Back at the car, Amanda looked over at Lee. "This can't be very helpful. Who knows if these guys would even come here? And there are other places they could park. The trail stretches a good mile north of here."
"Amanda, I have a gut feeling we should have stopped them. I'm tempted to call Matt right now and go pick them up." He ran a hand across the back of his neck. "I can feel the hairs standing up…" Lee played with the cable ties they kept in the car, ready to shove them in his pocket so they could be used as handcuffs. He picked up his Glock and checked the magazine once again.
Watching him from her seat, Amanda spoke quietly. "But you didn't want to ruin what might be their last chance to enjoy some time alone."
"Yeah. But at some point all hell is going to break loose and I don't want them in the middle of it." Lee stopped talking when Amanda put her hand on his arm.
"Lee, that's them." Amanda's voice, barely above a whisper, cracked.
Four men emerged from a black van. Lee and Amanda pulled out binoculars to identify them for certain as they stretched and jogged around for a minute or two before running north along the trail in Sarah and Matt's direction.
"That van wasn't here a few minutes ago."
Lee activated his Bluetooth and quickly handed a few cable ties to Amanda as he opened his car door. "They must have a GPS tracker. Matt's phone can't be tracked, but he probably has his Bluetooth on him. Amanda, I'll call Matt while you call the Agency. Get some back up over here—and tell them to start tracking Matt."
"Where do you think you're going all by yourself?" After stuffing the cable ties in her pocket, Amanda tucked her gun into the waist of her jeans and pulled her shirt over it. She speed-dialed the Agency using her Bluetooth as she got out of the car and caught up to Lee. He locked the car as they broke into a run northward in the direction of Sarah, Matt, and the cartel members.
After the warning from Lee, Matt and Sarah started running as fast as they could back to the main path and the parking lot. They were navigating a rough trail on the far side of the field near the trees when they spotted the four men coming around a bend on the path.
Matt barely had time to offer a hoarse whisper between breaths to Sarah as he tapped the Bluetooth, which speed-dialed the Agency. "Keep me between you and them." He managed a few words to Narelle, who answered the phone. "Agent needs assistance. Bluemont Park. Contact Stetsons." As the men closed in, Matt took Sarah's hand and tried to veer away, but they were soon surrounded.
Wasting no time, Matt moved aggressively towards Marcelo and executed a roundhouse kick to his head, knocking him senseless to the ground.
Piedro and Luis went after Matt as Diego grabbed Sarah. Struggling with him for a few moments, Sarah was finally able to take Diego off his feet and execute a knifehand chop to the side of his head. Diego was immediately out cold.
Sarah whipped around to where Matt was circling with Piedro and Luis. None of the men seemed to notice her as they each held a knife in their hands.
Except Matt, who called out as coolly as he could, "Run, Sarah! Get out of here!"
Just then Piedro lashed out with his knife, slicing open Matt's shirt and leaving a bloody six-inch gash on his abdomen.
Shocked, Sarah could not move. She felt as if her legs were frozen. In that split second, she also knew she could not leave Matt there to fight alone.
Luis used that opportunity to grab Sarah, holding his knife to her throat.
The distraction gave Piedro the opportunity to once again lunge at Matt, who countered with his own move. They sparred for a few moments, striking one another with their free hands and lashing out with their knives. Matt almost took Piedro down with hard kick that landed on his shoulder instead of his head. As Piedro recovered, Luis took that moment to distract Matt and give Piedro the upper hand. He held Sarah tightly against him with his knife hand and twisted her arm, causing her to whimper involuntarily.
The distraction worked. Matt took his eyes off Piedro just long enough for him to strike out at Matt. This time his knife found a more critical mark, as it plunged deeply into Matt's lower chest.
Matt returned with a blow from his own knife, and both men fell to the ground in a death struggle.
Sarah cried out, and Luis pressed the knife against her throat. She wanted to fight him and run to Matt, but the pain of the sharp blade against her skin reminded her to hold still.
