*****
Dr. Manning met him as he made his way towards the suite of rooms that had been appointed to Shelby.
“How is she?” he asked tersely, without breaking his stride.
“She is still the same. Her breathing is regulated, and we have hopes that she will wake up any minute now.” The woman had to hurry to catch up to him as they turned the corner of the passageway that would take them to the room. “The good news is that her blood pressure is almost normal. She lost a lot of blood and that is the problem we are facing.”
He pushed the doors open and Benjamin got to his feet, his blue eyes taking in the rough unshaven jaws and the tousled hair. His nephew looked like he had not slept for a week! He nodded to Benjamin and walked over to the bed to look down at the woman lying there. “Could you give me a moment with her?” he asked the two people quietly without looking at them.
“Of course.” Dr. Manning told him.
“It is time to check on my nephews anyway. Come to the nursery to meet your sons when you can.” Benjamin told him.
He nodded without looking up and barely heard when the doors closed behind them. He pulled up a chair and sat next to the bed, taking her hand in his. “I am here now so you stop being so melodramatic and wake up.” He said softly. “You have managed to drag me from halfway across the world to be at your bedside, so you have accomplished the impossible! The first woman to bring me to my knees and make me come to heel.” He lifted her hand and placed it on his rough jaw, closing his eyes wearily. “I was not here; Shelby and I really should have been. Remember the promise I made to you? That I would be here through everything? I was not here for this, and I cannot get past that. You have to be okay; you have to wake up and rail at me for leaving you when you needed me the most. Nothing less will do. I need you to wake up because I need you in my life. I cannot see myself without you. So, you see, why you have to come back to me. I need to tell you that I have fallen in love with you and want you to be my wife. I want us to be a family, the family you never had. I want to give you that so please come back to me.”
*****
“I do believe that Joshua Benjamin here is the handsomer of the two and I am not just saying that because he bears my name.” Benjamin murmured as he walked into the nursery.
“Of course not.” A ghost of a smile played around Gray’s lips as he stood there looking at the two boys in the cot. Their names were pinned on the outside so that they could be told apart and it was a good thing too because they were identical. “They look like her.” He murmured.
“They have your eyes and your chin and forehead, but they have her thick curls and shape of the mouth.” Benjamin commented. “Would you like to hold them?”
Gray shook his head. “I am grimy and have not taken a shower in twenty-four hours.”
“You could go home and do that while I stay here.”
“No.” Gray said abruptly. “I am staying.”
“Do you need something? A cup of coffee, something to eat perhaps?”
Gray turned to look at him, his eyes blazing. “You really think I can eat now?”
“You look like crap; man, and I am suggesting that you take a shower and get something to eat. Shelby should not have to wake up and see you like this.”
“I just care that she wakes up.” He traced the outline of his boys on the glass and then turned away.
“Where are you going?”
“Where do you think?”
With a sigh Benjamin watched him leave the room. “Daddy will be fine as soon as Mommy wakes up. In the meantime, you are stuck with your handsome and charismatic uncle. No grand-uncle or anything like that. I am too young.”
*****
Benjamin stopped short as he saw the woman approaching him. He forced himself not to turn the other way and waited for her to come over to him.
“Mrs. Fraser,” he inclined his head briefly.
“Mr. Cox – Gray.” She twisted her fingers together. “I understand that you just came back from your trip?”
“Are you here to tell me how much I screwed up Shelby’s life?” he asked caustically as he led the way into the private waiting room, not looking to see if she was following.
“I am here in support of my daughter.” She said stiffly as she closed the door behind her.
“Really? Why?”
“She is my daughter.”
“You have stayed away the entire time she was pregnant so why come now? Oh, I get it! Your pastor made you do it. He told you that it would not look good on the church’s record for you to stay away while your daughter is possibly dying. Am I right?”
The woman pressed her hands together and sank down onto the seat behind her. “I came on my own. I made a mess of her life and was not there for her like you said and I just want a chance to tell her how sorry I am.”
His eyebrows lifted. “You might be too late.”
“Please don’t say that.”
“Because you prayed and asked God to save her?” he asked her caustically.
“Yes,” she said simply. “I prayed and asked for a second chance. I have done so much harm to her and I want the chance to start over.”
“Good for you,” he told her indifferently. “Right now, the only thing I can think about is her waking up and talking to me. I cannot listen to you right now.” He turned to leave.
“Mr. Cox? Gray?”
“Yes?”
“Is it okay if I went to see my grandsons?”
He stared at her for a moment and then shrugged. “Knock yourself out.”
*****
“Hey.”
“How is she?”
“The same. The doctors say that she is doing a lot better, but she is still out.”
“I will take that as a win. Kiara and I were there before you came but I had to rush out for a meeting, and she got a call on her radio.”
“I knew you were here, Justin,” he got up from his place at her bedside and walked out of the room, closing the doors behind him. “I am grateful.”
“We are friends, that’s what we do. How are you?”
“Hanging on by a thread. I almost punched her mother out.”
“ouch! The good thing is that you managed to restrain yourself.”
Gray laughed grimly. “She is here to make amends for the hell she put her daughter through. I looked at her and remember everything Shelby told me, and I wanted to hurt her. So, I did the next best thing. I left the room before I could give in to the urge.”
“Remarkable restraint. Kiara and I will try to make it there later.”
“I will call if there are any changes. I love her Justin.”
“I know you do. Tell her as soon as she wakes up.”
Gray shoved the phone into his pocket and stood at the glass door looking at her lying so still on the bed. A nurse had come in earlier to change her and wipe her down, changing her gown in the process. It was pale blue, and he grinned as he realized that she would not be caught dead in that color. All bright colors for his Shelby. He shook his head and went back into the room to take his place by her bed.
*****
“They are so beautiful,” Sylvia whispered as she stared at the two boys who were sleeping. “All that thick hair.” She looked over at the man who was seated on one of the padded chairs as if keeping vigil over them. “It was the same when Shelby was born. All that thick curls of hers and so healthy.”