Chapter Twenty Three – Evan

I’m all over the place as me and Katy wait for the doctor to finally join us in Liam’s room again. She’s had a blood test and now we’re just waiting for the results to come back from the lab with the go ahead that we can finally do this. I just keep shooting her loving looks, wondering what I did to get so lucky. How did I deserve for someone so amazing to come into my life? I can’t help but wonder if Katy is the answer to all the please I sent to Victoria and God being answered.

“So, tell me more about this meeting,” I ask her quietly. “Since there’s nothing else we can do at the moment until the results come back, you might as well tell me what happened.” I don’t know how much I care at the moment, but I do need something else to talk about. I need something to occupy my brain before I go utterly mad. “Were they horrified that I wasn’t there?”

“I don’t think that they were happy,” Katy admits with a weak smile. “But once I explained the circumstances they came back around and let me represent you alone.”

“You told them?” I gulp back the thick ball of emotion that lodges in my throat at the idea of a load of stiffs in suits knowing my business, but Katy didn’t have any choice, did she? She had to tell them the truth just to get them to hear her out. “How did they take it? What did they say?”

“They understood.” She shrugs at me. “What were you supposed to do? I think even the heartless bankers have family so there must be a little bit of them that gets that we all have a life outside of work, and that sometimes we don’t have any choice. That has to come first.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I murmur, not entirely convinced that they understood. I’m sure they probably would have just left their children in the hands of the doctors, but that hardly matters. I don’t exactly regret my choice. I’m right where I need to be. “So, how did it go?”

“Well they love the plans.” Her eyes flash with excitement. “They were really keen once I made them fully get how the restructure will turn you into a profitable organization. Once I showed them all the monetary projections they agreed. Well, I mean they made some firm suggestions of their own as I’m sure you’d expect, but yes we sorted it out. It’s all good. You have some time anyway, and that’s the main thing you needed, isn’t it? Time to get yourself organized.”

My heart swells with pride and also something that feels suspiciously like love. Katy has saved my business, she’s brought it back from the brink of despair. Of course, there’s still a lot of hard work to be done, I’m not turning my back on that, but I have hope now. I have a chance.

And not only that. Now Katy is about to save my son as well. She truly is perfect.

“Thank you for that,” I tell her sincerely. “It means so much to me that you would step up and do that for me. I know you didn’t have to, you could have rescheduled…”

“Oh well I didn’t think that you’d be in the right frame of mind for it any time soon so I assumed that I was better just getting in there and doing what I can… I hope I’ve done well for you.”

As she peers up at me under her eyelashes all I want to do is cup my hands around her cheeks. I want to kiss her hard and never stop. I can even feel my body leaning in to make that move for me, despite the fact that it’s probably a little crazy to kiss her in the middle of the hospital in this very tense situation, but before I get the chance to actually connect with her, the door swings open and the doctor reenters the room. Relief floods me as she breaks the magic of the moment. It’s probably a good thing that we didn’t kiss just then, it could have really complicated all of this.

“The blood tests have come back okay,” the doctor tells us both gravely. “I rushed them through so we can get the results quickly, so now we need to get things moving if that’s fine with you, Miss Atwater?” I hold my breath, but I don’t really need to because Katy nods without hesitation. “Perfect. Okay, I shall take you down to the surgery room now and get you prepped, then someone will be up to wheel Liam down. The faster we get moving, the better right now.”

Just before Katy goes along with the doctor, I take her hand in mine and I squeeze it tight. A million thoughts race through my brain as our skin connects and I hope at least some of it goes through to Katy. I want her to know how much she means to me, I want her to know how grateful I am to her, I want her to know that right now I could easily fall head over heels for her…

But before I can really communicate any of that effectively, the doctors swiftly moves from the room and Katy is gone too. It’s just me and Liam left, waiting for the biggest moment of his life so far. I turn to see his fragile little body lying in the bed, with a prayer filling my heart.

“You’re going to be okay,” I tell him softly. “Katy is going to look after you, okay? We’re going to have to say a big thank you to her once all of this is over. She’s been amazing.”