After the initial shock of the stabbing, Matt felt nothing. His only thought was to get Piedro out of the way so he could stop Luis from taking Sarah. As he grappled with Piedro, his knife found its mark once again. Piedro fell against Matt, pinning him to the ground. Weakened by his wounds, Matt pushed with what little strength he had against Piedro and managed to roll the other man off of his body, retrieving his knife in the process.
Now fearful for his own life, Luis started dragging Sarah away from the grisly scene.
"No, no. We can't leave him there. He'll die. Let go of me!" Sarah began sobbing desperately.
Lee and Amanda were skirting the trees, watching the path, when they heard Sarah. As they veered towards the field, they pulled their guns from their waists. Lee noticed two joggers watching at a distance—one was talking on a cell phone. Seeing more bystanders starting to gather, he shouted, "Federal agents! Stay back."
Black spots danced before Matt's eyes as he struggled to his feet. Pulling the knife from his body, he immediately felt as if a crushing weight was bearing down on his chest. The pain was more intense than anything he had felt before.
Just then Lee and Amanda reached the scene. Amanda ran towards Diego, who was pushing himself off the ground. She pulled out a pair of cable ties and quickly cuffed him, forcing him to lay flat on his stomach. Seeing Matt on his feet, she did not fully comprehend his injuries as her attention focused on Sarah.
Lee took a few cautious steps towards Luis and Sarah, pointing his gun at Luis and pulling back the slide at the same time. "Let the girl go."
"No way. She's my ticket out of here." Luis's accent was thick, but his words were clear. "Don't do anything stupid or I'll use the knife on her." As if to make sure Lee knew he was serious, he pressed the blade firmly against Sarah's neck, drawing blood.
Sarah flinched in pain, but remained silent, watching her father.
"Let her go or I'll shoot you. And I won't be taking any chances that you'll still get away with her." Lee raised the gun.
"You won't shoot me. I know she's your daughter and you don't want to hit her." Luis sneered at Lee and started to back away from him. Sarah struggled to keep up with Luis, the knife still held against her throat.
Knowing he was about to lose consciousness, Matt took his aim carefully. This was his only chance. With one swift movement, he let the knife fly, praying it would find his intended mark and not hit Sarah. It was a dangerous risk.
Luis flew backwards to the ground, taking Sarah with him; at the same time the report from Lee's handgun reverberated around the field.
The feeling of suffocation and the gripping pain were overwhelming. Matt desperately wanted to go to Sarah, but he could not move as blackness overcame him. As he slipped from consciousness, Matt felt his body collapse to the ground. Amanda's frantic voice seemed to be miles away.
"Sarah!" Amanda watched in horror, unsure if her daughter was injured, as Lee rushed to Sarah's side. At the same time, Amanda saw Matt fall to the ground, unconscious. Torn with the impulse to run to Matt, Amanda knew she could not leave Diego, who looked like he would bolt if she turned away.
A cursory glance at Luis told Lee that the man was no longer a threat. While Matt had not had the strength to do much damage with his knife, Lee's bullet had found its mark. Pushing Luis' body away, Lee tried to rouse his daughter. "Sarah! Are you all right?"
Momentarily stunned from the impact of her head hitting the ground, Sarah stared at her father for several seconds as he continued to call her name. Bright flashes of light danced in front of her eyes before she came to her senses. Ignoring the ringing in her ears and Lee's attempts to help her, she scrambled to her feet and ran to Matt.
Lee joined her and together they turned Matt onto his back. When he pulled up Matt's shirt, Lee's stomach lurched. Reaching for his handkerchief, he pressed it to the puncture wound. "We need to sit him up so he can breathe more easily. Get behind him."
Sarah obeyed, sitting down behind Matt and holding him with his head against her shoulder while she pressed the handkerchief against his wound. She began sobbing once again. "Don't leave me, Matt. Don't leave me. Stay with me." Desperately she held Matt to her, rocking back and forth.
The movement caused Matt to convulsively gasp for air. With a violent shudder, he regained consciousness.
