Falling into Place - Forbidden Heart Series

46| Three days

"What time is it now?"

Lanie checked her watch. "2:17am."

2:17am. That meant it's been almost eight hours since my daughter and Cherise went under the knife. Eight long hours of pacing in the waiting room with every single person I called friend or family. But even with all this support around me, I felt alone and terrified.

After Jackson and the boys found Ryan drunk at the bar last night, I started to realize how much he's been trying to keep it together for me and the baby. Just another reason I loved him. But I would have preferred he talked to me last night instead of emptying that bottle of scotch. I could handle Ryan losing it, but I couldn't handle us not dealing with this together.

"When we was the last update?" Nate asked. He and Karma went downstairs to get everyone some more coffee. And it wasn't even because we needed the caffeine. The anxiety of not knowing what was going to happen was enough to keep us all awake.

I took my latte from him but didn't drink any. The warmth of the cup felt good in my hands. Little wins, I guess. "Nothing since the time when you were here."

During the last update, one of the doctor's doing the surgery came to tell us that they successfully removed a part of Cherise's liver and were closing her up. Now they had to replace my daughter's. One down. One to go.

Karma placed her hand on my arm gently. "I'm sure they'll be coming back out soon."

"Yeah. Sure." Turning away from my friends, I walked back over to my empty seat next to Ryan. He was sitting with his legs apart, leaning forward and balancing his elbows on his knees, his face buried in his hands.

Holding out my coffee I said, "Drink this. You need it."

He looked at what I offered and shook his head. "I can't drink anything. Not until I know she's okay. Not until I know they're both okay."

"Ryan, drink it."

With a heavy sigh he took the cup and sipped it. Then scrunched his face up in disgust. "What the hell is this?"

"Vanilla latte."

"I hate vanilla."

"I know. But I figured it would give you a little energy and take your mind off of everything for a minute or two."

His expression softened and he took a bigger sip of the coffee he hated. "You're pretty incredible, you know that?"

Somehow, I was able to smile. "You bring it out of me."

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Jamie and Ayden walk around the corner and head towards the nurse's station. Poor Jamie. This whole thing has been just as hard on her as it was for us. Her relief was brief when they told us Cherise's surgery went well. She still had a long road ahead of her.

"Where's she going?"

Ryan glanced in the direction that they went. "Ayden offered to take her to see if they can get another update for her mom. She isn't handling this too well."

"I don't blame her."

"Yeah. Fucking sucks all around." He took another sip of my coffee. "I can't believe we're here, Dani. I can't believe that this is. . ."

I rubbed his back even though I doubted it would lend any comfort. "I know, baby. But we are also very lucky. If Cherise wasn't a match, we would have had to wait on the transplant list since no one else could have done it. As scary as this is, that would have been scarier."

"You're right," he breathed. "You're completely right. I just want this part to be over. I want to hold her in my arms again."

So did I. I wanted my daughter out of this hospital and back in our home. I wanted to rock her to sleep in the rocking chair that Ryan bought for me. I wanted to watch her sleep in her crib and I wanted to be woken up in the middle of the night when she was hungry. I wanted --