Beth stared at Petra while her addled brain attempted to take in the information.
‘The boiler?’ said Beth. Her head hurt and her brain felt like it was on a go-slow. Nothing was making sense.
‘Jack got you out. I came with you in the ambulance.’
‘Ambulance? I don’t remember,’ said Beth, shaking her head a fraction. It was a frightening feeling that something serious had happened and yet she had no recollection of any of it.
‘I am sorry. I think the plumber was a not very good one. Jack worked it out and ran out of the pub and I wondered what …’
‘Where is Jack?’ asked Beth, scanning the busy area as the many moving people and accompanying chatter in the busy hospital ward started to register.
‘I don’t know,’ said Petra, sipping from the paper cup and breaking eye contact. Beth could sense the tension in her voice. ‘Still at the cottage I think.’
‘Petra, you’re a terrible liar.’ Beth spoke slowly. ‘What’s going on?’
She winced. ‘When they bundled me into the ambulance with you Jack was with the paramedics.’ Petra’s expression was one of grave concern.
‘Paramedics?’ Why couldn’t she recall any of this herself? The effort of trying to remember was making her head pound even more.
‘He was lying on the ground. He wasn’t conscious.’ Petra shook her head.
‘Why? What’s wrong with him? What happened?’ Beth fidgeted in the bed, getting impatient with the drip-fed story.
‘When he was rescuing you he was also poisoned by the gas,’ said Petra, closing her eyes.
Beth sensed the seriousness of the situation but without any recall it was difficult to comprehend what exactly had happened, like switching on a murder mystery part way through. But there was one thing that was suddenly very clear to her.
‘Who’s looking after Leo?’
Carly spun round in her seat to check she wasn’t imagining it. Fergus was blinking slowly and a smile played on his lips.
‘Oh my God, you’re awake!’ Carly forgot the wires and threw herself onto Fergus, setting off alarms all over the place and two nurses came running over.
‘Oof,’ said Fergus. ‘Mind the spam!’
Rosemary clutched his arm and cried silent tears, her lips moving in hushed prayer.
Cormac stood up, leaned over and clasped Fergus’s hand in both of his. ‘You took your time there, son.’
Carly moved out of the way while the nurses reconnected wires and started checking Fergus over. Fergus appeared more than confused by the tears and attention.
‘Hello, Fergus. I’m a nurse and you are in University College Hospital. Can you remember what happened to you?’ Fergus stared at the nurse’s moving lips as she spoke.
‘I got engaged?’ he said, looking happy but still confused.
‘Is the boy delirious?’ asked Cormac, swinging his head round to address the older of the two nurses now engrossed in jotting down information from the surrounding machines. The nurse gave Cormac a hard stare.
‘Fergus is deaf, would you like me to translate?’ asked Carly. With Carly’s help the nurse asked Fergus a few simple questions and his correct answers had her ticking boxes with a flourish.
‘He needs to rest,’ said the nurse to Cormac. ‘Maybe come back in a while?’
‘Ach, are you serious? I’ve been sat here so long my bum’s gone numb and now he’s finally woken up you want me to leave?’ Cormac was laughing in between his words but the nurse wasn’t registering any humour.
‘You scared us all, you big eejit,’ signed Carly and Fergus grinned back at her.
‘I have no idea what’s going on but I feel like I’ve had a massive spliff,’ said Fergus, his voice a little wobbly.
‘Tell him his mother’s here!’ said Cormac, losing his whimsical air and pointing to Rosemary still praying at Fergus’s side.
‘I know she’s here. Hiya, Mam, are you okay?’ He tilted his head as far as it would go to the right so that he could see her.
Rosemary smiled and patted his hand while fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘I’m fine now, son.’
‘Will someone tell me why I’m here or is this one of those weird dreams where I’ll suddenly be naked and …’ He lifted the sheet and grinned. ‘I’m na-ked!’ he said in a sing-song voice.
Carly started to frantically sign to him. ‘It’s not a dream. You were attacked with a bottle in a bar when you were out with Budgie and Ryan. You’ve been unconscious for three days.’
‘What?’ said Fergus with a beaming smile, which soon faded as he registered the looks on his parents’ faces. Eventually his gaze rested back on Carly, her eyes red with tears, and he took her hand. ‘Seriously?’
Carly nodded. ‘We thought you were going to die.’ It was the first time she’d said it out loud; the words seemed to unleash yet more emotion and a sob escaped.
‘Hey, it’s okay. Look, I’m fine,’ said Fergus, smiling again.
‘You’re on a strong intravenous painkiller and when that wears off you may think otherwise,’ said Carly. She decided she would keep the news about the surgery until a little later as he already looked astonished by the information overload.
‘What day is it?’ he asked cautiously.
‘Easter Monday,’ replied Cormac, moving round to be next to Rosemary. ‘This’ll do nothing for your Messiah complex, so it won’t.’ He shook his head but he was smiling broadly, now standing behind Rosemary with his hands on her shoulders.
‘Easter Monday,’ repeated Fergus.
‘Look, maybe the nurse is right. Perhaps we should leave you to rest,’ suggested Carly, looking across the bed.
Cormac nodded his agreement. ‘She’s right. We’re all pretty knackered too. We’ll be back in later to see you.’ He and Rosemary kissed Fergus’s forehead in turn. ‘Shall we wait for you outside?’ said Cormac to Carly and she nodded. They watched Cormac and Rosemary grip hands tightly as they left.
Fergus studied Carly, her face red and puffy from the tears. His eyes refocused on her left hand and as he rubbed his thumb over her ringless fingers, a frown darted across his forehead and he narrowed his eyes. She could see he was trying to work out what had happened.
She very gently touched his chin so that he would look up and see her speak; she was suddenly exhausted and too tired to be bothered to sign. ‘The ring is safe in my pocket. I didn’t want your parents to find out when you were …’ She tailed off.
‘So I didn’t imagine that
