Well, if she was pretending to be sick, she was certainly committed to it. Her room was a disaster. The air was stale and smelled like sweat and must. She had circles under her eyes. All of that, though, could just as easily have been a symptom of depression as of a physical illness. At the end of the day, he was worried about both — sometimes more about one than the other, depending on his mood, but neither was ever very far from his mind. (Either option had the potential to turn into something the baby wouldn't survive, though he tried not to think that way).

"Are you feeling up for dinner?" he asked, nodding towards the plates he was carrying. "I thought maybe we could eat together. Talk."