Page 26 of Now & Forever
James almost shoved aside the poor nurse leading him and Gwen when he caught sight of Cassandra from the other end of the waiting room. The delicate debutante sat up, her face reddened with tears and fright. Her mother’s hand rubbed her back, and her father’s eyes remained fixed on James.
The gang was all here. The only thing shocking Gwen was that they hadn’t brought the nanny and an assistant along.
No, wait.Therewas the nanny, coming out of the restroom to find the Welshes and the Meranges clashing together in the middle of an otherwise quiet waiting room.
“James!” Cassandra leaped up from her seat and went straight to him. Good thing Gwen hadn’t decided to get in the way. Otherwise, she would soon find herself against the wall or on the floor.Bad enough I want to be there, anyway.The alcohol had not worn off as quickly for her. Anxiety had been efficient at rousing James’s survival instincts, but Gwen was still stumbling against the furniture and really, really cursing Ian Mathers for ordering three rounds of shots.For a former bartender, I sure don’t hold my liquor well.
“Cassie.” James embraced her. Gwen was going to be sick, and the alcohol was not helping that conundrum. “How’s Patrick? What happened?”
“He… I don’t know… he just… wasn’t well all of a sudden, and when I took his temperature…”
Sarah Welsh approached them with the haughty demeanor of a woman who knew better than anyone else in the room. That included the nurse at her station, and the doctor shuffling down the hall to check on a different baby in the NICU. “Patrick had a bit of a fever, and we thought it best to bring him into the hospital for a checkup. I’m sure everything will be fine.” She rubbed James’s arm with a smile, as ifhewere her son-in-law. Gwen, meanwhile, stayed far out of everyone’s way. She didn’t want them smelling the alcohol on her breath.
“What if I… what I got him sick…” Cassandra clasped her hands over her face and flung herself into James’s arms. Nah. Gwen was definitely going to be the sick one if she didn’t get her ass to the women’s room in thirty seconds.
She attempted to wash the club and the alcohol off her body. Luckily, she carried a travel toothbrush set in her purse, and by the time she gave her teeth a good scrub and re-emerged from the bathroom, everyone had settled back down into the waiting room. Mr. Welsh fell asleep on the end of his couch while the nanny texted on her phone. Sarah and James flanked Cassandra on another couch, assuring her that she wasn’t a terrible mother and that babies got sick all the time. Yes, even the babies that grew up in the lap of luxury.
She really loves that boy, I guess.Gwen knew that already, but seeing the tragically beautiful Cassandra Welsh sobbing over her child put some perspective into the hearts around her.I can’t fault her for that.Gwen could, however, fault the young mother for dragging James into this shitfest. If the boy wasn’t in danger of dying, did it really require his father to be there? A phone call in the morning should have been sufficient.
Not that Gwen was jealous or anything.
The doctor emerged ten minutes later with good news: Patrick had the flu, but to be on the safe side, he would like to keep the boy for the night to make sure he was hydrated and that his fever could safely come down.
“Things like these are so hard to prevent no matter how you slice it,” the genial doctor said to the group in the waiting room. “Patrick didn’t have his flu shot this winter, did he?”
“His pediatrician worried that he might be immunocompromised,” Sarah explained.
“That could do it. More than likely either yourselves or members of your staff brought it into the home. Boys Patrick’s age are quite susceptible to…”
Sarah interrupted him. “Everyoneis required to have their shots before they work in my home. My husband has health issues of his own, and since Patrick was born, I’ve been extra diligent about making sure everyone…” she turned Irene, still texting. “Wait. Didyouhave your flu shot this year?”
“Uh…” The nanny looked up from her phone. “I… think so? I had some kind of shot before Christmas, Madam Welsh.”
“I knew it,” Sarah snapped. “That man you go gallivanting off to see on Tuesdays. He’s probablyriddledwith diseases.”
James intervened before the nanny could be embarrassed in the middle of a hospital waiting room. “It could’ve as easily been me.” Never mind Gwen knew for a fact that both she and James had their flu shots… it had been madevery clearto them that nobody was visiting Patrick until needles were in arms. James had quipped that it might prevent him from getting the flu that year. Who knew!
“James…” Cassandra put her hands on his.
“Anyway,” the doctor motioned to a door at the end of the short hallway. “Now’s a good time to see him, Mr. and Mrs. Merange.”
Nobody corrected him. Not even Gwen, who swallowed a lump the size of her oncoming headache down her throat. James shared one exasperated look at her as he stood up, Cassandra’s hand still in his. The look was apologetic, but Gwen knew what it meant.“Sorry, hon. I’ve gotta do this. Be right back.”
Gwen didn’t bother closing the gap between herself and the Welshes. They likewise did not acknowledge her.
Nobody was forbidden from going up to the Patrick’s room door and stealing a peek. Gwen had no intention of doing that. It wasn’t her business. Plenty of people could line up in front of her to see her stepson.
She sat down on a chair on the far side of the room. Fifteen minutes later, she nearly fell asleep.
Suppose it wouldn’t hurt to go get a countdown to when we can go home…
She didn’t look at the Welshes as she tiptoed down the hall – well,flaileddown the hall, because getting up on her heels after three shots of liquor and fatigue claiming her did not lend itself to tiptoeing – and quietly approached Patrick’s door. Gwen didn’t know what she expected to behold. A toddler sleeping in a hospital bed made for children his size. His parents quietly discussing what to do now that their son had survived his first real hospitalization since his birth.
Instead, Gwen saw something she knew she was never meant to see.
Both James and Cassandra stood over their son’s bed, silent and full of their private thoughts Gwen would never understand. Cassandra sniffed every few seconds, her red eyes and the tear stains on her cheeks begging someone to take pity on her. The infuriating part? Gwen genuinely did not believe Ms. Welsh did that on purpose. She was so absorbed in the well-being of her little boy that there was no space in her heart or head to seduce everyone into taking care ofher.
That’s how she was. Gwen would never understand what it was like to be Cassandra. Cassandra probably barely understood it.
