Page 112 of Graceless

Everything stopped on her end. Everything. I have known that woman since second grade and I have never heard her go that quiet that fast.

"Where are you."

"Southampton Hospital."

"Are you—" Her voice went somewhere I'd never heard it. "Cate. Is the baby⁠—"

"There's a heartbeat. I'm okay. I'm not — Nina, I need to sit down in your car and go home. That's it. That's the whole thing I need."

"Two hours," she said. "Ninety minutes. Do not move. Do not let anybody discharge you until I'm standing in the room."

"You don't have to⁠—"

"Caterina." A car door slammed on her end; she was already outside. "I'm putting Anthony on the kids and I'm getting in the car. Say something so I know you're not alone out there."

I looked up.

He was at the end of the hall, standing where the light didn't reach, hands at his sides, every line of him aimed at the door of my room. He had not tried to come in. He had not tried to explain himself to one person in that building.

A nurse went past him with a cart and looked up, and up, and said, "Sir, there's a waiting room⁠—"

"I am aware."

"There's chairs in it."

"Thank you," he said, and did not move.

"I'm not alone," I said into the phone. "Just come."

He came into the room after she hung up and stopped inside the door.

"They said the same thing you did," I said. "Small bleed. It might resolve. It might not. Rest, warmth, no walking, no lifting, and I have to be somewhere that isn't at the end of a forty-mile road."

He didn't say anything for a moment.

"The heartbeat," he said. "It is faster than yours. Is that⁠—"

"That's normal. She said it's supposed to be about twice."

"Twice." He looked at the floor. "I did not know that. I have heard a great many hearts and I did not know that one."

"Now you know it."

"Now I know it," he said, and something went through him that I couldn't put a name to.

"Nina's coming," I said. "She'll be here in ninety minutes. She's driving me home."

That landed. I saw it land.

"I can have you in your kitchen in four minutes."

"I know."

"Caterina—"

"I know you can." I pulled the blanket up over my knees. "That's not what I need."

He looked at me for a long moment.