“I hate leaving you here,” Hunter says as he places their overnight bags in the guest room of his parents’ house.
“We’ll be fine,” she says, gesturing to Zip chewing on a bone. “You do what you need to do.”
Hunter sags onto the edge of the mattress. It’s not even been an hour since they left the hospital and he wants more than anything to be back there…with his daughter.
“I need you,” he says into his hands, and Dahlia rubs a hand down his back.
“And you have me. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
He angles his body to Dahlia into him and kisses her lips softly. “I love you, little flower. This doesn’t change that.”
She wishes they had more time for him to show her how much he truly does love her, if for nothing else, but to shove the conversation she had with his mother out of her mind for good.
“I love you, solider.”
“I need to get back,” he says. “But I’ll call you. Okay?” He crouches to Zip and rubs his head. “You take care of my girl, got it? I’m trusting you.”
Dahlia smiles at the pair on the floor, and Hunter winces as he straightens. For the second time in twenty-four hours, he’s leaving Dahlia behind, and it makes him feel sick. She insisted that he eat something on the way to his parents. Thank goodness she’s stubborn enough to not take no for an answer.
When he gets to Faith’s room, he’s surprised to find Lauren in a wheelchair beside the bed. “Oh, I can give you time.”
She rolls back to face him. “No, you’re fine. I just—when she wakes up, I don’t want her to be alone.”
Hunter studies his childhood best friend. She looks so tired with dark purple circles under her eyes and her skin is so pale, he’s expects to see her veins. “You should go rest, Ren.”
“You haven’t called me that in years.” Even her voice sounds childlike. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Hunter. I’m sorry for all of this. You were always honest with me and when it mattered, I—” She coughs so hard her body shakes and she slumps forward. Hunter rushes to her side and helps her sit back in the wheelchair.
“It doesn’t matter. But Faith needs her mommy to be strong when she wakes up. C’mon, I’ll take you back, then I’ll sit with her.”
Hunter pushes Lauren to her room and lifts her into her bed.
“You’ll be a great dad,” she tells him. Her eyes are so heavy she barely mumbles a thanks before she’s asleep. The hospital is quiet this late at night. He lays back in her his chair, keeping his pointer finger under Faith’s hand.
“I can’t wait to see your beautiful eyes, baby girl,” he whispers to her.
“Hunter,” a voice says far away. Something touches his shoulder and he jumps up from his chair. His mom jumps back, her eyes wide. He forces his breathing to slow and rubs a hand over his face.
“Sorry, I must have fallen asleep. What time is it?”
Lydia steps closer and hesitantly runs a hand down his arm. “It’s three in the morning, sweetie.”
“Why are you here, then?”
He looks into his mother’s eyes for the first time. They’re rimmed in red…she’s been crying. Hunter jerks his attention to Faith. Then the machines hooked to her. Everything looks the same as it did when he got there, so what has his mother so upset? The only other person with her was — “Is Dahlia okay? Zip? What’s going on?” Hunter panics when his mom doesn’t answer right away. “Mom!” he shouts, needing her to tell him why are lip is quivering and tears well in her eyes. If anything happened to Dahlia—he won’t survive it.
“It’s Lauren,” she chokes out, and Hunter tries to make sense of what she is talking about. He was just with Lauren a couple of hours ago. She was fine. “Honey, she’s gone. The doctors said an aneurysm ruptured. Nobody saw it coming. I’m so sorry.”
He shakes his head in disbelief while his mother is on the verge of a breakdown.
Faith’s mother is gone. She’s going to wake up and the one person she’s had from the beginning, that she relied on, won’t be here anymore. And there isn’t anything he can do to protect her from that pain.
“Hunter?” Lydia says, looking for confirmation he heard her.
“Okay,” he sighs, rubbing his hands on his jeans and pulling from his training to battle one problem at a time. “Okay. I’m not leaving her alone,” he says, pointing at Faith. “I’m going to be here when she wakes up. Mom,” He looks up at his mother with pleading eyes. “I need Dahlia. Do whatever you have to do to get her in here. Please, for me.”
She nods, realizing he loves her in a way she didn’t realize. There is no denying now, in his time of need, the one person he wants, even more than his own mother, is Dahlia. “Of course. We’ll watch over Zip while you two are here. Don’t worry about him. If you need anything, you call. Okay?”
It isn’t until his mom closes the door that he lets himself fall apart. He cries for his childhood best friend and first love. For the man he left behind in the war. For his parents whose hearts he broke when he left. And for his daughter fighting for her life, looking far too small for this bed.
“Please, please wake up,” he begs to whoever is listening.
By the time Dahlia steps through the door, tears silently trail down his cheeks. “Oh, Hunter,” she says and leans down to hug his shoulders. When Lydia called and said Hunter needed her and told her about what happened, she didn’t hesitate to rush over here. Zip wasn’t happy about staying with Jared at the house, but he listened.
“I can’t believe she’s gone and now…I’m the only parent this little girl has and she’s going to wake up to meet a stranger.”
Dahlia rests her cheek atop his head. “We’ll take it one step at a time. Together.”