Sharon insisted they try the recordings as soon as possible, and brought in a copy of "Heritage" that she happened to have with her. A portable CD player was borrowed and put in Ryan's room during the afternoon shift, when George and Mr. Kelly were there. Sharon wasn't allowed in the room, but they did let her stand at the doorway. It was the first she'd seen Ryan, and she was shocked at how bad he looked. She hadn't been able to visualize what the boys were describing and make it fit with her memories of Ryan.

Things were fine through "The Dutchman" and "Buachaill on Eirne", although Ryan didn't seem quite as relaxed as he was with the live singing, but as soon as Ryan's own voice filled the room in "Black is the Color", Ryan's heart rate went wild again and he stiffened up so badly he popped a strap off his splints. Mr. Kelly hit the stop button, George immediately started singing, and they watched Ryan's heart rate drop and his limbs relax as the soothing baritone flowed through the room. Sharon had gone very pale.

"Is that what he was doing before Keith started singing?" she asked shakily.

"Yes," Mr. Kelly confirmed. "He's done it a few times since when George needed to stop singing for a moment or two, but not that badly."

"I wonder why he was OK with Keith and Damian's voices, but not his own," Sharon said.

George was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he wasn't about to stop singing to say anything until he had a substitute. He went over to the player and hit skip to move to the next song, which he knew was Paul's. He'd have to convince them before the next song came on, since it was an ensemble piece. Nonetheless, he waited through the first few lines to make sure Ryan was going to be OK. Then he said quietly, "It's his OWN voice. If he has any kind of awareness of what's happened to him, he's got to be terrified that he'll never be able to sing again, to perform again. Performing's his life. Hearing us singing to him means he still has that link with us, he hasn't lost us. Hearing himself is hearing something he's afraid to lose."

Mr. Kelly looked at him and at Sharon. "I think he's probably right," he said. "In any case, I'm not letting this experiment continue any longer."

Nadine spoke up from behind Sharon, startling her. She'd come over to check on Ryan when the monitors at the nurse's station had shown Ryan's reaction to his own voice. "I won't permit it, either. Those episodes are extremely bad for him."

Sharon turned to her, ignoring George shutting off the CD player and starting to sing again quietly. "No, I couldn't bear to put him through that again in any case. But I have to think about my singers, too, especially with performances coming up in a few weeks. I can't risk them straining their voices. And what happens when we have to leave for Atlantic City?"

George had to speak up again, and started the CD again from the beginning, knowing he had two safe songs before he had to take over again. "Sharon, we're not singing at performance level. We rehearse at higher level than this for a lot longer than 6 hours at a time."

"Yes, but none of you is singing continuously for 6 hours in rehearsals, either."

"Ask David what he thinks. He's the musical director, he'll know if it will hurt us. And we've got recording programs on our laptops. Get some memory sticks, and we'll start recording one or two songs a day when we're done here, and by the time we have to leave there should be enough music to keep things going when we can't do it any longer. We can start phasing the recordings in a few days before we leave." He turned off the CD player and started singing again.

Sharon grumbled about that meaning more singing, but she knew it was the only option she would get the boys to agree to, as none of them were willing to risk Ryan's safety for any more "experiments". She hoped David Munro would agree with George. Sometimes she hated having to be the boss and think about things this way; given her choice, she'd cancel the AC shows and keep everybody here until they knew Ryan was going to get better, but it truly wasn't an option.