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“Of course he is. He’s a real person.”
I open my eyes to see Elliot standing in the doorway, a little boy at his side and a girl on his hip.
“Lance. Good to see you awake.”
I inch up in the bed, trying to hide the wince that comes with the movement. “Sorry. It’s all the pills.” I don’t know why I lie, but I do. I wasn’t asleep at all.
“We’re not allowed to touch pills. They’re for adults only.”
Elliot smiles down at his son and then urges him forward with their joined hands. “Lance, meet my tribe. Elsie.” He looks to the little girl in his arms, but she throws her face into his neck. He chuckles and smooths a hand up her back. I don’t miss his wedding band glinting under the glaring hospital light. “And this handsome chap is Ralph.”
“Can I sit on your bed?” Ralph asks.
I smile for the first time in days—years maybe. “Sure.”
“You broke like eight bones,” he says as he fights his way up onto the bed.
“Careful. Uncle Lance broke like eight bones, remember.”
“Room for two more?”
Something warm spreads through my chest as I look around Ralph and find Lucy standing outside my room. She doesn’t look like she’s aged a day. Her blonde hair is curled and pulled over one shoulder, she wears the most genuine smile, and in her arms, a baby lies nestled into her warmth.
“Hi, Lance,” she whispers, her eyes filling with tears. She walks to the side of my bed and leans in to kiss my cheek. “God, I missed your face.”
“He looks not as dark as he did in the picture. Why is your face a different colour?”
Lucy chuckles, wiping at the corner of her eyes with one hand as Ralph leans closer to me, inspecting my face.
“It’s because I’ve spent a lot of time indoors recently.”
“Auntie Scarlet tells us we’ll turn into turnips if we spend too much time inside watching TV.”
“Do I look like a turnip?” I ask, my chest on fire.
Ralph shakes his head, smiling.
I look around at my friends, their family—the picture of perfection. It doesn’t surprise me one bit. “What’s this one called?” I peer over Lucy’s arm.
“Her name is Thea. She’s six weeks old.”
“Wow,” I whisper, taking in her little face.
“Rumour has it you’re heading home this week,” Elliot says.
Elsie seems to turn in his lap and peek over at me.
“Maybe.” I nod, sighing as I relax back into the bed. “They’re still x-raying me five thousand times a day at the minute.”
“Well, we’ll be around when you get home,” Lucy promises. “I said to Elliot we could head back to yours for a few weeks, or maybe you can come to us. Either way works.”
“I’ll be fine. You guys don’t need to worry about me.”
“I can assure you she’ll worry regardless,” Elliot chimes in, grinning fondly at his wife from the other side of the bed before he looks back at me. “Whatever you need, alright? No pressure.”
“I appreciate that.”
Elliot and Lucy stay for over an hour, and it’s not until the last ten minutes that Elsie climbs from her dad’s lap and walks to the side of my bed, just staring intently up at me. I smile, not wanting to say too much and scare her.
