Tru drove to the hospital in a daze. Harrison had gone with Cassie in the ambulance. She hurried into the hospital, looking for her brother amongst the visitors and patients in the emergency room waiting area.
Eventually she saw him in a doorway where a nurse was holding him back to stop him going through them.
"We're doing everything we can for her," the nurse insisted. "But you have to wait out here."
"I can't just wait," Harrison answered in an angry and slightly tearful voice as the nurse guided him away from the doors that he couldn't seem to take his eyes off.
"Harrison," Tru called as she hurried across the room. He didn't turn, or even seem to hear her.
She reached him and directed him to one of the seats.
"Are you family?" the nurse asked in a sympathetic tone.
"Yes, she's my wife," Harrison lied, mistakenly believing that they would let him through if he were. The nurse shook her head as he stood up again to move towards the door and he sat back down in disappointment.
"We'll let you know as soon as she's finished in surgery," the nurse assured him. "The doctor's are doing everything they can for her."
Tru nodded and sat down beside Harrison.
"Does she have any family you want me to call?" Tru asked as soon as the nurse had gone back to work. "Her parents?"
"She's on her own," Harrison said with a shake of his head. "That's partly why she moved here, for a fresh start."
"She's not on her own," Tru replied. "She's got you. She's got us."
"This is all my fault," Harrison said.
"You didn't know that this would happen if she stayed home," Tru pointed out. "She told me that someone had stepped in when she was attacked on the first day. I forgot that if she was at home, on her own, no one would be able to do that. I should have saved Matt on the second day and this wouldn't have happened."
"You couldn't have known."
"It doesn't make a difference," Harrison sighed. "I decided to leave him to his fate when the day rewound and you ended up dead. If that hadn't happened I wouldn't have called a truce with Jack, and Cassie wouldn't be in there now."
"They're doing everything they can for her," Tru said.
"That's just what they tell people to avoid telling them how bad things are," Harrison muttered.
Tru didn't have anything to say to that. She knew that nothing she could say would make a difference. They sat in silence for a long time as they watched the hands of the clock slowly tick off the minutes, then hours, as they waited for news.
Eventually Tru left Harrison alone with his thoughts and headed to the cafeteria for something to eat. She had had nothing since breakfast and it was now late evening.
She had tried to persuade Harrison to join her but he had silently declined with a shake of his head.
Yawning slightly, because it had been a long day and having nothing to do but wait always made her sleepy, she pushed open the door to the cafeteria and was shocked to see Jack sitting at one of the tables. She wondered for a moment whether it would be best to simply ignore him but finally decided that it would be better to go and speak with him, if only to warn him to keep his distance from her brother.
"She out of surgery yet?" Jack asked as Tru took a seat across from him.
"Not yet," she replied.
"She's been in there a long time," Jack commented. "That can't be good."
"Why are you here?" Tru bluntly asked.
"Concern for a friend," Jack offered.
Tru let loose a sharp sarcastic laugh.
"You want a coffee?" Jack asked with a nod to the drink machine. "I'll even pay."
Tru shrugged and Jack stood up to get her a drink.
The hot drink was a frequently used beverage at the hospitals for those who had a long time to wait for news. He had heard enough from his own enquiries with the doctors to discover that things were not looking good and it was going to be a while before they had news.
Jack looked back at Tru and seeing that she was looking towards the doorway and not in his direction he slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the sedatives he had picked up on the way to the hospital. He poured a couple of the powders into the coffee and waited for it to dissolve. Making sure he added plenty of sugar to mask the taste he hoped that Tru would be too distracted to notice the odd flavour.
With a small smile of satisfaction he returned to the table and placed the coffee in front of her.
"Thanks," Tru said, automatically picking up the cup and taking a sip of the hot drink, too distracted by the events of the last few hours to notice anything unusual about the drink, or the fact that it was Jack who had bought it for her.
"My pleasure," Jack replied with a smile, watching her finish off the coffee without a word.
"I should get back to Harrison," Tru said, placing the cup down and standing up.
"Stay a while," Jack said. "Believe me, he won't notice the difference."
"That's not the point," Tru said sadly. "I should be with him."
"For what it's worth I hope she makes it," Jack offered. He yawned widely knowing that such an action was often contagious and hoping Tru was susceptible.
"Why?" Tru asked with surprise before covering her mouth to hide her own yawn.
"She and your brother have a lot in common," Jack said with a grin. "Both should be dead but stubbornly refuse to stay that way, and while they're together at least they aren't messing up other people's fates."
