‘Mrs Cartwright. How are we doing?’ he said brightly.

‘These two are doing just great,’ the nurse said.

‘Good. I have news about your husband. Ben is now in what we can consider to be a stable condition. He is slightly delirious and he still needs a lot of rest. He’s extremely dehydrated with multiple fractures but I think, if you are feeling up to it, you can pop up and see him later.’

‘Yes, yes I want to,’ I said looking up at the nurse who nodded enthusiastically.

The doctor smiled. ‘Okay, well, I’ll let you finish off here and I’ll arrange for someone to take you up shortly.’ He smiled again and turned and walked back out of the door.

The nurse wheeled me down to the lift and took me up two flights to where Ben was. I stayed sitting in the wheelchair, cradling Jasper, adamant I would never let him out of my sight. The pain from my broken bones had been numbed by morphine.

I was alarmed to see a policeman sitting outside Ben’s room.

‘Why does he need the police here?’ I asked him.

‘It’s just precautionary,’ the young officer said.

‘Could she come here?’ I increased my grip on Jasper who was sleeping soundly.

‘She’s in police custody. We don’t know the facts yet. If there were more people involved,’ the policeman said, looking down at me.

‘No. No one else was involved. She did this all by herself,’ I scoffed.

‘Okay. Shall we go on in and see Ben now?’ the nurse said and the officer stood up opened the door for us.

Inside the room was dimly lit. Immediately I was taken aback at the machine beeping, and the tube coming from his arm to a bag. My hand was in my mouth when the nurse patted my shoulder.

‘It looks worse than it is.’

‘I’m sure I don’t look much better myself,’ I said, touching the bandage on my head and knowing without needing to look that my face was swollen and probably covered in bruises and scratches.

‘Ben,’ I said as I was wheeled up close to the bed. Ben was raised up slightly. He opened his eyes and looked at me then he looked down at Jasper. He blinked a slow blink and smiled.

‘Say hello to your son,’ I whispered with tears spilling down my face.

‘Hello, mate,’ he croaked.

‘I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be back shortly,’ the nurse said and walked out.

‘They got her Ben,’ I said when I could finally stop crying to speak. I could see how weak Ben was still, but his smile remained static and his gaze was fixed on Jasper. ‘You’re going to be okay,’ I said and I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Ben linked his fingers through mine and I felt the urgency in his grip. The raw emotion and love I felt for him flooded my body and for a second I felt as though I couldn’t breathe. Ben had never left me. He was there all the time through everything.