The next 24 hours were the longest of Landon's life. He refused to go home and rest, he couldn't leave Jamie. What if she woke up for only a moment and he wasn't there?

But she didn't wake up as the hours continued to tick away. Why, though was a mystery? Dr. Patterson was beyond thrilled with her bodies recuperation, he said everything seemed to be going as it should, her heart truly did seem to be mending itself. What was going on with Jamie's head was a completely different matter.

After the first 12 hours passed the five-minute visitation restriction was lifted. Although still weak from surgery there was no reason for Jamie's condition to be considered critical. She was moved to another room and the windows opened to let the early morning sun light flood in. Both Landon and Reverend Sullivan were encouraged to talk to Jamie, to each other, read to her or even play music. No one was sure if she could hear what was going on around her and so it was important to keep her involved in case she could.

By mid morning Landon's back was starting to ache from sitting in the uncomfortable hospital chairs and so Jamie's father told him to take a walk around the hospital to loosen up. He decided to get something to drink and passed the nurses station on the way to the vending machine smiling absently at the two middle aged nurses doing paper work.

Rounding the corner he stopped and was sifting through the contents of his pockets for proper change when the conversation at the desk caught his attention. "Do you know who that was?" one asked in a lowered voice.

"No, who?" the other asked

"That was Landon Carter, Dr. Carter's boy." She paused and Landon heard the shuffle of papers. "He's married to the girl in 205, the one who's in the coma."

"Dr. Carter is?" asked the other in disbelief.

"No," the woman said with a laugh "although she's nearly young enough. Have you seen his wife? Barely over 30, left his first one for her. But the girl in 205, Jamie is Landon's wife."

"But he looked so young." The other voice argued. "He can't be 20 yet. They don't get married that young nowadays."

"Eighteen." She confirmed. "Not even out of high school yet. Apparently they were only married on Sunday. I think they were scared she wouldn't make it, poor little lamb. Now, who's to say? He hasn't left her side since she came out of surgery."

They were silent for a minute and Landon went back to counting his change, deciding not to pay attention. He and Jamie did make for pretty interesting gossip after all. He was just bending over to pick his soda up when the next comment turned his blood to ice.

The nurse with the kinder, softer voice who was on the receiving end of all this information said with a sad little sigh, "I wonder if she will ever wake up? Remember that poor woman, who was in a car accident, oh it must have been about 4 or 5 years ago? Anyway, her body seemed to heal just fine but she never did come out of that coma. They finally moved her over to the long term care ward and she's still there."

There was another pause as an announcement came over the loud speaker paging Connie to admittance. "Well," said the woman who seemed to know Landon's story as well as he did, "they're playing my song. I better get down there."

Landon ducked in between the vending machines as she passed by on her way to the elevator. He didn't know why but he didn't want her to see him and definitely did not want her to know he had heard her.

After he heard the elevator close behind her he walked quickly back down the hall towards Jamie's room, head down past the nurses desk avoiding the nurses kind but curious smile.

He kept walking straight past Jamie's room until he came to the very end of the hall and found himself staring out a window onto the parking lot several stories below. His heart was pounding like a jackhammer and his palms had gone clammy. He could not get himself to calm down.

He had thought death was the worst possible option when they had wheeled Jamie away the day before, he had never considered there could be something worse. He had thought she would live or she wouldn't, had never considered the possibility that she might linger somewhere in between. How could he stand it if she didn't wake up? If she just continued to lie there as a constant reminder of everything that he had lost, that they both had.

For the first time in weeks he broke down. He had tried so hard to be strong for Jamie, to be the one to hold it together and now with the future blurrier then ever he felt all the built up pressure and worry come spewing out.

Tears rolling down his cheeks, his arms tightly crossed in front of him he had no idea how long he stood staring blankly ahead of him into the bright June sunshine. Jamie was all he could see, so beautiful and full of life reduced now to this limbo.

He jumped slightly when he felt a hand touch his shoulder but he did not turn around. "Excuse me, are you alright?"

He recognized it as the soft voice of the nurse from earlier.

