“You know this guy?” the attending had asked her, and she had said they were friends, and she told him about Maggie. He made a note of it on the chart, with a question mark in a red circle.

She explained to Mark and Taryn as simply as she could what the dangers of the brain swelling meant for him.

“Are you saying he could wind up brain-dead?” Mark looked horrified. He and Jimmy had become good friends in the past few months, and he didn't want anything terrible to happen to him.

“He could, but we hope he won't. It all depends when and how fast he comes out of the coma. He's got brain waves now, and they've got him on monitors. We'll know right away if there are any changes.”

“Jesus,” Mark said, as he ran a hand through his hair and looked distraught, and Taryn was sharing the agony with him. “Maybe someone should call his mother.”

“I think so,” Alex said quietly. There was always the possibility that he could slip away from them, and he was in critical condition. “Do you want me to call?” Those were not easy calls to make, and delivering bad news was part of her job, not that she enjoyed it. But it might be easier for her to do it.

“No. I'll call her. I owe that much to Jimmy.” Mark was not a shirker. He went to the phone, and took a number out of his wallet that Jimmy had given him, in case of just such an event. It had never really occurred to him that he might have to use it, it was just a precaution. And now here he was, calling Jimmy's mother to tell her he was in a coma.

“How does he look?” Taryn asked Alex in an undertone after Mark went to use the phone, and Alex looked unhappy.

“He's in bad shape, I'm so sorry this happened to him,” she said, as she and Taryn held hands and waited for Mark to come back. He was wiping his eyes when he did, and it took him a minute to regain his composure.

“Poor woman, I felt like an axe-murderer. According to Jimmy, he's all she's got. She's a widow, and he's an only child.”

“Is she very old?” Alex asked, concerned for her well-being.

“I don't know, I never asked him,” Mark said thoughtfully. “She didn't sound old, but I couldn't tell. She started crying the minute I told her. She said she'd catch the next flight out. She should be here in eight or nine hours.”

Alex checked on Jimmy again and there had been no change, and she had to go back to work. She left Mark and Taryn in the waiting room, and before she left, Mark asked if she was going to call Coop. It was 5 A.M. by then, a little early to call him.

“I'll wait a few hours and call him around eight.” She gave them her extension and pager number and told them to call her if anything happened. They had their arms around each other, and Taryn had her head on Mark's shoulder when Alex left them.

Things were mercifully quiet on her own service that morning, and as she had said she would, she called Coop just after eight. He was still asleep, and surprised that she had called him so early. But he said he didn't mind. His trainer was coming at nine, and he wanted to get up anyway, and have breakfast as soon as Paloma came in.

“Jimmy had an accident last night,” she told him somberly as soon as he was fully awake.

“How do you know?” She found it odd, but he sounded suspicious.

“Mark called me. He and Taryn are downstairs in the trauma unit. He drove off Malibu Canyon Road, he's got a lot of broken bones and he's in a coma.”

Coop sounded duly impressed by the news once she told him. He had seen a lot of ugliness and sorrow over the years, and in spite of hopes and beliefs otherwise, bad things really did happen to good people. “Do you think he'll make it?”

“It's hard to say at this point. It could go either way. A lot depends on the swelling in his brain, and what kind of toll that takes, how fast he comes out of the coma. The broken bones won't kill him.” But the rest could.

“Poor guy. He doesn't have a hell of a lot of luck going for him, does he? First his wife, and now this.” She didn't tell him that she suspected him of contributing to it. She had nothing to go on, just her gut, and the little she knew of him. “Well, keep me posted.”

“Do you want to come down and sit with Taryn and Mark?” She thought he should have volunteered, but it hadn't occurred to him to do that. There was nothing he could do for Jimmy, it was just a matter of waiting. And he hated hospitals anyway. They made him nervous, except when he met Alex downstairs, as he had on occasion.

“I don't see what good it would do them,” Coop said sensibly. “And it's too late to cancel my trainer.” It seemed an odd excuse to Alex. But he offered it instinctively. He didn't want to see Jimmy with tubes everywhere. He was squeamish about things like that.

“They're pretty upset over it,” Alex pressed further, but Coop didn't take the bait. He wanted to avoid the realities of the situation.

