Chapter 13

"A body… they found a body…" the words echoed in Jonathan's head. Jennifer? Ryleigh? Oh, God! Neither was a good option. "A body…" Not two of them. Just one. He knew the ladies had been together. He heard them together. "They found a body…" The world around him was hazy and slow-moving, even in the chaos and disarray of the movement around him; Jonathan felt as if he were trying to move through gelatin.

"Mr. Hart? Are you alright?" Jonathan turned to the voice behind him.

"Ms. Bell…" he paused, trying to find words for his feelings. For that matter, he wasn't even sure how he was feeling, let alone how he would put those feelings into words. "I'm… I'm not…" He sighed and spoke honestly, "I'm not sure how I'm feeling. Did I hear correctly? Someone found a body?"

"You probably could use at least a drink of water. Come this way," she told him, taking hold of his elbow and changing his course of direction. April led him to the command tent and pulled a bottle of water from a cooler. She opened it and handed it to him, letting him down a couple of swallows before answering his question. "Yes, a body has been found. We do not know anything about it yet, as it's pinned by a couple of metal beams twisted from the explosion. We have people working on cutting it out without the rest of the area coming down."

"How many other people were in the building?"

"No one was supposed to be on the construction site at all, Mr. Hart." She paused and watched him fumble with the bottle lid before he set it down. The man was highly distracted. She caught his eyes when he looked back up from the table and smiled at him. "Which is code for we have no idea who was in the building at the time of the collapse."

His chest heaved a heavy sigh. "So Jennifer and Ryleigh are the only ones you knew were in the building."

"Ryleigh's cell phone is the only thing we knew for sure was in the building, Mr. Hart. No one has seen your wife and daughter here."

"But you are pretty certain?"

She didn't want to lie to him. As tempting as it was to paint a rosier picture, the reality would be harder to take if she wasn't honest now. "We're pretty certain…"

Their conversation was interrupted by more loud voices and the announcement, "It's free."

"Take another drink, and let's go see what we have, Mr. Hart."

Jonathan took another small swallow of water, and set the bottle down, before following April from the tent. Coming towards them were three emergency workers with a body bag on a stretcher. They stepped closer to the crew, and April reached out to unzip the zipper.

As the edges of the bag fell away from the face, Jonathan let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Do you recognize him, Mr. Hart," Detective Duncan asked over his shoulder.

Jonathan nodded his head before turning to face the detective. "Yes. I do. That is Jordan Coughlin."

"Well, that's good news."

"Good news, Detective?"

"Sure. That means there's still a chance your wife and daughter are alive."

"That means there's an even better chance my wife and daughter are buried in that mess that used to be a building, Detective."

"Hey! Here! I need a light over here!" The cries came from the east side of the building, near what near the demolished staircase. "Someone get me some light. And a hydraulic spreader. There is a void, there where the walls collapsed in the stairwell. I think I've found them."

Jonathan took off, running towards the building.

"Mr. Hart! Wait," Detective Duncan called to him, but there was no stopping Jonathan now. "At least get a hard hat," he called, knowing full well the man running from him did not hear him.

Standing in the path of Jonathan's sprint, Roger Forrest was talking with a couple of workers from the discovery team. At the sound of the rushed footsteps, Captain Forrest stepped into Jonathan's path, stopping his run, "Mr. Hart, I know you want to get to them." He looked Jonathan in the eyes and tried to calm him. "I get it. But I can't have you up there. It's too dangerous." Jonathan started to object, but the captain spoke again. "You've got to understand if you get up there and cause the rest of the wall to come down… on yourself or them… Please. Let us do our job."

Fear or frustration, Jonathan wasn't sure which, pumping through his veins and making his hands shake. He took a breath and tried to stay calm, "I need to see my wife and daughter…"

"As soon as we can get them out. Right now, they are in a very small space. And it looks like a steel beam is pinning your daughter. We have emergency crews to make sure they are physically well. But the best thing you can do for them is to wait."

Sounds and voices flickered in and out of Jennifer's dreams. Jonathan was there. As was a crowd of people she didn't know. At first, they floated in on clouds and just drifted past her in sound waves and colors. The longer they stayed, the angrier and more ferocious they became. They even started hurling rocks at her.

Oh, they were little ones at first. More like a handful of dust tossed in the air. But they grew until Jonathan yelled as he threw a big one at her, "Jennifer!"

"Jon...Jona…" Jennifer tried speaking as she opened her eyes.

"Shhh, Mrs. Hart. We are trying to get to you. Just hold on, we are coming," called a voice from above her. He pulled back some of the debris, causing more dust to filter down onto her and Ryleigh. "Mrs. Hart?" he called her again.

"Yes?"

"My name is Frank. Think you can answer some questions for me?"

"Hi... Fr-Frank…" she responded rather groggily. "Call.. me... Jennifer..."

"Good, Jennifer. Let's start with an easy one… What is your daughter's name?"

"Ryleigh."

"Great. And how's Ryleigh doin'?"

"She is resting, but she's unable to move because of a beam."

"And she hurts," Ryleigh added, which made Jennifer laugh.

"I'm sure you are, darlin'. Jennifer, can you tell, is Ryleigh bleedin'?"

"Nothing extensive that I've been able to see. A few cuts and scrapes."

"I feel alright, just need to get this junk off me. My leg has gone asleep."

"Great. We'll work on gettin' that beam off of you as fast as we can, darlin'. Now, how about you, Jennifer?"

"I can't move my right arm well; there is no significant bleeding; I'm stiff, sore, and in desperate need of a shower."

Frank laughed, "Let's see if we can't get you one. Once we get this riggin' down to you, I'm going to get you out…"

"Wait… No, no, no. I want Ryleigh out first."

"Yes, Ma'am I understand that. However, we kind of need room in there to work on that beam. I need you out of the way to get to her properly."

"Well, I don't like it," Jennifer huffed.

"No, Ma'am. Me neither. But I gotta."

Once the needed equipment arrived, it took about 30 minutes to get Jennifer strapped to a board and pulled out of the hole she'd now been in for more than 24 hours. She was lowered to the ground and moved to a stretcher before they headed to an ambulance.

As soon as they came out from behind the building, Jonathan hurried to her side. "Jennifer!"

Jennifer reached her left hand out to Jonathan as the tears she had held onto finally began to fall, "You came, Darling. I knew you would come. I knew you would find us."