Joan awoke from someone nudging her shoulder. She was curled up in the old armchair in the Ranger's Station, a blanket covering her. She must have nodded off. She saw her father's eyes looking down on her that were filled with concern. If for her or for Adam, she couldn't discern.
"Joan, honey, we should go home. There's nothing more we can do from here right now. We'll send search parties into the woods as soon as first light comes up. We'll find him."
Joan, too tired and weary to contradict, let herself and Grace be guided to her dad's police car.
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They had dropped Grace off at home, where her father awaited her. At the Girardi home, Helen welcomed them silently with mugs of hot, steaming herbal tea. Joan showered and changed into dry clothes and went back into the living room. There was no way she would sleep tonight. She sat down next to her mother on the couch. Will had gone out again to help organizing the search party to go out first thing at dawn.
Her mother had a quiet look of worry on her face. More to reassure herself than Joan, she said, "Don't worry, honey, they'll find him. He'll be all right."
Joan looked at her mother, almost angry. "But what if he's not! What then?" Her eyes watered, but no tears fell. "Mom, we had a fight earlier today. The last thing I said to him was that when he told me he thought we could be friends, I knew he did but that life didn't always work out the way you wanted it to. What if that was the last thing I would ever say to him?"
"Don't even think that, honey. He just got lost in the dark and the rain and the search party will find him alive and well in the morning. You'll see."
Joan nodded and lay down with her head next to her mother's lap. Helen gently stroked her daughter's hair, trying to comfort her. There was nothing more to say right now, so they just stayed like that in silent worry.
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Joan had fallen asleep on the couch eventually. Helen had covered her with a blanket and left the couch to sit at the kitchen table, cradling another mug of tea with both hands. Kevin came rolling into the kitchen as quietly as possible when he saw Joan lying asleep on the sofa. He positioned his wheelchair next to his mother.
Rubbing his eyes, he murmured, "Couldn't sleep. Anything?"
Helen shook her head tiredly. She got up, went to the kitchen counter and, back at the table, silently handed Kevin a mug with tea. He took it and sipped at it carefully. "Is there anything I can do?"
"No, I don't think so. Will is organizing a search party, they're going to look for him as soon as it's light outside."
He nodded his head at the direction of the couch. "How is Joan?"
"Messed up, I guess. Scared. She finally fell asleep half an hour ago."
Kevin stared at the contents of his mug as if there was something fascinating about it. "How could he be so stupid?"
Helen sighed. "Maybe he doesn't care. That's what I'm worried about." She rubbed her face with her hands and then put her palms flat on the table. "I just wish this nightmare would end. I don't think this family can take another tragedy."
Kevin placed his hand over his mother's to comfort her. "We won't have to. He's gonna be fine."
Helen sighed again, "Yeah, I keep telling myself that, but I have a hard time really believing it."
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Shortly after half past seven in the morning, the phone rang. Both Joan and Helen jolted to wakefulness in a split second. Helen was the first to reach it. She listened intently for a few seconds that seemed to Joan like an eternity. She tried reading her mother's face, but couldn't really make sense of what she was seeing. She heard her mother say, "We'll be there in ten minutes."
Helen put down the receiver and turned to Joan. "They found him, but he's in pretty bad shape from the way it looks. They're taking him to the hospital right now."
Joan didn't know if she should be glad or devastated. Finding him was a good thing, right? But what did 'in pretty bad shape' mean? She grabbed her coat and followed her mother to the car.
On the way to the hospital, Helen told Joan what her husband had told her. That Adam had apparently slipped and fallen down a slope. He was unconscious but alive. Upon arrival at the hospital, they were told to wait in the waiting area of the emergency room. Will and Mr. Rove, who had arrived just a few minutes prior to Helen and Joan, awaited them.
Will told them, "I don't know much, just that he has lots of scrapes and bruises, a broken wrist and that he was hypothermic. He was unconscious when we found him. The doctors said they can't say anything for sure before they've run some tests. It might take a while." They all sat down in the plastic chairs and waited.
Twenty minutes later, Grace and Luke came storming through the door. Luke had bloodshot eyes and looked tired. Grace's hair was frayed in places and stringy in others, she didn't look less of a mess than Luke. Helen and Will looked at Luke questioningly, wondering quietly what he and Friedman had been up to when he had stayed at Friedman's place overnight, but didn't say anything.
Joan quickly filled Grace and Luke in on the little they knew. The both of them joined the group in the plastic chairs. Waiting became tense and tiring, the minutes seemed endless. No one felt like making conversation. Grace was leaning her head on Luke's shoulder, a rare sign of Grace showing weakness and need for support. Luke had put his arm around her to comfort her as best as he could. Joan was sitting in the chair, her face in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees. Helen was simply sitting in her chair, Will had left the waiting room a few minutes before.
Mr. Rove had intermittently gotten up, pacing the room nervously. Joan didn't want to think about what he had to be going through. First he had lost his wife, and now he was in danger of losing his only child. Will came back in and handed him and Helen a paper cup with stale coffee that he had gotten from some machine in the hallway. Mr. Rove sat down again and sipped absentmindedly at the brew, throwing the empty cup into a wastepaper basket when he was done.
Just at that moment, the door to the emergency ward opened and a male doctor clad in green scrubs came out. Everyone got to their feet and surrounded him. Dr. Fitzgerald, as the name tag read, looking at Mr. Rove, he said, "Your son is stable for now. He's got cuts and bruises, mostly superficial. His right wrist is broken, but the main problem was the hypothermia. Due to prolonged exposure to the cold and rain, he's fallen into a coma. We are warming up his body right now and we will put a cast on his wrist."
Dr. Fitzgerald paused to look at the rest of the group and continued when he saw their worried and shocked faces. In as reassuring as possible a voice he went on, "There is a very good chance that he will regain consciousness, but there is no telling how long that will take."
Joan asked, "Can we see him?"
Dr. Fitzgerald looked at Mr. Rove and replied, "We're sorry, but only family members are allowed right now." Then looking at Joan in particular, he said, "I would suggest you come back tomorrow."
Joan's face fell, she had to fight tears from forming in her eyes. Luke, as spaced out as he still was from his marijuana experiments with Friedman the night before, sensed that Joan was close to breaking down, so he put his arms around her shoulder and guided her back to the plastic chairs where she sat down with her head bowed.
Joan heard someone say her name. Mr. Rove was standing in front of her. "Joan, I know how much Adam means to you. I will give you a call the moment there is any news."
Joan looked up at him, it took a few seconds for the information to sink in. In a little more above a whisper she said, "Yeah. Okay. Thanks."
Helen softly took Joan's arm and guided her out of the emergency room, her family and Grace in tow. They all went back to their house where Helen fixed them all breakfast. No one was hungry, but Helen insisted that they all eat something. Helen gave Kevin a call to fill him in, he had gone to work at the newspaper after Helen and Joan had driven to the hospital. Then she called the school to let them know since she wasn't sure anyone had informed them yet. With Adam being taken care of in the hospital, it was all they could do to try and go on as normally as they could.
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