A Long Road Back: Final Dawn: Book 8 (12 page)

     “I know you do, Frank. And I’ll tell you later, I promise. Let me go talk to all the medical people who came up here to see us. I’ve kept them waiting long enough. You and I will catch up later.”

     “Okay.”

     He watched her as she hobbled away, unsteady on her feet and appearing weak. He wanted to run to her, give her his arm to hold onto, and try to talk her again into using a wheelchair. But she was as hard-headed a woman as he knew. And even when she knew she was rushing her recovery, she wanted to show everyone how strong and capable she was. It would take a lot more than a mere helicopter crash to bring Superwoman down.

     Hannah made her way to Sarah’s room, where a team of three surgeons and neurologists had just finished making their evaluation.

     Hannah’s doctor, for lack of anything else to do, had accompanied them.

     Now he followed Hannah to her apartment and looked at her wounds. Her left foot concerned him, because it had suffered severe nerve damage from having the main part of the helicopter’s fuselage resting upon it for the better part of two days.

     Helicopters are fairly lightweight compared to other transport vehicles.

     But not when they’re sitting atop one’s body.

     “You told me when I discharged you not to tell your husband you’d probably lose that foot. You said to leave that to you. Have you told him yet?”

     “No. I don’t have the heart. I know it would break his.”

     “Well, it’s looking a bit better. That’s the good news. The bad news is, even if we can save it you’ll never regain full feeling in it.”

     “I can put my full weight on it now. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

     “Yes. That’s a very good sign. How does it feel to walk on it?”

     “Well, to be honest, I lose my balance sometimes because I bring my foot down too quickly or not quickly enough.”

     “That’s related to the lack of feeling. It’s not unlike when it’s pitch black and you can’t see, so you’re feeling out for a wall. You know it’s there, but you don’t know exactly how far away it is. You need to tell Mark about the possibility of losing it, though. He needs to know.”

     “I know. I will. He’s just under so much stress from other things right now. I want to wait a bit longer before I add to it.”

     “In the meantime, your unsteadiness will probably get worse. A cane would be helpful. It might keeping you from falling and breaking something. Get into the habit of walking next to a wall whenever possible. That’ll give you something to brace yourself with if you should lose your balance.”

     “What about my friend Sarah?”

     “What about her?”

     “What did the surgeons decide to do?”

     “They’re transporting her to Wilford Hall. Her husband is helping her to get some things together, and we’re taking them both with us. We’re leaving in about an hour or so.”

     “What are they going to do with her?”

     “They’re going to remove a section of her skull. That will give some relief to her swollen brain and allow them to get a good look at it to see if there’s any permanent damage, or any clotting they’ll need to remove. It’ll also relieve the tremendous pressure on the brain and prevent any further damage.”

     “How long will she be that way?”

     “Hard to say. That’s not my specialty. My understanding is that it might take a week or two for the swelling to go down enough to put the skull back in place.”

     “And she’ll be awake the whole time?”

     “No. They’ll have to put her to sleep. They’ll put her into a medically-induced coma.”

-22-

     Bryan walked dejectedly down the main hallway of the big house, toward the exit door. He looked to be in more or less the same mood he’d been in when he came back with Bryan Too and Brad a few hours before.

     This time he carried a small black suitcase in his left hand. On his right arm was a still dazed and confused Sarah.

     Sarah still felt like a fish out of water. She hadn’t left her apartment since she arrived, taking her meals at her bedside or on the living room couch. Her husband had been at her side almost every moment, except for earlier that morning when he’d gone out with his friends for a couple of hours. When he returned he was distant and moody, and didn’t mention where they’d gone or what they’d done.

     Several of the other residents had come by since her arrival, to cheer her up and let her know they were there for her. One of them, Sami, had brought several digital photos of Sarah doing various things around the compound with Bryan and the others.

     It was unmistakably her, although she had to ask constantly who the others were in the photos.

     It turned out that Bryan was telling her the truth after all. And despite the fact he’d beaten Nathan severely, he seemed a genuinely nice man who truly cared for her.

     But she still didn’t know him from Adam. Didn’t know any of them. Why did the photos look alien to her? Why did this whole… place, seem unfamiliar? Why couldn’t she remember?

     She had accepted what everyone was telling her now, that she was one of them and had been kidnapped. But the whole thing was hard to wrap her arms around. The loss of her memory. The fact that she’d been taken advantage of by her kidnapper who convinced her they were happily married.

     The fact that she’d been repeatedly raped and forced to do all manner of other disgusting things to him.

     The doctors coming had only made things worse. They won her trust. They obviously knew what they were talking about. They spoke with great knowledge and confidence. They’d reassured her and told her the procedure could only help her. To delay it could make things very much worse.

     She’d agreed to go with them, and let the stranger she knew as Bryan accompany her.

     As for the rest of them… the strangers lining the hallway to say goodbye and to hug her and wish her well? She felt no closer to them than she did to the doctors.

