Page 139 of Family Bonds: Coy & Angel

“I just need a minute. I’ll be in soon.”

His father left him out there to sit and stare at nothing.

He turned when he heard a noise and saw it was Spencer.

“This is your fault. If something happens to my sister.”

“Fuck you, Spencer,” he snapped. “I love you, but I don’t need this on my shoulders. I just don’t.”

Spencer seemed taken back and stopped. “Don’t be an asshole.”

“Look in the mirror at who is being an asshole. I love her too. I’m a fucking wreck and don’t need shit from you that I’m to blame for this. Don’t you think I’m blaming myself enough? I should have been watching her and doing more.”

“She’s not happy when you do those things,” Spencer said after a pause.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know. Because you did all that shit to her and now I can’t.”

“So now you’re going to blame me?” Spencer asked.

“Enough you two,” Barb said. “Spencer, I want to smack you. Say you’re sorry to Coy. We are all feeling the pressure, but that is no reason to add stress to your relationship. No one is at fault.”

Coy was looking at his best friend and knew his eyes were filling with tears.

“Sorry,” Spencer said, reaching his hand out. “I’m a mess. Between this and work and not sleeping. I don’t know if I’m coming or going.”

He felt bad he hadn’t talked to his best friend much in the past month, but Spencer had been traveling a lot for work again too.

“The same,” he said, shaking Spencer’s hand and bringing him in for a hug. “Life is messy and this is one of those times. I need you as much as you need me. Can we just do that for each other?”

“Yeah,” Spencer said.

“I came out here to tell you they’ve got Angel in a room. You can go see her. I think they are doing an exam and hooking up monitors.”

Coy all but ran past his mother-in-law and into the hall of the hospital. It didn’t help because he didn’t know where he was going.

He spotted Ava. “She’s in room 2B. I just got done with her exam. Come in and I’ll talk to you both. Some she knows and it’s just being repeated.”

He followed Ava into the room and saw Angel on the bed, monitors hooked up to her stomach and chest. Not anything he wanted to see. She had an IV in her arm too.

“Is this normal?”

“Yes,” Ava said. “We are monitoring the baby and Angel at the same time. I did an exam and she’s not dilated, which is good, but she is having contractions that we need to stop.”

“Can you?” he asked.

“I’m going to try.” Ava pulled out a syringe. “This is going to burn. I’m sorry. It might help if you can hold Coy’s hand. Make it his left in case you hurt him.”

“I’m tough,” he said and sat next to his wife.

“Are you ready?” Ava asked.

“I am,” Angel said.

Ava injected the needle into Angel’s arm and it seemed like forever for her to slowly push the medicine in.

“Son of a bitch,” Angel said, squeezing his fingers to the point he thought the circulation was going to be cut off. “It’s like a lit match on my skin.”

“I’m sorry,” Ava said. “Almost done.”

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