The doctor held up various X-rays to the light, pointing at obscure pale white regions on scans of what appeared to Maddy as a set of rather poor looking lungs.

"What I'm saying Miss. Bowen is that this will heal into an extensive amount of scar tissue and that there was significant damage to both layers of the pleural membrane; in all honestly, this isn't good. If he had come in earlier there wouldn't have been as much tissue death, and then there's worrying signs of fluid build up here at the bottom of the scans which could mean an onset of pneumonia, and in his condition that could be deadly."

Maddy's mouth curled into a frown "But you have him on antibiotics though, shouldn't that be enough?"

The doctor turned towards her wiping his glasses on his lab coat. "It's not uncommon to see fluid build-up in the lungs when you have someone on a ventilator for more than a few hours; it's one of the risks we take. It's the inactivity that causes the fluid to stick; what he needs more than anything is to get active so that the fluid will break up instead of continuing to build up."

"So I just need to get him walking around?"

He nodded "Not as simple as it sounds though, I'm concerned that too much activity could aggravate his lungs even further. It's a catch 22. If he stresses the injury out too early, the long term effects to his health will be more devastating than they already are, but not doing so could cost him his life."


Maddy heard the dull thud of something hitting the wall and the squeal of a nurse as she walked urgently to Danny's room.

Her hands balled at her waist, she stood just at the doorway looking at the scene within.

"What is going on in here?"

Maddy crossed her arms and stared at the remains of pale yellow juice dripping down the wall, the nurse standing abashedly in the corner of the room trying to wipe to yellow from what once was a pristine white uniform. Upon seeing Maddy she made a frantic scramble out the door.

"What is this bullshit?" Danny angrily gestured at the mess on the wall "they've been giving me shit that tastes like rhino piss."

"And you would know what rhino piss tastes like, right?" Maddy commented in amusement.

"Ja, well I'm fucking sick and tired of doing what everyone around here tells me to do, I'm tired of drinking shit that tastes like piss. No one around here will give me a cigarette, I haven't eaten anything in three days, and all I do is walk up and down the halls of this godforsaken hospital everyday! " He paused breathing a bit heavily

"A cigarette would kill you Danny; it's hard enough for you to take a walk down the hall." Maddy sat down heavily in a chair in the corner of the room.

"I need to get the hell out of here Maddy" Danny ran his hands through his hair wearily.

They sat in silence like that for a few minutes

"Danny?" Maddy began a bit hesitantly "When you get better…..I was hoping you would come with me."

Danny peered up at her "Oh ja? Where are you going now Maddy? South America, huh? To help the poor starving children, right?"

Maddy ignored his stinging comment "New York, my parents own a house there, I haven't been back in a few years, but it's a nice place to take a break, my cousin is getting married there in two weeks or so and….. I thought we could go."

"Ah so you just want to parade me around like some sort of rare animal, ja? White boy from Africa, show your whole family that you're very compassionate by taking in this sick "puppy" you brought all the way with you. Then you'll dump me when you're through, ship me back to Africa, or even better, right to Van De Kaap himself, get some sort of lekker prize out of it, huh?" Archer was sneering, his face turning red with rage "or better yet, take the messed up vet home to fix him? That's your thing isn't? You can take me home, and just like your father, a work in progress, a new project for your little game."

Danny was breathing harder and harder, she couldn't take it, she didn't want to listen.

Maddy pushed the call button

She didn't object when she was taken out of the room, all she could feel was the pain in her chest, right where her heart should have been.


Maddy felt so stupid. Tears streaming down her face, she closed the door to her hotel room and sank to the floor.

He didn't mean it; she knew it in her heart. He was bitter, he was hurt. He could be so sweet though, but that just made it sadder in a way, as if it was more significant because she knew he could be so nice.

Maddy just wanted to crawl to her bed and sleep. Let herself sink into oblivion for a few hours, just so that she wouldn't have to feel the pain for a while. It wouldn't work though, she knew it. Her dreams would be filled with dead Archer, angry Archer, and even sweet Archer, it was almost unbearable.

She wiped the tears from her eyes.

She should have told her sisters and cousin to join her, she almost wished she had. She'd left them sitting in their car stunned at her rudeness.

As soon as they'd gotten to the hospital entrance Maddy flew from the car with a few apologetic words and vague promises to meet up again, she hadn't meant it though.

Right now she could really use the company.

She was sure that they were still in town, or at least she sure hoped they would be.

Maddy picked herself up off the floor and headed towards phone in her room.


Maddy waited in the lobby of her hotel room dressed to the nines. Going out to a formal party wasn't what she had in mind, but it was part of Stacy's plans for the night, and Greg was going to be there.

If Maddy ever had a soft spot for Greg, it had been obliterated a long time ago. She really loved him once. She had even thought he might be the one she would marry.

He was very arrogant; she seemed to attract the sort. A big shot lawyer, fresh out of school, he'd started out small; taking hopeless cases almost no one could win, he was sympathetic, and she liked that. Greg was good at his job, a smooth talker.

Greg had been just as eager as her to prove himself on his own. Like her, he came from a well off family, but he wanted to do things by himself. They'd been similar in a lot of ways.

She moved in with him after a year of dating, and for a brief period she thought he might propose to her, but it all changed, especially after she started finding receipts in the trash; receipts for nice places, flowers, jewellery.

Maddy was first and foremost a journalist. She prided herself on her digging skills, her unwillingness to give up. One those receipts she saw the names of her cousins' favourite restaurants, jewellery she'd seen hanging around Stacy's neck. She'd been sly about it.

It made sense to Maddy. Stacy had always been a go getter, unafraid to get what she wanted no matter who she hurt in the process.

Confronting Stacy about it had been hard. She truly was apologetic, Maddy could see for herself that Stacy was head over heels for Greg.

She stepped to the side, it was all she could do, no use to hanging on to something that wasn't there, even if she had thought it was. Maddy lived with the pain, just like she did with everything else.

For months she could barely drag herself from her bed, things weren't so vibrant anymore, she could only feel the pain and the sadness. She found herself numb more often than not, and she wondered and hoped that it had been worth it to him to hurt her in such a way.

She picked herself back up again after sometime, she made her heart steel. She travelled, she saw, she did her job.

She hadn't been with anyone since, hadn't let herself fall in love, Maddy had a job to do, a job that she loved desperately and she would never let anyone interfere with it again