Ben nodded slowly; he understood what she was trying to do and appreciated the distraction, but actually wringing a smile out of his face was a laborious process. It was like trying to get moving on a cold morning, where the chill had seeped into one's bones and the muscles were sluggish to respond. "Yeah. In a few months the little one will be up and running around," he agreed. By that point Nora would be enchanted with it, he was sure — if she was... in a state to be enjoying anything, by then. The healers had been maddeningly unspecific about her prospects, because at this point it was just impossible to say how she would come out of it. In his mind Ben had simplified it down to two options, and then eliminated the one he wasn't willing to think about: she would be perfectly fine, or she would never wake up, and she was going to wake up so that meant she would be perfectly fine. But somewhere deep down he knew it was more complicated than that. She could wake up but not be able to walk normally; she could wake up but stop speaking; she could wake up and not remember anything. Melody had experienced memory problems before as the result of a head injury. It was far from impossible.
Ben might have already had his last real moments with his daughter, without knowing their significance. He couldn't even remember, right now, what the last thing he'd said to her had been.
"I wish I hadn't left," he said suddenly.
Ben might have already had his last real moments with his daughter, without knowing their significance. He couldn't even remember, right now, what the last thing he'd said to her had been.
"I wish I hadn't left," he said suddenly.
MJ made this <3