"Let me see what I can do." Christian placed a telephone call, introduced himself, spoke for a few minutes, then hung up and turned back to his wife. "Melody's at MedStar," he told her. "She's suffering from second degree burns and smoke inhalation. Her parents were both killed in the fire."

"Oh no! Poor little girl!" Lissa cried. "I have to go to her right away!"

"The traffic's horrible out there, hon..."

"I don't care! I have to go to her, now!"

"At least let me drive you. You're in no state to be behind a wheel right now."

An hour and a half later, they arrived at the hospital, where they parked and walked half a block. Lissa told the receptionist she was there to visit Melody, and the flustered woman told her the room number.

She entered the room to find the little girl lying in bed with her arms and legs swathed in bandages, hooked up to an IV. She was awake, but just barely.

Lissa wondered whether anyone had told her about her parents yet.

She sat beside the bed and touched Melody's hand.

"Mommy?"

"No, I'm Miss Lissa from the summer camp. Don't you remember me?"

The little girl's eyes filled with tears. "Where's my Mommy?" No one had told her, or if they had, she hadn't understood.

"Your Mommy couldn't come, so she sent me." Lissa swept the little girl's dark blonde bangs back with her fingers. "I brought you a friend." She held out the rag doll she'd brought along. "Her name is Kozy Kate, and she used to belong to my little girl when she was your age."

"You have a little girl?"

"I did, but she's all grown up now. Her name is Jacy. She lives in Montana, and she works with people who've been hurt to help them get better."

"She's a nurse?"

"Not exactly. She's a physical therapist, but that's sort of like a nurse."

At first Christian simply hovered near the door, observing the interaction between Lissa and Melody, but as they continued to talk, he gradually moved closer, until he was standing right beside the bed. Melody looked up at him. "You're the nice man who built the camp, aren't you?"

Christian laughed. "I didn't build it, but I did give permission for it to be built. My name is Mr. Christian, and I'm Miss Lissa's husband."

Suddenly he was taken back to the time Jacy had had her tonsils removed when she was six. When he and Lissa had gone back to see her after her operation, she'd been lying in bed just like Melody was now, eyelids half closed, clutching Kozy Kate tightly. They'd allowed her to take the doll back with her into surgery.

If Christian squinted his eyes, it was easy to forget that a different little girl lay there now.

"I want to adopt her," Lissa told her husband on the way home.

Christian cleared his throat. "Isn't this rather sudden?"

"The fire was 'rather sudden', Christian. In the blink of an eye, Melody lost both her parents. She has no one, Christian. No family, no home, nobody to love her. She needs us!"

Christian frowned. "But certainly there are grandparents, uncles and aunts. They'll get first choice when it comes to custody, you know."

Lissa was silent. She hadn't even thought about that. Neither of them said a word for the rest of the ride home. It was like a cloud of gloom had settled over them, adding to the grief they both felt about the fire and the loss of lives.

Billy Milford lay on his back on a cot in an American army medic tent in Iraq. They'd given him medication to dull the pain, but his shattered leg still throbbed. He heaved a heavy sigh, looking down at the bandages, the make-do support device. He knew he'd just have to bear it until he could get back to the states, where he could get real medical attention.

He dozed briefly, and when he opened his eyes, Devin was there, standing right beside his cot. He gasped, shocked. "Dad?"

"I'm proud of you, son."

"But I thought you were gone!"

"I had to leave you and your brother. I didn't want to, but I had no other choice. It was either that or just stand by helplessly and let them win. I came back to let you know I saw what you did out there, how bravely you defended our country and its values. Never give up, Billy. Fight to your last breath. That's what I did, and I know you will too, because you're a Milford...and my son. Never forget that, and please also know that I love you more than you could ever know, and I always will."

Devin's appearance began to change, gradually becoming more translucent. "Don't go, Dad!" Billy grasped for his father's hand but clasped only empty air.