Savage pain wracked his chest, radiating to his back and shoulder; he could hear Sarah's disconsolate crying. He tried to speak. "Sarah. Sparrow."
Her sobs slowed at the sound of his voice and she sat still.
"Sarah. Sparrow." Matt's words were choked, but she could hear them. He tried to grab hold of her hand, but he was too weak. The pressure on his chest was unbearable.
She took his hand and stopped crying as she held him against her, pressing her cheek against his. "I'm here Matt. 'His eye is on the sparrow. His eye is on the sparrow.'" Unable to articulate her prayer, Sarah could only repeat the words as tears coursed down her cheeks. She felt him relax as he lost consciousness again. No longer aware of the scene around her, Sarah did not notice the police arrive and offer assistance to her parents.
"NEST is on its way, Sarah. A helicopter should be here any minute." A first aid kit in her hands,
Amanda knelt by Sarah, who had finally grown silent. Amanda replaced the handkerchief with a clean bandage and taped it to Matt's chest. Unwrapping a reflective blanket from the kit, Amanda cut out a square of the plastic and taped it over the bandage before draping what remained of the blanket over him. Having done what she could for Matt, Amanda wrapped an arm around Sarah's shoulders and began stroking Sarah's hair with the other hand as they waited for the NEST team.
Emotionally spent, Lee let his hands drop to his sides and stood surveying the bloody scene. Sirens wailed in the distance, and the distinctive beat of chopper blades neared the park. Piedro and Luis lay dead. Two police officers stood with their guns trained on Diego, awaiting the Agency operatives who would take him into custody. During the melee, Marcelo, who had regained consciousness, slipped away. While additional police officers were combing the park, Lee instinctively knew they would not find him.
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Sarah wrapped her arms around her knees and listened to the sounds of the emergency room, busy with the influx of hapless patients suffering from the various injuries that can come with weekend sports and home repairs. While the NEST patients remained separate from the civilians, Sarah's room was near the doorway to the rest of the emergency unit, so she could not shut out the noise from the crowded public section outside. She strained to hear the NEST team as they worked on Matt, who was the center of their attention just next door. Finally a nurse rushed out to the station and picked up the phone. Sarah could not hear everything the woman said, but she heard the words "surgery" and "CT."
Feeling her throat constrict, Sarah fought back the urge to cry once again. Her mouth felt like cotton and her head throbbed. Dried blood covered her hands and the front of her t-shirt. She tried to pray, but her mind would not work.
Suddenly, there was a commotion as a doctor and nurse wheeled Matt's gurney out of his room. Sarah choked out a sob as she caught a glimpse of him lying helpless upon it as they wheeled him from the emergency room. In their rush to get Matt to surgery, a sheet had been thrown over his body, but his shoulders and a leg were exposed. His face was covered with an oxygen mask similar to the one they had placed on him before the helicopter ride. Unable to hold back the tears any longer, Sarah put her forehead on her knees and cried freely.
"Miss Stetson?" A comforting hand touched Sarah's arm.
Sarah looked up to see the nurse who had briefly spoken to her when she and Matt had arrived at the hospital.
"My name is Heidi. I'm sorry I haven't been in to check on you. They just took Matt up to surgery. He's stable, but I won't sugarcoat things for you. His condition is critical."
Sarah nodded mutely. She had known without the nurse telling her.
"The doctor will be in soon to examine the wound on your neck."
"Who is her doctor?"
Sarah was almost overwhelmed with the immense feeling of relief that washed over her at the familiar sound of her father's deep voice.
While he was speaking with the nurse, Amanda came into the room and joined Sarah on the gurney. Putting her arms around her daughter, she held Sarah tightly to her. "Oh, Sarah. I'm sorry it took us so long to get here. The Saturday traffic was really slow."
Finally they pulled apart. "Did you hear what the nurse said about Matt?" Sarah had stopped crying, but as she looked down at her hands, she could see them trembling.
"Yes, I did. Sarah, he's strong, and he's young. We'll keep praying." Amanda noticed Sarah's hands, and took them in her own. "Let's go in the restroom and clean you up."
