Chapter 23

The hospital chamber went from the quiet stillness that it had been all night to what seemed to be the hustle and bustle of Grand Central Station in less than a minute. First, Mary and Father arrived. Mary greeted Rebecca as Father immediately went to check on Devin. Before he was able to begin his exam, Vincent and Peter arrived. Peter joined Father at Devin's bedside while Vincent explained that Catherine had gone Above to call her work as well as to let Jenny know what had happened to Devin. Just as he finished speaking, three of William's helpers arrived. One carried a large basket of freshly made muffins, another had a tray of butter and homemade jam, and the third had a large kettle of hot tea.

Mary quickly cleared a space for them to put everything down and the three left. However, none of the others made a move towards the food. All eyes were on Father and Peter.

When the silence had lasted as long as he could stand it, Vincent asked, "How is he Father?"

"I am a bit surprised that he hasn't shown any signs of waking up yet, but we did give him quite a bit of sedatives."

"Jacob, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't wake until this afternoon," Peter commented.

Father nodded and then added, "Barring that his vitals are good and as long as we can keep him as still as possible so he can heal I would say his chances are good."

"But you still don't know about his back, do you?" Rebecca asked.

"Not yet my dear. It could be a few days until we know more about that."

Vincent saw Rebecca visibly slump at that bit of news. He went over to her and put an arm around her shoulders, "Rebecca you are exhausted, why don't you go and get some sleep," as she was about to protest he forestalled her by saying, "I promise that someone will come and get you the minute there is any news at all."

"I want to know when he wakes up," she told him.

Even though Vincent knew that might only be a few hours away and hardly enough time for her to have gotten enough sleep, he promised that he would send someone to let her know. It seemed that Catherine might be right about Rebecca's feelings for his brother.

When Catherine returned from Above, a short time later, she reported that Jenny had been terribly upset by the news about Devin and would be down as soon as she could clear up a few things at work.

Seeing that things had not changed with Devin and that he still wasn't showing signs of waking, Catherine asked Vincent if she could talk to him alone in their chamber before Jenny had a chance to arrive. Vincent agreed and after making sure Mary would let them know if there was any change in Devin's condition he followed his wife out of the hospital chamber.

Catherine paced back and forth in their sitting room a few times trying to collect her thoughts before she spoke. However, once she started the words came pouring out seemingly getting faster and faster as the story of Joe and Gina unfolded. She ended with an impassioned plea, "Vincent what do I do?! Do I tell her on top of what has happened to Devin? Or do I stay quiet until he is out of the woods? But by that time she might have found out for herself or Joe might have gotten married to Gina!"

Vincent waited until she stopped pacing long enough to turn and look at him, he told her, "As in all things Catherine, you should follow your heart as to what to do. However, that being said, after this news about Devin you might want to wait until at least tomorrow before you add the information about Joe to her list of worries."

"Thank you Vincent!" she exclaimed, moving to give him a tight hug. "You always have the right answers! Now I am sure you want to get back to your brother and I would like to check in on him too, so why don't we head back and see how he is?"

Vincent smiled at her and with a nod offered his arm as they headed to the hospital chamber.

To be continued…..