Daniel looked older than Tean remembered.His usually tousled hair was lank and needed to be washed, and his eyes were bloodshot.Bruises mottled his neck.But worse than all that was the grayness of his expression, the way he sagged in bed, as though his body were empty.Not quite two years before, when Daniel had tried to kill himself, he had lain like this, staring out at the world from behind the same empty eyes.
Next to the bed, Lucy sat in a chair, a magazine spread across her lap.Her hair was in a ponytail, and she wore yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt that managed to look both cute and comfortable at the same time.But her color was bad, and her eyes were ringed with shadows in spite of whatever makeup she’d used to try to cover them up.She glanced up automatically and seemed to dismiss them just as quickly, returning her attention to the magazine.Then her head snapped up again.
“What are you doing here?”she asked.“Get out.”
“I’m sorry, Lucy,” Tean said.“We need to talk to Daniel—”
“Get out!Get out of here right now or I’m calling security!”
“I know he’s been through a lot,” Jem said, “but—”
Lucy twisted at the waist and fumbled for the call button attached to the bed.
“Hey, hold on!”
“Lucy,” Tean said, “wait, please.We need to talk to you too.Have the police told you what we found?”
“Did they tell you I saved your kid’s life?”Jem added sourly.
Lucy clutched the call button.But she didn’t press it.Color spread in her cheeks like red wings.Finally, she said, “Daniel, I’m going to be right back.”
Daniel didn’t look over.He didn’t raise his head.He didn’t blink.
Out in the hall, when the door swung shut behind Lucy, Tean said, “Is he okay?Last night, they weren’t sure—”
“He’s fine.He’ll be fine.They were worried about his brain, but everything—” Lucy stopped so suddenly it was jarring, like someone pressing pause on an old VHS.Around them, the hospital traffic continued: a radio playing a pop song Tean didn’t recognize, a man clearing away a tray of uneaten food, a nurse shaking out the last Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.Lucy pressed one hand to her cheek as though checking for a fever, and then she turned to Jem and said, “Thank you.”
“I know he’s been through a lot,” Tean said.“We’re not trying to make things harder.”
Lucy stood there, hand still pressed to her cheek.Whatever guard she’d maintained while she’d been with her child, it was gone now, and bone-white exhaustion peeked out at them.
“Have the police talked to you about what we found?”Tean said.“There’s substantial evidence that Ammon didn’t have anything to do with this.”
She gave a weary shake of her head.“No.I don’t know.Last night, they wanted to talk—I have no idea what they were saying.”
“Has Daniel told you what he was doing last night?”Jem asked.
“Daniel isn’t talking to anyone right now.”
“Do you know how he got Brennon’s phone?”
Pain pinched Lucy’s expression.“I appreciate that you’re trying to help.That you think you’re trying to help.And I know Ammon believes—” She stopped, and a laugh wrenched its way out of her.“I have no idea what Ammon believes.I don’t know what’s going on.Thank you for what you did last night for my son.But I just—I just need—”
A klaxon sounded.Lights flashed.
Tean flinched.Jem swore.Lucy put a hand over her ear.And then a recorded voice came over the speakers: “This is a fire alarm.Please evacuate.This is a fire alarm.Please evacuate.”
A patient tech in scrubs poked his head out of a nearby room and glanced up and down the hall.At the nurse’s station, a Polynesian woman waved one hand and shouted, “Let’s go!”From nearby rooms came raised voices, cries for help, the blat of emergency calls as people panicked.
Through the din, a soft, hissing sound registered.It was coming from inside Daniel’s room.Jem must have heard it too, because as the klaxon and flashing lights began again, his eyes narrowed.
“Lucy—” Tean tried over the sound of the alarm.
Before he could finish, the door to Daniel’s room flew open, and Daniel charged out.The boy was dripping wet, shorts and tee pasted to his skin.Without missing a beat, he shoved his mom into Jem, and the two of them crashed to the floor—Jem landing hard enough to tumble several feet across the linoleum, Lucy letting out a sharp cry as she tried to catch herself with one arm.
Which left Tean alone on his feet.
Daniel shot him a backward glance.