From the doorway, Lee watched Amanda help Sarah from the bed, his mouth set in a grim line.
Once she was on her feet, Sarah felt the room spin, and her stomach started to lurch.
"Let me, Amanda." Placing his arms about Sarah, Lee all but carried her into the bathroom. The feeling of nausea passed, but she clung to her father for support. "It's okay, Pumpkin. I'll hold you up while your mom helps you at the sink."
Amanda forced herself to speak calmly as she placed a cool, wet paper towel on the back of Sarah's neck and began to gently wash her face, hands, and arms. "When was the last time you had something to drink or eat, Sarah?"
"I had some water before I left the apartment."
"Did you eat this morning?"
"I don't think so. Mom, my head is killing me. I need to lie down. I'm really cold, too."
Amanda looked at Lee, who nodded at her before directing his words to their daughter. "Let me help you to the gurney, then I'll get your jacket from Matt's car—I saw it on the front seat when I was driving the Charger here."
Amanda was offering Sarah ice chips when Lee brought the jacket into the room. "The doctor is on her way. I'll step out for a minute." Amanda helped Sarah remove her t-shirt and zipped her into the lightweight athletic jacket.
"Please just toss it, Mom. I don't want the reminder."
Amanda threw the shirt into the trash as the doctor knocked and entered the room, followed by Lee.
"Hello Sarah. I'm Dr. Heird. I've already met your parents before." Dr. Heird reached out a hand to Sarah. "I'm sorry things are moving so slowly today. Normally we have a few regular hospital staff for support, but they are all occupied in the other section of the E.R. today."
"As long as Matt got the help he needed, I don't care." Sarah's voice was flat. After shaking the doctor's hand, she had leaned back against the gurney.
With a practiced eye, Dr. Heird took in Sarah's condition. She pulled out her opthalmoscope and examined Sarah's eyes before changing instruments and looking in her ears. After asking Sarah several questions and testing her responses, she regarded Sarah once again. "Your father said that you were dizzy earlier."
"Yes."
"Any nausea?"
"Yes, but I managed to keep from throwing up."
"I saw you were taking ice chips. How did that go down?"
"Okay. It's only bad if I move around too much."
Dr. Heird leaned in to get a better view of the laceration on Sarah's neck. She reached for a glove and examined it further, stopping when Sarah winced. "I'm sorry. It looks like you are due for a few stitches, too. But it's a clean wound, so it should heal nicely."
Dr. Heird stepped back and pulled off the glove, tossing it in the nearby trash. "Sarah, why don't you rest for a bit? Your mom can help you into a gown. I'll have Heidi bring you a warm blanket when she starts your I.V. No need to be in here shivering."
When Amanda joined them outside the room, Dr. Heird was sober. "Sarah seems to have suffered a concussion of some degree, and she is showing the early signs of shock. You were right to bring your concerns to me, Mr. Stetson. At first I thought perhaps it was a case of dehydration and also the stress brought on from the attack, but those are only contributing factors here. I hate to put Sarah through any more than is necessary, but I just won't be at ease unless we do a CT to check the extent of her head injury. In the meantime, we should keep her comfortable and encourage her to rest—sleeping is fine. It might help her emotional state if the time can go more quickly until Mr. Granger is out of surgery.
"Let's wait until after I've seen the CT results before we give her any food or any more water or ice. If everything is okay, we can then push the fluids slowly and she can eat something mild in small amounts when she's ready. Once she is back from the CT, I'll sew up the wound on her neck. I don't believe the concussion is serious, but I'll know more once I take a look at the CT results. I do recommend you have Dr. Kirby come in for a psych evaluation."
"Thank you, Dr. Heird. I appreciate all you are doing for Sarah and for Matt," offered Amanda.
"I merely assisted with Mr. Granger. He is in good hands with Dr. Fassbender. Her specialty is thoracic surgery."
