Together. In a room with a closed door and no agenda beyond being present with each other.
They used every minute of it.
Ethan started it, launching into a retelling of something that had apparently happened at the previous hospital involving a mop, a confused orderly, and a sequence of events that escalated rapidly and implausibly, his small hands moving with the animated energy of a natural storyteller, his eyes wide with the pleasure of having an audience.
Nathan lay in the bed and listened, and the smile came slowly at first and then wider, and then he was laughing, properly laughing, the full body laugh of a child who has forgotten for a moment to be nervous because his brother is being ridiculous and ridiculousness is contagious.
Max joined in.
