“You didn't. We didn't.”
My thoughts swam, dreamlike, confused and unsure. I couldn't bear to hope. With shaking fingers, I prodded my abdomen gently, and bit my lip as a firm kick responded to my intrusion. “He is alive!” I cried grabbing hold of Lucas's hand and guiding it to my belly so he could feel. “I can't believe he made it. Oh my sweet baby. Oh my strong little boy. I knew you were a fighter. I knew it!” Lucas held his palm over mine, and grinned as he felt the baby moving. “He's alive, he's alive, oh my baby,” I laughed, tears streaming down my face. Lucas wrapped me in his arms as I let it sink in. I was still going to be a mother. It wasn't over. Not by a long shot.
Chapter Twelve
I must have fallen asleep again. When I woke, the pain in my head had subsided a little and I opened my eyes, relieved to find the light less assaulting to my senses. Lucas was sitting in an armchair, his head slumped forward, his mouth ajar, tiny snores escaping his lips. I smiled, watching the way the sun caught his dark hair, following the dust particles as they landed on him, soft and silent.
I looked down at the length of my body, wondering what I would find beneath the thin blue blankets. My right leg felt sore but something else was going on with the left one. It was stiff, unmoving, and far more painful than its partner. I eased the blanket back, peering beneath it and saw what I already half knew. My left thigh was swollen, thick black straps secured around it, a long white dressing covering what could only have been an incision wound. There were metal rods travelling down the length of my leg, forcing it to remain straight. Honestly, after the pain I'd felt in them at the scene of the crash, I was amazed I hadn't broken both of them. Or lost them.
Lucas stirred and then jolted up with a shout as if from a nightmare. He looked around wide eyed, then wiped his mouth and blinked. “Hey,” he said, noticing I was awake.
“Hey.”
His gaze ran down my body, pausing on my thigh. “Do you want me to tell you... about what happened?” I nodded. He stood up and came to sit on the edge of the bed, leaning over me to take a sip of water from the glass on the side table. He offered it to me and I shook my head. “You had a broken femur, dislocated knee, and a pretty serious concussion. Lots of other bumps, cuts and bruises too. They put you in a neck brace, but they said your spine is okay, so they took it off after a day.”
“A day?” How long was I unconscious?”
“A little while.” He dipped his head. “You were pretty in and out of it when they brought you in, but you talked a bit so they said it wasn't a coma, just a shut down response to the trauma. They did surgery on your leg the morning after, so yesterday, but I doubt you remember much of that? You've been getting a lot of morphine.”
I shook my head. “I shouldn't have it – what about the baby?”
“Don't worry Rox. Honestly, they know you're pregnant. They aren't doing anything they shouldn't.” I frowned, not sure how much I trusted a bunch of strangers to make decisions for me and my baby, without me having the chance to research it first. “Anyway,” he continued. “They had to put a pin in your thigh. It's going to take a while for you to be up on your feet again, but at least you're here.”
“Yes... a pin? Like a metal one?”
“Yeah, why?”
“That's airport security screwed for the rest of our lives then!” I laughed. I couldn't manage to feel sorry for myself. I was alive, my baby was unharmed and I just had to endure a few weeks of bed-rest while my leg recovered. All in all it could have turned out a whole lot worse.
“They said if you didn't wake up properly today they would have to do some sort of scan on your head to check what was happening. They have a bit of a checklist. Vomiting, seizures, bleeding from the ears, and the like. They said you weren't showing signs of any sort of brain or skull injury. Just a concussion, so that's something, right? You probably won't have to have a scan now.”
“That's good. Have you slept? Been home? Eaten?”
He took my hand, squeezing it. “Would you have in my situation?” His deep brown eyes met mine. “I've been fucking terrified Roxy. I thought I was going to lose you. Both of you. Roy came bursting into the house like a wild animal, shouting about some accident, and it was like everything went into slow motion, at least for me. I didn't want to believe it was you he was talking about.”
I squeezed his hand. “All for some apple pie, hey?” He twisted his mouth in a grim imitation of a smile. “What about my sisters? Are they okay?” He dropped my hand and I saw a flash of discomfort in his eyes. “Lucas?”
“Uh, well, Isabel has been here nearly as much as me. She's just popped out to get some lunch, I think. She'll be over the moon to see you awake again.”
“And Bonnie?” I asked, feeling uneasy. I could sense there was something big going on that he didn't want to tell me.
“We've all been so worried Rox.”
“Lucas!”
The door swung open and Isabel walked in, a brown paper bag swinging from her wrist, a cup of coffee in each hand. “You're awake!” she cried, seeing me sitting up in bed. She deposited her loot onto the table and leaned in to hug me. “Oh my god Roxy, don't you ever scare us like that again. I thought we were...” I felt her shoulders slump against me and realised she was crying. “I thought we were going to... lose you,” she finished in a choked whisper. I wrapped my arms around her, stroking her hair back from her face.
“You didn't. I'm still here, aren't I? I'm not going anywhere.”
“You'd better bloody not. We've been in a right state, haven't we Lucas?”
He nodded. Isabel handed him a coffee and he took it gratefully, moving back to the armchair by the window and sipping silently. “Do you want this one?” Isabel asked me, holding up the other cup. “I only got two, I thought you might still be, you know... sleeping.”
I shook my head. The smell was revolting. “I don't think the baby likes coffee.”
She put it back down again, pulling a paper-towel from the dispenser on the wall and wiping her eyes. She blew her nose loudly and threw it into the bin.
“Issy.” She looked up, meeting my eyes. “Where's Bonnie?” A look of panic crossed her features. She turned to Lucas, and something passed between them that made me anxious. “Look, you don't have to protect me alright. I want to know what's going on. I deserve to know. Now tell me what's happened? Where is my sister?”
Lucas rubbed his eyes, letting out a low sigh. “We don't know. I'm sorry Roxy, but she's... missing.”
“What? What do you mean missing? How can she be?”
Isabel came back to the bed, perching on the end of it, careful not to touch my leg. “Okay... Look.” She paused, glancing at Lucas who gave a resigned nod and took another sip of his drink. She turned back to me. “It took the emergency services a long time to get you out of that car,” she began. “Roy told us where they were taking you, so me, Lucas and Bon jumped in his car and he dropped us off here. Only we got here before you.”
“So?” I asked, irritated with how long it was taking for her to tell me what was going on.
“So we saw them bring you in. The paramedics. We saw you being wheeled in through A&E.” She sighed and placed her hand over mine. “Rox, you looked bad. Really, really bad. Like, you might not make it bad, alright?” She winced at the memory and chewed her lip. “Bonnie was here, she was all ready to do the Florence Nightingale thing. But when she saw you,” Isabel took a deep breath. “Well, she just lost it. She went white as a sheet and literally ran out. We were too busy worrying about you to go after her. I never thought she'd leave, I just thought she needed to take a minute.”
“Have you called her?”