This brought her back to earth with a thud.
“Yes, please.”
His eyes ignited. She shied away from their heat and her interpretation of it. It had to be her feverish mind superimposing her preposterous cravings on his glances and actions.
She cleared her throat. “Wh-what do you expect?”
“How about a deal?” he countered. “One mouthful a sentence.”
“Oh, all right.” She loaded a fork, forced it into her mouth.
He tutted. “A bigger mouthful won’t get you a longer sentence, and I won’t talk any faster if you choke.”
She swallowed the lump and almost did just that.
“For God’s sake, just tell me!” she spluttered.
“I expect a full recovery.” At her evident frustration with his brevity, his eyebrows rose. “You expected more for that forkful? I already had Akram tell you everything. You just want me to repeat myself to see if I’ll slip up.”
Heat surged to her head. “I realize I’m being obsessive…”
“And I’m totally ribbing you, as you say in the States.” His eyes laughed at her, coaxing her to ease up. “But as a scientist, too, I realize you won’t be satisfied until you have all the details. So let’s start with my findings during surgery.”
Her heart jumped. He understood. That she needed to know what he’d seen with his own eyes, fixed with his own hands. That only specifics would make it all real.
“The defect was long and the tethering was more than I’d hoped. The meninges were also prolapsed. But I corrected it all with a procedure I have been developing. It takes double the time of any other procedure—yes, that’s why I took longer than projected—but it ensures no scarring and no future retethering. The nerve roots were minimally damaged, but with Ryan’s fast growth, and the sites of the tethering, progressive damage would have occurred within the next months. So your persistence couldn’t have been more warranted, and the timing of the surgery couldn’t have proved more critical. Now, with physiotherapy and a four-month course of your drug, Ryan should regain his legs’ full power and sensation, and I don’t expect there to be any problems with toilet training.”
Tears welled up again as the certainty she’d needed seeped into her bones. “I—I can’t find words to thank you.”
He grimaced. “Then don’t go in search of any.” He tapped her plate with his fork. “Now eat. You need to be stocked up on as many calories as you can to be there for Ryan in the coming time.”
She ended up finishing a three-course meal.
But taking a leaf from his repertoire, she specified a reward in return. Letting her see Ryan as soon as she was done.
He’d finally succumbed, telling her she drove a hard bargain.
She’d been standing for what felt like hours behind the glass partition in pediatric ICU, gowned for the sterile zone, watching Ryan sleeping in a cot that looked like a space pod, her tears streaming. Ones of pure relief.
Even though it drove a hot lance through her heart to see Ryan’s little body hooked to leads and invaded by drips and tubes, she knew one thing beyond a doubt: he was all right.
Fareed had been sharing the poignant vigil in silence.
He finally inhaled. “And Ryan invalidates my worries again. He looks as if he’s sleeping in complete contentment.”
“H-he probably is,” she whispered. “He must feel how much care he’s receiving, must have felt how much you’ve done for him. He might be relieved for the first time in his life now you’ve corrected h-his problem.”
“Everything’s possible, especially with a child as sensitive as Ryan.” He turned her to him, wiped a tear that was trembling on her chin. “Now go say welcome back to your baby.”
She gasped. “Oh, God…really?”
He nodded, his smile a ray of delight illuminating her world.
She streaked into the ICU. He followed at a slower pace.
He stood back patiently, let her fondle and coo to the sedated Ryan until she turned to him with tears mixing with unbridled smiles. Then he checked Ryan, discussed his management with his ICU staff, before escorting her out.
He took her to a suite on the same level as his office. The sitting room overlooked the same view that had stunned her from his windows, from a different viewpoint, with the magic of the capital now shrouded in another dawn. She could barely believe it had been just a day since she’d set foot in Jizaan.
He took her by the shoulders. “I recommend another fourteen-hour sleep marathon. Or at least eight. Don’t wake up sooner on Ryan’s account. I’m keeping him in ICU for twelve more hours.”
“But you said you’d let him out in a few hours!”
“And the concrete numerical value of ‘a few’ is?”
He was teasing her again. But now she knew in her bones Ryan would be all right, she found herself attempting to tease back.
“The world doesn’t know how lucky it is that you decided to use your inexorableness for good. But even though you’ve benevolently steam-rolled me on every decision and I’m now forever in your debt, this—” her gesture encompassed the superbly decorated, all-amenities, expansive suite “—is going too far. Between here and the guest apartment at your place, you’ll spoil Ryan and Rose so much that I might have to find us a new place when we return home.”
Interest flared in his eyes. “Where is home? We never got around to talking about that.”
She almost kicked herself. She’d just given him an opening to delve deeper into her life and everything she wanted kept hidden at all costs.
Panic surged. If she told the truth, he’d put things together sooner rather than later. If she lied, rather than omitted the truth, as she had done so far, apart from when she’d had to lie about Ryan’s father, those same powers of observation would see through her. But she had no choice.
A lie was potentially less catastrophic than the truth.
Feeling it would corrode her on the way out, she opened her mouth to deliver it…and his pager went off.
She almost sagged when he released her from his focus.
Then her breath caught. He was frowning at his pager.
“Is it Ryan?”
He raised his eyes at her question, gave a lock of her hair a playful tug. “No, Gwen. Ryan is fine and will remain fine. It’s just another emergency. Now have mercy on me and sleep. I’m exhausted already and it’ll be a while before I get any rest. Don’t add to my burdens. I’ll know if you’re not sleeping.”