Was he even breathing?
The knowledge of what he had been given was totally overwhelming. The life, the life they had made together was growing inside her…and that feeling of total glorious rightness was quickly followed by an insidious fear that spread its roots like a cancer. He had so much to lose, in this place right now, how could that not scream at him? It was all so fragile—this happiness could be snatched away from him at any moment.
‘I can see this is a bit of a shock and I understand, but what…?’
His jacket still held the heat of his body as without a word he draped it around her shoulders. He still hadn’t said anything to her, and she wondered if that was going to be his response—ignore it and it’ll go away!
The knot of hurt in her chest tipped over into anger. ‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’
His muscles along the angular line of his jaw clenched as he carefully closed the door to the sitting room behind him. ‘Not in there. I need some fresh air and the people in there at the moment…’ His eyes brushed the closed door. Symbolically closing his own internal one on his fear, Draco chose instead to embrace life and love and… He fought down the urge to crush her against him and claim that mouth for his own. ‘Need some privacy.’
And I need some answers or questions or both… She needed something from him; after weeks of not knowing she still didn’t know. ‘Why?’
He angled a brow and said quietly, ‘Think about where we are, Eve. Parents get to make some tough decisions in here.’
‘Oh!’ Even in her emotional state she had noticed the couple sitting beside an empty cot when she had arrived. Their faces had stayed with her, a mixture of fear, resignation and anger that had fed the sense of dread that lay like a cold stone in her chest.
Unconsciously her own hands went to her stomach where there was a slight but defined bump to curve them around. Her size had resulted in a few raised eyebrows during her recent first antenatal appointment and the phrase big for dates had been bandied around. Eve was totally confident that her scan the following week would confirm her dates. There was only one time it could have been, as Draco had always taken care that way. There had just been the one time when the condom had split.
Rather naively she had imagined that one time would be OK.
She tipped her head, her eyes sliding towards the closed door. It certainly put things into perspective. ‘All right, but I can’t be away from my brother for long.’
‘What I have to say won’t take long.’
They were words Eve struggled to take any comfort from as she also struggled to keep up with his long-legged pace. All the corridors seemed the same to her, the place was a maze, but Draco seemed to know exactly which way to head.
Probably in the daytime the gravelled quadrangle with its tubs of flowers and benches would be popular, but not surprisingly at this time of night it was empty.
As they stepped outside Eve took a deep gulp of fresh air and looked up at the light-filled rows of windows surrounding them. She shook her head.
‘How do people work here day in and day out, seeing all that…grief?’ She had forgotten the exact percentage in the recent article she had begun to read. Eve had scared herself so much she had stopped halfway through—it had been about survival rates in very premature births, but the numbers had horrified her and it seemed that many very young babies that did survive had long-term medical problems.