“You know,” she said, pausing as she reached another stirring little baby nearby, “we only know him as Baby Tanner. Does your little guy have a name?”
Trailing a finger down an unbelievably soft cheek, Ryan watched his little boy yawn, his tiny fists clenching as he shifted about in his father’s arms. “Jacob. Jacob Kassidy Kendall,” he murmured. Jacob would be a Kendall, not a Tanner. Fin would pull through this, she had to, and when she did, she would be a Kendall too.
“Such a pretty name,” she replied, moving further away.
“He’s named after his Aunt and Uncle,” Ryan told her with pride. How he wished Jake was here right now. He ached for it so much.
“Ahhh,” the nurse replied, picking up a chart and scribbling absentmindedly. “So he’s got big shoes to fill huh?” she called out with a quick wink before turning away.
Ryan blinked back tears as he clutched Jacob to his chest. “You have no idea,” he whispered so softly the nurse didn’t hear him.
“Kendall!”
With Jacob tucked warm and tight in his arms, Ryan spun around at Kyle’s shout. His eyes were red and full of tears. Slivers of fear wound their way through Ryan’s body, leaving him ice cold.
“It’s Fin,” Kyle breathed.
Feeling his heart stutter, he hugged Jacob tighter.
“She’s waking up,” he told Ryan.
Seven months later…
Ryan stared out the kitchen window of the cottage and into the backyard. He’d mowed the lawn that morning, and now the sweet smell of fresh cut grass lingered in the warm afternoon sun. Pretty flowers fluttered from a light breeze that drifted across the garden Fin maintained with such care.
Fin was lying on her side in the shade of the tree, a brightly coloured blanket spread out beneath her. Her head was propped in her hand, laughter in her eyes as she watched Jacob fidget wildly as he learned how to move his little body.
He watched as Fin shifted to a sitting position and clapped her hands at a giggling Jacob. He was busy impressing his mother by displaying his new rolling technique, and she was lapping it up—encouraging him like he was the first child in the history of the world to perform the feat.
With Fin by his side, it was his chance to finally be free of his demons, but seven months later he realised they would never truly leave him. Maybe they would remain dormant, but they were buried in his soul, just like Fin was.
I can live with that, he thought, his eyes opening to fall on his family. As long as I have Fin and Jacob, I can live with anything.
Ryan closed his eyes at the sound of their muted laughter, remembering back to when he almost lost her.
“She’s waking up,” Kyle had told him, and Ryan had trembled with relief.
Twenty-four hours after Fin stirred for the first time, they’d taken the tubes out and she began breathing on her own. He wanted to weep as he watched her eyes flutter open.
“Ryan,” she rasped, her first word throaty and just a bare whisper on her lips.
“I’m here, baby,” he replied, brushing her hair off her forehead with the flat of his palm.
“Can’t see you,” she mumbled.
Ryan was hovering above Fin, looking right at her; but her eyes were blank and unfocused, staring at the ceiling like empty pools. He buzzed for the doctor immediately, fumbling the button in his panic.
“Ryan?” she called out, her voice cracking on the word.
He squeezed her hand. “Shhh, sweetheart. I’m right here.”
Her eyelids closed and she drifted back under again when the nurse came in.
“She says she can’t see,” he told her.
Frowning, the nurse left abruptly, returning ten minutes later with Doctor Lee, the man who’d been working around the clock since Ryan had arrived at the hospital. He went straight to Fin’s bedside, lifting her eyelids and waving his bright penlight back and forth.
“Why can’t she see?” Ryan demanded to know.
“How was her speech?” the doctor asked him, ignoring Ryan’s question. “Was it slurred? Did she know who you were?”
“It was fine. Scratchy, from the tube, but otherwise okay, and yes, she called me by name, why?”
Fin’s doctor moved to the end of the bed, picking up her chart. “We’re going to have to send her upstairs for testing. If you can return to the waiting room, we’ll come get you when she comes back down.”
“Tests for what?”
Dr. Lee conferred quietly with the nurse. She left the room and he looked at Ryan as he tucked the chart away. “It looks like Fin might have suffered a minor stroke while she was in a coma.”
Ryan’s brows drew together. “A stroke?”
“It’s common for this to happen,” Dr. Lee told him. “Her body’s been under a lot of stress, along with her heart. When blood flow—”
“I know what a stroke is, but her sight? Is that permanent?”
“I can’t give you any guarantees right now, but if it was a stroke, then it was only mild. Loss of vision can be one of the symptoms, but in mild cases, it usually returns within twenty-four hours.”