Jacob stood back and watched the scene in front of him, one he still didn't quite believe. Connie was assessing the wound and then reading the notes, a plan formulating in her mind, and Grace and Mia had their heads bent together as they flicked through the photos on Mia's phone. For a moment, Jacob allowed himself to view them all as his unconventional family. This is where he belonged, and he hadn't felt like he belonged in a long time.
"Mia, I'm going to go and talk to your doctor about making you more comfortable, okay?" Connie smiled at the girl in the bed before walking from the room, her heels clicking on the floor as she walked with purpose.
"Woah! Sweet cheeks, it's after midnight, her treating doctor is not going to be around." Jacob pointed out as he rushed after her.
"Then I will wake him up. The pain relief he's giving her is woefully inadequate, and that wound needs debridement. The longer it's left like that, the more likely she is to lose her leg."
"She might lose her leg?" Jacob asked quietly, for the thought had never occurred to him.
Connie stopped then and turned back to Jacob, taking his hands in hers to squeeze them tightly. "That's worst case scenario, and I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen. And if her doctor doesn't agree with me, then...I'll have her moved to Holby."
Jacob smiled at this and released Connie's hands to allow her to continue her march towards the nurses' station.
He returned back to the room, grinning as he heard the fall of the two voices inside.
"We'll let her terrorize some staff members for a few minutes, if she's not back in that time, then I'll go and rescue them." He winked at the girls, before leaning back against the door, half listening to their conversation, but mostly taking the time to just pause and properly take in what was going to happen. It seemed as though Grace would be happy for Mia to stay with Connie, perhaps even happy for him to stay with them too. Having Mia around might just prove to Grace that she wasn't going to be abandoned.
He heard her heels clicking down the ward before she came to the door of the side room, and as she opened the door he moved closer to the bed, the two girls looking up to watch as Connie replaced Mia's notes by the bed.
"Okay Mia, tomorrow morning the surgeons are going to operate, and you are going to feel a lot better. Someone is going to come in a minute to give you some medicine which will make you quite sleepy, but I promise that we'll all still be here when you wake up, okay?" Mia nodded, and Grace reached over to squeeze the girl's hand. Connie then looked to Jacob and mouthed to him, and he nodded in reply before beckoning to Grace to follow him out of the door.
"Come on, we'll come back in a minute. I need you to help me find your Mum something to eat, you know what she's like." Grace grinned, and waved a quick goodbye to Mia before closing the door behind her. Connie moved then to the chair that Grace had been occupying, placing her bag on her lap and watching as Mia turned to look at her.
"Close your eyes, open your hands."
Mia did as she was told, and Connie smiled as she took out the pair of shoes from her bag.
"Open!" Connie smiled. She'd missed doing this with Grace.
Mia gasped at the shoes, staring at them in silence for a long time before she lifted her big eyes to Connie. "For me?"
"For you." Connie nodded. "For when you're all better. Now you don't have to try on mine because you have some all of your own."
Mia hugged the shoes tightly to her chest, closing her eyes. "Uncle Jacob said you don't let anyone touch your shoes. Not even Grace?"
"Not even Grace." Connie confirmed, stroking hair back from Mia's face. "Grace is having a hard time at the moment, a bit like you, so I was hoping you might like to be friends."
"Does that mean I might come to your house for sleepovers?" Mia asked hopefully. "Maybe you could show me all of your shoes."
Connie smiled at this and was unable to resist leaning forward to drop a kiss to the girl's forehead. "I promise that when you're better you and Grace can have a sleepover, and I will show you all my shoes. And if you're really brave when they give you that injection soon, I will let you touch my very favourite pair."
Mia smiled, and when the nurse came in to inject her, she put on her bravest face, and soon her eyelids began to grow heavy. "Will you tell...Uncle Jacob…" She attempted, but whatever she wanted to say was lost in sleep.