As Dr. Heird walked off to speak to the nurse, Lee spoke quietly to Amanda. "We have agents stationed at the two exits to the department, and two more up with Matt. I'll have one of the agents down here escort Sarah to the CT room." Lee ran a hand through his hair. "God, Amanda. I was so worried about her. I know there was no other way, but I can't help but feel guilty. It was my bullet that brought Santiago down. There was no way to cushion her fall, and they went down hard. She didn't even know me when I first got to her."
"I was worried, too, but thankfully you have a sharp eye and asked the doctor to look into it. Lee, you can't feel guilty. You saved Sarah's life—if Santiago had taken her away, it would have been worse than a nightmare." Amanda reached out for Lee, who took her in his arms.
While they were talking, Heidi had gone into Sarah's room with two blankets. They followed her in and watched silently as Heidi cared for Sarah. Finally Heidi turned to them and spoke quietly. "She's pretty drowsy—I think the warm blankets helped her to relax. Now that I've started an I.V., an orderly will be here any minute to take her for the CT. You can wait here in the room while she's gone. It won't take long."
After Amanda thanked her, she turned to Lee and whispered, "We need to call Kirby."
"I almost want to talk with him myself about this. We've been in some bad situations, Amanda, but nothing prepares you for seeing your child's life in danger like that."
Amanda hugged Lee tightly as they stood there for a few minutes watching Sarah sleep. They had just settled into their chairs when the orderly came to take her to the CT lab. She woke up as the gurney began to move. Amanda got up and took her hand. "You'll be right back, Sarah. They are just going to do a scan and make sure all is well. You hit your head pretty hard."
Lee and Amanda spent the next fifteen minutes calling Francine, Phillip, Jamie, and Rene. Phillip and Amy offered to watch the boys and come by later so Jamie and Jennifer could come to the hospital that afternoon.
Francine had already been briefed on the attack, but she was anxious to hear an update on Matt and Sarah. "I wish I could be there to help you. We haven't gotten much out of Jimenez. Either Sarah really cleaned his clock when she knocked him out or he's good at keeping secrets."
Lee couldn't help but grin at the comment about Sarah, but he quickly grew serious again. "She handled herself pretty well. But all those years we worked on her self-defense skills, I hoped she'd never have to use them."
"Thank God she knew what to do—and that she had Matt there to help her. I just hope he comes out of this okay. I'll be by later when things settle down here."
"There's no need, Francine."
"Yes, there is. My two best friends need some support and I want to see how my goddaughter and her boyfriend are doing. This isn't just about the Agency. I can get you some food, sit with Sarah, whatever. I'll see you when I can."
Before Amanda or Lee could reply over the speaker, Francine had ended the call. They looked at each other with raised eyebrows and smiled. Amanda was the first to say something. "She's right, you know. We're still running on adrenaline. It will be nice to have the support. I guess it's past lunchtime. Rene said he would come later this evening. He plans to stay overnight at the post by Sarah's room."
Lee tried to smile. "Does it ever seem surreal to you that Francine calls us her best friends?"
"Oh, Lee. I stopped worrying about that fifteen years ago. No, twenty years ago."
"Just trying to lighten the mood."
"And I hate to dampen it again, but what do we do about Matt's family? This is much more complicated than the usual agent-injured-in-the-line-of-duty. They've invited Sarah for Thanksgiving—they could be our future in-laws. They need to know what's going on."
Amanda watched the muscles in Lee's jaw clench. "I'll make the call. But they'll want to come here. As soon as Matt is able, we have to get him to a safe house. We can't get them mixed up in this."
"We'll have to make up a story."
Lee looked at Amanda's face. "I know. We're back to lying. Just like with your mother all those years ago."
Amanda sighed. "I hate it, but we have no choice. Do you suppose his parents are used to this, from Matt's tour in Afghanistan?"
"Maybe. He was on several ops that lasted for weeks. I'm sure they had no word from him during that time. Only he was never injured like this. Listen, I had better make the call before Sarah gets back. We'll say that he had been on a top secret project at an undisclosed location, but that he's got the best care and we'll update them regularly. I'll use my personal cell phone so they can call me if they want to."
