(A quick update.
Okay, beforehand I want to let you know that I am not familiar with a lot of medical terms...I am more the sentimentalist than the scientist HA so pls have mercy. I tried my best, but to be on the safe side used only little of it. Hope the translator was right ;) )

Chapter 2

Jack didn't know what was more terrifying – holding his first wife's hand while she was dying or clinging on to his second wife's hand while being in fear if she will ever come out of the coma.
It's been three weeks since the accident at the race track happened. Three weeks since she passed out. Three weeks since no one could tell him when and if Lisa would wake up. Three weeks seeing her like this – connected to all these wires and machines, the ventilator machine that sent air into her lungs, her head and neck stabilized by a cervical collar, her skin pale like the bed sheets that covered her body and didn't reveal the back brace that supported the right posture of her spine.
The outcome of the accident was worse than he thought. Not only had she suffered a cranial fracture with brain bleeding but also a spinal injury that was dangerously close to involving the spinal cord. This meant that she was not only in coma but in addition to that the doctors weren't sure if she was paralyzed. They have done tests, many test and all came to same result – she wasn't reacting to anything. It was a matter of how well and quick the injury on her spine would heal and what she could feel once she woke up. Until that it was dubious if she was ever able to walk again.
A sob escaped Jack's mouth. It was all wrong. Nothing of all this should have happened. This loving, smart and beautiful woman turned into a lifeless and emotionless body. As if all life was taken from her. The light of her presence died on the day of the accident. All that was left was coldness.
Oh how much he longed for her voice to fill his ears, her laughter, her smile, her blue eyes to shine. How much he wanted to feel her in his arms, to kiss her and to tell her that she was safe with him. But was that true? Was she safe with him? He had been too late. He wasn't able to save her from that harm. The harm that could never be undone. He was too late.
Jack was devastated. His wife had never felt so far away from him before although she was right there, laying in that bed. The only connection they got right now was formed by their hands. The only way to actually feel that she was still there. Their touch felt warm but Jack had been holding on to it for so long that he couldn't tell if the warmth was radiating from his own body heat or if it was also coming from her.
The hours went by, the days went by, the weeks went by while he spent his time at his wife's side, hoping every minute she would wake up. But deep down Jack wasn't sure what it would be like. How could he ever explain what happened and why she wouldn't be able to feel anything? To walk? How could you explain when all you were capable of was crying?
But he needed to be strong.
Strong for her.
She was and had been all this time. Now it was his turn. But it was hard to keep his head up. It wasn't only her state he had to deal with but also what she left behind – a broke business. Since Chandelier Glow wasn't able to start at the race and Lisa wasn't there to find solutions Fairfield was doomed. Well, close to doomed. The whole Heartland family and Fairfield staff pulled together to keep the business going but truth was that it was hard to follow Lisa's steps. No one had as much experience, expertise and cleverness as she had. No one could do what she did over all those years. Jack noticed her strength during the last months but he hadn't realized how much she had been fighting. Fairfield's situation was worse than she told him. The only way to save it was taken with her into a world he had no access to.
His free hand run over his tired face. Sleep was a seldom friend these days. Weeks.
The noise of the opening door made him look up and turn on his seat.
Immediately his expression darkened and Jack frowned at a person he least liked to see. Especially here at the hospital.
"Jack." Dan Hartfield nodded his head to greet him while he stood on the threshold, still holding on to the handle, his eyes already set on the woman in the bed.
Jack jumped up from his chair and thrusted him backwards the same way he just entered. By no means he wanted this man near his wife.
"What are you doing here?", Jack hissed sharply and rudely pushed him back as soon as he closed the door behind him. The man's arms flew up.
"Calm down, Jack. I just wanted to see how she is doing."
"Bad. She is doing bad! Are you satisfied now?", his entire face indcated that Dan Hartfield wasn't welcome here.
A puzzled look met his eyes which made him even more furious. With one single stride the cowboy planted himself in front of him.
"You have been pushing her by far enough, Dan! See what it did to her!" his voice was threatening but shaking at the same time as Jack pointed through the window at her lifeless body that was only kept alive by all those machines. Dan followed his finger.
"Wait. Are you blaming me for this? As far as I know it was her own damn horse. The one that was nuts anyways. But I told her that and she wasn't listening. As always."
"Oh believe me, she knew but that horse was the only chance to keep her business going."
"Her business?...What are you talking about?"
Was it right to tell him? After all Lisa never wanted anybody to know about Fairfield's fate. But what was there to lose? Everything was lost already.
"Fairfield is broke, Dan. That should make you happy, doesn't it?"
There was a pause between the two men.
"I didn't know, Jack. This...She never lost a word about it." And he truly seemed to be surprised by the news.
"Why should she.", Jack mumbled and it was more a statement than a question. Sadly he turned half way to look at her again. What happened was still hard to believe.
"Well, guess that's the end of Fairfield then, isn't it? Or are you trying to keep it up?" Somehow this comment sounded sarcastic to Jack but maybe he just misinterpreted it, not trusting this man one tiny bit.
"What are you getting at, Dan?"
"As much as you should know by now it needs someone with a certain background to keep such a business going. Who is gonna do it? You?" and he almost laughed about his own bad joke.
Jack's eyes narrowed even more. Heat rising in his stomach.
"Tell you what, Bartlett. If you need that someone, I am offering you my help."
"As long as it takes." Dan added and nodded towards the bed.
Jack couldn't believe his ears. This guy seriously offered his 'help'. Everybody who knew Dan Hartfield knew what he meant by that – to take over. To get his foot into the game. He wanted that business but Jack wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
"Only over my dead body! Hartfield." The words left his mouth bitterly.
"Keep out of it! And keep away from her!"
"You should think about it Jack. Your wife. Her business. It has always been important to her. I'm your man." With that he took a last glance through the window, turned on his heels and walked down the hallway towards the exit.
"Think about it.", was the last thing he yelled down the hall and vanished behind the door.
Jack still stood at the same spot, the heat rising up to his head now. He was watching him as he left and couldn't help but secretly admit that he was right. Again.