"I thought you were going in to see Daniel." The voice of the young girl beside him made Bill Regan step back and away from the door to Daniel's hospital room.
"Mart's in with him, now." Regan said. "Let's give them a minute." He tore himself away from his worry, forced himself to give a weak smile, and then pulled on the teen girl's arm gently to lead her to the small waiting area just beyond the nurse's station. They sat together quietly for a long moment before the large, red headed man reached over and patted her hand. "Everything okay upstairs?"
"Oh, you know how Granddaddy is," the girl replied rolling her eyes. "He doesn't want anyone messing with him, but Mom says his pressure's too high for him to just walk away, and he's fussing because he didn't want to stay last night, and they won't clear him to leave, and he says this isn't what he signed up for when he agreed to give blood for Daniel yesterday…." The girl sighed and let out a small laugh.
Regan couldn't help but laugh also. The thought of Mr. Belden giving the nurses upstairs a hard time was confirmation that the man was actually just fine. He studied the face of the young person in front of him. She tucked a strand of long, black hair behind her ear and then turned up her blackberry eyes to his. He felt his chest tighten when she began chewing her lip nervously and gave another sigh. It was déjà vu. It took him back …
"Regan, do you think Dan will be alright? " Hallie looked into his eyes searchingly as she sank down beside him in the waiting room. The others had fallen asleep around them, and Regan was surprised to see that she had outlasted them all.
"This surgery has such a high success rate…and…Dr. Rembret seemed so confident that I…honestly, Hallie… I…I'm… scared to death." He had not intended to break down so hard, or to grasp her so closely, but her mutual need for comfort trumped his embarrassment. He was grateful that the others did not see them trembling together and sobbing into one another.
"Hello…are you even listening to me?" The soft voice pulled Regan from his thoughts.
"I am so sorry, what did you say?" Regan turned to the girl feeling his cheeks grow warm with a rising blush.
"Uncle Peter said that he was bringing you back some coffee, but I told him you would rather have some hot chocolate. Was that right?" The insecurity in her voice was not at all in keeping with her usually confident personality. It bothered him to see her doubt herself in any way.
"Yes, thank you, that is exactly what I need right now." He tried to let her know how much he appreciated her at that moment by reaching over and squeezing her hand. She looked as if she was about to say something, but bit back her words and then quickly hopped up off her seat to pace in front of an end table. She pretended to thumb through the periodicals scattered there.
"I…I wish I brought a book. These magazines are all out of date and so boring."
Regan knew he had to do something, say something, to fix this growing awkwardness between them. He knew why it was there. But, try as he might, he did not know how to say what needed to be said. She wasn't a child, but she wasn't an adult either. This wasn't going to be easy. He stepped behind her and carefully touched her shoulder as he began to speak.
"I know that a lot of information has been given to you and your brothers to process in the past two days, and I can guess that you probably feel like I betrayed you a bit when… " She cut him off by whirling around and suddenly pushing herself into his arms. He couldn't say anything more when he felt her choking on her sobs and trying not to cry.
"Can you…just tell me…one thing?" She asked in a timid voice.
"Anything." Regan breathed into her hair. He meant it.
"Were you already in love with Mom back before…before…Cousin Dan died?"