Everything after that seemed to be happening simultaneously in slow motion and fast forward to Amanda. The girl had whirled around and begun yelling down the hallway for her mother. The young man had rushed forward to help roll Lee onto his back as Amanda dropped to her knees beside him and began searching for a pulse, relieved when she found it and it was strong.

She looked up to see a well-dressed woman bursting out of a doorway down the hall behind the office and come running towards them. "Julie! What on earth are you shouting the place down about?"

The young receptionist gestured towards Lee and Amanda. "It's Dad – he just walked in and collapsed. He's covered in blood."

The woman knelt down and looked at what Amanda could finally see was a huge gash across Lee's temple and side of the head. "We're going to need to get that stitched up," said the strange woman decisively. "Julie, go tell Sybil we're going to need her as soon as she's available. Paul, go get Kevin– it's going to take two of you to carry him. We'll take him to Norma's room – she's gone all week." Looking around and satisfied that all her orders were being carried out, she looked back down at Lee and said softly "Lee? Lee – you gotta try and wake up, honey. You got this far, don't go giving up on us now."

The young man had returned accompanied by another man as big as himself and following quiet instructions from the woman, they carefully lifted Lee and carried him to a room about three quarters of the way down the long hallway. Amanda followed them, her mind whirling as she tried to understand what was going on. The room they carried him into was plainly decorated compared to the lobby; it contained only a double bed, a small table and chair, and a few decorations, all lit by dim pink bulbs in the wall lights. The woman stepped into the attached bathroom and reappeared with a dampened wash cloth, then began wiping the blood off Lee's face and neck. Amanda stood in the middle of the room for a moment, her confusion and the cold making her helpless, before finally sinking to sit on the end of the bed, watching in silence.

The woman finished getting as much of the blood off as possible, then carefully lifted his head and lay a dry towel under him to keep him off the now damp pillow. She looked up at Amanda and smiled. "That'll do for now. We'll swap pillows after Sybil stitches him up. No point in getting blood all over two of them. But we should get him out of these wet clothes too." As Amanda watched, she began to pull off Lee's shoes and socks, then started on the shirt buttons, rolling him gently to pull it off. When she began to work on his jeans, Amanda got up silently and helped her peel the soaking denim off him. The woman carefully pulled the blankets up to cover him up and then turned to speak. "He'll warm up a bit now that he's out of those. I'll just go…" She trailed off at the strained expression on Amanda's face. "Oh lord, I'm sorry – I just took over and never even said hello. I'm Maggie." She paused for a moment and looked closely at Amanda before a huge smile went across her face. "And you must be Amanda."

If Amanda had been confused by the tornado of information that had hit her since they'd walked in the door, this last statement took the last vestige of clear thought right out of her head. She stared at Maggie, unable to come up with anything more in response than "Yes."

"Well, I'm glad to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you."

From the tight spot in her chest, Amanda felt the anger taking over. It was all too much – the chase, the crash, and now out of nowhere, this family hidden in the Nevada desert. "I wish I could say the same," she snapped, "but I've never heard of you at all! I don't know who you are, I don't know where I am, I don't know how any of you know Lee except he said we were coming to find some family and there's some girl I've never heard of calling him Dad and you know all about me and now he's… he's..." She trailed off, staring at Lee's pale face on the pillow and the anger dissipated as quickly as it had risen, and she began to cry.

Maggie stepped over to her quickly and wrapped her arms around her. "It's okay, really it is. Look, Lee's going to be fine alone for a few minutes. Come with me – we're going to get you some dry clothes and a strong drink and I'll explain everything to you. It's not anywhere near as bad as you're thinking." She held out a hand to Amanda and pulled her towards the door.

Unable to piece together any kind of response, Amanda wiped her eyes and obediently followed her back down the hallway and through the door she'd seen Maggie emerge from earlier. The rooms behind this door were far more comfortable looking than the bare room they'd left Lee in. This looked more like Amanda's family room and kitchen back in Arlington – brightly lit, cozy sofa and chairs, country-style kitchen, stereo playing softly in the corner. Maggie kept moving through these rooms however, and led Amanda into what must be her own bedroom. Digging around in her dresser, she pulled out a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans and passed them to Amanda before saying "We look like we're pretty much the same size, so these should fit. You get changed and I'll go get you something to drink. Do you want some old-fashioned nerve tonic or would you just prefer a coffee or tea?"

"Just coffee please" murmured Amanda, starting to feel bad that she had yelled at this woman who was being so nice to her.

"Coming right up. Y'all come out when you're ready." Maggie slipped out the door and pulled it quietly shut behind her. Amanda stared at the closed door for a moment, then at the clothes in her hands before slowly pulling off the sodden jeans and turtleneck she was wearing and pulling on the warm, dry replacements. Opening the door, she sidled out shyly and walked back into the kitchen carrying her wet clothes.

"Here, give me those and I'll toss them in the machine." Maggie took them out of her hands and held them up for a moment, taking in the muddy stains. "How on earth did Lee manage to get you both this wet in the middle of Nevada?"

"He rolled our car off the highway and into a creek," answered Amanda with a small smile. "You really must know Lee if you're assuming it was his fault."

"I've known Lee since we were eight years old – you don't need to tell me whose fault it was." Maggie handed her a brimming cup of coffee before turning to walk into the small laundry room off the kitchen. "I forgot to ask how you take it, but I put in a bunch of sugar – it'll help with the shock. There's milk in the jug on the counter"

"The shock of the accident or the shock of finding out someone knew Lee when he was eight years old?" Amanda walked to the counter to add some milk and watched quietly through the door as Maggie turned on the washing machine and then searched through the cupboards, putting together a large stack of clean towels.

"Both, I should think. Okay now, let's go back and check on Lee and I'll finish telling you the whole story. Sybil should almost be done with her party and then we'll get him stitched up and more comfortable."

They walked back down the hall, Amanda taking more time to look around this time. The hallway was long like most hotels with several doors leading off it. She could hear muffled sounds and conversation behind them as they passed, and wondered why everyone at this hotel was awake so late. As they approached the door to the room where Lee was, she saw the young girl from earlier poke her head out around the corner from the lobby.

"Mom!" she hissed. "How is he?"

"I'll let you know after Sybil's checked him over. Are you fine to run the desk for a while longer?"

"Yeah, I guess so." The girl looked disappointed but disappeared back behind the corner.

Lee hadn't moved since they'd left him, but the bleeding from the gash on his head had slowed slightly. Amanda dropped onto the side of the bed and took his hand with a sigh. Maggie put the stack of towels on a small table and sat down in the chair near the end of the bed, watching Amanda carefully as she ran her hand through Lee's hair on the uninjured side of his head and then traced the spot on his cheek where normally there'd be a dimple peeking out. Finally, with a sigh, Amanda turned to look at the woman sitting opposite them.

"I can't tell you why we're here, but you seem to know Lee well enough to not be surprised. But I have no idea who you are or where I am or who that girl is outside who keeps calling Lee…" She stopped talking as Maggie began to laugh.

"Well those are all pretty easy questions: I'm Maggie Field, I've known Lee for over 25 years, you're in Rowley, Nevada at a brothel known as the Tin Roof Ranch and that girl outside is my daughter Julie and despite everything you've heard her say tonight, Lee is not her father."