While I Was Away(18)

They were both sort of the babies of their family – he'd been the littlest Reins for six whole years before she'd come along, so they'd both gotten to experience all the spoiling that came with the position of youngest child. They would laugh together about all the crazy stuff they could get away with as “the babies”, while River and Ocean were always held to “older child” standards.

Now she can't laugh at all.

He heard light footsteps walking across the room behind him, but he didn't bother turning around.

“Did you know,” he started in a quiet voice. “I was the first to hold her?”

“Really?” Zoey Blanke appeared next to him.

“Yeah. They took her out and cleaned her up. My dad had fainted – Mom needed an emergency cesarean – and River and Ocean had been fighting with each other. I was only six, but really tall for my age. Big. The nurse thought I was older. She made me sit in a chair and told me to hold out my arms, then she laid Adele in them. She looked at me. I know that's not normal for babies, but I swear, the moment she was in my arms, Adele's eyes popped open and she looked straight at me. No crying. No fussing. Just staring. I remember thinking I was in love.”

August ended with a laugh, but didn't find it at all funny. He would give anything to see those eyes open again. Just to look at him, one more time. Adele had always made him feel like there was more to him than just a good slap shot. She'd never cared much about his hockey career – she'd only ever cared about him.

“That's very sweet,” Zoey sighed, then she cleared her throat. “Usually no one is here around this time, are you leaving soon?”

He barked out a laugh.

“Hi to you, too, Zoey.”

“You're interrupting girl time.”

“I'm sorry ... what?”

Zoey had a way of always catching him off guard. She probably did that to everybody. He glanced around the room, double checking she was actually talking to him.

“Every Thursday, I do her nails and catch her up on gossip. This is my time with Adele,” she clarified.

August stepped away when she started taking items out of her massive purse and laying them on the bed. She obviously wanted him to leave, so he decided to pull up a chair and sit down near her, instead. Then he watched as she pulled Adele's left hand close and began scrubbing off the hot pink polish that was already there. Next, Zoey pulled out a bottle of neon green and began waving it around, shaking it up.

“You do this every Thursday?” he asked while she clipped and cleaned and used what looked like evil torture devices to push back Adele's cuticles.

“Yup. Pink last week. Green this week. I'm thinking white next week.”

“Seems like a lot of work,” he mumbled, watching as she began brushing the paint over Adele's thumbnail.

“Not really. Now shhh, I've got some catching up to do with my best friend.”

Zoey got right down over Adele's hand, all her focus on her work. When she got into a rhythm with the brush, she began talking. She filled her friend in on what was going on at her job and the different things that were happening with their friends. A TV show they were both obsessed with was discussed at length, but the episode endings were never given away. “Spoilers,” she'd whispered to him with a wink.

“You know, I gotta say, I'm kinda shocked. I've never seen you be so ... nice,” August finally said. Zoey laughed as she collected her gear and switched to the other side of the bed.

“I'm usually not. Adele brings it out of me. I told her once I think that's why we were destined to be friends. We balance each other. I give her some bite, and she smooths my edges. Me and this chick, we're a solid team,” she told him as she got to work on Adele's other hand.

“Destined, huh. You believe in that stuff? Destiny? Fate?” he was curious.

“Sure. I think destiny brought me and her together, brought you to hockey, brought Ocean to the land-of-no-sense-of-humor,” she replied. He snorted and laughed.

“Okay, but if you believe that, then you believe Adele was meant to be in this coma.”

Zoey was silent for a long time after that, concentrating on her brush strokes. Then, when she was finished with the fingernails, she moved to the end of the bed and started working on Adele's toenails.

“Honestly, August?” she started speaking again. “I do. I think wherever Adele is, she's meant to be there. She's probably doing great things that we can't even fathom. That's why she has to do them in her dreams. And when she's done, she'll come back to us.”

“She's taking her sweet fucking time,” he grumbled, watching his sister's face.

“Well, anything that needs doing, needs doing right. I have faith. Give her time, she'll come back when she's ready.”

August wasn't so sure about that; he wasn't quite as optimistic as the rest of his family. In his profession, he'd seen career ending concussions. Been privy to a lot of conversations about head injuries. He wasn't a doctor, not by any means, but he felt like he had a greater understanding of Adele's situation than the rest of his family.

I'm not ready for her to go. I didn't get to say goodbye.

He almost thought he was going to cry – something he did not want to do in front of a person like Zoey Blanke. But then he felt something. Skin brushing against skin. He blinked his eyes rapidly and looked down, then quickly laughed. She'd reached over and painted his pinky nail bright green. When he looked at her, she was painting the same nail on her own hand. After she was done, she held it up and wiggled it at him.