“You need to go home, take a shower, and sleep,” Patty whispered.

I didn’t even look up or acknowledge her. I already knew she was sitting on Sam’s lap, running her hand over her pregnant belly. It was the same position she had been in for the last couple days. They were sitting in the white hospital chair on the other side of Jessica’s bed. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from Jessica’s lifeless body lying among the sheets. The sound of medical equipment beeping in the background was a constant reminder of how close we came to losing her.

The doctor wasn’t sure when they would stop the medication for her induced coma. They were worried about her having permanent brain damage from the accident. Her right arm was in a pink cast. Her left leg was suspended above her body in a matching cast.

“I will go home when Jessica is released. A man ran her off the road, one we haven’t identified yet. If I find a lead, I will consider your request.” For the last forty-eight hours, I had been telling everyone the same thing.

Patty was about to respond when Betsy, the night nurse, walked into the room. She was dressed in green scrubs and had her long red hair in a bun. She was about to do her nightly rounds.

“You people need to go home, shower, and rest. Running yourself ragged will not be healthy for Jessica when we wake her up.” Betsy had been harping on me for the last few days to go home. Why didn’t my friends understand I had no plans to leave? John had brought me a week’s worth of clothes. I had my laptop with me. Not a single person could make me leave this hospital.

Sam woke from the nap he was taking on the chair. “She is right, pixie. Let’s go home and get a good night’s sleep. We’ll return around eight tomorrow morning.”

“I don’t want to leave her,” Patty whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

I didn’t care what they did. I was waiting until I saw Jessica’s vibrant gray eyes look at me.

“I promise you we’ll be back soon. Jessica wouldn’t want you doing this to yourself or the baby. She would want you at home.” Sam wasn’t giving Patty an option anymore. He stood up with Patty still in his arms. Before leaving the room, Sam told me to call them if there was any change.

“Will do.”

I could tell Betsy wasn’t done lecturing. “You know, you should also head home and take a nap.”

“Thank you for your concern. I will rest here. There is no way I’m leaving her side.” This argument was getting old.

Betsy changed the IV bag hanging next to the bed. I had learned the routine of Jessica’s nurses. She was refilling the bag that contained phenobarbital, the medicine that kept Jessica in her induced coma. They had taken another brain scan a couple hours ago. Once the swelling in her brain went down, the doctor planned on bringing her out of the induced coma slowly.

“This is no place to rest. You won’t get any sleep.”

“I did two tours in Afghanistan. These sleeping conditions are heaven.”

I grabbed a bag of licorice and my laptop to work on figuring out who could be behind the car accident.

Betsy made a frustrated sound. “Fine. Stay here. She won’t be happy when she wakes up and finds out you didn’t take care of yourself.” Once she finished checking Jessica’s vitals, she left without saying another word.

I pulled up the security camera feed of the path Jessica took. Over the next couple hours, I worked on going through the video footage I could pull. But the “scenic route” Jessica had taken didn’t have many traffic cameras.

* * *

The next morning, everyone was back in Jessica’s room waiting to hear from the doctor.

Sam and Patty had brought me breakfast when they came back this morning. They looked like they had gotten some rest.

“You should head ho—” Patty tried to get out.

Sam knew I would lose my temper at Patty if she asked me to head home one more time. He put his hand over Patty’s mouth before she could finish her thought.

“Pixie, Brock will head home when Jessica wakes up.”

The worry in Patty’s eyes almost made me cave. “You will run yourself down. I care about you, Brock.”

“How about we make a deal? Once Jessica wakes and we know she is okay, I will run home, take a shower, and nap.”

“Okay.” Patty pouted, obviously overwhelmed by everything going on. “But if the doctor keeps her in a coma for a few more days, I expect you to leave and take a nap. I will send Sam’s whole team to drag your ass out of here. Or I will take your computer hostage until you go home, shower, and sleep.”

I took a gulp of the Mountain Dew Sam had brought me this morning, wishing I had vodka to go with it. The thought of Jessica in a coma for a few more days made my stomach turn. She had had another CT this morning. We were waiting for the doctor to tell us if the swelling had gone down.

“We need to stop being so negative and start thinking positively,” I said.

“Seriously?” Patty asked.

“Yes, seriously.”

“She was run off the road. Her body is pieced back together. How can I not—?” Patty was crying so hard she couldn’t get the rest of her sentence out.

Sam must have blamed me for upsetting Patty because the stare he sent my way was intense enough to peel paint off the wall.