This time as tears fall down my face, they’re filled with utter hope. This might not be as bad as before, we might have a chance this time. I just need to keep on hoping and wishing…

***

I don’t know how much time passes, it could be one hour, it could be twenty, my brain is all over the place while I wait for the results. Two people who hold the utmost importance in my heart are both in surgery and I have absolutely no control over what’s happening. I’m standing out in the hospital hallway feeling utterly useless. I hate it, I want to be doing something to help, I wish they would even let me watch so I feel more involved in what’s going on, but instead I’m stuck out here with no one to talk to and no information whatsoever. I feel like I might explode.

Every single time a doctor walks past me, my heart leaps up into my throat, then sinks when I notice that they aren’t here for me. They must all be able to see it, the way my shoulders hunch up around my ears, then come crashing back down when they don’t want me at all. But I suppose they’re used to this. Frantic family members are what they deal with all day and night long.

I move over to the water machine and grab a tepid glass of liquid in one of those horrible, tiny plastic cups. I don’t even want it really, but I need something to hold in my hands, I need something to do. Plus, I suppose my mouth and throat is dry with terror, so it’ll only help…

“Mr. Debroils?” As a grave voice calls out to me I almost leap into the air in shock. Trust it to be the one second that I’m not looking for a doctor, one comes to find me. “Can you come with me?”

I can glean anything from his voice, or his facial expression which scares me. I don’t know if he’d give me more of a clue if it was bad news or if he wouldn’t want me to break down in front of all these people. Either way my hand shakes so much that the water I’ve just poured into the cup spills over the side and slashes to the ground. The doctor sees this, but does nothing about it.

“Yes,” I whisper while staring at my shoes. “Where are we going?”

She doesn’t give me an answer, she simply turns on her heels and walks off. I follow her in a direction I don’t recognize. It’s a part of the hospital that I don’t think I’ve ever been in before. That freaks me out even more. What if there’s a specific room that’s set up to give bad news in? One with padded walls and tissue boxes everywhere so people call fall apart in private? What if that’s where I’m headed right now? I don’t think I’ll be able to come back from this, this will kill me…

“Your son is in here.” As soon as Liam is mentioned I feel all strange again. I got so wrapped up in the idea that I needed to expect the worst that I almost forgot this could be good news. “He’s coming around now, the transfusion was a success. It might take him a whole to come back around fully, but right now his prospects are good. I would expect a full recovery very soon…”

“He’s okay?” I gush in shock as emotions bulldoze through me. “He’s actually alright? The transfusion worked?” I can’t seem to rap my head around the good news, it’s almost all too much.

“He’s okay.” She pushes the door open. “You can go and see him for yourself right now, but like I said he might seem a bit woozy for a while so don’t expect too much from him…”

I don’t even wait for her to finish talking to me, I push past her and race into the room. Liam looks so much better already, he’s no longer hooked up to millions of machines and he’s much less pale. It’s as if the new blood in his body has caused his pinky color to return. As I take the chair next to him and I grab his tiny hand, relief washes over me as he’s much warmer to the touch now. He feels so much more alive which is incredible. I’m overwhelmed by the idea that my baby is alright.

“Oh my goodness, Liam,” I tell him, my voice thick with emotion. “You have no idea how worried you had me. No idea at all. I’m so glad that you’re okay. It’s just…” I sob a couple of times. “It’s amazing. I’m so lucky.” I notice his eye lids flutter which silences me for just a second, but soon I find some more words that need to be said. “I love you, Liam, so damn much.”

“Dad?” he whispers, but I can tell by the rasp in his voice that every word hurts.

“I’m here, son, don’t you worry.” I clutch his hand to my chest feeling a swell of love as I do. “I’m here for you and I’m not going anywhere. You’re doing so much better now. The doctor says that you’re going to be just fine.”

“N… N…” he struggles to get the next word out, so I lean closer to him, offering him my ear so I can hear him better. The last thing I want to do is make him strain himself. “Nanc…”

“Oh, Nancy!” It hits me what he’s trying to say. Of course, he’s worried about Nancy. She was in the car with him when it happened. “Nancy is actually fine, thanks to the air bag. She had some minor injuries, but she went home to rest a few hours ago. She’s going to be just fine. Katy is here though.” I see a flicker or recognition in his eyes which means he at least remembers Katy. “She helped you to get better, so we’ll have to check on her soon. See if she’s okay.”

As I hold my baby close to me, I am utterly grateful to her for the gift that she’s given me. She’s helped my son and given me a second chance with him. This time, I will not screw it up if it’s the last thing I do.