Chapter 10 - Where the Waves Settle
The intensive care room was quiet, save for the steady, reassuring beep of the cardiac monitor.
Sunlight, pale and golden, broke through the clouds over Bangor, spilling across the clean white sheets. Caleb lay propped up at a slight angle, an oxygen cannula resting beneath his nose, a massive surgical dressing taping down his right shoulder. He looked pale, bruised, and profoundly exhausted, but his eyes were open, staring at the autumn leaves drifting past the fifth-floor window.
The door creaked open.
Caleb turned his head slowly, a wince of pain tightening his jaw.
Hannah stood in the doorway.
She wasn't wearing the glamorous gown from the gala, nor the stained sweatshirt from the waiting room. She wore a soft cream sweater and dark denim, her hair gathered loosely behind her neck. Held securely in her arms was Noah, who peered curiously at the beeping machines with wide, solemn hazel eyes.
Caleb’s breath caught in his throat. His uninjured left hand gripped the edge of the mattress, his knuckles turning white as he fought back the emotion threatening to overwhelm his monitors.
""Hannah,"" he whispered, his voice raspy and raw.
Hannah walked into the room, her steps quiet on the linoleum. She stopped beside the bed. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The three years of silence, anger, misunderstandings, and bloodshed hung between them, heavy as lead, yet strangely fragile in the morning light.
""Dean told me,"" Hannah said softly.
Caleb closed his eyes for a second, swallowing hard. ""He wasn't supposed to.""
""He had to,"" Hannah replied, her voice trembling slightly. ""Because you are too stubborn and too arrogant to ever admit that you were trying to be a hero when all I needed was a husband.""
Caleb looked up at her, his eyes shining with unshed tears. ""I failed you, Hannah. Regardless of the bomb, regardless of Vane... I let you believe you were secondary. That is a sin I will spend the rest of my life repenting for.""
Hannah looked down at his shattered shoulder, then up at his weathered face. The wall of icy anger she had built around her heart for three long years had crumbled into dust on the wet gravel of her driveway, washed away by the blood he had spilled to keep their son safe.
She gently set Noah down onto the foot of the bed.
""Go on, baby,"" Hannah whispered, encouraging him.
Noah scrambled up on his knees, moving cautiously toward the strange man in the bed. He stopped near Caleb’s uninjured left arm, his small fingers reaching out to touch the plastic hospital bracelet around Caleb’s wrist.
""Does it hurt?"" Noah asked, his voice clear and sweet.
""Not anymore, buddy,"" Caleb choked out, his throat working violently as he reached out his left hand, gently resting his broad palm over Noah’s small, warm shoulder. It was the same touch he had used on Hannah’s belly every morning four years ago. ""Not anymore.""
Noah leaned forward and placed his stuffed bear against Caleb’s chest, right beside the cardiac monitor leads. ""Teddy keeps the bad noises away. You can borrow him.""
Caleb broke. He turned his face into Noah’s small flannel shoulder, his chest heaving with silent, cleansing sobs. Noah patted Caleb’s dark hair with clumsy toddler comfort, looking up at his mother with an innocent smile.
Hannah stepped closer. She placed her hand over Caleb’s trembling fingers, weaving her fingers through his.
Caleb looked up, searching her face with a desperate, questioning hope.
""I am not coming back to the mansion in Miami,"" Hannah said quietly, though her voice was full of warmth and forgiveness. ""That house belongs to the ghosts of the people we used to be.""
""I’ll sell it,"" Caleb answered immediately, without a second’s hesitation. ""I’ll burn it to the ground. I’ll buy the cottage next to yours in Camden. I’ll live in a tent in your front yard. Anything, Hannah. Whatever it takes.""
Hannah smiled through her tears, reaching up with her free hand to brush a lock of hair from his forehead.
""You won't need a tent,"" she said softly. ""The carriage house has an extra room. But you have to learn how to fix clocks. Noah has a collection, and they all need winding.""
Caleb let out a breath that sounded like a prayer, pulling her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles with a reverence that promised an entire lifetime of devotion.
May you like
""I have plenty of time,"" Caleb whispered, his hazel eyes shining as he looked from his wife to his son. ""All the time in the world.""
Outside the hospital window, the last clouds of the coastal squall parted, revealing a brilliant, unbroken blue sky that stretched all the way to the sea."
