Beautiful Days

Chapter 62 -Code Blue-

I returned to our room, a nurse just leaving the room after checking on Haven. She smiled softly at me and I returned the gesture. I closed the door and with a sigh collected Esme in my arms again and wished I could sleep as well. She seemed so peaceful and content when she slept, but the whimpers in between rather let me worry, she had nightmares... I rocked her soothingly, kissing her forehead.

"Code blue, code blue," a bunch of doctors and nurses yelled just in the next room and I got up reflexively at once, but then sat down again. Not your call... I closed my eyes, trying to drown out all other sounds but the heartbeats of Esme and Haven. Haven's was strong and that made me relax for now. Someone knocked softly against the doorframe and I hadn't even heard Robert enter. I opened my eyes at once. He stood leaning tiredly against the frame, looking at me and also checking Haven's vital signs.

"How are you doing?" he asked softly, stepping inside, closing the door behind him.

"Good, I think. As long as they will both be fine soon," I sighed. Robert took the chair opposite me and sat down groggily.

"You should rest, Robert," I said worried.

"You should rest, too," he grinned.

"We should both," I smirked. Robert looked at Esme sleeping in my arms and smiled.

"What happened to her anyway?" he asked worried, looking at her head wound, arm and cheek.

"An accident right before we drove here," I told him warily. I hadn't thought of an explanation and I couldn't exactly tell him the truth.

"An accident?" he asked, his eyebrows knitting together.

"We were on the way to the airport and someone drove into the side of the car." Robert nodded slightly.

"Did you let you two check up?"

"I'm fine, really. I checked Esme though, they are just superficial wounds," I explained.

"Still, not all things are visible. You should let yourself check up," he argued.

"I will, I promise," I replied, trying to appease him. He only nodded again and glanced at Haven. "I called Liam today, a friend of mine who is a specialist as well. He promised to come at once," I told him.

"Liam Jackson?" Robert asked curiously and I nodded. "When will he be here?" I glanced to the clock.

"In three hours. So early in the morning." Robert yawned hugely, squeezing the bridge of his nose. "You should really sleep, Robert."

"I will, but first of all I want to make sure that Haven is fine," he mumbled only half-coherently. Doctors had a high tolerance with sleep deprivation, we could work for 36 hours, but when you worked for a week without so much as more than two hours a day of sleep, it got problematic and from what Robert had told me, he hadn't slept much in the last weeks, always being called to emergencies since the hospital was short on doctors. And then we had also asked him for a favor so that he hadn't rested in 26 hours already...

"I'm here if anything should happen, please, I feel already bad for taking up your time. Go home for tonight," I pleaded.

"I will," he mumbled and with a last look to the monitors he walked back to the door, his hands buried in the pockets of his coat. "But..." he turned around. "You will tell me the story tomorrow, promise?" he asked. I hadn't anticipated that question, but I had promised him an explanation on the plane... I nodded with a small smile that he returned before he closed the door behind him with a huge yawn.

"Oh, Esme," I sighed, stroking her hair out of her face. She mumbled something incoherently in her sleep when I touched her before she cuddled closer. I let my mind wander in the nearly black room, the only light came from the floor and the monitors. I wondered how the kids were doing. They all had a hellish week behind them and had to process it all. And of course I wondered how our daughter was doing. I wish I could have her in my arms right now... I had missed her so much. I still remembered when she had fallen asleep in my arms, a content smile on her shell pink lips. Would she ever really forgive us when she was older and could understand what we had done? I wanted to explain it all to her, but she couldn't understand it, I would have hardly understood our decision a few decades ago. I yearned to hear her laughter, to see her brilliant smile and of course to hear her call my name.