     She turned back to the group of strange faces just before she walked out the door with Bryan and the medical team and managed a weak smile.

     “Thank you” was all she could say.

     It was a start. As the group disappeared through the door several of the women who’d been holding back tears started crying openly. They didn’t want this Sarah, who seemed so distant and confused.

     They wanted their old Sarah back.

     Most in the crowd knew the details of Sarah’s captivity and recovery. Most of them, except for the children, knew that Bryan and the others had captured the kidnapper and brought him back to the compound, where he’d spent a restless and miserable night tied up in the bed of a pickup outside the gate.

     The rumors had been circulating all morning. That Bryan and a couple of the other men had taken the man somewhere. That they’d come back without him and kept to themselves. And that they’d told no one where they went or what happened there.

     No one knew where they’d taken the man. Most assumed they’d turned him over to the authorities to stand trial.

     Some hoped they’d just dumped him somewhere, still hog-tied, to die a slow and miserable death from dehydration.

     The more optimistic prayed that the men had done the right thing and turned the man in.

     The less so wished him a speedy journey into the fiery pits of hell.

     As Bryan and Sarah passed by the pickup truck she looked at it, wondering what had become of the man who’d been tied up in the back.

     But she didn’t ask Bryan. None of them would.

-23-

     “Mommy…”

     Hannah hoped she was dreaming.

     “Mommy…”

     She wasn’t.

     “Mommy…”

     She opened one sleepy eye.

     “Oh hi, Mommy. I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

     She scooted back on the bed and lifted the covers. Little Markie crawled in and snuggled next to her. He was cold. She wrapped an arm around his little body and pulled the covers around his neck to help warm him.

     “No, honey. Mommy was awake. Did you need something?”

     “Nope. I was just lonely and wanted to cuddle.”

     Hannah reached her free hand behind her to see if Mark was still in bed. He was there, having rolled to the far edge, and was still sleeping peacefully.

     She closed her eyes and started to nod off again.

     “It’s raining outside.”

     Her eyes remained tightly closed as she sleepily responded.

     “How do you know, little sailor?”

     “‘Because I looked out my bedroom window.”

     “Uh huh.”

     “I like the rain.”

     “Uh huh.”

     “I like the way it smells, and the way it makes everything soggy.”

     “Uh huh.”

     “I like to run in it and get wet.”

     “Uh huh.”

     “But you and daddy sometimes get upset when I walk in and drip water all over the place.”

     “Uh huh.”

     “But I still like it. Can we go out and run in the rain, Mommy?”

     “Mommy would rather keep on sleeping, sweetheart.”

     “I’m sorry, Mommy. I thought you were woked up.

     “Awake, honey. You thought I was awake.”

    “Okay. Are you awake, Mommy? Because you sound like you’re awake, on account of you’re talking.”

     “No, honey. Mommy’s still asleep. See, my eyes are still closed.”

     “But how can you be talking if you’re still asleep?”

     “Because Mommy is magical, sweetheart.”

     “Oh. Then instead of going out in the rain can you show me some magical tricks?”

     “Will you let me go back to sleep first?”

     “Sure.”

     Markie grew quiet and buried his little face into Hannah’s shoulder.

     She was lucky in that she got almost a full two minutes of rest before he started up again.

     “Daddy talks in his sleep sometimes.”

     “Oh, Markie… I thought you were going to let Mommy get some more sleep.”

     “Sorry, Mommy.”

     He snuggled against her again.

     And his words gnawed at her.

     A couple of minutes later her curiosity got the best of her and she asked him, “Markie, what kinds of things does Daddy say when he talks in his sleep?”

     “Oh, all kinds of things. About the fishes at the lake and about what a bonehead Uncle Bryan is, and about how you look in your red teddy. Mommy, do you have a red teddy bear? ‘Cause I haven’t seen it. I’d like to see it. Maybe he can be friends with my brown teddy bear.”

     “No, honey. I’m sorry. My red teddy bear ran away.”

     He laughed.

     “Mommy, don’t be silly. Teddy bears can’t run.”

     “Mine could. ‘Cause he was magical, just like Mommy.”

     “Are you ready to show me some magical tricks now?”

     She sighed, just a little bit exasperated.

     “Sure. I’ll show you a great one. But you’ll have to help.”

     “Yay! What do I do?”

     “All you have to do is lay here with Mommy, perfectly still and perfectly silent, for ten minutes. Do you know how long that is?”

     “I think so.”

     “Okay, good. That’s what you have to do for this trick to work. But you have to be perfectly still, and perfectly silent, or the trick won’t work.”

     “Yay! What will happen if I can do it?”

     “Then you’ll put your Mommy to sleep.”

     “That’s not much of a trick, Mommy.”

     “Oh, you didn’t let me finish, little sailor. If you can lay here, perfectly silent and perfectly still for ten minutes, your Mommy will fall asleep. And when I wake up, I will walk like a Frankenstein monster to the kitchen and get you a cookie.”