Bobby leaned back on the stretcher in the trauma room of the emergency room. He and Maggie had already been to x-ray and now Maggie and Wally were both settled back on his lap. Wally again held tight to Maggie's hand. One of the nurses brought the baby in. "We got in touch with the children's mother. She'll be here in about an hour. Do you mind sitting with them while we wait for your x-rays to come back?"

He gave her a tired smile and nodded. His body was demanding sleep but his mind was not cooperating with it. "I don't mind."

He was warm now, though his mind was still a little sluggish. He'd begun to slip into shock by the time they arrived at the hospital, which had terrified Maggie, but he felt a little better now. He had an IV in the back of his hand and the medicine they'd given him to take the edge off the pain in his hip had taken effect. He took the baby in his arms.

Maggie had an IV in her arm as well, and the medicine they'd given her took away the pain in her leg. She was determined to continue taking care of Wally because he was still scared. He didn't know where his daddy was and he was scared. He needed her. When the nurse set Krissy on Bobby's stomach, Maggie smiled at her and began telling her and Wally the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

While she talked, Bobby's mind wandered back to the accident. If he had hit that tree head-on, things might have been very different for him and for these children. Given the weather and the dearth of traffic on the snow-bound road, there would likely have been no survivors of either wreck. As it was, things turned out all right, though he felt deep sorrow for the children's loss.

He heard her before she appeared in the doorway of his cubicle, sobbing and asking about her children. "Mommy!" Wally yelled, getting to his feet and jumping into his mother's outstretched arms.

She was a young mother, about twenty-five by Bobby's estimation. Tears streamed down her face as she gathered her daughter from his arms. Wally told her, "That's Maggie and Bobby, Mommy. Maggie is my frien'."

She smiled at Maggie, then looked at Bobby. "They told me you...saved my children."

"I got them out of the car and kept them warm until the ambulance arrived."

"You came across the accident...?"

"Yes. I, uh, I drove my car off the road to avoid hitting the Jeep."

She noticed the bandage on the right side of his head, the splint on Maggie's leg and the bandage on the side of her head. "And you still took care of my children."

"I couldn't leave them there."

"Some people would have."

That thought, although true, disturbed him. "I'm not like that. I'm glad they're all right, and I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

She understood that he was talking about the children's father. "Do they know?"

He shook his head. "No. I, uh, I'm sorry."

She looked sad. "He was a good father."

A good father, gone from the lives of his children. He touched Maggie's shoulder and she scrambled into his embrace. The mother looked at the two children she held. Wally reached for Bobby and scrambled into a hug beside Maggie. "Thank you for taking me and Krissy outta the car."

"Thank you for keeping us company."

Wally smiled at Maggie. "That was a good story," he said with a smile. "Are you and your daddy goin' home now?"

Maggie nodded. "As soon as my mommy gets here."

That thought made Bobby's stomach churn. He was not looking forward to the arrival of his wife at all. Wally leaned up and kissed his cheek to say good-bye. Bobby gave him a smile. "Be a good boy and take care of your mother and your sister."

"I will." He hugged Maggie and said good-bye.

After taking her son with her free arm and setting him gently on the floor, the young mother leaned closer and kissed Bobby's cheek. "Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome," he replied, and he watched her leave, carrying her daughter and holding her son's hand. Wally turned in the doorway to wave at them. He and Maggie waved back.

Maggie snuggled into Bobby's arms and yawned. "I'm tired, Daddy."

"How's your leg?"

"It's good. Is yours?"

It wasn't but he'd caused her enough concern. "It's okay. Try to sleep, baby."

She turned onto her stomach with her head resting on his shoulder. Slipping her hand along his neck, she buried her fingers in his hair and sighed. She went right to sleep.

The doctor came in a few minutes later, as Bobby tried to figure out just what he was going to tell Alex when she arrived. "Feeling better?"

"Not really, but she is."

The doctor rested his hand on Maggie's back and looked at her peaceful face. He smiled. "She has an angel's face."

"Yes, she does."

"The x-rays are back. Her leg is broken, but it's not a bad break. We'll put a half-cast on her leg and get her a pair of crutches. Follow up with a pediatric orthopedist in three days for a cast. In two weeks they should be able to put a walking cast on her and she shouldn't need the crutches any more. I don't anticipate her needing the cast for more than four or five weeks. Children heal very quickly."

"Her head injury?"

"The CT we ran revealed no underlying damage. She will be just fine." He shifted the course of the conversation. "How do you feel? Is the pain any better?"

"Not much."

"You can rest now."

Could he? This doctor didn't know Alex the way he did. He was dreading her arrival and he couldn't relax. He shrugged but didn't answer. The doctor went on. "We have no x-rays to compare against your arm, but there has been good healing there which does not seem to have been interrupted. We replaced your cast because it was damaged in the accident. There is some bad bruising on your chest which likely extends to the bone, but there is no fracturing of the ribs. You dislocated your hip but it's returned to its normal position. It will be sore for a few weeks, but it will heal. There's significant swelling in your knee, and we'll have to wait until that goes down before we can assess the full damage. You can follow up with your orthopedic surgeon on that. As for your head, a moderate concussion should be monitored. Is there someone at home who can keep an eye on you besides this devoted little girl?"

He kissed Maggie's head. He would never place such a burden on her...not willingly. He nodded. "My wife..."

He trailed off without saying anything more. Would she be willing to do as the doctor asked? Did it really matter?

"Good. I'm going to give you something stronger for your pain. You should rest before your ride gets here. I'll give you another dose before you leave, to make the ride a little more comfortable."

