Page 80 of Lost
“We were so worried,” the woman breathed. “My God, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. We’re fine. Everything’s fine.”
Georgia pulled back, though her hand lingered on the boy’s cheek a moment. She was looking at him so tenderly that Zack looked away to give them a moment alone.
“Where are the guys?” he asked.
“Just outside. They wanted to give us a minute before they came in.”
“How many people are here?” Lysander asked, seeming genuinely concerned about the matter. “I’m pretty sure hospitals have a rule about how many visitors you’re allowed.”
“Kid, they couldn’t stop us if they tried.”
Zack was glad to see all of his friends showing such concern for his only son. Aaron was the first to bounce into the room. Brendan, Natalia and Melody followed. Chris was alone when he entered, and Pat and Vicky brought up the rear with their arms around each other. Together, they crowded the room. But it didn’t feel claustrophobic. It felt right.
They were family.
“Not even a scratch,” Brendan said as he looked the boy over. “You owe me fifty bucks, Kristovski.”
Chris gave him the finger. Lysander rolled his eyes. Zack chuckled.
Assured that his son was being well taken care of, Zack took his wife by the hand and led her out into the hall. She was visibly surprised by the gesture, but she didn’t question it until he had led her half way down the corridor and stopped by a quiet corner.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Zack, is everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine,” he assured her. “I just wanted to talk to you. Alone.”
“Well, okay. What did you want to talk about?”
Zack took a moment to find the right words, but they were doing their best to elude him. Georgia gave him all the time that he needed, just as she always did, but he hated to keep her waiting. There was no other way to say it but the way she had always said it to him.
“I want to start a family with you.”
She blinked once, then twice, and her plump lips formed the tiniest of surprised “o”s.
“You... You want to start a family?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “Having Lysander around all the time... I’ve liked it. I really have. And you make such a great mother. You always have, even when he didn’t accept you as one. So I’d like to do it properly. I think it would be amazing.You’dbe amazing.”
Georgia had clearly not expected his sudden change of heart. Not for the first time in her life, he had managed to render her speechless — and he couldn’t deny that he liked it. Especially when those happy tears brimmed in her eyes.
“Do you really mean it?”
“I do. So what do you say?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a kiss right to his lips.
“Only if Lysander’s okay with it.”
It was Zack’s turn to be speechless. For so long Georgia had pestered him, begging him to start a family with her, that he’d believed that when he finally did come around she would jump at the idea. But here she was, proving again that she would be the perfect mother — putting Lysander before her own wants.
He didn’t think it was possible, but he loved her even more for it.
“We’ll talk to him about it,” she said. “But not now. The poor boy’s been through enough.”
Zack nodded. All he wanted now was to be able to take his son home. But it could take hours, he knew, before the blood results came back, and they would be stuck in the hospital until then.
But it was worth it, just to be sure that his son had not been drugged, or poisoned, or God only knew what else. He’d have waited a year for those results if that was what it took.