Amanda nodded and sighed as she sat back in her chair and prepared to listen to the call.
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Lee checked his watch once again before getting up to pace. Jamie sat back in his chair and looked over at the recovery room doors, willing the surgeon to come out and update them on Matt's condition.
"It's been four hours since they took him into surgery. I thought he was already in the recovery room an hour or two ago."
Just then a blue light began to flash on the wall above the doors. A recorded voice was broadcast from the speakers in the hallway. "Code blue in third floor recovery. Code blue in third floor recovery."
Lee and Jamie watched in concern as two nurses rushed from the break room across the hall and through the recovery room doors.
Lee, his face ashen, turned to Jamie. "You don't suppose?" He didn't really register Jamie's answer, as a sudden flashback to a California hospital almost twenty-five years earlier assaulted him. He stumbled to a chair and sat down hard.
Jamie put a hand on Lee's shoulder. "We don't know that it's Matt, Lee. We have to think the best for his sake and Sarah's."
Just then Lee's cell phone rang. When Lee fumbled with it, Jamie took the phone. He answered it when he saw it was his mother. "Hi, Mom. What's up? …We don't know. Let's hope that no news is good news, okay, Mom? Is Sarah okay? Did she hear it? …Well, I'll let you go help her, then. We'll call as soon as we know anything. I promise."
Having collected himself, Lee sat back in the chair and looked at Jamie as he took his phone. "It sounded like Sarah heard. God, she didn't need that. Is she okay?"
"Sarah was pretty frantic. Mom is doing her best to calm her down."
Lee did not reply. His mouth set in the same grim line it had held earlier.
Jamie knew that look. Lee was protective of his family and any injury to them—emotional or physical—brought on feelings of either guilt, frustration, or anger. In this case, Jamie imagined it was a combination of all three.
"Sarah will be okay, Lee. She just needs to heal from the head injury and get through the shock of their attack. You did everything you could to help them."
"Did I? It was my bullet knocking Santiago to the ground that caused her to hit her head. And I could have stopped them from going in the first place."
"Your bullet kept Santiago from hurting Sarah. As for stopping Matt and Sarah, who are adults, you didn't know Gomez and his men were in town." Jamie stood up to stretch his legs. "You never told me the CT results. Sarah seemed pretty out of it when Jennifer and I got here."
"Thankfully it was only a moderate concussion. I was worried she'd need surgery, too. She was so much worse after we got here than when she left in the helicopter."
An interminable hour later, Lee was pacing around the waiting area when he saw movement through the doors. "I think that's Dr. Fassbender coming."
The two men watched as the surgeon, looking weary, came through the doors. She walked up to Lee and held out her hand. "Mr. Stetson. You may remember me. I'm Dr. Fassbender."
"Yes." Lee turned to Jamie, who had gotten to his feet. "This is my son, Jamie. He's also a friend of Matt's."
Dr. Fassbender smiled and shook Jamie's hand. "Matt is still in critical condition, but he's stable for the moment, and we've finally been able to move him to ICU, which is just down the hall. There was a crisis when we brought him out of the anesthesia, but I'm ahead of myself. First of all, I should thank the person who administered first aid. Their quick thinking helped keep Matt's lung from fully collapsing."
"That would be my wife…"
"Ah." Colleen Fassbender nodded in understanding. She had met Amanda on several occasions and knew of her first aid skills. "Well, unfortunately, there was also some hemorrhaging from the diaphragm, but we've stopped it, and we've been successful getting air into Matt's lung. He'll have a chest tube for a few days, and have to remain on a ventilator for the next day or two to give his lung a rest. That's where the crisis came in. Sometimes patients who are placed on a ventilator panic when they first regain consciousness. As you can imagine, that would be problematic for someone in Matt's condition. Typically we sedate the patient if they are having difficulty with the ventilator, but Matt did not respond well to the sedative."
