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“Will you have time to get her used to it before you have to go on assignment again?” Owen asked, and while he didn’t mean to bring up a sore spot between Adrian and me, his words made me cringe.
It wasn’t that we were fighting because of his job. I knew what I was getting into when I chose to move across the country for him. But the few times Adrian had to leave us for an assignment, it always put him into the worst mood. Angry, but not at anyone but himself.
“Actually, no,” Adrian said. “I won’t be going out on assignment anymore.”
I glanced at him. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, please.” Adrian wasn’t in the habit of saying something that he didn’t mean, but I found it hard to believe that with his job, he’d never have to go out of town again.
“I’m not,” he assured me. “I put in for a transfer.”
“A transfer? To where?” Anger flared in my gut, hot for a second. “Elias just got settled! How could you do this to us? He shouldn’t be forced to?—”
“Whoa! Hey, Nataliya, no,” Adrian rushed to calm me down. “That’s not what I meant, sweetheart, I swear.”
I forced myself to take a breath. Don’t jump to conclusions. “What did you mean?”
Adrian looked nervous for a moment. “I…uh…I asked to be transferred to a desk job. In-house only—no fieldwork. My request was accepted.”
I couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d grown wings and took flight. “You…you would do that for me?”
Adrian cupped my cheek. “I would do that for our family, sweetheart.”
“But…but you love going on assignments. I know you do.”
He shrugged, trying for casual, but the tension was all over him. “I like being at home more,” he said.
I wasn’t sure I believed it, but Owen grinned. “It’s about time,” he said. “We were all waiting to see if you’d wise up and stop running into alligators for once. I’m glad you finally found your reason.” He winked my way. “The rest of us fell in line months ago, but he seemed to be waiting for you.”
I flushed. I felt exactly the same way, like I had been on hold for Adrian all of this time. I threw so much of myself into keeping Elias safe and healthy and making sure he was okay, but in doing that, I completely ignored everything that didn’t fall under the role of “mother.”
But Adrian had blown into my life and changed everything. Woke up a part of me that had been lying dormant for so long.
“If you’re sure that’s what you want,” I said.
Adrian nodded. “I’m sure, sweetheart. I’ve never been more sure of anything. Well, except maybe?—”
“Excuse me.” We all turned; there was a nursing assistant standing at the door that led back to the lab. “Are you the family of Elias Koza?”
I stood up. “I’m his mother.”
She smiled, kind. “He wants to see you…and Adrian?”
Adrian stood. “That’s me.” He looked at Owen. “Do you want to come?”
Owen waved us on. “I’ll go get some coffee in the cafeteria. Let Sam know where I am? She and I are going to dinner tonight.”
They want to give us time, I thought, and dread pooled, unbidden, in my stomach. It could be good news, but…what if it wasn’t? What if he knew it was going to be bad, and they wanted to give us time to grieve?
“I’ll let her know,” Adrian said. He took my hand as we followed after the nursing assistant. “It’s going to be okay,” he murmured to me as we wound through far too many hallways that all looked the same. I hated how hospitals were like mazes once you got past where visitors were generally allowed to go. How anyone found their way around, I would never understand. “Whatever happens, we’ll face it head on.”
His optimism, bullheaded as it was, made me smile. I squeezed his hand. “I know we will. I just want?—”
“I know. Me too.”
We went through another door, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Elias. Since starting on the vaccine, Elias had put on weight. He had an appetite again, and he was able to run and play without worrying overly much about getting a spasm attack. They all seemed like good signs…but were they?
He smiled when he saw us and bounded out of his chair to me, throwing his arms around his middle. “Mama.” He rubbed his face against me, and I petted his hair.
“Are you okay, sakharok?”
