They did not have to wait too much longer for the remaining family to be shown in. Dad immediately made a beeline for Gordon and Alan, while John headed towards Virgil and Grandma turned about with Brains and both went in search of the yet-to-show doctor.

Alan was relieved his dad was there. The last time Scott had been hospitalised Jeff had been in the Oort cloud. Alan had looked it up before they rescued him. NASA said it was about 2,000-100,000 astronomical units from the sun. That was up to 9.3 trillion miles away. Now, he was right here. And Alan couldn't quite put into words the feelings that they weren't going to go through this with Scott again without their dad.

By the time Grandma and Brains returned Gordon, Virgil and Alan had been there for almost two hours. It hadn't felt that long. Last time it had taken around four and a half hours before they had been allowed to see Scott, but he had needed surgery. This time there was no surgery, and the doctor entered, talking with Sally in quiet tones.

Everyone looked up and the low-level chatter stopped. The doctor cleared his throat and introduced himself and Dr Griffin. Everyone listened intently as he explained the battery of tests they had run. Scott had been transferred to a private room and they would be allowed to see him, but he was currently still unconscious and was on a respirator. How long he would be unconscious for they did not know. Nor did they yet know what drug had been given him.

They just needed time and patience. Scott was stable, and as soon as the drug was identified an antidote could possibly be administered that would rouse him. Until then it was still a waiting game.

A game that the Tracy family was all too familiar with.

It was not a matter of pride that they already had a schedule for staying with Scott while he was unconscious. But this did allow for a seamless start for the family's vigil. Dad and Grandma first, then Brains and Virgil, Gordon and Alan, and John last. John on his own (unless Kayo reappeared) because he had equipment to install.

Scott was pale. He was reclined so that his upper body was at about 45 degrees. The worst thing was always the breathing tube in his mouth with the blue tubing carrying up over his left shoulder into the unit built into the wall. His head was propped up with an extra pillow and he was wearing the obligatory hospital gown. Wired up to three machines, the room was a cacophony of beeps and alarms.

Virgil sighed. It may not have been the same as last time, but this was still his big brother, once again unconscious due to someone else's hand. What was is about Scott that attracted women hell-bent on hurting him? He supposed it was the dimples. His brother could and had used those dimples ruthlessly, but from listening to Gordon and Alan, it seemed that Scott had not paid the woman any attention at all. Maybe that had been the problem.

Three hours, fifteen minutes and forty-one seconds. That's how long it took to identify the drug. That had been a combination of blood and urine tests helped by the police arresting a woman at the conference who had introduced herself as Georgia and who had a large amount of liquid ketamine on her person.

Ketamine was a sedative that Virgil had used on numerous occasions, even on Scott, so he was unsure why there had been such a reaction. Dr Griffin explained that it was likely the dose given Scott was quite high, and the combining it with alcohol exacerbated the drugs affect.

The doc went on to explain how lucky they had all been. Frequently, ketamine overdoses coupled with alcohol resulted in coma and death. It had been the prompt treatment along with Scott's overall excellent health that had prevented that outcome. But he was not quite out of the woods yet. The fortunate thing about ketamine was that it had a short half-life, and he was already past that half-way marker. Unfortunately, no-one could predict when Scott would wake up.

He was starting to get the drug out of his system naturally, and they wouldn't need a reversal agent. What they had suggested was to hook Scott up to a dialysis machine to assist his kidneys filtering and to prevent them from becoming damaged – a common side effect of this drug. Grandma readily agreed, and so the family decamped to find coffee and food.

It was back in the waiting room that Kayo found them, the remains of a hasty meal scattered about. She filled them in on what had happened on the police front.

The three policemen had managed to grab both the glass and the girl. Georgia Holt was by trade a hooker. And not a very smart one at that. She had been standing at the window watching the proceedings outside instead of making her getaway but thank goodness she had. Georgia was quite a chatty girl, and it transpired she had a nearby hotel room set up to do some rather intimate filming. For blackmail purposes.

Every single member of the room sported matching frowns. It certainly was not the first time they had been singled out for money-making schemes, but these usually involved kidnap and ransom, not sex and drugs.

There was more. Maybe Georgia was not such a dim girl after all, as she had kept evidence that she had been hired to perform said honeytrap by none other than one of the three other companies present at the conference. Turns out the executive from that company wasn't very bright either. Instead of clamming up and demanding a lawyer, he immediately caved and admitted organising and paying for the venture. His boss wanted investment from TI and was not going to take no for an answer.

The detective in charge said it was the quickest case he had ever had.

The bottle of ketamine in Georgia's purse helped, and she freely admitted administering the drug to Scott's drink. Only, she put in more than she had intended. It had meant to have made Scott seem tipsy, whereby she would whisk him off for a night of passion and a lifetime of regret. Virgil's appearance had stopped that just as the drug started working. No wonder she had thrown him such an angry look.

NOTE:

References made to the previous time Scott had been in hospital are for A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.