Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for all your wonderful reviews! Your comments keep me inspired!

And again, to those of you with medical backgrounds, I apologize if I'm off with some stuff. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Also, I have a great respect for physicians of any kind; I just felt I needed someone Jordan could vent her anger to, hence the jerk of a surgeon.

Disclaimer –I don't own 'em (though I would've treated them a heck of a lot better!) It's just for fun and to keep the memory alive. Please R&R! Thanks for reading!

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Chapter Four - News

She was flying. Finally taking that African Safari vacation she'd dreamed of for so long. She could see the beauty of the African landscape below her. Miles and miles of country she'd never seen; animals she'd never seen. It was so beautiful it took her breath away.

Something in the distance caught her eye, but she couldn't quite make out what it was. She squinted, trying to get a better glimpse of whatever it was. She blinked, hard, to clear her vision then opened her eyes again. Whatever it was, it was gone, but now the beautiful African landscape was covered in blinding white snow. She looked desperately around the plane's cabin, searching for someone to yell at, to tell of their wrong course, but there was no one. Just rows and rows of empty seats. She got up from her seat, blindly running for the cockpit, looking for the captain. She stopped, breathing hard, as she realized she was all alone on the plane, with no one to right its course. But that couldn't be right. She was sure she could hear someone calling her name. "Jordan . . . . Jordan . . . ." She gasped as she looked out the front windows and realized the plane was heading straight for the mountain wall in front of her . . . .

"JORDAN!"

She sat up quickly, gasping for air. She blinked several times, and was finally able to bring Lily's worried face into focus.

"Jordan. It's okay. You're okay. It was just a dream." Lily was rubbing her shoulder and holding her hand, trying desperately to calm her down.

Finally, she caught her breath and leaned back on the loveseat. "Have you heard from the doctor?"

"Jordan, I think you should . . ."

"I'm fine, Lily." Jordan snapped back at her. "Have you heard any news about Garret?"

"No. No one's come through looking for you." She paused, glanced at her watch. "Um, Jordan? Do you know how to get in touch with the crew of the second rescue helicopter? Because I have to leave to get Madeline soon, and I really want to be here when Bug comes home. No one's come to talk to us about that, either."

Jordan looked at her blankly for a moment, let fresh anger wash over her. "Damn it! What the hell could be taking them so long? They were right behind us when we took off." She didn't add that the threat of the incoming storm could very well have hindered the second half of the rescue attempt. She shuddered slightly then reminded herself she would have heard if the rescue had been aborted. And no one had told her anything.

"Kelly. That's the name of the flight nurse that brought Garret in. I'll see if I can get in touch with her somehow and find out what's going on. You stay here and wait for Dr. No-updates and I'll go talk to the nurses, see if they can track down Kelly." She didn't wait for Lily's nod of agreement, just turned and jogged down the hall to the nurses' station.

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It was twenty minutes before she was able to get back to Lily. And all she had was more frustration no more information. She wasn't allowed to talk to Kelly, but the nurse had left a message for her to check in when she was at the hospital next. The nurse admitted it could be hours before Kelly was able to check her messages.

Great, Jordan thought. That's all we need is more waiting, more stress, more endless questions with no freaking answers. Why the hell can't we just find out what's going on? She watched Lily as she stalked back down the hall. She watched her friend wring her hands, shake them out, wring them again. She played with her jewelry a lot when she was nervous, too, twisting her necklace around her fingers and nibbling on her bottom lip.

Lily looked up when she hear Jordan approach, her eyes alight with hope. Jordan shook her head, shrugged her shoulders.

"They can't get a hold of Kelly, the flight nurse, right now. Best they can do is leave a message and hope she'll check for it next time she's in." She watched Lily closely, noticing the tears glistening in her eyes again. "They can't be too far out, Lil. They were right behind me and Garret. Maybe they had to land at a smaller facility, or they're here, but can't get word to us. Nige had a bad gash on his arm; Bug's probably with him, making sure everything gets sorted out."

Lily smiled at her, sadly, laid a hand on Jordan's arm. "He would have called, Jordan. He's not here. He's not anywhere near a phone. He would have called," she repeated softly.

Jordan nodded. She knew this, of course. Just as she knew there was no way any of them could be in the same hospital and not be doing everything in their power to get to her and Lily and Garret. At the very least, they would have found out where Garret was and they'd have sent a message to the nurses' station. She ran her hands through her hair again, tried not to pace. God, why couldn't Kelly just get back to her and then she and Lily would know, one way or the other, what had happened to their friends?

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Dr. Steven Roberts wasn't a big man, but he had an authoritative air about him that he consciously used to intimidate people he felt were being too emotional or clingy. He was a surgeon for crying out loud, not God, yet people still expected him to perform miracles. He loved what he did, saving lives, but he hated the moments like this when he had to deliver bad news to the family members of his patients. He especially hated it when those family members were female. Usually it meant he was going to have to endure a crying, hysterical woman hanging off his lab coat, drenching it with tears, while he waited for the nurses to come and peel her off of him. At the very least, they looked at him like he was the scum of the earth and didn't deserve to turn his back on them and walk away to live the rest of his life.

Today wasn't going to be any different, by the looks of things. The two exhausted looking females were the only people in the waiting room, and since the Macy case had been the only surgery for today, he could safely assume both women were friends or family members of the patient. He recognized the tall brunette from the emergency room. She been damned near hysterical there, demanding every second to know what the emergency staff was doing to Macy. When Macy had crashed, Dr. Roberts thought the brunette was going to collapse. The redhead he didn't know, but she looked fragile. He sighed then opened his mouth to give them the bad news.

