Chapter 4

Tom looked through the glass of the ICU room that Diana was placed in. Her body looked so small in the big hospital bed with all the wires and machines snaking there way into her body.

What was he going to tell Maia? She loved Diana. How was she going to break the news to her? She was a child.

"Okay doctor, thank you," Tom heard Ryland say before he walked over to where Tom was standing. "There were some slight complications with her surgery. She began to bleed out again but they managed to replace the blood, but not before she slipped into a coma."

"I can't do this?" Tom said. "Not again."

"I've got an address on her father, fortunately Diana keeps an address book."

"What have you found out?" Tom asked.

"He lives in Spokane."

"Do you have an address?"

"Yes," Ryland answered. "Spokane is about four hours and fifteen minutes away, 279 miles."

"Lets go for a drive."

Ryland pulled up to a blue house on a dead end road in Spokane, Washington.

"Tom wake up," Ryland commanded to his sleepy subordinate in the passenger seat. "We've arrived."

"Great," Tom said as he climbed out of the car. "Lets go see Mr. Skouris."

The two men climbed up the steps to the front door. Tom rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer the door. A few minutes later he was greeted by a dog barking and another female voice.

"Rocky, calm down," the female voice said as she opened the front door and then the screen. "Can I help you?"

Tom was taken about by how much this woman looked like Diana. She had the same black hair, same bone structure, same eyes. But there was one small difference, while Diana had green eyes this woman's eyes were hazel. It all just seemed to strange.

"We're with Homeland Security," Tom said. "We'd like to talk with Daniel Skouris about his daughter Diana."

The woman stepped outside. "Diana?"

"You know her?"

"Yes, of course I know Diana," the woman said. "I'm her sister, Dana."

That explained the similarities, but Tom still wondered why Diana hadn't mentioned her sister before.

"Did something happen to her?" Dana asked.

"I'm afraid so," Ryland began. "Last night…um…she was shot...in her apartment."

"Oh my god," Dana said. "Is she okay?"

"She's in a coma," Tom stated flatly. Dana tried to hold back tears. "We found your father's address in her address book."

"Is your father here? We'd really like to speak to him," Ryland stated.

"Um…I don't think Diana told you," Dana said. "Our father…was diagnosed with Alzheimer's five years ago. He barely remembers Diana and me."

"Look Diana's condition doesn't look good right now and I think that you would want to come to Seattle in case anything happens." Ryland said.

"Okay, come in," Dana said as she opened up the door and led the agents into the house. They followed her down the hall into the kitchen where her father was sitting reading the paper. "Dad," Dana said kneeling down. "Dad!"

"Dinah?" her father questioned.

"No dad, its Dana, your daughter." Dana corrected him. "Listen, I have a few men from Homeland Security with me. They need us to go see Diana. She's in the hospital."

"Who?" Daniel asked.

"Diana," Dana prompted as she removed a picture from the mantel piece of the two sisters dressed in jeans and t-shirts. She pointed to the one with green eyes and said. "Diana, my sister, your daughter."

"No, she's not my daughter."

"Yes she is dad," Dana said. "You taught her how to ride a bike, remember, she fell off and scraped her knee so deeply you had to take her to the hospital so that she could get stitches? Please dad, tell me you remember her?"

"She's not my daughter!"

Dana stood up from her kneeling position. "Dad, I'm sorry but she's been hurt. We have to go to Seattle."

"Seattle? What's in Seattle?"

"Diana, your daughter."

"Ohh, her," Daniel said. "How is she?"

"She's in the hospital dad," Dana said. "I'm going to go pack a bag."

Dana exited the kitchen and headed to the stairs. "Do you want some help?" Tom offered.

"That would be great." Dana said. "Thank you."

Tom followed her up the stairs and to a storage closet where Dana removed two suitcases. "I just need help filling these with cloths and toiletries."

"Okay," Tom said as Dana pointed him in the direction of the master bedroom. She disappeared into the bathroom and gathered the shampoo and soaps as Tom began to rifle through the drawers. "Dana, if you don't mind me asking why did your father call you Dinah?"

"Dinah was my mother's name. She died in a car crash when I was twelve."

"When Diana visits does he call her Dinah too?"

"Yeah," Dana answered. "It's hard to watch our father decline like this?"

"What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a nurse," Dana said. "That's the only reason why there is no extra help besides the fact that we can't afford it."

"Do you keep in touch with Diana?"

"Periodically, I've been seeing her on the news a lot now that those 4400 people have shown up." Dana stifled a sob. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"How bad is my sister? I mean, really I want to know. Don't sugarcoat anything."

"She lost a lot of blood which the doctors replaced…she went into a pulmonary arrest and is now on a ventilator…and she went into v-fib before going into surgery…during surgery the doctors said that she began to bleed out…they replaced the blood but not before she went into shock…and slipped into a coma."

"Thank you," Dana said with sadness in her voice. "Thank you for telling me." She sighed before continuing. "Um, just let me grab a few more things and call our brother in San Francisco."

"You have a brother too?"

"Darryl," Dana said. "He and Diana were very close. You wouldn't guess it now but she was quite a tomboy when she was growing up."

"I'm glad that we were able to find you."

"Me too. I mean…if Diana were to…"

"I've been trying to push that thought out of my head for the past twelve hours."

"Well…" Dana said as she zipped her suitcase shut. "Lets go."

TBC