Chapter 31

Devin's exam was over and Peter had headed Above just moments before Vincent entered the hospital chamber. When Vincent inquired about Devin, Father tried to pull him aside to give him the results of the morning's exam. Devin, however, forestalled his parent by saying, "Oh come on Father! I was here, I know that nothing you did got any response! You don't have to skulk off into a dark corner to tell Vincent that!"

"But that really isn't an indicator of anything permanent. Father didn't you say it could take days for the swelling to go down enough to know anything for sure or at least until the X-ray machine gets here today," Vincent replied.

"Yes! Both of those are true!" Father insisted.

"Then why do you look like the picture of gloom and doom?!" Devin questioned.

"Probably because he hasn't had breakfast yet. Father why don't you go and do that, and I will sit with Devin?"

"I think I will do just that," Father agreed and met Rebecca on her way in as he left.

"How is he, Father?" she asked.

"No change as of yet, my dear. We hope to know more when Peter returns with the X-ray machine."

"Thank you," she told him.

Rebecca entered the chamber in time to hear Vincent asking Devin, "So why, if you knew that there was nothing definite about your condition, did you send Jenny away last night?"

Waiting behind a screen where she couldn't be seen by the two brothers, Rebecca tried to keep joy from filling her being at Vincent's question. She needed to know Devin's reason before she would allow herself to hope there might be a chance at all for her.

"It was just the right thing to do for a lot of reasons, little brother."

"Devin, that is an answer worth of a politician! What are the real reasons!?"

She wanted to wait to see if Devin would tell Vincent more, but she could hear someone coming down the passageway with a breakfast tray and didn't want to get caught eavesdropping so she stepped into the chamber and said, "Good morning Devin, it's good to see you awake. Hello Vincent, where is Catherine?"

"She went Above," Vincent replied.

While Devin greeted her with his, get-out-of-answering smile, with a cheerful, "Good morning Rebecca."

Before anyone could say anything else Geoffrey came in with Devin's breakfast, "Hi everyone!"

They all answered the child who put the tray down and said he needed to hurry back to the kitchen. Rebecca moved the tray and said she would be happy to feed Devin if Vincent needed to get to his morning class.

He acknowledged that he did need to go and said a pleasant good-bye to Rebecca. However, as he took his leave of his brother, Vincent bent close to Devin's ear and assured him that the conversation about Jenny was not over.

Devin hated being helpless and having someone have to feed him was humiliating, but Rebecca was kind and did not make a production of it. As she held the spoon out to him she talked of everyday things. She told him about Olivia and Kanin's son Luke taking his first step and about Mouse's latest invention. Rebecca also reported that she had seen Father and Mary holding hands a couple of days ago. By the time she started speculating on names for Catherine and Vincent's child the porridge was nearly gone and Devin realized that it hadn't been all that bad to be fed by Rebecca. She called for the tray to be removed and the two of them chatted away until a commotion could be heard out in the passageway.

To be continued…..