Prologue 3

Jax and Annie blinked, and Sam saw that Annie actually looked ill. He was just about to ask her to sit down again, when she seemed to give herself a shake. Her face was still the color of parchment, but those eyes had a fire in them now… a rage and determination that gave Sam heart. After all, if Annie had this fight inside of her, and if Sarah was her mother’s daughter, then Sarah’s chances had maybe just improved.

Maybe just a bit.

“I still don’t understand,” Annie said, struggling to speak slowly. “Sarah can’t wake up?”

“Sarah’s in a coma,” Sam said, dropping that dreaded, awful word, the one that struck terror into the hearts of every single person that he had facing him. For so many people, coma meant death sentence. And for so many patients, that’s exactly what it was. “And as long as the RAS is being pressed down on this much, she’ll stay in a coma.”

Annie gasped, and one again, Sam had to fight back the urge to touch her, to physically offer her the comfort of a warm hand.

Or a hug.

Stop it.

“OK,” Jax said hollowly, and it was in this moment that Sam knew that he loved Sarah. Loved her hard enough to stand by her, all the way to the end of the road. “So how do you deal with the swelling?”

“Drugs,” Sam said, his eyes moving between Jax’s hard face and Annie’s strained one. “Drugs will sometimes reduce the swelling, which then relieves the pressure on the RAS.”

“What do you mean ‘sometimes’?” Annie said, looking so lost, Sam’s heart ached a bit. “Drugs don’t always work?”

“No, Annie.” Mac’s voice was gentle. “They don’t always work… it depends how badly her brain has been damaged by the beating. The more damage inflicted, the worse the swelling, and the harder it is to control. And from what I saw when I checked her eyes, Sarah’s brain has been pretty badly damaged.”

“I – I still don’t understand,” Annie repeated. “Are you telling me that she’s not going to wake up? That she’s going to die?”

“I’m telling you that the swelling is bad,” Sam said, hating to do this, hating it worse than he’d hated it in a long while. “And that Sarah won’t be able to wake up until it goes down. I’m not able to say anything more right now. We need to watch her for the next twelve hours, and see if she’s reacting well to the drugs. We’ll know more tomorrow.”

“But… but…” Annie stuttered. “I can’t… I don’t…”

“Hey.” Mac put his arm around her shoulders, and when she subsided against his strong, solid body, Sam felt the wild urge to growl and beat the living crap out of the man.

Hands off, MacIntyre… I swear to Christ, if there are any professional lines to be crossed and any hugging to be done with a patient’s mother, I’ll be doing it. I don’t care if you’re built like a brick shit-house, I’ll take you down.

“Look, we’ll go get you something hot to drink, and I’ll sit with you and explain it all again.” Mac was holding Annie closer and tighter now, the bastard. “You’ll ask me whatever you want, and I’ll answer what I can. OK?”

She stared up at him. “You’re the one who’s a doctor, right?”

“Yep.” Mac grinned, all gorgeous charm and blue eyes and long blond hair, damn him. “Doctor Shane MacIntyre, at your service.”

She looked him up and down, clearly stunned. “What kind of doctor are you?”

“Oh, Doctor MacIntyre is one of the best consulting neurologists in the country,” Sam said, giving credit where it was due, mostly to set Annie’s mind at ease. “Believe me, ma’am, if you have any questions about how the brain works, this is the man to ask.”

Annie’s jaw dropped. “A neurologist?”

“I know, right?” Jax said, finally producing a grin. “He’s as brainy as hell – and yes, that was an intentional pun.”

Annie gave a small, shocked laugh. “Good Lord, boys… you’re all just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“We try to be,” Mac said jovially. “Now, let’s get you sitting down and we can talk. Yes?”

“Yes.” She sighed. “Thank you, Doctor MacIntyre.”

“Mac.”

“Mac.” She gave him a grateful, astonishingly beautiful smile, and Sam wished that she’d smile like that at him, just once. Maybe twice.

“Mac!” Noah echoed.

“Yeah, man,” Mac said, turning to face Noah again. “How you doing?”

“King’s smart,” Noah said, and despite the flat monotone typical of a person with quite severe autism, Sam did discern a clear tone of admiration present in his words. King grinned at Noah with real affection, gave Mac and Jax a wink.

“Is he?” Annie said, walking back over to her son. Sam watched her go, knowing that she had to – of course she does, she’s got people to take care of now and she’s not going to shirk that responsibility, not for ten seconds – knowing that her mind was already on Noah, on Sarah, on all the ways that she had to cope with this new, terrifying reality.

And Sam also knew in that moment that he was going to do anything and everything to help Annie through this. Anything she needed, he was going to be there.

Whether she knew it or not.