At the mention of the sedative, Lee grew alarmed. "Matt had a reaction to an overdose of sedatives—it's a long story, but he was undercover; we were on an op. I thought we had a note placed in his medical records. I guess you doctors would say he crashed—his breathing and heart rate slowed way down."
"Since the drug he received in Kazakhstan was an overdose of an untested medication of dubious origins, we decided to proceed with a minimal dosage of a sedative known for having few side effects. As I said, he was panicking and we were concerned he would do himself harm. However, Matt did 'crash.' His heart stopped temporarily, but we were able to stabilize him."
"His heart stopped?" Lee did his best to remain professional.
"Yes, but he responded quickly to our efforts. He is young and in excellent condition, which helped."
"So he is still doing some of the breathing on his own?"
"Yes. But the ventilator is doing a large portion of the work until Matt recovers further. It's very important that he stay on the ventilator for the next couple of days. I'd like to keep his medications to a minimum so he can recover more quickly. It's important that his respiratory system not be compromised so we will be able to wean him off the ventilator when the time comes. That's where we need your help. I thought perhaps if he could see a familiar face—the nurse is doing all she can to calm Matt, but he still is agitated. I'm afraid the medication we had to give him for his heart hasn't helped, either. Basically, unless we can get Matt to lie quietly, it will take longer for him to heal, and he'll be in a great deal more pain than is necessary."
"I'd be happy to sit with him, but my wife is better in these situations."
"Frankly, Mr. Stetson, I'd like to see what we can do as soon as possible. Would you follow me?"
Lee shot a look towards Jamie, who waved him on. "I'll call Mom."
As Lee entered Matt's room in the intensive care unit, he observed the nurse standing at Matt's bedside, trying to calm him. To Lee, Matt had the appearance of a caged lion who was trying to lie still. There were tubes everywhere, and Lee imagined that any movement for Matt was probably intensely painful. He approached Matt's line of sight cautiously, not wanting to disturb him further.
"Hey. It's good to see you awake. I know Sarah will be glad you made it out of surgery okay."
Matt's eyebrows went up at the sight of Lee. He grimaced as he raised a hand to grab Lee's arm when he came close. His eyes searched Lee's pleadingly, willing him to understand something.
"Sarah's upstairs, Matt. She's doing okay—worried about you more than anything. I'll bring her down in a little bit."
Matt closed his eyes as if he was relieved, but Lee could tell the anxiety was still there.
"Matt, I need to ask the nurse a question. I'll be right back."
Lee approached the nurse, Elaine, who was seated at the desk across from Matt's room. "It seems like he's in a lot of pain…"
"He's been moving around too much. He's calmer now, but it will take some time before he's comfortable again. We have him on a morphine drip. If you can help him to lie quietly, that would be the best thing."
Lee nodded and moved to go back into Matt's room, when he saw his wife walk in. "Amanda, I'm so glad you're here."
"I came as soon as Jamie explained the situation."
Matt seemed relieved to see Amanda at first, but soon the agitation returned. She signaled to Lee and he joined her in the doorway. "I think he needs Sarah. I think the medication is making him anxious—perhaps a little irrational. Maybe if he could see her in person…"
"I'll see if I can bring her down."
"It will have to be in a wheelchair. Both Jennifer and I had to help her to the bathroom earlier. She's still very dizzy and quite drowsy."
"Do you think she's well enough to handle this?"
"If we keep it short. I'll ask Dr. Fassbender to call the nurse up there."
A short time later Lee wheeled Sarah, her head propped on one hand, into the ICU. He stopped the wheelchair and bent down to talk with his daughter. "Are you sure you're up for this?"
"I want to see him. Matt needs me. I'll be okay, Daddy." Sarah sat up in the chair and tried to look bright. Jennifer had brought her robe from the apartment, and Sarah's hair had been brushed and rebraided.
Lee patted Sarah's shoulder before he continued through Matt's door. Amanda moved aside as Lee maneuvered the chair up to Matt's bedside. His eyes were closed, but his arms were restless. Sarah took Matt's hand and held it up to her face. Lee and Amanda slipped out of the room.
