Page 56 of It Must Be Fate

My voice comes out as nothing more than a croak. I find that words are impossible, that I can’t seem to remember how to even form them.

He doesn’t press me, doesn’t urge me to do anything until I can get my tongue working again. He simply lends his quiet support when I need it most.

“I can’t live without her, mate,” I finally manage to get out, my voice cracking loudly mid-sentence.

He shakes his head slowly, the first time he’s moved since I laid eyes on him. His hand squeezes my arm again and it pulls me slowly from the brink.

“You won’t have to. The best doctors in the world work here and they’re taking care of her right now. She’s going to make it.”

Rogue and Rhys are a few steps from us, just off to the side so that I don’t see them right away. They stare silently at me, at the devastation that’s so clearly pouring off of me, at the way I’ve been driven to the ground by my grief.

They’ve never seen me like this.

Not even when Astor died.

Behind them, I see the girls, all with tears in their eyes. Bellamy has her four-month-old son, Rhodes, strapped in a baby Bjorn to her chest. Thayer just recently left this hospital herself, having given birth to baby Ivy only five weeks ago. Her hand covers her mouth in shock as she watches me. And Nera is outright crying, tears streaming down her face as she holds her heavily pregnant belly and stares at me silently.

We did manage to get all of our wives pregnant at the same time and now I might lose mine forever.

Rogue takes one look at the mess that I am and grabs the nearest doctor he can get his hands on. He fists his shirt and shoves him up against the wall.

“Do you make the decisions around here?” he asks.

“N-no.”

He shoves him away. The doctor stumbles a few steps, dropping down to a knee before turning back to look at my friend.

“Bring me whoever does,” Rogue tells him with dispassionate cool.

Minutes later, an erudite looking Black man walks into the hallway and goes up to Rogue, the first doctor hot on his heels.

“You wanted to see me?”

Rogue tips his chin in my direction. “Save her life,” he orders. He turns his face back towards the man in charge. “Save her life and I’ll buy this hospital a whole new wing. An emergency room. A research center. All of the above. Whatever you want, I don’t give a fuck. If she lives, you’ll have it.”

Rhys steps up next to him, until both their backs are turned away from me. Still, I hear him say, “I’ll throw in unlimited visits until the end of time from myself and two other Arsenal stars. Think of it as your personal Make A Wish program on standby.”

The doctor splutters. “That’s not how it wor—”

Rogue takes a step forward, shutting him up. “Let me make this crystal fucking clear for you since I can see you’re in the mood to argue and we frankly don’t have time for a pissing contest, one that I would inevitably win anyway. If your best surgeon isn’t already in the operating theater saving my friend’s life, I need him or her to be in the next two minutes. Same with the best anesthesiologist. Same with the nurses. That’s what we’re asking for.”

The doctor swallows, then nods. “I’ll see what I can do.”

He’s on his phone before he’s even left the hall, and then he’s gone.

Rogue and Rhys turn around. When they find me staring at them, they give me an almost imperceptible nod. Together they walk over to where I’m seated and take their places on the floor to either side of me, their backs similarly pressed up against the wall.

Rhys’s arm comes over my shoulders and he presses me into him once, firmly, before releasing me.

No further words are exchanged between us.

Time drags on and we wait.

It’s agonizing.

The worst pain I’ve ever known as I try not to let my mind roam to potentially walking out of here without my wife.

As I try not to let my mind roam to the last time I was in a hospital, when I almost lost Six after an allergic reaction to peanuts.

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