"Miss Cavanaugh."

She whirled at the sound of another voice; was startled to see Garret's surgeon standing before her. All her pent up anger and frustration for the surgeon threatened to explode from her as she took in his resigned look. It was the look of a man who hated dealing with family members. That just pissed her off more.

"It's Doctor Cavanaugh." A flicker of surprise showed in Dr. Roberts' eyes. "And I assume you have some news about Garret. Nice of you to finally show your face and come to talk to us. At the very least, you could have sent a nurse out here to give us an update. We've been waiting damned near six hours with no news from you!" Jordan hated the smug know-it-all look on Dr. Roberts face. She'd met many surgeons in her pre-med days and most of them didn't give a damn about the people waiting outside the O.R. And most of them hated handling the family members – the grieving were unpredictable and not easily diagnosed.

He was momentarily taken aback by her clarification of her name. He shrugged the feeling off quickly; 'Doctor' could mean a lot of things. He doubted she had any amount of medical background – she seemed too edgy to have the patience of a physician. He continued on.

"Mr. Macy had extensive internal injuries sustained from his accident and the lack of immediate medical attention didn't help matters. There was a significant amount of blood loss and we had some difficulty getting it under control. We were able to repair the damage the broken rib caused, but he's in a coma. I'm not sure when, or if, he'll regain consciousness. You should contact his family, if there is any. Check with the nurses' station if you want to know what room he's in." He turned to walk away from the women, exhausted from the surgery and stress of the notification.

"So that's it?" Jordan demanded to his retreating back. "Just 'he's in a coma – deal with it?' Not good enough! How many ribs were broken? What's the risk of infection or re-injury due to bone fragments? Did you remove his spleen? Did he need a transfusion? What about potential brain damage from his crash in the E.R.?"

Dr. Roberts turned back to her, clearly surprised at her level of knowledge and demand for answers.

"Exactly what kind of doctor are you?" He inquired.

"I'm a medical examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Doctor Macy is my boss and the Chief M.E. And for the record, he didn't receive immediate medical attention after the plane crash because he didn't tell us he was hurt until the next day. And we wereunable to get him to a hospital, because we were stranded on a mountain in the middle of no where! God, don't you people do a history anymore, or do you just jump right in, ready to play the hero?"

Understanding dawned in Dr. Roberts' eyes, and he actually felt some sympathy for the woman. She, perhaps, knew better than anyone how deadly Macy's injuries still could be. It was suddenly a little harder for the surgeon to dismiss the fiery brunette; her knowledge of the human body would make it nearly impossible for her to take comfort in any information he provided her.

"No, he didn't lose his spleen; we were able to repair it. There weren't any bone fragments that we could see; the rib had a clean break. Yes, he had a transfusion; several, in fact, so he's very weak and his clotting ability will be diminished for some time. We won't know the extent of brain damage, or if there is any, until he wakes from his coma – if he does." He watched an expression of dread cross Jordan's face and he knew he was confirming her worst fears.

She nodded silently then turned and walked away, leaving Dr. Roberts in the unfamiliar position of not knowing what to do next. He watched her for a moment then cleared his throat.

"If you have any further questions, you can have the nurses page me. I'll be in tomorrow to check on Dr. Macy."

"Thank you," came the whispered reply, but the women were too busy comforting each other to acknowledge him further. He turned and slowly walked down the hall towards the elevators.

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Jordan was sitting with her head in her hands, elbows on her knees, still trying to absorb the information Dr. Roberts had given her. Lily had gone back to the morgue. She had all ready taken longer at the hospital than she had anticipated, and had to get back to relieve Emy of Madeline. Jordan had promised to call the second she heard anything about the second chopper and their friends' fate. Lily said she'd be back at the hospital in the morning, if not before. Now Jordan was left to sit alone to wait more endless hours for news she was sure she didn't want to hear.

"Jordan." Said a soft voice.

Jordan looked up, startled, to see Kelly kneeling beside her. Relief flickered in her eyes. The relief was quickly replaced by fear, though, when she saw the expression on Kelly's face. She closed her eyes, squeezing them tight to hold back the tears.

"I haven't been able to gain any information for you about your friends' flight. It looks like they made it off the mountain, but where they went from there, we're not sure. We lost contact with them shortly after lift off. We know they were short on fuel, and with that storm moving in they may have made an emergency landing somewhere near by. We don't know why we haven't heard from them, but I'll keep checking on the situation and I'll let you know the second I have any more information." She laid a hand on Jordan's shoulder.

"You'll be here?" Jordan nodded silently. "Okay then. If I can't get the information to you personally, I'll make sure one of the nurses passes the message along to you." Her hand tightened ever so slightly on Jordan's shoulder. "We'll find them. I promise you." Her hand slipped slowly away, and Jordan heard her quiet footsteps as she left the waiting area.

Un-fucking-believable, Jordan thought to herself. She got up from her chair, leaned against the cool glass of the waiting room window. She watched the sun start to slip below the horizon; thought of the sunrise she had shared with Woody just this morning. It seemed so long ago now. She ached to see him, hold him, kiss him.

She didn't know whether to laugh, cry or scream at the irony of the situation. 12 hours ago she had basically given up hope of ever being rescued; she'd made peace with her life. Now everything was in turmoil again. Now she was wondering if she'd lost more people she loved. Now she was praying with everything she had that her friends had made it out alive as well, and that wherever they were, they were warm and had food to put in their bellies. She couldn't, however, put one haunting thought out of her head:

If they were safe, why hadn't they phoned?