Summer Days

Chapter 45

I rocked Angel for a bit longer until the nurse came back to take her back to her bed. "Thank you." I said to her as I got up and followed her out of the room.

"Oh, thank you. You're welcome back any time."

I smiled at her and couldn't resist running my palm gently one more time over Angel's head, oblivious to the fact that Sean was taking another picture of me and sending it to the rest of our family. I wrapped my arm around his waist as we headed to the elevator. "I know I'm not due back here for a couple weeks but do you think I could come check on her tomorrow after work? And maybe as much as possible until either her mom is better or her dad's around?" I looked up at him.

"I think that is a fine idea and should be very easy to arrange around your schedule." He said, dropping a kiss on my forehead as we waited for the elevator. "I'm all done on my floor, ready to head home for lunch?"

"And to start our dinner prep for Owen." I said with a nod. He chuckled and we got into the elevator and headed up to get his things from his office. "Wait... is Angel's mom on this floor?"

"She is actually." He said, studying me. "What's on your mind, Pookie?"

"Can I go visit her?" I asked. His gaze remained steady as my fun-loving smart doctor man, pulled a trait out of the books of his bff and quirked an eyebrow at me in a very definitive Owen Blackbourne look. I huffed a sigh and leaned up against the wall by the door to his office and crossed my arms. "What?" I asked defensively. "Stop being Blackbourne." I grumbled at him.

"Sorry Pookie." He had the good grace to flush slightly at my words, words that called him out for what he was doing to me. "Why do you want to go visit her?" he asked, mildly, choosing his words carefully.

I bit my lower lip. "I want to tell her that her daughter is beautiful." I said. "I want to remind her that she's beautiful and her daughter needs her to be a strong role model of survival... to be around and love her more than anything and not abandon her to a future of wondering ... wondering how much her mama wanted or loved her." My eyes filled up with tears and I sniffled, rubbing at my nose with the back of my hand as the tears threatened to spill over. "Is it assuming too much for me to think that she's in a coma of some sort?"

He closed the distance between us and reached out, cupping my face and rubbing the tears away as they left tracks behind on my cheeks. "Oh Pookie..." He crooned. "Don't cry, please don't cry..." he slid his arms around me and pulled me into his chest.

"I just need her to know what she has to fight for." I mumbled, crying still into his chest as my arms slid around his waist and I clung to him.

He rubbed my back in long gentle strokes from the top of my head, smoothing my hair down and then all the way down my back to the base of my spine. I felt him kiss the top of my head and then my forehead before he sighed softly. "Yes, Pookie. Angel's mama is in a coma right now. And you're totally right, of course. She needs to hear about her beautiful baby girl. That will help give her the edge she needs, the reminder of what she has to live for." He said, shifting away slightly to look into my eyes. "And you're so smart. We hadn't even thought about that yet. She hasn't been responding to us when she is seemingly awake."

"Well of course not." I frowned at him, pushing out of his arms and putting my hands on my hips. "You seriously mean to tell me, knowing all we do about the fact that people in coma's can hear and understand what is said to them... that NO One..." I chopped a hand through the air for emphasis. "NO ONE at all, has bothered to reassure the woman that she had her baby, the baby is beautiful and completely healthy and fine and she can go ahead and focus on getting well and waking up so that she cannot worry about it? She probably thinks she miscarried." I was getting riled up, mad and upset that they'd been leaving her in the dark. "And why can't the baby visit her? Surely there's some way to rig a carrier or something so that the baby could be snuggled up to her mama, even while mama's sleeping for comfort."