She’d done a lovely job.
Deep breath.
Margaret gave him a questioning look, asking him mutely if he wanted her to accompany him, but he shook his head. This was something he had to do by himself.
She left him to it.
He turned into the next corridor—and then paused.
The door to Room 5 was slightly ajar and through the open door he could see Kyle’s mother. And Kyle. The woman had lifted her son into her arms and she was cradling him and weeping into his copper curls. Her husband looked on helplessly. Kyle’s brothers and sisters were there, too, huddled around their little brother. A family united in grief. A family saying goodbye to their Kyle.
And outside, on the seat outside the door, just out of sight of the family, sat Emma.
She was huddled over, bent at the waist as if she was in pain, and she was weeping silently into her open palms. Her shoulders were racked by silent sobs.
It seemed that Emma had finally stopped.
How long had it been since he’d cradled a woman in his arms?
Never?
Sure, he’d kissed a woman. He and Margaret had a very satisfactory relationship and he thoroughly enjoyed kissing her. But as for cradling her…
He never had. The lines of professional detachment meant that he’d never cradled a patient.
But this…
This was suddenly an overwhelming need. He stooped to pull Emma’s hands from her face, he saw the despair etched deep in her eyes, he saw the lingering horror, and he saw the shuddering sobs rack her body—he couldn’t bear it. He took her in his arms. When she slumped against him, helpless in the face of her grief and shock and exhaustion, he simply lifted her up and cradled her against him and rocked her as if she were a child.
He held her while the shuddering sobs went on and on. He simply held her.
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