Growing Up and Other Tall Tales

Chapter 36

Sandy all but breaks the door when he floods into my office.

Eyes frosted over with a paralyzing kind of fear.

"Sandy?" I ask over the shoulder of my secretary. She looks back and forth us nervously, twitching to get out of the room. Sandy still hasn't snapped out of it.

More insistently now,"Sandy." I ask again

He blinks and waves the phone he has clutched in a vice grip at me. "Mother." He manages

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A boy with sandy brown hair gets up to his feet when he sees me. He gently pats the girl who is sitting next to him on the knee who looks up at his beckoning. She follows him to his feet and they both walk towards me as I jostled past the crowds to reach them.

The boy takes my hand, "You must be Lyra."

"I heard what happened." I pant "Is she okay? Is Aiden okay?"

The girl glances at him for a spare second before taking my other hand,

"Mother is in surgery. The doctors only spoke to Ca—Aiden and he's not telling us anything. He just told us not to worry."

I breathe out sharply making a whistling sound that is drowned by announcements on the PA.

"Where is he?"

"He went to get us coffee and something to eat," the boy looks at me and purses his lips trying to communicate something more

I look behind him and recognize the faces of the people occupying the outlines of the corridors: standing, sitting, pacing. They are all talking together in hushed voices and bouncing knees.

"There's nothing much to do here," Sandy went on and then paused before continuing, "Aiden might need help with the food,"

I took a step back and nodded but not before squeezing both their hands and smiling weakly at them. They look exhausted. But they slump into each other easily after watching me walk away, talking comfort in each others' misery. Aiden is alone, I realize strikingly and my steps quicken, my head turning left and right searching for the hospital cafeteria.

With the help of a surprisingly calm pregnant lady with a hyperventilating husband on her lap and thanks to Romanov's ability to stand out amongst a crowd, it took me under five minutes to locate him.

"What are you doing here?" he stands up and I push him by the shoulders gently making him fall back on his seat not ready to fight me back

"Keeping you company," I shrug sitting down next to him shrugging off my jacket

He doesn't argue. He leans back and turns his head so he could meet my eyes.

"How generous—"

"Stuff it, Romanov," I toss one leg over the other and then look at him, "How long are you planning to hide out here?"

He sits up now and I hear him tense up, "I'm not hiding—it's a big order."

I look at him with eyebrows raised and he immediately looks forward. And then he slumps, his hand reaches behind his neck and he digs his thumb down somewhere that makes him wince and coil into himself a little.

"She's going to be fine, Aiden,"

He glances at me over his shoulder with his deadened face and then suddenly his eyes widen.

"Shit," he breathes out, "Are you okay?"

I frown and lean in closer to him confusedly. "What?"

"She's your... real mother—I can't believe—"