Sixty seconds into his research, he regretted looking it up at all. So many things could go wrong. He knew better than to go down the Web M.D. rabbit hole. He always advised people against doing exactly what he’d just done. He put his phone back in his pocket and sat quietly as Dr. Davies finished going over how he saw her path to recovery over the next weeks and months.
A page came in, and Dr. Davies stood to leave but paused at Taylor’s bedside and squeezed her hand again. “I’m here if you need anything; just have someone page me.” He looked at Owen and then back at Taylor. “And you have my cell if I’m not on duty.”
Caleb didn’t miss the glare Dr. Davies shot his way as he left. He seemed very territorial over Taylor and Owen. Caleb didn’t like it. Two beeps sounding like texts echoed in the room. One was coming from Owen’s backpack. Caleb wasn’t sure where the other was coming from.
Taylor lifted her head and looked at Caleb. “Where’s my phone?”
“I don’t know.”
Caleb handed Owen his backpack and got up to look for Taylor’s phone. There were only a few places it could be in the 10×10-foot room. After a short scavenger hunt, he discovered her purse in the lower cabinet in the corner. He pulled it out andreached in to retrieve her phone and hand it to her. As he did, he saw that there was a notification about Owen’s blood sugar.
“I’m gonna go to the vending machine.” Owen hopped off the bed and headed out of the room.
“Is he okay by himself?” Caleb asked.
Taylor nodded, and Caleb saw that she had unshed tears in her eyes. When one slid down her cheek, his heart shattered. He didn’t know if the tear was because she was in pain, ill, or upset about being in the hospital. If he had to guess, he would say probably all of the above.
He pulled the chair up to her bedside and lowered down into it. Without thinking about it, he lifted his hand and wiped the moisture off her cheek with the back of his hand. When he did, she leaned into his touch, and he felt just how hot her skin was. Her fever must still be fairly high.
“I know you don’t want to be here. I know you’re worried about Owen, but I’ve got him. I can grab Minnie and stay at your place, or I can pick up Casper and his stuff, and they can stay with me.”
Her bottom lip quivered as she inhaled a shaky breath.
“All you need to do is rest. Just rest and get better. I’ll take care of Owen.” He saw fear in her eyes. “Unless you’d rather him stay with someone else.”
She shook her head back and forth, and he realized that she was just scared because of her situation and not because he was the person Owen was staying with.
Before he could follow up any further. Owen returned, clutching a bag of M&Ms and cradling a Sprite. He paused in the doorway when he saw his mom was upset, and his gaze shot to Caleb and then back to his mom. Caleb stood and moved back to the chair in the corner so Owen could sit next to the bed. The two of them talked as Owen ate his M&Ms and drank his Sprite. Caleb focused on his phone to give them a modicum of privacy.
A half an hour later, a nurse Caleb hadn’t seen entered, this one in lavender scrubs and an impeccable bun. She knocked lightly on the door, even though it was open. “Ms. Taylor, we’re going to get you transferred to the ICU now. Do you need anything before we take you up?”
Taylor shook her head, and Caleb was relieved she appeared to be resigned to her fate.
“You guys go. It’s late,” she said to Caleb.
“Are you sure?” Caleb asked as he stood.
“Visiting hours are over, so it would be pointless to come up,” the nurse pointed out.
Caleb thought about Good Will Hunting, about the scene on the bench where Robin Williams says that he spent two months sleeping in the hospital room with his wife because the nurses could see that the terms “visiting hours” didn’t apply to him. He’d gone to see that movie with Taylor, and now as he looked down at Taylor in the bed, she looked so small and so fragile, and he didn’t want to leave her. If he didn’t have Owen, he would have stayed. There is no way he’d be going home tonight.
The nurse set about unhooking monitors and prepping the IV pole for travel, working with the quiet efficiency of someone who had done this a thousand times before.
“You got this, Mom.” Owen leaned down, hugged Taylor, then stood back up. “Just remember, it’ll be fine...”
She smiled, and they both said in unison, “…or it won’t.”
Clearly they had an inside joke, one that had put a little color back in Taylor’s cheeks.
Owen grabbed his backpack, and before they left the exam room, Caleb asked, “Do you have your inhaler?”
He’d noticed Owen take it out when he pulled out his phone earlier.
Owen looked in the front pocket, then spun on his heels and went back and grabbed it off the cubby in the corner. Caleb liftedhis hand to say goodbye to Taylor. He wished so badly it was him in the bed and not her.
“We’ll be back tomorrow.”
She nodded and breathed out a barely audible, “Thank you.”
