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“Bailey-Rose isn’t a normal case,” Crew said, finishing her thought. “Yeah, I was waiting for that to come up… it always does.”

Nurse Harlow shifted so she could see him, her expression heartbroken for ever having to bring it up. “You know we do everything in our power to give her the best life possible. However, there simply isn’t any other choice. On a bright note, it does put her in the category of patients who can request a service dog. I know she’s always been hoping that would be an option for her.”

Feeling Rosie’s foot twitch under my hand pulled me out of past conversations and back to the present. There was an odd blip on the heart monitor, followed by another. Vili, who was sitting next to her, started to sing softly. A gentle croon in his native language had her relaxing, and the small frown between her brows relaxed hearing Vili’s voice.

Could it be that she'd gotten worried when we stopped talking?

“Guys, I think she needs to know we’re here,” I pointed out. “Remember how they always say people in a coma can still hear what’s happening around them? I would bet anything hearing us close by is comforting her.”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” Yun-Sun agreed. “Just like right after we met, she had an instant attachment to us, and it was hard for her to be away from us.”

“Pretty sure that goes both ways now,” Gareth added. “I can’t even process the thought of ever going back to work. It’s not like they really need me. It’s just assumed if you’re a Watson, then you work at the family business.”

Feeling a wave of fatigue wash over me, I sank heavily into the open armchair. “God, I can’t even think that far ahead right now, but I understand where you’re coming from. What could possibly be more important than being with her?”

“Guys, think about it… our Omega owns four percent of The Snuggery. None of us would have to work if we didn’t want to,” Warrick reasoned.

His idea received a rather disgruntled sound from Eli, pretending to sleep on the other couch.

“I didn’t say that’s what we were going to do, just that it was possible,” Warrick muttered, crossing his arms like a pouting kid. “Besides, I don’t need to run The Fat Mule. I choose to. If I brought in a manager I trusted to run the place, I could be hands-off dealing with things from home pretty easily.”

Yun sipped on his coffee from where he stood near the window of Rosie’s room. “Might I suggest we see how things go with her recovery before we make any major life changes? Today has been traumatic not only with what happened with Bailey-Rose but with our meeting with the Scent Matcher. We all need time to process as does the one person who can’t share her vote on this matter.”

“Yeah, we know how much she loves it when we make choices for her without telling her,” Gareth said with a huff of laughter then leaned forward. “Hey, what was Nurse Harlow talking about when she mentioned the service dog? Somehow, I think that should be something we do a little research on.”

“Let’s tackle that tomorrow. Right now, I think we should take turns getting some sleep,” I suggested. “If Rosie needs to have one of us talking to her, that means someone should be awake. Vili, you good to stick with her for like an hour or so?”

Vili shot me a thumbs-up, letting me off the hook as my body seemed to melt into the armchair. I don’t know what it is about hospitals, but they seem to put you in a time freeze. Right now, I had no concept of what time it was or if we were still in the same day. The only reason I knew it was nighttime was because of the window in the room. Flipping the legs up on the armchair, I attempted to get some rest. Now, if only my brain were as tired as my body, it would slow the hell down enough to let me sleep.

Apair of mismatched eyes stared up at me as I grinned down at the most beautiful woman in the world. She was born to be an artist with one eye the color of the clearest blue water you’ve ever seen and the other a soft light green that I would dare to call seafoam. While my Care Bear’s eyes were open, they weren’t quite focused. Dr. Arbour decided she was doing well enough to test bringing her out of sedation.

“Bailey-Rose, it’s Doc Arbour. If you can hear me, squeeze my hand,” he instructed as he flicked a small flashlight into her eyes. “Good, very good, Bailey-Rose. Now let’s try to wiggle your toes… both feet, please.”

We all watched her dainty, uncovered feet for her to wiggle them and let us know there was no damage to her mind during surgery. A grin pulled at my lips as an irrational amount of joy flooded through me at the sight of her pretty purple polished toes as they did a little jig.

“Wonderful, simply wonderful,” Dr. Arbour praised, squeezing her hand. “Now, I have no doubt your throat is pretty sore from the ventilator. Would you like an ice chip or two?”

She nodded, so I plucked a smaller-size chip from the cup I was holding and held it against her lips. Most of it melted before she got it in her mouth, but the sigh of relief was music to my ears. I went back for another, and she turned her head to look at me, a smile growing on her face.

“Hi,” she croaked out as my Care Bear tried to lift her arm, reaching for me.

Fuck the ice chips, I decided and dropped the cup on the side table so I could grasp her hand in both of mine. “Hi back,” I whispered.

Some of the guys were still sleeping, having just laid down. Dr. Arbour didn’t want me to wake them in case things didn’t go well, and we put her right back to sleep. So far, things seemed to be going amazingly well.

“You’re…” She paused then coughed only to then let out a shrill, painful whimper.

Instantly, every Alpha in the room was awake and rushing to the bed, hearing her distress. A nurse rushed in and offered a syringe to the doctor who immediately administered it through a port on her IV tube. When the nurse started to place a heart-shaped pillow near Bailey-Rose, Gareth took a step only to have Eli yank him back. This caught the doctor’s eye, and he was none too pleased.

“Boys, remember where you are and what Bailey-Rose has been through. I don’t want to hear one growl or see you so much as glare at my staff. It’s going to take us a moment to figure out the right balance of medication to manage Bailey-Rose’s pain,” Dr. Arbour snapped. “Fighting your instincts is hard, especially when it comes to your Omega, but if my staff can’t do their job, then the only person it will hurt is Bailey-Rose. Do we have an understanding?”

We all agreed and understood why he felt the need to nip the attitude in the bud. I’m sure they’ve run into issues before.

The doctor turned his attention back to Bailey-Rose, who looked miserable. “I’m sorry you needed to hear that, kiddo. No one is mad at you, and you did nothing wrong. I just needed to set the ground rules. I did the same thing to your brothers many years ago… you just weren’t in the room. Let’s leave trying to talk for a little later when your throat isn’t so angry. You can have all the ice chips you like, so take full advantage of that.”

Snatching up the cup once more, I grabbed a chip at random to offer her. She took it greedily and gave me a look of appreciation, squeezing my hand. Gingerly, I lifted it and kissed the inside of her palm since she had an IV taped to the back of it.

“Now, kiddo, do you remember being taken to the hospital?” Dr. Arbour asked. She shook her head and seemed a little alarmed at that. “That’s fine, it’s okay. I didn’t expect you would. I’m not going into all the details right now, but what you need to know is we did the surgery.”