Before he had a chance to process the doctor's words, the man had left the room and a nurse was back. He watched her inject a syringeful of medicine into the line in his arm. Water, he mused. It looked like water...

But water never brought a fog across his mind, and water never helped him forget...He drifted off.

Alex hurried across the emergency room, directed by the charge nurse to the cubicle where her husband and daughter were being treated. She stopped in the doorway and watched them. Maggie's right leg was splinted by a pink half-cast, an IV line ran into her arm, and she had a white bandage taped to the side of her head. She was snuggled on her father's chest, sleeping with her hand buried in his hair, like she did when she was a baby. She could only imagine how much this whole incident had upset her, and her anger kicked itself up another notch.

She approached the bed and touched her sleeping daughter. Maggie woke and looked up at her, expecting another nurse who wanted to disturb her father. "Mommy!"

She struggled up into her mother's arms and hugged her. Looking toward the door, she waved at Mike, who waved back. Alex redirected her daughter's attention. "Are you all right, Maggie?"

"Yes, Mommy. I'm good. Daddy..."

"I don't want to talk about Daddy right now." She looked down at her husband, who remained asleep. "I'm going to take you home."

"What about Daddy?"

Alex bit back her reply, opting not to answer the little girl. She looked at Logan. "Get a nurse."

"Alex, don't you think..."

"Now."

He raised his hands and backed out the door. "Okay, I'm going."

When the nurse came in, Alex said, "I'm taking her home, now."

"It might be a little while before he..."

Her voice hardened. "I didn't say anything about him. He can stay. Take this IV line out and discharge my daughter."

The nurse looked at Mike, who shrugged. "I'd do it," he said softly.

"Let me get Dr. Rayburn."

A few moments later, she returned with the doctor, who addressed Alex. "I understand you are ready to take Maggie home."

"You're done with her, aren't you?"

"Yes, but your husband..."

Her eyes burned white heat at the hapless doctor. "I said, I am taking my daughter home."

Mike touched the doctor's arm. "Discharge the little girl. I'll stay here with him and we can take him home this afternoon."

Rayburn hesitated, but one more look at Alex convinced him it was a good idea. He nodded at the nurse. "Go ahead and discharge Maggie."

The nurse did as he asked, removing the IV from her arm, getting a pair of little crutches and reviewing Maggie's discharge instructions with her mother. "We already discussed them with her father..."

"Good," Alex cut her off. After scrawling her signature on the right line, she hugged Maggie and said, "Let's go, Logan."

"I said I would stay here with him. Send Carolyn back up to get us this afternoon."

Her eyes simmered disapproval. "Fine. I'll send her back for you," she snapped.

"Alex..."

"Don't."

She continued past him with Maggie, who was confused. "What about Daddy, Mommy?"

"Don't worry about him. Uncle Mike will stay with him."

"But I wanna stay with him."

"No."

"But, Mommy...he was hurt..."

Her voice was firm. "I am taking you home to take care of you properly, Maggie. Now stop arguing with me."

Unwilling to leave her father behind, Maggie began to cry, which made her mother's bad mood even worse. Leaving the hospital, she put Maggie in Tommy's carseat and struggled not to snap at the little girl. "He'll be fine, I'm sure. Uncle Mike is with him."

Maggie sobbed. "Why are you so mad at Daddy?"

"It's complicated. Just settle down. You'll see him soon enough."

She would not commit to anything more specific than that.

When Bobby woke, the first thing he noticed was that Maggie wasn't there. He slowly sat up, groaning when his hip protested. A voice from the chair beside his bed drew his attention. "Syracuse? Really?"

"Mike," he murmured. "Uh, where is Maggie?"

"Oh, buddy, you really did it this time. Five minutes after we got here Alex was back in the car with Maggie heading home."

Bobby looked at his hands. "She was that mad, huh?"

"She was steaming. I thought I had her calmer by the time we arrived, but she took one look at Maggie's leg and she lost it again. I hope you still have that comfortable couch."

Bobby's mind was still blurry, and he looked at his friend. "Did you come in separate cars?"

"No. Carolyn's gonna come back up for us after Alex gets home." Mike didn't like the unfocused look in Bobby's eyes. "How bad were you hurt?"

Bobby shrugged. "Dislocated hip, moderate concussion. I messed up my knee."

"Nothing broken?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Too bad. Maggie trumps you, and that's not gonna help your position with your wife. The doctor said something about hypothermia and shock?"

"When I came in, yes. I'm all right now."

"Can you explain something to me?"

"I'll try."

"How the hell did you end up in Syracuse?"

Bobby sighed and rubbed his head. "I...just drove. I wasn't really paying attention until it was too late...and then the storm..." He trailed off.

"But four hours?"

He shrugged. "After my mother died..."

"What? Whoa, back up the train here. Your mother? Alex said she had a break, that she scared Tom. She didn't tell me she died."

"She...she doesn't know."

"You didn't tell her? Oh, man, you could write a book on screwing up and doing it right. How do you think Alex is going to take it when she finds out your mom died and you didn't call her?"

"I...I figured I'd tell her when we got home."

"But you never made it home."

"Right."

"Never mind the couch. You're going to be sleeping in the hall."

"I really messed up this time, didn't I?"

"You can bank on that. It wouldn't be so bad except that you had Maggie with you, and she got hurt."

"You have no idea how bad I feel about that."

Mike sighed. "Well, I guess we'll just see how it goes. Maybe Maggie can soften the blow for you."

Bobby looked at his hands and his body shuddered. He could feel his family, his life, slipping away from him, and he had no idea how to stop it.