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“Oh, we know,” Leith said, making the other men laugh.
We were just walking away when the door reopened and Orla stepped back through and hurried over to the desk.
“Can you call Father Murphy here please?” she asked the attendant before turning to find us staring at her.
Her expression told me everything I needed to know and my world seemed to tilt on its axis.
It was only when Enzo’s hands wrapped around me and held me up that I realized that my knees had buckled.
Orla came to join us, her expression grim.
“It’s been thirty seconds since he was up and talking, what changed in thirty seconds?” I asked, my voice tight as I stared at the door where the sounds of the machines were still going off.
Orla shifted guiltily on her feet. “I didn’t want to tell you this because you seemed so excited to introduce your pack to him, but we all thought he might go last night. His vitals have been downright awful since yesterday and the doctors have just been focused on making him more comfortable as he progresses to the end.”
I pointed at the door. “That man in there didn’t seem like someone who is close to dying. No one that lively could die in the next few minutes.”
“Sometimes patients get a single surge of energy before they pass… it happens quite often here,” Orla explained, her lips forming a thin line. “I’m so sorry, I should have prepared you better.”
They continued talking, but my ears had begun to ring as the weight of it all finally settled on my shoulders.
I thought I would have at least a few more weeks, if not at the very least days.
There were so many things I hadn’t asked him about yet and so many things I hadn’t told him about my life.
I still hated him—at least a little bit—but the past few weeks felt like I had my da back and now he was going far too soon.
“Mo ròs,” Leith’s voice cut through the haze and I found him in front of me, crouched so that our eyes were level.
“What?” I asked dazedly.
“The nurse wants to know if you would like to sit with him.”
“Sit with him?” I wasn’t processing anything, much less what he meant.
“Until he goes, Ciara,” Orla said gently.
Glancing around, I realized I was sitting down in a chair in the hallway. I wasn’t sure when someone had put me there or how much time had passed, but the sounds of beeping were still coming from Finneas’s room telling me he hadn’t gone yet.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Enzo was crouched next to my arm, his expression understanding. “You can stay here with us if you need to.”
“No.” I shook myself, trying to bring myself back to the present. “I need to do this.”
Looking up at Orla, I found the nurse’s blue eyes bright with unshed tears. She’d love Finneas—probably more than I ever could—but at the end of the day she was still just his nurse.
He at the very least deserved to have his daughter and only living relative by his bedside.
“Do you know how long it will take?” I asked, my voice small.
Orla shrugged. “Doctor says it can’t be more than a couple of hours, but you never know with these things.”
I nodded, giving myself a minute to process it. “Can they sit with me?”
“One at a time, yes, if we have all of you in there it will make it hard for the nurses to work,” Orla said, offering me a hand up.
“We’ll rotate,” Wiz assured me once I was on my feet.
“I’ll start,” Artie volunteered and handed Charm’s harness to Leith. “Can you take care of her for me? I don’t want her to accidentally be under foot.
