Nora Roberts: Best Laid Plans

"You went in after her." Jessie rubbed the heels of her hands hard over her face. "You risked your life to save hers."

"I have no life without her."

The time for tears would have to wait. She rose to take his hand. "You know, most of us never find anyone who loves us that much. She's always needed it, and I always fell short. You're not going to lose her."

"I don't suppose you'd listen to an old man and stretch out on the couch over there?" When Cody shook his head, Barlow stood. "Thought not. Got to make a few phone calls. Won't be long."

So they waited. Cody watched the clock as the minutes ticked by. When Nathan and Jackie came in ahead of Barlow an hour later, he was too numb to be surprised.

"Oh, honey…" Jackie went to him immediately, her small, sharp-featured face alive with concern. "We heard almost as soon as the plane touched down. What can we do?"

He shook his head but held on. It helped somehow just to hold on to someone who knew him. "She's in surgery."

"I know. Mr. Barlow explained everything out in the hall. We won't talk about it now. We'll just wait."

Nathan dropped a hand on his shoulder. "I wish we could have gotten here sooner. If it helps any, Thorn-way's already been picked up."

Cody's eyes focused, then hardened. "How do you know?"

"Barlow did some checking. The police went by to question him. The minute he was told that you and Abra had been in the explosion he fell apart."

"It doesn't matter." Cody stood up and went to the window. It didn't matter whether Thornway was in jail or in hell. Abra was in surgery, and every second was an eternity.

Nathan started forward, but Jackie laid a hand on his arm. "Let me," she murmured. She stepped up quietly beside him, waiting for him to gather his control. "She's the engineer, isn't she?"

"Yeah. She's the engineer."

"And I don't have to ask if you love her."

"I haven't even told her." He laid his forehead on the glass because he was tempted to punch his fist through it. "It was never the right time or the right place. Jack, when I pulled her out-" He needed another minute to force himself to say it out loud. "When I pulled her out, I thought she was dead."

"She wasn't. She isn't." She laid a hand gently on his wrist. "I know I have this rotten optimism that can be annoying, but I don't believe you're going to lose her. When she's better, are you getting married?"

"Yeah. She doesn't know that, either. I have to talk her into it."

"You're a good talker, Cody." She touched his cheek, then turned his head so that she could study his face. He was deadly pale, with bruises under eyes that were still swollen and red-rimmed from smoke. "You look terrible. How many stitches?"

"Didn't count."

She turned over his hands, barely managing to suppress a shudder. "Did they give you something for the pain?"

"Some prescription." Absently he touched his pocket.

"Which you didn't fill." At least this was something she could do, Jackie decided, plucking it out of his pocket. "I'm going down to have it filled now, and when I bring it up you're going to take it."

"I don't want-"

"You don't want to mess with me," Jackie told him. She kissed his cheek before she strode out of the waiting room.

He took the pills to placate her, then drank the coffeepot dry to offset the drowsiness. Another hour passed, and then another. His pain dulled to a throb, and his fear sharpened.

He recognized the doctor as the same one who had operated on Mendez. Bost came in, swept a glance over the group huddled in chairs and couches and approached Jessie.

"You're Mrs. Barlow, Miss Wilson's mother?"

"Yes." She wanted to rise but found her legs wouldn't straighten. Instead she put one hand in her husband's and the other in Cody's. "Please, tell me."

"She's out of surgery. Your daughter hasn't regained consciousness yet, and she's lost a great deal of blood. We were able to stop the hemorrhaging. She has some broken ribs, but fortunately her lungs weren't damaged. Her arm was broken in two places, and she has a hairline fracture below the right knee."

Foolishly Jessie remembered kissing scraped elbows and knees to make them better. "But they'll heal?"

"Yes. Mrs. Barlow, we're going to do a series of X rays and a Cat scan.''

"Brain damage?" Cody felt his blood dry up. "Are you saying she has brain damage?"

"She suffered a severe blow to the head. These tests are standard. I know they sound ominous, but they're our best defense against whatever other injuries she may have."

"When will you have the results?" Jessie asked.

"We'll run the tests this afternoon. They'll take a couple of hours."

"I want to see her." Cody stood, sending Jessie a brief, apologetic glance. "I have to see her."

"I know."

"She won't be awake," the doctor explained. "And you'll have to keep it brief."

"Just let me see her."

He wasn't sure what was worse-all those hours of speculation or the actuality of seeing her lying so still, so pale, with bruises standing out so harshly on her cheeks and the tubes hooking her to a line of impersonal machines.

He took her hand, and it was cool. But he could feel the pulse beating in her wrist, echoed by the monitors next to her.

There was no privacy here. She would hate that, he thought. Only a wall of glass separated her from the quiet movement of nurses and technicians in ICU. They'd given her a bed gown, something white with faded blue flowers. He resented the idea that dozens of others had worn it before.

She was so pale.

His mind kept leaping back to that, though he tried to fix it on other, inconsequential things. The faded gown, the beep of the monitors, the hush of crepe soles on the tiles beyond the glass.

Where was she? he wondered as he sat and kept her hand in his through the bars on the sides of the bed. He didn't want her to get too far away. He didn't know what to say to bring her closer.

"They won't let me stay, Red, but I'll be hanging around in the waiting room until you wake up. Make it soon." He rubbed a hand absently over his chest as it tightened. "You came through okay. They want to take some more tests, but they don't amount to much. You've got a nasty bump on the head, that's all."

Please, God, let that be all.

He fell silent again, counting the monotonous beeps of the monitors.

"I was thinking we could take that trip back east once you're out of here. You can work on your tan and nag me about stress points." His fingers tightened uncontrollably on hers. "For God's sake, Abra, don't leave me."

He thought-or perhaps it was only a wish-that her fingers pressed just for an instant against his hand.

"You've got to get some rest, Cody."

He'd been staring at the same paragraph of the newspaper for twenty minutes. Now he looked up and saw Nathan. "What are you doing back here?"

"Putting my foot down with you." Nathan sat on the couch beside him. "I left Jack at the hotel. If I can't go back and tell her I convinced you to take a break, she's going to insist on coming out herself."

"I'm doing better than I look."

"You'd have to be to still be conscious."

"Be a pal, Nathan." He gave himself the luxury of sitting back and closing his eyes. "Don't push."

Nathan hesitated. He wasn't the kind of man who interfered in other people's lives. There had been a time when he'd chosen not to become involved at all. That had been before Jackie. "I remember saying almost the same thing to you once when I was confused and upset. You didn't listen, either."

"You were being too stubborn to admit your own feelings," Cody said. "I know what my feelings are."

"Let me buy you something to eat."

"I don't want to miss Bost."

"How about an update on Thornway?"