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"I'm gonna go for a walk," Jason announced, touching Stevie's shoulder as he stood and moved toward the door. Stevie's mind was following the same train of thought. They couldn't just keep sitting there in fear. One of them needed to go on a reconnaissance mission and Jason had volunteered. She was just about to tell him to see if he could find another blanket when Allison spoke up.
"Jas, don't, I want us to stay together," she said, shaking her head.
A pained look crossed Jason's face, "I'll be right out here, Al. I'm not gonna go anywhere..." He looked at his oldest sister for permission and Stevie nodded, granting him the allowance he sought to slip out the door.
Allison looked at Stevie with tears welling in her eyes, "I don't want him to go by himself."
"Shhh..." she shushed her as Allison leaned over and buried her face against Stevie's stomach. Stevie played gingerly with her sister's hair, in an effort to calm her.
"He'll be okay," she whispered, unsure of who she was reassuring Allie about – their brother or their father - but she wanted to keep talking. The silence was slowly stifling them all. Whenever they were sick at home, Elizabeth would sit with them and tell them stories. Irrationally, she hoped their mother wouldn't be disappointed in her. Stevie didn't think she had it in her to tell Allison a story tonight. She couldn't weave positive thoughts together when she was so unsure of how their own story was going to end.
She found that she didn't have to speak, because Allison did. "How did you know where I was?" she asked, her voice muffled against Stevie.
Stevie took a breath - Too soon, Allie, she thought.
But her sister had never been one to shy away from difficult truths. It was a trait their entire family had running through their veins. Stevie tried to keep her voice light as she spoke, her fingers sliding through Allison's black hair.
"A nurse called me. She told me you guys were" in an accident "here."
"Jason ran and told the security guys and we got in the car right away," Stevie shook her head at the memory. Here in the hospital room, under the lights and against the white sterile floors: the phone call and the cold seemed like something out of a bizarre nightmare. They lapsed into silence and Allison was quiet for so long that Stevie was sure she'd fallen asleep. When Stevie moved to change her position beside her, Allison whispered, "Stevie, what if Dad-"
There was a commotion from somewhere outside of the room, loud male voices speaking in angry tones.
"They've had a rough night. We'll make sure it doesn't happen again."
"Jas!" Allison cried as Stevie sprinted out into the hallway. Michael, their agent, seemed to be holding Jason behind him as he exchanged words with a security guard. Stevie pulled Jason to herself, as Michael spoke with the man.
"What happened?" she asked him, in a rush.
"I tried to hack into a computer on the second floor to find out about Dad," he answered her, unabashedly. She didn't have the strength to admonish him. Her brother's face was so full of distress, "They're not telling us anything! They've gotta know something!"
Stevie held Jason's shoulders. "Shhh," she whispered for the second time in less than an hour. "Go sit with Al. I'll see what I can do."
Jason gave her a dubious look and for a moment she thought his stinging sarcasm was going to come back to him and he was going to snap at her. She wouldn't have deserved it, but would surely have taken it from her brother. He had to be able to let his frustrations out somehow, in a way that didn't get them all into trouble. He seemed frozen there beside her, just staring down the hallway toward the nurses station. "Allie needs us," she whispered, reminding him of just why they were here. "I shouldn't have done that," he admitted, deflating, his eyes losing hope.
"It's okay," she told him, quietly.
"No, it's not," he replied, upset.
"Go sit with her," she urged him, once more.
When Jason was back inside the room with Allison, Stevie started toward the nurses station. Michael waved her away, motioning for her to go back inside. Stevie held her breath, not wanting to return to her brother and sister without information, but afraid to make a false move and get them into a deeper predicament tonight. She nodded to Michael, mouthing "Anything?" He shook his head and Stevie felt like the floor was pulled out from beneath her feet.
"I'm gonna go try to find us some hot chocolate," she told Jason when she stepped back into the room. "I'll be back."
Mary passed by the half-open door. She had to ground herself before peeking inside. The nurse had avoided coming up here for as long as her heart would let her. She didn't want Allison to see her, for fear that she would recognize her from the scene of the crash. The last thing she wanted to do was upset the girl. What she did want to do was make sure Allison and her family were all right. She knew Allison was being well taken care of, but she had to see for herself. She was aware that the other McCord children had come right after she had called them. Judging by the heavy winter coats piled high on the spare chair in the corner, they had arrived. Mary peered inside the room on the pretense of checking Allison's file. She needn't have worried because Allison was resting, her inky lashes settled against her fair cheeks. Mary took her first deep breath since the crash. Allison looked placid, the antithesis of the tumult she'd been thrust into directly after the crash. Mary smiled and whispering "Good girl, Allison. You're all right," she walked on.