"Matt." Sarah kissed Matt's hand and held it against her cheek once again. "My love. I'm here."
Halfway between sleep and wakefulness, Matt's mind was filled with a whirlwind of dream-like images. He was searching frantically for Sarah, but she was nowhere to be found. Luis Santiago was there, his knife pointed at Matt first, then at Sarah. Suddenly Santiago was dragging Sarah away. Matt stood frozen as they moved further and further away from Matt. He tried to call to her but he was choking. Someone was suffocating him. Then he could hear her. A soft hand held his. He could feel the smoothness of her cheek, then the light touch of her lips against the back of his hand. There it was. Her voice. "My love." She was calling to him.
He was afraid to open his eyes, sure that it was a dream. She was gone. Or dead. He had seen Santiago dragging her away. He had known as the knife left his hand that it would not stop Santiago. Sarah was gone and no one would tell him the truth about her. But she continued to call out to him. The sensation of her hand on his would not go away. He gathered his courage and opened his eyes.
Sarah was there. He could see her holding his hand against her cheek. She kissed it again. Tears ran down her face; her cool, smooth cheek had grown wet. Her voice was whispering loving words. He had not been dreaming. She was there. He wanted to hold her so badly. The rest of the memory came back to him then. She had been with him afterwards. Sarah had held him in her arms, in the park.
Although every movement of his body was painful, Matt squeezed Sarah's hand. Releasing it, he wiped the tears from her cheek, and let his fingers graze the bandage on her neck before dropping his arm back to the bed.
The effort had exhausted him, and he closed his eyes once again. The anxiety that had plagued his mind and body dissipated. As the pain began to subside, he drifted off to sleep.
Sarah sat and watched Matt for a long time. Afraid of waking him, she no longer held his hand, content to let her eyes take in every part of him that she could see from the wheelchair. The soft lights that shone from behind Matt's bed made the curly light brown hairs of his arm look golden. His muscular chest, which was a symbol of comfort and strength to Sarah, moved gently with the beat of the respirator. The tubes that ran from Matt's body were hidden from Sarah's view on the opposite side of the bed. He had shaved before coming to her apartment that morning, but his five o'clock shadow was now evident.
It seemed like days since they had stretched for their run in her parents' backyard. Matt had sparred with her a little—more for play than anything else—then taken her in his arms for one of his wonderful kisses. He was always so gentle with his affections. She could not connect the man in the bed with the one who had fought so hard to save her in the park. For that matter, was this really the man in the tuxedo who had held her in his strong arms and danced with her just the night before?
A hand caressed Sarah's hair before coming to rest on her shoulder.
Sarah recognized the light scent of her mother's perfume. Unable to tear her eyes from Matt, she reached up to pat her mother's hand.
"He finally fell asleep. I think he needed to really know you were okay."
"I think I needed to see him, too. Even though my head still hurts, my heart doesn't anymore."
"He'll be okay, Sarah. He's a fighter."
"Yes." Sarah was quiet a minute. "People are so much more complex than we think they are." At Amanda's hesitation, Sarah explained herself. "In just the last twenty-four hours I've seen so many sides of Matt. Sweet, gentle, playful, manly, frightening—and now vulnerable."
"Your father is complex like that."
"But we love them for all those different things. Matt probably never would have wanted me to see him fight like that. He's told me very little about his experiences in the Army. But I'm proud of him. He fought like that to protect me—I just wish it hadn't cost him so much."
"Matt is a brave and honorable man and he's very devoted to you, Sarah. More than most men would be to the woman they love. He told your father and me once that he'd be willing to die for you. I believed him at the time, but I'm certain of it, now. I'm so sorry he was forced to prove it."
"God has really blessed me with Matt, hasn't He?"
"He's blessed our family, sweetheart." Amanda caressed Sarah's hair again. "Let's get you back to your room. If you get some rest tonight, maybe you'll be feeling well enough to come down here on your own tomorrow."