“You scared the hell out of me,” Blaise said as she bent to kiss her, and Salima smiled as Simon stood just behind Blaise.
“Sorry I scared you guys,” she said in a hoarse voice. “I woke up feeling weird in the night, but I thought I was getting the flu and went right back to sleep. I guess the catheter was already out and I didn’t know it.” Blaise knew she still wasn’t feeling well when she didn’t insist on going home right away. Salima hated hospitals, but she needed to be there now, at least for a day, until she recovered from the shock to her system. She could easily have died, and Blaise was so grateful she hadn’t. She thought about calling Harry to tell him what had happened, but she knew there was no point. He didn’t care.
They sat with her for a little while, and then the nurse told them that they couldn’t stay continuously in the ICU, and Salima needed to get some sleep. Her color was already better, and Blaise was relieved as she kissed her again, and promised to be back in a few hours.
“Bring my laptop and my iPod,” she told Simon, and he grinned. She was obviously feeling a lot better than when she came in with the siren screaming. She had youth on her side.
“With pleasure.” He was beaming when he said it. He was so relieved.
Blaise left all her numbers at the nurse’s station, and the nurse took down the information and then looked up at Simon. “Your daughter’s going to be fine,” she reassured them again. “Would you like to leave your numbers too, or just your wife’s?” the nurse asked, and Simon stared at her, not sure what to say. It seemed complicated to explain that he wasn’t Salima’s father and Blaise wasn’t his wife. He hesitated for a moment before he answered.
“Just my wife’s will be fine. We’ll be together. And we’ll be back in a couple of hours. Call us immediately if she has a problem.”
“She’s all right now. We just want to get her levels regulated, and she needs to rest. She can go home tomorrow.” The doctor had already told them, and they thanked her and left. They both looked like they’d been in a car wreck.
“I must really look like shit,” Simon said to Blaise in the elevator. “She thought I was old enough to be Salima’s father. I feel like I am.”
“I must look like her grandmother, or yours,” Blaise said with a tired smile. It hadn’t even occurred to the nurse that they weren’t a couple. “She terrified me when I found her,” Blaise said, still shaken by it, and then she looked at him sadly. “I’m sorry I blamed you for this, even indirectly. I felt so guilty that we’d been making love, and she was dying.”
“So did I,” he admitted, even though they both knew now that it had happened later, after they might have checked. But the reality that she had almost died had hit them both like a bomb. Blaise was infinitely grateful she hadn’t, and so was Simon.
“I’m sorry if I was mean to you,” Blaise said sheepishly as they left the hospital, and he stopped walking and looked at her.
“You thought your kid was dying, and I was the guy ‘screwing’ you last night, as you put it. You had every right to get mad, or freak out, and blame me. I would have done the same thing. You get a pass.” He put an arm around her then, and they hailed a cab at the curb. They went back to the apartment and climbed into Blaise’s bed and just clung to each other. He could feel that Blaise was shaking. They didn’t make love this time, and held each other, silently thanking God that Salima was alive.
Salima came home the next day, and she was tired but felt almost normal again. The doctor had said it might take another day to feel entirely like herself. And he suggested she stay at home, without running around. She didn’t even feel like singing or practicing, which was a sign that she wasn’t fully recovered from what had happened. And she went to bed when they got home. She said she was just tired. Simon called Lucianna to cancel Salima’s lesson that day, and she was shocked and burst into tears. She was still crying after Simon explained it all and they hung up.
He went to make them lunch, while Blaise kept Salima company in her room. She didn’t need supervision, but Blaise was so relieved to have her home that she didn’t want to leave her. Blaise was sitting on the foot of the bed, when Salima looked in her mother’s direction.
“Can I ask you something, Mom?”