“Pixie, why don’t you go for a walk with John for a few minutes.” Hearing his name, John popped his head into the room.

Patty was about to protest when John walked in and pulled her from Sam’s lap. I was not in the mood for one of Sam’s lectures. Needing to escape the room before Sam started, I placed my laptop on the table next to me and started to stand.

“Brock, sit down.” When I hesitated, he pointed to the chair. “Now. We need to talk.”

Once John and Patty had left the room, Sam continued. “You need to understand that what happened to Jessica was not your fault. You couldn’t have stopped it.”

On second thought, I wished he would yell at me for upsetting Patty. This conversation was heading down a path I didn’t like. I knew Sam was about to bring up a part of my past that needed to stay there.

“If I had been paying closer attention, I would have seen her sneak out the door.”

Sam ran his hand down his face, a sound of frustration coming from his throat. “Do you blame me for her accident?”

“Why would I blame you?”

“I was there too and didn’t see her leave. Jessica is a grown woman and made this decision herself, just like your CO did all those years ago. You need to stop blaming yourself for something you didn’t have control over. I see you holding on to the guilt for your team members.”

This was the exact conversation I didn’t want to have, how my team had been killed because I gave them lousy information. A half dozen people would still be alive if I had had the time to double-check the intel my CO had received. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t my fault. I had told him I wanted to check out the source more thoroughly before we acted.

“You know I don’t talk about that part of my life. Drop it,” I demanded.

Sam ran his hand down his face again and sighed. “I will not drop it. Neither of these accidents were your fault. If you keep letting them fester, you will drive yourself crazy. Jessica will be fine, and you can spend the rest of your life doting over her.”

Was it that obvious that I had a thing for Jessica? Ever since the first day I laid eyes on her in Sam’s office, I knew she was special. But she had been going through a divorce, so I kept my distance. Once she was released from the hospital, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight until we found her attacker. I couldn’t fathom the thought of losing her.

“First, I will find out who did this. I won’t rest until then. And you shouldn’t expect me to drop the case. I was there to help you protect Patty. Stand with me now to protect Jessica.”

Luckily, Patty and John came back with Dr. Greyson, and the conversation that made my stomach turn upside down stopped. I needed good news to pull me away from the thoughts of what happened to my team and Jessica potentially having brain damage from the accident.

Dr. Greyson was a younger doctor. His presence filled the room. He had to be around six feet five inches and two hundred fifty pounds of muscle. He reminded me of a linebacker. From his expression, I thought I might finally get that good news.

The small room was crowded. Patty and Sam were sitting to the left of Jessica’s bed. I was sitting on the other side, and John stood in the back corner.

Dr. Greyson glanced at the clipboard in his hands one more time before addressing the room. “The swelling around Jessica’s brain has gone down. We are stopping the IV of phenobarbital, and in about eight to twelve hours, she should start to wake.” The doctor turned toward me. “You need to go home, shower, and take a quick nap. She needs you at one hundred percent when she wakes.” Dr. Greyson didn’t leave any room to argue.

Once he finished double-checking her vitals, he and the nurse left.

“You heard the doctor. Go home,” Sam demanded. “We’ll call if anything happens.”

Knowing I wouldn’t win the battle, I grabbed my laptop and licorice and headed for the door. I looked over my shoulder one more time before I left. Jessica looked so weak, lying on the bed alone.

* * *

When I walked into Jessica’s room six hours later, Sam was sleeping in the chair. Patty had pulled up another chair, and her fingers were flying across the keyboard.

“Who are you hacking, Patty?” I asked, hoping she had found a lead.

Her head flew up in surprise. “I didn’t hear you come in,” she said loudly, waking Sam. “As for your question, NASA has cool satellites.” When Patty flipped her laptop around, her screen showed a satellite map of the nature preserve where Jessica’s car was hit.

I grabbed my laptop out of my bag. “Can you send me what you find?” 

“That’s the thing. It seems someone deleted the satellite imagery during the time we need.”

It was risky to tamper with data when you hacked in somewhere. Thinking of another way we could find the data, I asked, “Have you looked at the backups? NASA’s servers should back up immediately.”

I heard movement coming from the bed. When I glanced up from my laptop to check on Jessica, her pretty gray eyes opened.

I hurried to her side and grabbed her hand. “Jessica,” I whispered.

“W-Who are you?”

Those three words made my world topple over.