“It won’t be long now,” the doctor had murmured to Malcolm, Fox, and Leah in the upstairs hall not ten minutes past, eyes red-rimmed. “Sometimes, there is nothing I can do tae stop the bleeding.” Malcolm had immediately returned to his wife’s side. Fox had watched him through a crack in the open door. How the larger man had climbed so very carefully into the bed, cradling Aileen’s swollen body against his and pressing his forehead to her hair, tears streaming soundlessly down his cheeks.
