“If the baby is born while he’s incapacitated, he needs Byte to transfer the money to Tawny. I think he’s worried about how she’ll react if the money isn’t there immediately after delivery.”
“Gotcha.”
“I’m also going to see if I can get an update on her.”
While Ink was gone, I wet a washcloth and tried to wipe off Dice’s face. It didn’t do much for him, but it made me feel like I was doing something other than sitting there helplessly watching him suffer.
Ink returned several minutes later. “The money situation is taken care of,” he told Dice. Dice groaned and mumbled something we couldn’t understand, but we both took that as his acknowledgment. “As for Tawny and the baby, they are both doing fine. They said she is only dilated to four centimeters. Apparently, she has to get to ten, so they think it will be a while, unless they run into complications.”
Once again, Dice groaned and mumbled something unintelligible.
“It’s okay, man. We’ve got this under control. You just worry about getting better,” Ink said.
It wasn’t long before the surgeon came in to talk to us, and then they took him to surgery. Thankfully, they let us wait in the room he would be spending the next few days in, which was on the labor and delivery floor, making communication with the other part of our group much easier.
“A lot has happened for it to not even be ten o’clock in the morning yet,” I said as I dropped into a chair.
“You can say that again,” Ink said. “I’m exhausted, and I’m not having surgery or a baby.”
“Have you guys had anything to eat?” Badger asked. “I can run down to the cafeteria and get something for you.”
“No, we haven’t eaten, but I think my dad’s here, and he probably brought breakfast.”
“I didn’t know your dad was coming,” Ink said.
“Neither did I.”
“Here they are!” Uncle Buck shouted. “Good gravy, we’ve been all over this hospital looking for you.”
My dad appeared a few moments later with a bag of breakfast sandwiches and several coffees.
“What are y’all doing here?” I asked.
“My grandbaby is being born, and my future son-in-law is having emergency surgery. Where else would I be?”
“Is that community food?” Ink asked and pointed to the bag of food.
Dad chuckled and tossed the bag to him. “Help yourself.”
“Thanks,” Ink said. “I’m starving.”
“You’re always hungry,” I said.
“Yes, but this is different. I need to feed my stress.”
I suddenly realized that Ink was worried; he’d just been doing a damn good job of hiding it.
“He’s going to be okay,” I said.
“I know,” Ink said around a mouthful of food. “This biscuit said so.”
“You better get one before he eats them all,” Uncle Buck said.
I didn’t feel hungry, but I knew I should eat something while I had a chance. We had a long day ahead of us.
When Dice was out of surgery, I went down to the recovery area to stay with him until he was ready to go to his room upstairs. Even in his groggy state, he looked much better than he did before the surgery.
“Did you find it?” he asked with his eyes closed.