“Do this for Grace. She’s a talkative kid and will need your full attention later when she wakes up.”
Sarah offered her a reluctant smile. Emory tucked her in snugly and placed a reassuring kiss on her forehead.
“Em?” Sarah said as she turned to go.
“Yeah.”
“Thank you. For helping me through this.”
“How could I not?”
Her eyes met Emory’s and something important passed between them. Regardless of everything, it was understood that they mattered to each other. Finally, Sarah nodded and turned onto her side.
In the living room, Emory stretched out on the couch, not having slept in some time herself. The apartment was small, however, and the unmistakable sound of Sarah tossing and turning in the other room had hold of her attention. It wasn’t long before she heard footsteps in the hallway. She sat up and there was Sarah, eyes haunted. “I don’t want to be alone right now. Do you think you could lay in there with me?”
Emory hated seeing Sarah so crumpled in, so afraid. “Of course I will.” She took Sarah’s hand and led her gently back to her room. Hesitating only for a moment, she climbed into the bed next to Sarah, who snuggled into her automatically. With Sarah’s head on her shoulder, Emory acted on instinct, wrapped her arms tightly around her, and whispered in her ear. “I’ve got you. Try to sleep now.”
Sarah clung tightly to her and it was less than five minutes before Emory recognized the even breathing. She stared at the ceiling and silently asked God to watch over Sarah and give Grace the opportunity to live a normal, healthy life from here on out. For that, she’d do absolutely anything.
*
Back at the hospital, Sarah was in slightly better spirits. She could think rationally and process the world around her more effectively. The short nap had made all the difference in the world.
Her mother, who’d stayed with Grace when they’d left, had agreed to take a similar trip to her own house. That left her alone in the waiting room with Emory. She looked over at her. “If I haven’t said it, I’m glad you came. You put me back on track when I was just about to lose it. I was snapping at everyone. I didn’t know how else to cope.”
“Given the circumstances, I think you’re doing just fine. I remember the day my mother was brought in and the way that I felt. Helpless, angry, lonely, sad.”
The idea of Emory dealing with that loss alone made Sarah’s heart ache. She wished she’d been there for her, wished she’d known.
“I didn’t handle it so well. I beat the hell out of a vending machine when it wouldn’t take my dollar.”
Something sparked in Sarah’s memory.
She sat forward in her chair and turned to Emory. “Grace was admitted to this hospital on May seventeenth when she first fainted in her classroom.”
Emory tilted her head curiously. “That’s the day my mother died. May seventeenth. It was at this hospital too.”
Sarah nodded as the understanding overtook her. “I think I bought you a Diet Coke that day.”
Emory held her gaze for a long moment. “No. That was you? That day at the machine?”
Sarah nodded. “I didn’t know it until just now, but yeah.”
Emory nodded, her eyes glistened. “I guess we’ve been there for each other longer than we realized.”
“Emory,” Sarah whispered achingly. She picked up her hand, needing the closeness. “Tell me that you were just scared that last day on the beach.”
Emory met her eyes and nodded. “For you.”
Sarah’s stomach muscles tightened reflexively. “And now?”
“I think—”
It was then that a nurse burst into the room. “Matamoros family, come with me right now!”
Sarah felt the blood drain from her face as terror infused her. She exchanged a glance with Emory and stood, staggering, but Emory caught her and practically carried her down the hallway after the nurse. Each step seemed to take a lifetime, each sound of her tennis shoe punctuated with a desperate prayer. As they passed, the sounds from the nurses’ station seemed way too loud. What was wrong? What had happened? Please, God, not this.
When she rounded the corner into the room, her daughter, her everything, smiled up weakly at her. “Grace?” she managed. Her knees threatened to buckle again, but Emory steadied her from behind.
Grace held out her hand and Sarah didn’t hesitate, moving to her side and kissing her adorable little face. “Hiya, kiddo.”
“Hi, Mama.” They were the most wonderful words in the history of words.
As she explained to a slightly disoriented Grace why she was in the hospital, Sarah could simultaneously hear Emory in the hallway quietly dealing with the nurse who’d taken ten years off their lives. Sarah looked up and smiled as she rejoined them, listening quietly from the doorway as Grace chatted away.
*
Later the next afternoon, Dr. Riggs had Grace transferred from ICU to a regular room two halls over. Visiting hours were relaxed and Sarah was able to spend more time with Grace, a welcome contrast to the hellish isolation of the waiting room. But the morning had tired Grace out and she dozed soundly in her hospital bed, as always immune to the sounds around her as visitors came and went.
Emory had excused herself to the hallway to make a few calls, which left Sarah alone with her mother. “It’s nice that Emory is here with you.”
Sarah regarded her mother, taking stock of the situation. “I don’t know what I would have done otherwise.”
Her mother hesitated a moment, seeming to decide what she wanted to say next. “Carmen mentioned something yesterday. About Emory meaning a lot to you.”
Sarah didn’t hesitate. It was time to put all her cards on the table and speak from the heart. “More than a lot, Mama. I’m in love with her.”
The declaration was met with silence, but she’d prepared herself for that and worse months ago. It didn’t scare her in the same way anymore.
“I’m sorry if that upsets you or shakes up your idea of what my life should be, but it’s the truth and I wouldn’t change it.”
Her mother sighed and Sarah waited to hear what she would say. “This may surprise you, but I suspected.”
It more than surprised her. Sarah was floored. “You did?”
“At the birthday party. It was the way you looked at her. Like she’d hung the moon. The way your father used to look at me. That kind of look is hard to miss.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I don’t think it was something I was ready to think about. This old lady needed some time. But after a while, you just seemed so happy, in a way I had never seen you before, and that made me happy. There was a light in your eyes, mija, the light I’d always hoped you’d have one day. But that light is gone now. Am I right?”
Sarah nodded, a stab of remembered hurt hit her hard and deep. “We stopped seeing each other.”
“I see. And is that what you want?” Sarah could tell this wasn’t easy for her mother, but she was trying, and the least she could do was be forthright. She shook her head.
Her mother took a deep breath and kissed her on the cheek. “Then get the light back, mija.”
*
Emory didn’t want to interrupt. Sarah was having what looked to be a serious conversation with her mother. She watched through the small window in the hospital room door for just a moment before backing away to give them privacy.
There would be a lot to handle in the next couple of days to get Grace home and recuperated fully. Once word of her recovery got out, the cavalry had showed up in full force. Her family and friends crowded the waiting room, dropping off gifts and food. There wasn’t a ton she could do, and Sarah did have an amazing support system in her family, she reminded herself. So she took a last glance through the window as she pulled her car keys from her pocket. She watched for a moment as Sarah and her mother talked. Sarah was smiling, and she couldn’t help but smile too as something within her clicked into place.