Coast Road (8 page)

"Cat treats, Hope coached. "Try the cuke."

"The cuke has to hold spaghetti he said and opened a fat yellow pepper to reveal flour. The cuke was the only thing left. "This isn't Rachel he argued, feeling a little dumb as he measured spoonfuls of beans into a coffee mill. "A cuke is made for spaghetti. It's common sense.

That's its shape."

"Mom says you have to break out of the mold sometimes, Samantha said.

"When are we leaving? " "As soon as I have coffee and a shower. " "How long is that? " The kitchen clock�another ceramic thing that was no doubt also cast by Rachel's hand�was a beaver with whiskers that said it was seven-forty.

"Twenty minutes." He arched a brow at Samantha. "Can you handle that?

" "You don't have to be snide. I was just asking. We have to shower and dress, too, y'know, and if I'm not going to school, I need someone to take notes and get papers and give messages for me, so I have calls to make." She left, pulling her sister along with her Jack had calls to make, too, but they would have to wait. He had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

chapter four.

HAD JACK KNOWN of any other road to take back to Monterey, he would have, but there wasn't a one. Samantha sat in the passenger's seat, hair wet from the shower, mouth clamped shut, eyes riveted to the road.

Hope was stuffed in what passed for the BMW's backseat, staring out between the front buckets, her knuckles white on buttersoft black leather by her sister's shoulder, her cowboy boots planted on either side of the hump.

Jack knew what they were thinking. He was thinking it, too, hoping �praying�that Caltrans had finished its cleanup and left. Not knowing what else to do, he turned on the radio to create a distraction, and it did, for a minute.

"Just what we want to hear Samantha remarked in response to an NPR report on starvation and death in another little African state.

Between nervous glances at the road, she pressed another button, then another, then another. "Do you ever listen to music? " "What was that a second ago? " Jack asked.

Samantha was working the manual controls. "Geek chords, and we won't be able to get anything good here, the reception stinks." She flicked off the radio, clutched the hand loop above her door, and fixed alert eyes on the road.

Jack slowed the car to take the first of a series of turns. "What do you normally listen to? " "CDs Samantha snapped.

Hope shot her a timid glance. "Mom listens to news."

"Not when one of us is lying half dead in a hospital room."

"Your mother isn't half dead, " Jack told Samantha.

"She's in a coma. What would you call that? People in comas die just as easily as not. Lydia had an uncle who was in a coma for months until they finally took him off the machines, and then he was dead in five minutes."

"Your mother's situation is entirely different. She isn't even on life support. The only machines in the room are ones to monitor her vital signs so they'll know if anything changes. She's�" "Look! " Samantha pointed. "That's where it happened. See where the guardrail's gone, and all the mess of the dirt on the road where there isn't supposed to be dirt? That is where it happened, isn't it? " she charged, swiveling to watch as they passed the spot. "Slow down. I want to see." Jack kept driving. "There's nothing to see. The car's been towed. It's probably already in the shop." Both girls were looking out the back window. "Katherine said she was hit Samantha said. "What happened to the other driver? " "I don't know Jack lied.

She flopped forward again. "You do, but you're not saying. I can tell by your voice. Mom would want us to know." Jack doubted that very strongly, but it was beside the point. Annoyed at being pitted against Rachel, he said, "Right now, your mother would want you to say good things or nothing at all."

"That's what you'd say, not what she'd say. She'd want us to say what we think, and what I think is that this accident was more serious than you're saying, which means we're all in big trouble. What if she doesn't wake up? " "She'll wake up."

"I'm not going to live in San Francisco. My friends are all here. I'm not moving."

"Good God, you have your mother dead and buried, " Jack charged.

"Daddy? " came a frightened cry from behind.

He found Hope's face in the rearview mirror. "She's not dying, Hope.

She'll be okay. I told you that, and I mean it. She was in an accident barely twelve hours ago. This is the worst of it. From here on it's about getting better. Let's take it one step at a time. For all we know, by the time we get to the hospital, your mother will be awake and asking for breakfast." RACHEL WASN'T asking for anything.

She was as unresponsive when they arrived as she had been when Jack had seen her earlier. The tightness in his middle was back, the shock of seeing her this way, the fear that in the next breath she would be gone.

"She's sleeping Hope whispered, and for a minute he thought she might be right. Aside from the bruise, Rachel looked almost normal. She might well have emerged from the coma and fallen into an innocent sleep. The doctor might have tried to call him in the car and been unable to get through. Car phones were iffy that way.

He approached the bed, hoping, hoping. He rubbed her cheek. When she didn't respond, he gave her hand a squeeze. "Rachel? " "Don't bother her Hope cried in a fearful tone.

Samantha said nothing. Her eyes were wide, her face pale.

Backing to the open half of the sliding glass door, Jack stood with the girls while they adjusted to the scene, and he readjusted to Rachel's not having changed. When he had his disappointment in check, he said a quiet "See? No respirators, no life supports. She broke her leg.

There's the cast. She cut her hand, so that's bandaged, and the bruises on her face are where she banged it against the car. Remember when you got a tennis ball in the eye, Sam? Black, blue, and purple for a week, then green, then yellow, then back to normal. But it took a while." Samantha nodded. Her eyes didn't leave Rachel.

"The IV poles have medicine and food, " he went on for lack of anything better to say. "The TV screen behind her registers things like heart, pulse, and oxygen. There's a person at the nurses' station who sees all that and knows if there's any change. They can also watch your mom through the glass. That's why she's here, instead of in a regular room." Hope moved closer to his side.

"See the top readout? " he tried. "The heartbeat, that little green up-and-down line? See how regular it is? " He felt Hope nod against his arm. "Want to go let her know you're here? " The nod became a quick head shake. "Samantha? " Without defenses, Samantha looked as young and frightened as Hope. "Can she hear us? " "The doctor says so. It seems to me that if she can, she'd like to know you guys are here."

