When Samuel woke up, he was in a helicopter with an oxygen mask over his mouth. As he lay there with his eyes closed, slowly getting his bearings, the last thing he could remember was seeing the end of the runway ahead of them. They’d crashed then.

When he opened his eyes, the medic greeted him cheerfully and removed the mask. He quizzed Samuel on the basics – his name, the date, where he was when the accident happened.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked.

“UAB.”

“Where’s that? I’m from Houston.”

“Birmingham. One of the best hospitals in the country.”

“Noah?” His held as breath as he waited for an answer. Danielle’s father had to be okay.

“They took him to the local hospital. He had a broken bone. Probably doing surgery, but he’ll be okay.”

Samuel blew out a breath, and the medic put the oxygen back on his mouth. Noah would be okay then.

He began replaying the last moments before the crash. System failure. That’s all it could have been. Noah did everything right. They would try to blame it on the weather and pilot error, but Samuel had landed in worse. The weather had nothing to do with it. Noah had accounted for the slippery runway.

“We’re ten minutes out. Is there anyone we can contact for you?”

Danielle.

Danielle was always his first thought. But she’d made it clear that they were no longer a couple. That she didn’t want a future with a pilot. Not in words, but in actions.

Something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. She had been right. He could have been killed.

The irony was that he now had an automatic four months off. A pilot couldn’t fly for one hundred twenty days after a concussion. It was almost perfect timing. He would have been around all the time to help her get ready for the baby. The baby that he had been ready to claim as his own.

The helicopter landed at UAB, and Samuel was carried inside on a stretcher. He’d hesitated long enough to avoid answering the medic’s question about who to contact about his accident. He felt well enough. He didn’t want to alarm his family. The last thing he needed was for them to come flying out here to Alabama from Houston when he was fine. He would tell them all about it at their next Sunday dinner.

Since he was about to have four months off, he could spend some long overdue time with his family.

The next couple of hours were spent with doctors and an MRI. And more doctors. They finally decided that they would keep him for observation for forty-eight hours.

After getting set up in a private room, a nurse came in with a plastic bag containing his clothes and his cell phone.

He grabbed his cell phone like a man dying of thirst would grasp a cup of water. He had only one text message. It was from his sister reminding him to be there for Sunday dinner. Since it was in two days, he wouldn’t make it this week. He’d make an excuse later.

Finally left alone, he laid his head back and closed his eyes. Maybe after a little nap, he’d call his sister. He wasn’t over the breakup with Danielle and now this crash. He could use a friendly voice in his ear.

The sense of isolation – being stuck here in a hospital somewhere in Alabama – was overwhelming. To get through it, he imagined he was flying in his Mooney single-engine high above the clouds. His thoughts soon settled enough that he was able to drift off to sleep.

In what seemed like only a few minutes, he opened his eyes to a smiling blonde standing over his bed. He blinked. She wasn’t wearing a uniform, and she didn’t look familiar.

“I’m sorry,” the girl, who looked to be college-aged, smiled. “You didn’t answer when I knocked, so I came on in to see if you needed anything.”

Samuel shook his head. Why would this girl, this stranger, be here to check on him?

“I’m here with the Sigma Kappa Sorority, and we’re visiting people at the hospital with Alzheimer’s Disease. I know you don’t have it, but since you hit your head, you were kinda the closet person I could find to talk to that would count.”

Samuel groaned. The girl was talking, and he couldn’t quite follow what she was saying. He closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep. When he woke, Danielle was there, leaning over him. His heart soared. He held out his hand and squeezed hers. She’d come!

“I’m so happy you’re here. I’ve missed you more than you can ever know.”