"You just can't leave it alone can you?" Tru said.
"Plus, she doesn't take any crap from him," Jack said. "He's amusingly hen-pecked these days."
"Yeah, he is, isn't he?" Tru smiled before yawning again.
"You look tired," Jack commented. "Why don't you shut your eyes for a minute?"
"I can't," Tru replied. "What if the day rewinds?"
"You day isn't rewinding though is it?" Jack pointed out. "It's Harrison who needs to stay awake this time, and you and me both know that he's not going to be getting any sleep any time soon."
"You're right," Tru conceded with another wide yawn. She lay her head on the table, telling herself that she'd just shut her eyes for a minute or two.
Jack looked out of the window at the storm that was now reaching its climax. Once he was sure that Tru was safely asleep he stood up quietly and left the room.
Tru woke up at the tap to her shoulder by a nurse.
"Miss Davies?"
Tru nodded.
"Your brother asked me to get you. His wife is out of surgery and he wants you there when he talks to the doctor."
Tru muddled mind tried to piece together what the nurse was talking about before she remembered her brother's lie about his relationship with Cassie. She rubbed her eyes, nodded, and stood up to follow the nurse.
Glancing up at the clock on the wall she realised that she'd been asleep for a couple of hours, and looking out the window she saw that the storm that had raged all evening had passed. She prayed that the crisis was over and that Cassie had pulled through.
Harrison was sitting in a chair next to Cassie who was still unconscious and hooked up to a frightening number of machines. One part of her brain recognised the various pieces of equipment and realised that it was bad, very bad; another part just couldn't comprehend anything other than the fact that her brother was hurting and there was nothing she could do to ease his suffering.
The doctor came into the room right behind her and the nurse left while he spoke to them.
She tried to listen to all that he was saying but the only thing that she seemed to be able to register was that all they had done was not enough. The machines were keeping her alive but to all intents and purposes Cassie Mitchell was dead; she was never going to wake up and all they could do was say goodbye.
Tru nodded absently and made the appropriate responses to the doctor. She sat down beside Harrison who was holding onto Cassie's hand like a lifeline.
The doctor left them alone in the room to give them the privacy to say goodbye.
"I have to rewind again and stop this," Harrison said.
"Only the dead can ask for help," Jack said from the doorway where he had suddenly appeared. "Can you pull the plug and risk that she won't ask?"
"Get out," Harrison said in a tired voice. Tru looked at her brother. Anger and rage she could have dealt with, but the tired dejectedness she saw on his face was something she didn't know how to handle right now.
"Or are you afraid that she won't ask you for help because you've done such a great job of protecting her so far? Or that she's supposed to be dead, just like you are?"
Tru watched her brother's grip on his girlfriend's hand tighten at Jack's words. "Get out," she said in a quiet hiss and Jack left with a shrug.
"He's right you know," Tru said after he had gone.
"You think I don't know this is my fault?" Harrison exclaimed, finally turning to face Tru. She looked at the hollow look in his eyes and felt her own well up with tears.
"I meant he's right about only the dead asking for help," Tru explained. "Cassie's not actually dead yet. She can't ask anyone for help until she is."
"You're asking me to stand here, and watch her die," Harrison said with a choked sob.
"You heard the doctor, she's never going to wake up. There's nothing else we can do. She can ask for help, it's not her time to die. She didn't die on the first day or the second and she's not going to die tomorrow either."
Harrison gave a small smile at his sister's determination. "Go get the doctor," he said.
Tru stood up and hugged Harrison. "I'll be right back."
Cassie died almost immediately without the life support system. After the doctor had left them alone in the room Tru stood in silence and watched her brother from across the other side of the bed.
"Ask me, you have to ask me," Harrison pleaded over and over.
Tru felt her tears spilling down her cheeks but could not bring herself to even wipe them away.
"Why won't she ask, Tru?" Harrison sobbed. "Why won't she ask for help?"
"I'm sorry Harry," Tru said with a shake of her head. She made to move around the bed towards her brother who had collapsed down into the chair.
Suddenly the air stilled and Tru felt her heart leap. It wasn't too late. She looked at Cassie who turned to her and opened her eyes. "Help me," she whispered a moment before Tru felt the familiar sensation of time rewinding.
Tru opened her eyes, elated that time had rewound, that they had another shot at the day, a chance to put things right.
Her elation only lasted an instant. She wasn't home in her bed and she wasn't reliving the day…or at least not enough of the day.
She looked at the nurse who had shaken her awake again and horror descended over her as she leapt to her feet and ran from the room.