"What do we say? " "Whatever you want."

"Are you going to talk to her? " He knew a challenge when he heard it.

Leaving them again, he approached the bed. Taking Rachel's hand, he leaned over and kissed her forehead.

He stayed close, with an elbow braced on the bed rail. "Hi, angel.

How're you doing? See, I said I'd be back, and here I am. Got the girls with me. They're over by the door. They're feeling a little intimidated by the machines and all."

"I am not intimidated' Samantha said and was suddenly beside him. "Hi, Mom." He heard her swallow, saw her fingers close around the bed rail.

"It's me. Sam. God, look at your face. What did you do? " From the corner of her mouth closest to Jack, she whispered, "This is dumb. She can't hear."

"Do you know that for sure? " "No."

"Then don't assume it." He looked around for Hope, who was still at the door.

When he invited her over with the hitch of his head, she shrank back.

"What are they doing to wake her up? " Samantha asked.

"See that drip? " He pointed to one of the bags that may or may not have been the one the doctor meant. "That keeps the swelling in her head down, so that blood and oxygen can flow and heal the injured tissues."

"Why can't they just give her a shot or something to wake her up? " "It doesn't work that way."

"Did you ask? " "No."

"Did you ask for a specialist? " He gave her a stare. "That was the first thing I did. Give me a little credit, huh? " To Rachel, lightly, he said, "Where did this one get her mouth? " "Like you were perfect? " Samantha asked, not lightly at all.

Jack preferred his daughter when she was too frightened to be a smartmouth. He didn't know whether it was her age, or whether he just brought out the worst in her. In any case, he didn't want things going further downhill, not within earshot of Rachel.

"Tell you what, " he said. "I'm going to leave you here to talk with your mother. Don't be bashful. Tell her how awful I am. Tell her that she'd better wake up, because you're not moving to the city. Tell her that I don't know anything. Get it all off your chest. I have some calls to make." He turned to find that Katherine had arrived and was standing with an arm around Hope. "Hey. Katherine. I'll be down the hall." As he passed, he told Hope, "Right down the hall. I won't be long." He felt like a deserter leaving the room, but what was the point of staying? Samantha had nothing good to say with him there, Hope wouldn't budge from the door, and Rachel wasn't helping, not one bit.

"Is Dr. Bauer around? " he asked at the nurses' station.

"Tuesday mornings, he teaches in the city said the nurse monitoring the screens.

"Are you Mr. McGill? " asked a woman who was doing paperwork nearby.

She wore a silk blouse under her lab coat, and pearl earrings. They were large. Power pearls. Jack suspected they were supposed to make her look older than the barely thirty that he guessed she was.

- "Yes. I'm Jack McGill." She put down her pen, extended a hand, and said, "I'm Kara. Dr. Kara Bates. I'm in neurology, second under Dr. Bauer. He checked your wife before he left. She's holding her own. " "But not awake yet. He mentioned cranial pressure. What's happening there? " "It's the same."

"Then the drip isn't helping? " "It may be, since she isn't getting worse. We'll have to wait a little longer to see improvement."

"And there's nothing else we can do in the meantime? " he asked, hearing Samantha in the words, but hell, he was scared, too.

"Not yet. Are those your girls? " Kara Bates asked with a glance toward the room.

On the other side of the glass, Katherine had coaxed Hope to Rachel's bedside. Though Samantha was nearly as tall as Katherine and a head taller than Hope, both girls looked very blond, very young, very frightened.

"I'm not sure I should have brought them. They might have been better off at home. I keep telling them this is temporary, but it's hard for them to see. I don't know what to say to make it better."

"Let me give it a try, Kara said.

Willing to forgive her the pretense of power pearls if she succeeded, Jack walked her back to the room, but he waited at the door while she went inside. Gently, she told the girls much of what Steve Bauer had told him earlier. They listened. Their eyes went from Rachel's face to Kara's and back. They nodded when Kara asked if they understood, and didn't balk when she told them what they could and should do. By the time she was done, Hope was standing at Rachel's side under her own power and Samantha was holding her mother's hand�and suddenly Jack felt angry that two strangers, two women who were no relation at all to his daughters, had been able to reach them when he couldn't.

His family wasn't supposed to be like that. His family was supposed to be cohesive and communicative. It was supposed to be everything his childhood family hadn't been.

Turning against a sense of failure, he strode down the hall to the phone.

FIGHTING mental static, he made two calls. Both were to San Fran cisco.

"Sung and McGill said Christina Cianni. She had been with Jack since the firm's inception, back then as receptionist, general assistant, overall gofer. The ten years she had on Jack didn't show. Her hair was a rich mahogany, her olive skin smooth as ever, her smile ready, her manner calming. Sitting at the front desk in those early years, she had conveyed an aura of success long before they had any. Now she manned the front phone only when the regular receptionist was on break.

She divided the rest of her time between keeping the books and doing PR. The most precious of her traits was her undying loyalty to Jack.

"Hi he said in relief when her voice cut through the static in his head. She was an anchor in his suddenly topsy-turvy world.

"Jack! I'm so sorry to hear about Rachel! How is she? " "Comatose.

Her injuries wouldn't be all that serious if it weren't for the one to the head. But that's a tough one. I don't know what's going to happen."

"I can't begin to picture it. I'm so, so sorry. How are the girls? " "Scared."

"Do you think she'd be better off at a hospital up here? " "Not yet.

This team seems on top of things, and if they are, there's no point moving her. But I want an expert to tell me for sure. Can you get me the name of the best neurologist in the city? " "Done she said with blessed confidence.

"What's happening there? " There was a pause, then a pregnant "You don't want to know."