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5
WEDNESDAY MORNING
She opened her eyes and saw his face again, only inches above hers, beautiful dark intense eyes framed by black eyelashes. She remembered he’d stayed with her, holding her hand, as she was being wheeled—somewhere. He was utterly focused on her. Why did he look worried? Then pain struck inside her head out of nowhere, pain so sharp she gasped. She no longer cared if the angel Gabriel was standing over her, she was only aware of the pounding pain. She tried to raise her hand but felt a hard tug. She saw a needle sticking out of her wrist tethered to tubing.
What had happened? Where was she? Well, given the needle in her wrist, she was in a hospital, but— Her brain twisted, turned inward, and she no longer cared if she was on Mars. The pain in her head was like nails hammering into a board. She whispered, her voice insubstantial as candle smoke, “My head—it hurts, really hurts. What’s happening?”
She closed her eyes against the pain, heard him call out, “Nurse, come quickly. She’s awake and in pain.”
She felt his fingers lightly touch her cheek. “Hold on, help’s coming.” His hand moved to cup her chin, and it distracted her for a moment. His low, deep voice sounded close to her cheek. “The pain only now started?”
She opened her eyes, closed them again real fast, whispered, “Yes, and it’s bad, like a jungle drum pounding a battle cry.” Raw fear struck through her. She was dying, she couldn’t survive this pain, no one could. She felt his hand squeezing hers. “Hold on,” he said again, “they’ll be here soon to help you.”
“I’m dying, aren’t I?”
“No, you’re not dying until the next millennium, then maybe another decade or so after that. Hang on, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart?
A nurse hurried into the cubicle. “Good, you’re awake. Let’s take care of the pain first. Dr. Loomis expected you might have a bad headache this morning. She left orders for a very nice drug for you, Dilaudid. Not enough to knock you out, we can’t have that. I’m injecting it into your IV right now. Breathe normally. That’s it. You should feel better very quickly, only a couple of minutes.”
The three of them waited silently. The couple of minutes seemed an eon to Savich, until finally she began to ease.
The nurse leaned down. “Better? Was there pain anywhere else? Or only your head?”
Sherlock had enough control to give this some thought. She whispered, “I feel achy, little jabs of pain here and there when I move, mainly in my chest and arms and my shoulder, but that’s better now, too.” She felt another ripple of pain in her head, but it wasn’t nearly as bad. Still, she closed her eyes and lay very still. She whispered, “It’s the oddest thing. I feel like I’m ready to float to the ceiling. Should I hang on to something?”
Savich took her hand. “I’ve got hold of you. If you float up, I’ll bring you back down. Or maybe I’ll float up with you.”
“Thank you.” She blinked, opened her eyes. “I know I’m in the hospital. What happened? Did someone mug me?”
“No. Another driver slammed into you at the intersection of Prior and Williams, and sent the Volvo spinning. You ended up rear-ending a fire hydrant.”
“The man who hit me, is he all right?”
“It wasn’t a man. Last I heard she walked away with a sprained arm and bruised leg.”
“A woman hit me? A woman? But women don’t drive crazy like that.”
“This one did, for whatever reason.”
“Did I hurt anyone?”
“A few people were injured, but not seriously. Don’t worry. We’ll talk more about it later.”
The nurse said, “That’s right, no more talk about the accident. I’m Joan Marlow, I’ll be taking care of you today. I’ll bet you’re thirsty, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let me check you out first, then water.” She took Sherlock’s pulse, listened to her heart, shined a penlight into her eyes, asked her to follow the light to the right, then to the left. She had Sherlock grip her hands and move her legs. She studied her face a moment. “Any nausea?”
She thought about it, then, “No.”
“Good. Dizziness?”
“No, but I’m afraid to move. I feel sort of balanced on the edge and I don’t want to take the chance of falling off.”
“I understand. Is the pain in your head down to a dull throb now?”