He nodded still staring ahead. He hoped she would just leave him alone, go back to her desk and her gossip. "You're Landon, aren't you? Landon Carter."

Again he nodded, biting his tongue to keep from screaming at her to go away. She didn't say anything just moved to stand beside him in front of the window.

They stood in silence for a couple of minutes before she finally commented, "it's a nice day. I don't suppose you have been outside yet, maybe you should take a walk over in the park across the way." She pointed across the street to a grassy park with playground equipment.

"No, thank you." He said abruptly hoping she might take the hint that he was really in no mood to talk go away.

"I was just in checking on Jamie," she told him "she's fine, I'm sure it would be okay for you to slip away for a couple of minutes, get some fresh air."

"Yeah, sure," he said irritably, turning on her, "because I mean, eventually I will have to leave. Jamie wont, she'll just get moved to the long term care ward like that lady who was in the car accident."

Landon heard her gasp and was pleased to see the colour rush up her neck into her face. "I guess you heard us, Connie and I." She said after a minute. "We shouldn't have been talking like that and I'm sorry you heard it."

"Sorry you got caught is more like it." He snorted shoving his hands into his pocket moving to walk around her back to Jamie's room. She reached out and caught him by the arm and tugged him gently until he was back facing her.

"No, I'm sorry that you heard that because it made you lose hope for a minute."

He looked up at her surprised. She was a middle-aged woman with faded blond hair and smile lines creasing her face. She was smiling at him with a sad expression on her face. That wasn't what he had expected to hear.

"But, she might not come out of the coma," he said calmly now. "You said that lady who was in the car accident has been in one for years."

She nodded, tipping her head to the side thoughtfully as she continued to study him. "That's true, I won't lie to you there. But she might also come out of it." She shrugged. "Don't give up hope, Landon."

He leaned back against the wall, letting his head fall back so he was looking up at the ceiling. "I thought if she made it through the surgery she'd be okay. I never thought about any of this, the machines and hospital rooms or comas. I don't know what I thought. I never went beyond the dying or living part, I guess I just assumed everything would work itself out one way or another."

He closed his eyes, feeling exhaustion washing over him for the first time. He didn't want to talk but he couldn't stop himself as the words came tumbling out to this complete stranger. "Even when we found out she had gone into the coma yesterday, I still thought she would come out of it. I thought I would walk in the room and she would hear my voice and would open her eyes." He let out a hollow sounding laugh. "Stupid, I know it doesn't work that way but that's not Jamie lying there, that's a shell."

"Jamie's still in there, just deep down. You need to keep talking to her, touching her, being there for her. She'll know on some level that you're there." She gave Landon's shoulder a squeeze.

He didn't say anything and so the nurse continued. "You and Jamie remind me a lot of my husband and I. We got married just out of high school too. Of course," she said with a laugh, "that was over thirty five years ago and we 'had to'. Or at least that what everyone else said. And yeah, we knew we had to but not because I was pregnant, which I was, but because we loved each other so much that we had to be together."

She smiled to herself when she saw a smile flutter across Landon's lips. "We were married 36 years when Earl, my husband died last year. We were painting our garage door and he just dropped dead." She snapped her fingers, "just like that.

"Everyone told me I should have been thankful that it was so quick, that he probably didn't know what was happening but I would have done anything to have been able to say good bye, even if he was only lying there not talking back. Actually that might have been better. I could have said what I wanted to without the old fool interrupting me for a change."

This time Landon did laugh lifting his head up to look at her. She smiled at him again "you take advantage of the silence and say what's really in your heart. I'm not saying Jamie wont wake up, but take the opportunity now while you have the chance."

He pushed off the wall and stood uncertainly in front of her, "I'm sorry for being so rude before, I just got a bit of a shock realizing what could happen, that she might not come out of it."

"That's alright. Just don't give up. When things get bad I always tell myself 'don't give up hope."

She laughed then and pointed at her nametag, which read Hope Riley. Landon laughed too. "I like to say I am a good reminder for what are considered the hard luck cases. Now go be with your wife, I have a good feeling about you two."