When they go to the hospital, just in time for lunch, Nan only stays ten minutes or so before excusing herself to go shopping, and telling Ryan to give her a ring when he wants picking up.
Alex is surprisingly well. After last night, Ryan isn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but to have him sitting up in bed, clear-eyed and composed and quiet again…
Bandaged head and slightly too-pale skin notwithstanding, he doesn’t look like anything’s happened at all.
“Thank God,” Ryan says, and kisses him firmly the moment Nan is gone.
“Hardly a religious experience,” Alex quips, but he smiles into the kiss, and his hands aren’t as cool as they were the night before.
“When are they letting you out?”
“Perhaps tonight,” Alex says. “The doctor’s coming back at four.”
“Why not this morning?”
Alex g
