“Zoe and I have a good thing going,” he said, looking down at the baby. Emily wondered if there was an added analgesic quality to holding a baby, if Zoe made Ezra feel calmer. “We’re okay over here. And technically it was true. I didn’t save him. If I had figured something else out, he would’ve lived.”

Emily leaned against Ezra’s shoulder. If Zoe’s touch didn’t help, maybe hers would. Feeling his body against hers certainly helped Emily. “Or maybe you gave him an extra three or four years that he wouldn’t have had otherwise, if he’d seen a different doctor, gone to a different hospital.”

“It’s just . . .” Zoe had finished the bottle, and Ezra lifted her upright to burp her. “I go over every single treatment decision I made each time a patient dies, wondering what the outcome would’ve been if I’d done something different. And for Malcolm’s mom to say that . . .”

Zoe burped loudly and Ezra laughed. Then the baby did, too, reaching for Ezra’s glasses.

He let her take them, and Emily looked at him. He always seemed so vulnerable to her without his glasses on. As if a piece of his armor were missing.

“She seems like an easy baby,” Ezra said.

“I guess comparatively,” Emily answered. “But I don’t know if any baby is really easy. At least, not for a college kid at this point in her life.”

Emily leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes. She was past the point of exhaustion. She hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours.

“When you called me,” Ezra started, “was it because of your patient?”

Emily opened her eyes. “No,” she said, too tired to tell him anything but the complete truth, the words forming slowly in her brain. “It was because I was afraid I was going to lose you. I need you, Ezra.”

Ezra reached out his hand and stroked her hair. “We need to talk,” he said. “I need you, too. I realized that the minute I woke up and heard your voice on my voice mail. You’re the most important person in the world to me, and I let myself forget that.”

“I choose you,” Emily said. “Every morning, every afternoon, and every night.”

“I choose you, too.”

Ezra wrapped his arm around Emily and she laid her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

“You need to sleep,” he said.

“Mm-hmm,” she answered, almost asleep already.

“Go take a nap,” he told her. “I’ll change Zoe and let the hospital know I’ll be in late today. Then Zoe and I will hang for a couple of hours while you sleep.”

“Okay,” Emily said.