As the police car drew closer to Mater Hospital, Jean grew more anxious. She was berating herself for not having come to Sydney months earlier. Why did she trust that the local police had done a thorough job of checking with all the hospitals? At the very least she should have called them all herself, as she and Rose Anderson had done when searching for Catherine Lucas.

It seemed Alice was having similar regrets. "I should have contacted every one of them just after it happened," she asserted, loud enough for young Alex to hear.

"I'm sorry if we stuffed up on this," the constable said sincerely. "If Doctor Blake has been here all along someone should have found him before this."

Jean didn't want the young man feeling guilty for something that wasn't his fault. "Alex, you weren't involved at the time, and you're being a great deal of help to us now. That's what's important."

"Thank you, Mrs. Blake. I hope so. We're almost there. Let's just hope this is the right place."

Jean closed her eyes, hoping to contact Lucien but to no avail. "Yes, we're almost there," she repeated softly.

Being in a police car had its advantages - when they arrived at the hospital's main entry, Alex parked right up front. As long as they weren't blocking the ambo entrance, they didn't need to worry about taking the time to find a parking spot.

The three of them hurried up the steps, and Alex pulled open the door for the two ladies. He continued to hold it for a nurse who was exiting. She thanked him and smiled cheerfully at all of them.

"Did you see her name tag?" Jean said softly. "Bloom. What a lovely name for a nurse."

Alice nodded, rather noncommittally. Jean supposed that, as a physician, Alice was more interested in a nurse's credentials, but Jean thought it might cheer up patients to see such a name.

They walked into the reception area to find a large commotion as two infants were squalling, and their frantic mothers were begging to see the doctor. Jean felt sympathy for them, of course she did, but at the same time she was impatient to see if the unidentified patient here was indeed her husband, and that couldn't be done until the others were dealt with.

She leaned close so that Alex could hear her over the crying babies. "I'm just going to step around the corner over there for a minute," she told him. "Headache."

Alex nodded that he understood, and Alice followed her to the quiet alcove Jean found.

"Are you all right, Jean?"

"Fine. I just want to see if I can contact Lucien, see if he's here," Jean explained.

They were out of sight of anyone else, so Jean closed her eyes and concentrated on him. "Lucien, I need you," she said quietly. "Can you come to me, love?"

When she heard a gasp from Alice, she opened her eyes. Lucien was there, but not quite. All Jean could compare it to was watching a television channel with poor reception: his image was clear one moment, but then flickering in and out.

"Lucien, can you hear me?" she asked him.

"You're nearby, but..." and the rest was garbled.

"But what? What's going on?" she pleaded.

"Something... drip... opioid... trying to..." and then he flickered out completely.

In a panic, Jean turned to Alice, hoping she could make some sense of what Lucien was trying to tell them.

Alice seemed to be processing it for a moment, then said, "He's in trouble, Jean. Come with me."

She grabbed Alex by the arm, and the three of them went to an elderly, somewhat overweight security guard who had been leaning against a pillar watching the ruckus created by the mothers and their unhappy infants.

"My name is Doctor Alice Harvey," she told the guard. "I work with the Ballarat Police Department. I have reason to believe there's a patient in the long-term unit here who may have been given an overdose of medication."

The guard frowned and looked at Alex for explanation.

"They're with me. The Chief Superintendent would appreciate that you accommodate their requests." The young constable was a bit confused himself, but followed his orders to assist the women.

"All right. This way," said the guard. He began to shuffle along the corridor.

"Quickly!" said Alice. "His life may well be in danger."

The guard picked up his pace a bit, as did the others in his wake. Jean was trying to control her rising panic. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't lose him now, not before she'd even gotten him back.

"It's just down here," the guard said, pointing. Jean and the others ran past him in the direction he had indicated.

The sister in charge of the ward stepped into their path. "What's going on?"

"You have an unidentified coma patient. We need to see him," said Alice.

"And you are?"

Alice began to identify herself but Alex stepped in. "This is a police matter," he said sternly. "Where is he, Sister?"

She hesitated only a moment before a patient monitor began to beep loudly. "That sounds like it's his," she said over her shoulder as she began running.

Jean was right behind her, and as they ran onto the ward, she spotted him. Lucien. Unmistakably. And it was, indeed, his monitor beeping.

"I'll page his doctor," said the sister.

"He can't wait that long," said Alice. "May I?" She didn't wait for an answer before taking the sister's stethoscope. She listened to Lucien's chest for only a moment. "He needs naloxone right now."

"Excuse me, you are...?"

Jean spoke for her. "This is Doctor Alice Harvey. She's his physician, and I'm Mrs. Jean Blake, his wife."

The sister looked from one to the other of them, then seemed to accept the explanation. "Naloxone, you said?" she inquired over her shoulder as she headed for the medication locker.

Jean moved to the side opposite where Alice was working, the side where the intravenous bag still hung. Her eyes widened as she saw the contents of the nearly empty bag were still dripping into the tube attached to Lucien's arm. "Alice, shouldn't we...". She indicated the drip.

"Yes!" said Alice, reaching over to turn off the flow. "Sorry, Jean."

"How is he?" asked Jean, reaching for Lucien's hand and interlacing her fingers with his.

