulder and looked at the doors and breathed.
“He’ll be okay,” Daniel said.
“He has to be.”
”He will be.”
She was quiet for a moment.
Then,”Thank you for coming.”
”You don’t thank me for that,” he said simply.
Aidan arrived twenty minutes later, he got a call from his intel here and he was told Leon was brought in again.
“Eve,” Aidan said, out of breath.
She looked up and there he was — coat still on, His eyes found her immediately across the corridor.
She opened her mouth.
Whatever she had been about to say, some version of why are you here or you shouldn’t have come or any of the things she usually had ready– didn’t arrive.
She was too tired.
The words were there but the energy to deliver them wasn’t.
She closed her mouth.
Aidan looked at Daniel.
Daniel looked at Aidan.
Nobody said anything.
Aidan sat down on the row of chairs across from them.
He put his elbows on his knees and looked at the floor and said nothing.
After a while Daniel stood up.
“I’m going to get food,” he said to Evelyn.
“For you and for Leon when he’s stable.” He touched her shoulder briefly.
“I’ll be back.”
Then Aidan moved across the corridor and sat beside her.
She looked at him.
Aidan was about to speak but Evelyn cut him off.
“How did you know?” she said.
He opened his mouth.
She watched him consider his answer.
She watched him decide against the easier one.
“I have someone here,” he said.
“Someone who keeps me informed when —” He paused.
“When things like this would happen.”
She stared at him.
“Of course you do,” she said.
“I-”
”That’s-” She shook her head once.
“That’s very you.”
She looked at him for a moment.
Something moved across her face, then she turned to the wall.
She looked at the pale hospital wall and the tears came.
They just arrived the way things arrived when you had been holding something too tightly for too long and you finally give out.
Aidan took her hand.
“It’s going to be okay, Eve.”
She didn’t pull away.
She didn’t say anything.
She just sat with her hand in his and her eyes on the floor and let the tears run their course without wiping them too quickly.
Evelyn breathed.
Aidan held her hand and didn’t say anything else because he had finally learned that sometimes saying nothing was the right answer.
Dr.
Moreau came through the doors immediately, and Evelyn was on her feet before he reached her.
“He’s stable,” Dr.
Moreau said immediately.
“He responded well.
You’ll be able to see him in about thirty minutes.”
Evelyn exhaled.
“Okay.
That’s okay.
As long as he’s okay.”
”He’s okay.” Dr.
Moreau looked at her steadily.
“We’ll talk properly when you’ve seen him.
There are things I need to discuss about his ongoing care.”
”Of course.”
Dr.
Moreau’s gaze moved briefly to Aidan standing beside her.
Then to their hands.
Then back to Aidan.
“You’re Leon’s father?”
Everything froze.
Evelyn answered immediately.
“No.”
The word came too fast.
Too instinctive.
“No,” she said.
“He’s not.
He’s a…
he’s just here.”
”I apologise,” Dr.
Moreau said.
“I shouldn’t have assumed.”
”It’s fine,” she said.
“Thank you, Doctor.”
Dr.
Moreau nodded and went back through the doors.
Evelyn didn’t look at Aidan.
She looked at the floor.
Aidan stood beside her and said nothing.
Daniel came back two minutes later.
He appeared at the end of the corridor carrying a paper bag and two coffees and he looked at Evelyn first the way he always did — checking, assessing, making sure.
Then his eyes moved to Aidan standing beside her.
He took it in.
He didn’t stop walking.
He didn’t change his expression.
“Leon’s stable,” Evelyn said immediately when he reached her.
She moved toward him as she said it — one step, then another, closing the distance between them.
“Dr.
Moreau says thirty minutes and we can see him.”
”Good.” Daniel handed her a coffee.
His eyes were on her face.
“That’s good.” The paper bags crinkled softly in his hands.
Then awkwardness settled over the three of them.
Nobody knew what to say.
“Thank you for the food.”
”Of course.”
She reached for his hand.
Her fingers sliding through his.
A simple gesture.
Daniel looked at her, his shoulders relaxed.
His thumb moved over her knuckles once.
She didn’t look at Aidan.
She knew without looking that he was still there.
She could feel the specific weight of his presence the way she had always been able to feel it.
She kept her eyes on Daniel.
Aidan’s eyes dropped briefly to their joined hands and shoved his hands into his pockets.
She heard him exhale once, quietly.
Then heard his footsteps move away down the corridor
She didn’t watch him go.
But she felt it.
She felt the exact moment he turned but she held Daniel’s hand and drank her coffee.
Only thing on her mind right now was for thirty minutes to pass so she could see her son.