18. Annani
ANNANI
Annani stayed longer than she had meant to.
Amanda had started a story that had Sari laughing until she could not breathe, and Annani had sat at the table, letting herself enjoy her family for a little longer.
"Now I really have to go." She rose to her feet, and everyone rose with her to say their goodbyes.
"I am so glad that you decided to come." She hugged Sari. "Tomorrow morning, I will meet you at the clinic and introduce you to Khiann."
"I'm looking forward to it." Sari kissed her on both cheeks. "Is there a chance you will join David and me at the café after the visit?"
"That would be lovely," Annani said, thinking Khiann would be asleep after the visit, so there was no harm in her leaving to have breakfast with her daughter and son-in-law.
"Wonderful." Sari beamed. "I'm so excited."
Annani hoped Khiann would not mind. He had not objected when she told him about Sari, but there was a good chance he would not remember and would wake up tomorrow anxious once more about her children visiting.
When she walked through the ward's double doors, Julian greeted her with a tight smile.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Nothing troubling, Clan Mother. He's asleep now."
"Was he upset that I was not here?"
"He woke about an hour after you left and stayed awake for twenty-some minutes. He was quiet at first, but then his heart rate climbed and stayed elevated. He got agitated for some reason."
"He probably forgot that I told him I would be gone and got upset that I was not here when he woke up. Is his agitation a reason for concern?"
"Not clinically. But it was notable, and he made some progress, so it might even have been good.
He lifted his right arm off the blanket.
Only a few inches and then he dropped it again, but it was more than he's done since waking up.
A few minutes later he tried that again.
He might have been agitated because he was frustrated with how little he could do. "
"That is possible." Annani looked at the bed. "Was he trying to reach for something or signal that he needed something?"
Julian shook his head.
"There's nothing on that side. I walked over and stood where he could see me. I talked to him just to let him know that I was there, and I think he was trying to tell me something but couldn't. After a while, he settled and went under. That's all I have to report."
"Thank you." Annani sat down in her chair and took Khiann's hand.
He had lifted his arm, and it was good progress even if he had managed only a few inches off the bed. He could squeeze her fingers, he could move his eyebrows, and he could produce half a smile. She had coaxed all that out of him, but he had tried to lift his arm of his own accord.
He had wanted something badly enough to expend all of his energy on that small movement.
Had he been in pain?
He could not tell them when something hurt, but he had squeezed her hand twice when she had asked whether he was in pain. She had accepted his answer at face value, and it had not occurred to her to ask again.
But Julian would have known if Khiann was hurting. The monitoring equipment would have told him.
Had it been fear, perhaps?
He had opened his eyes, and she had not been there.
He had woken alone, with no one to help him because no one understood him.
She was not going to leave his side again for longer than an hour. She could still join Sari and David at the café tomorrow, since it would be right after Khiann fell asleep again, and she would not stay for long, so there was no chance he would wake up again while she was gone.
She would catch short naps in the rocking chair and go home only to shower and change, since she could do that in less than an hour. She would not go as far as bringing in a cot and sleeping next to his bed, but she could doze off in the chair, and no one would think anything of it.
Beside her, the monitor's rhythm changed, indicating that Khiann was surfacing again.
Annani was up and leaning over him before he opened his eyes, and when he saw her, his expression relaxed and that small, crooked smile lifted the corners of his lips.
"I am sorry I was not here when you woke up. I will not let that happen again. Did you forget what I told you about me having dinner with my family?"
He squeezed her hand twice.
She was not sure he understood her question correctly. "You remembered what I told you?"
One squeeze.
She searched his face, looking for a hint of what might have upset him, but he looked at her the same way he always did, as if he was glad she was there.
"Julian tells me that you had an eventful evening," she said. "I do not know what you were doing, and you cannot tell me. I have decided not to guess but to wait for you to tell me when you can, no matter how long it takes."
She put her thumb over the band on his.
"Were you frightened while I was gone?"
He did not squeeze at all.
She waited, and he kept looking at her without doing anything.
"Very well," she said. "That is either a no or a question you did not care for. I shall take the no, because I do not like to think of you being scared."
He squeezed her hand once, but she was not sure what he was trying to tell her.
"My daughter Sari has arrived, and she is coming to see you in the morning." She smoothed the blanket. "I hope that is okay with you."
He did not respond, which was better than a no.
"Someone told me today that she sang to her mate while he was recovering, and it steadied him.
I do not know many songs." She sat back in the chair, his hand still clasped in hers, and searched for a song they had shared, but there had been none.
They had not been together long enough to collect such things.
"I can sing you the ones I know," she said. "They are mostly nursery songs I sang to my children when they were young."
She started with a counting song about a farmer with a great many sheep. She sang it quietly because the acoustics in a converted operating room were unforgiving. She kept singing until his eyelids began to droop.
"It is all right, my love. Go to sleep. I will be here when you wake up next."