"I think we got here in time," said Alice, accepting the medication and a fresh bag of saline from the sister. "Naloxone is a new drug that has proven to be very effective in treating opioid overdoses. Let's just get this into him."

She administered the medication, and then hung the saline drip to help flush the morphine out of his blood stream. Gingerly, Alice handed the nearly empty bag they had removed over to Alex. "You may need this as evidence," she told him. "Attempted murder."

She returned her attention to Lucien, while Jean found a chair and pulled it to his bedside. She sat quietly, holding his hand and her own breath as Alice took fresh readings.

For what seemed a very long time to Jean, Alice was bent over the bed and kept the bell of her stethoscope against Lucien's chest, listening intently. Finally she stood up and removed the earpieces. "He seems to be out of danger," she pronounced. "Heart rate and respiration are both accelerating, close to normal now. It was a near thing, but he should be fine. Well, considering he's still comatose."

"Thank you, Alice, for everything."

"I'm just glad I was here to help," said Alice. "If you don't mind, I'm just going to call Matthew and let him know we've found Lucien. Would you like me to investigate how we might transport him back to Ballarat as soon as his condition permits?"

"Please," said Jean. She had no intention of being separated from him again. "I'm going to stay right here for now."

"I can't say that I blame you," said Alice. Alex followed her out, to let his own Chief Superintendent know that the assignment had been completed successfully.

When she was alone with Lucien, or at least as alone as they could be on an open ward (even if the other patients were mostly comatose), Jean took his hand once more and brought it to her lips. Her thoughts were scattered - grateful to find him alive, guilty at how long it took her to find him, worried at his condition, overjoyed just to be with him once more.

She studied him closely. He had lost a great deal of weight and body mass, as expected she supposed when he was being fed through a tube in his arm. His face was more lined, the beard was gone, and his hair had been cropped much shorter than he usually wore it. What she really needed to see, though, was his beautiful eyes, the windows to his soul. They would tell her his true condition, the things that really mattered. All the rest could be healed and restored over time.

She clasped his hand tighter in her concern for him, hoping she might see or feel a response of some kind now that she was so near to him, but nothing. She wondered if she could still reach his spirit.

Rising to her feet, but still holding tight to his hand, she closed her eyes and whispered, "Lucien, I need you. I've done my part, coming to you. Now it's your turn to come back to me."

Tentatively Jean opened her eyes and stared down at his face, willing his eyelids to open or at least flutter in response. She was concentrating so hard on his features that she almost missed when his fingers tightened ever so slightly in her grasp. Oh, yes, he was listening.

"Lucien! I know you're in there and can hear me," she said, certain that he would recognize the smile in her voice. "What's it going to take for you to wake up?"

Again he squeezed her hand, stronger this time. He was definitely on his way back.

Then she remembered his joke about needing a kiss from her. "Oh, all right, if you insist," she said, acting annoyed but knowing he could tell she wanted this just as much as he did.

She leaned over him, and gently at first she placed her lips against his. The memory of their past kisses made her deepen it until finally she felt him respond. When he began to run his tongue along her lower lip, her eyes flew open just in time to see his eyelids flicker and then lift lazily.

Pulling back, she placed a hand along his cheek and caressed it lovingly. "Welcome back," she told him.

He tried to speak but nothing came out at first. Of course, his mouth would be dry after all this time. There was a glass on the stand beside his bed, but no pitcher of water. She spotted one on the stand next to another patient, though, so used it to pour just a bit of water into the glass. She didn't think it a good idea to give him very much.

Tenderly, she slid an arm under his shoulders to raise his head just enough to sip the water. As he sipped it his eyes met hers for the first time, and she nearly let the glass slip. He was in there, her Lucien, just as she'd hoped.

When she lowered the glass, he cleared his throat and said only one word: "Jean."

With a shaky hand, she placed the glass back in its place, then leaned over the bed to rest her cheek alongside his. Tears were flowing freely for both of them, but it didn't matter. They were together again, where they belonged, so tears of happiness were only natural. They would both be okay now. Better than okay, even. She could feel that the piece of her heart which had been missing for all those months was finally sliding back into place.

Epilogue

"Are you sure you're up to this, Blake?" Matthew asked. "Your statement can wait. Nurse Bloom isn't going anywhere."

Jean glanced over at Lucien, who'd been home from the hospital for two days now, but was still weak and much too pale for her liking. She also knew he had mixed feelings about testifying against the nurse, despite the fact she had nearly killed him. He had explained to Jean that the woman had been acting out of kindness, but the fact she'd apparently done the same thing numerous times before meant she could never be allowed around patients again.

"I'd like to get it over with, Matthew," Lucien insisted. "Maybe we can put this whole affair behind us and get back to normal."

Jean loved that Lucien was an optimist, but she knew that after nearly ten months of thinking him dead, and Lucien being in a coma for most of that time, it was hardly realistic that things could be as they used to be quite so easily.

They were going to have to relearn how to be together again,

Then she remembered a couple of things: how easily they had adjusted to married life together after returning from their long honeymoon, and just how much they loved each other. They would be all right, she was certain of that. And if they had to relearn how to be together, well, she was quite sure they would have fun along the way. She and Lucien could face anything, as long as they were together.