“That's understandable,” he said calmly. “I discovered years ago, that sitting around hospitals doesn't help anyone. It just gets you depressed and you annoy the doctors. Tell them I'll take them out to lunch if they're still there at lunchtime, but I hope they won't be.” He had denial about how serious it was, she knew, which made it easier for him.

“I don't think they want to leave Jimmy alone,” nor did she think that they would be in any mood to go out to lunch, but Coop refused to enter the drama with them, or with Alex. It was a place where he absolutely wouldn't go, under any conditions. Being part of it would have been too upsetting for him.

“If what you say is true, and I'm sure it is, Jimmy won't know the difference, if they're huddled in the waiting room miserably, or having lunch at Spa go.” What he was suggesting seemed in bad taste to Alex but she didn't say anything. It was definitely a different perspective. And she knew from experience that people had odd reactions to stress. Coop seemed to be avoiding it completely.

She called the trauma unit again at ten, and there was no change. The only thing Mark knew was that Mrs. O'Connor was already on a plane. She was expected to arrive at the hospital shortly after noon, if everything went smoothly. And when Alex had an official break, she went down to trauma to see Jimmy. Mark and Taryn were still sitting in the same place. Mark looked terrible, and Taryn had been outside smoking. She said hello to both of them, and then went into the trauma ICU to see Jimmy. They had him isolated and were observing him closely. Alex talked to the nurses for a minute, and if anything, he was in a deeper coma. Things were not looking hopeful for him.

Alex stood silently next to him, and with gentle fingers, touched his naked shoulder. There were monitors taped to it, and wires linked to machines. He had IVs in both arms, and they'd had to give him a transfusion to compensate for internal bleeding. As injuries went, he was in the big leagues.

“Hi, kiddo,” she said quietly as one of the nurses walked away and left her with him. They knew she was as capable as they were of keeping an eye on the monitors, and all the data appeared on screens in two other locations. “What the hell are you doing here? I think you'd better wake up now….” Tears stung her eyes as she talked to him. She saw tragedies as great as this every day in her work, but this was different. He was her friend, and she didn't want him to die now. “I know you miss Maggie, Jimmy… but we all love you too… there's a life for you here Jason is going to be wrecked if something happens to you You've got to come back now, Jimmy … you just have to “There were tears sliding down her cheeks as she spoke to him, and she stayed there with him for half an hour, talking firmly but gently to him. And in the end, she kissed his cheek, touched his arm again, and went back to the others in the waiting room.

“How is he?” Mark still looked panicked, and Taryn was exhausted. She had her head back against a chair with her eyes closed. And she opened them and sat up as soon as she heard Alex.

“About the same. Maybe it'll help when he hears his mother.”

“Do you really think that'll make a difference?” Taryn looked startled. She had heard that before, but never really believed it.

“I don't know,” Alex said honestly. “I've heard people say that they heard people talking to them when they were in comas, and no one thought they could. People have been brought back from the brink of death by stranger things. Medicine is as much an art as a science. I'd be burning chicken feathers and killing goats upstairs if I thought it would help one of my babies. And talking to him can't hurt anything.”

“Maybe we all should,” Mark said, looking anxious. He was dreading seeing Jimmy's mother. And Alex had increased his level of concern. He had no idea how old she was, and if she was very old and frail, this might be too much for her. “Can we see him?” They had seen him once, for a fraction of a minute, from the doorway, but things seemed less frantic around him now. Alex went to ask, and then beckoned to them. But she was more inured to medical scenes than they were. Taryn only lasted a minute or two, and then she left, with tears running down her cheeks. And Mark staunchly stood beside his friend, and talked to him, as Alex had suggested. But after a few minutes, he was so choked up, he had to stop talking. Jimmy's color wasn't good, and although he wasn't in extremis yet, he looked as though he were dying. It was a distinct possibility, Alex knew, and even Mark could see it.

The three of them sat in the waiting room after-wards, and cried over their friend. It had been an abysmal morning, and they were all frightened and tired.

Alex went back upstairs after that, but before she left, Mark asked her if Coop was coming.

“I don't think so,” she said quietly. “He has an appointment this morning.” She didn't have the heart to tell them it was with his trainer. She knew it was an excuse Coop had used, and sensed correctly that he was afraid to come. This just wasn't his strong suit.