Alex awoke suddenly out of sleep, filled with a vague feeling of dread. It took her a moment to gather her scattered thoughts. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was 6 a.m. She looked down at Dylan, who was still sleeping.
As she showered and got dressed, Alex was unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong. She toyed with the idea of calling the hospital, but decided that if anything had changed with Daniel, Doctor Watson would have notified her.
Waking Dylan, she waited until he got dressed, then they got a quick breakfast and headed over to the hospital. Arriving at the waiting room outside the ICU, Alex turned to her son.
“Dylan, is it all right for you to be here alone for a while? I want to check on Daniel, then we’ll go home.” She had decided last night that she would go home with her son for a while, then come back to the hospital as soon as she knew it was okay with Dylan.
Her son nodded and went to one of the chairs. He didn’t say anything, but Alex knew that he wanted to see Daniel very much.
Again feeling bad about leaving her son alone, Alex went to the minister’s room. She opened the door and peeked inside. Daniel’s parents were there. Though they were wearing fresh clothing, she could tell that they had been there all night. Neither one of them looked as if they’d gotten much sleep.
“Alex. Please come in,” Bonnie said with a smile upon seeing the redhead. She held her hand out to her.
Feeling slightly awkward, Alex came in and took the woman’s hand. Her hand was given a gentle squeeze. Alex glanced at Cliff Cooper and saw that he was looking at her with a slight frown on his face.
“How is he?” she asked, turning her gaze to Daniel.
“He’s the same as before,” Bonnie told her. “They took him for another CAT scan a little while ago. We’re waiting for the doctors to tell us what it showed.” Bonnie studied the younger woman, who had not taken her eyes from Daniel. “How are you doing?”
“I’m okay. I’m worried about him.” Alex heard the faint tremor in her own voice, and tried to regain control of her emotions. She met Bonnie’s gaze. “I’m so sorry this happened.”
“I know, dear, but Daniel’s going to be all right. He’s in God’s hands.”
The three people turned at the sound of the door opening. Doctors Watson and Harding came into the room, their faces grave.
“Something’s wrong,” Alex immediately said.
“I’m afraid there’s been a change in Daniel’s condition,” the neurologist said. “A hematoma has formed over the left temporal lobe. A hematoma is a mass of blood, which is usually clotted. This one is subdural, which means that it is between the layers of membrane covering the brain.”
“How bad is it?” Cliff asked, his voice slightly hoarse.
“The hematoma is fairly large, but, so far, it is not applying a dangerous amount of pressure on the brain.”
“What does this mean? What are you going to do?” Bonnie asked.
“We’re going to start giving Daniel anticoagulants with the hope that it will break up the hematoma,” Doctor Watson replied.
“What if that doesn’t work?” Alex asked, the terror of last night returning tenfold.
“Then we’ll have no choice but to operate,” Doctor Harding told them.
Brain surgery. The thought made Alex’s fear grow even stronger. She knew how dangerous operating on the brain was, that many patients didn’t survive.
“How long will it be before you know?” Cliff asked.
“We’re going to monitor his condition for the next twelve to eighteen hours. If there is a deterioration in his condition or if the pressure on the brain increases, we’ll take him into surgery.”
“My doctor has been in contact with Doctor Andrew Collins,” Cliff told him. “He’s flying out today.”
Doctor Harding’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Doctor Collins is one of the leading neurosurgeons in the country. I’m surprised you managed to get him.”
“I have influence with a lot of important people, Doctor Harding. Like I told Doctor Watson, I intend for my son to have the best medical care possible.”
Doctor Harding nodded. “All right. When Doctor Collins arrives, I’ll fill him in. Let’s just hope that Daniel won’t need his expertise.”
Alex wanted to take hold of Daniel’s hand. She wanted to sit by his side and not leave him for an instant. But she didn’t know if her presence would be welcome there. Daniel’s parents barely knew her, and, though she had received a warm welcome from Bonnie, Cliff Cooper didn’t seem to be too happy about her presence.
As the doctors left, Alex hesitated for a moment, then followed them out. “Doc-- Lily, wait,” she called.
The two doctors turned to her.
“You go on, Greg,” Doctor Watson said. She walked back to the redhead.
“Please tell me how bad this is,” Alex pleaded. “I need to know if. . . . Is he going to die?”
“Alex, come with me,” the doctor said. She took the younger woman’s arm and led her to an empty room. She faced the redhead, studying her expression for a moment before speaking.
“Sometimes, when there’s bleeding inside the skull, it can cause a collection of blood to accumulate. If the mass is large enough, it puts pressure on the brain, which can result in further damage. Right now, the pressure on Daniel’s brain is minimal, but if the hematoma grows larger, it could cause enough pressure to kill him.”
Alex closed her eyes, fighting to remain in control. “What . . . what is the chance of that happening?”
“There is still some minor bleeding occurring, which means that more blood is amassing in the brain. Unfortunately, the anticoagulants we’re giving him, may cause the bleeding to increase. But, at the same time, if they do their job, they’ll loosen and break up the hematoma. Once that happens, then we’ll stop the administration of the anticoagulants, and the bleeding will cease.”
“But if they don’t work, then this hematoma will keep getting bigger until it kills him. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it,” Alex said, her anguish making her voice sound harsh even to her own ears.
“We won’t let it get that far, Alex. As soon as it’s evident that the anticoagulants aren’t working, we’ll remove the hematoma and stop the bleeding surgically.”
“What chance does he have of surviving the surgery?”
Doctor Watson shook her head. “Alex, this isn’t going to do you any good. It’s only going to breed more fear.”
“I have to know, Lily. Please.”
The doctor sighed. “All right. Brain surgery is a very serious thing. Not only is there the danger of further damage the brain, but there’s also the shock to the entire system that it causes. Even in an otherwise healthy person, the risks can be great, but Daniel was weakened by the internal bleeding caused by the injury to his kidney and the delay in treatment, and the subsequent surgery weakened him even further. That’s one of the reasons why the doctors are so hesitant to operate. In his present condition, his chances of surviving the surgery are greatly reduced.”
Alex’s respiration had grown fast and shallow. There was a burning pain in the region of her heart. She knew what Doctor Watson was saying meant. It meant that the drugs they were pumping into Daniel to break up the mass of blood were almost the only hope he had. If they didn’t work and he had to be operated on, his chances of living through it were not good.
“I-I need to call Molly,” Alex stammered. “I have to tell her that I won’t be going back to the island. I can’t leave now. I can’t. . . .” She couldn’t leave, not knowing that every tick of the clock might be bringing Daniel closer to death.
“Alex, there’s nothing you can do for him here. It won’t be until tonight, at the earliest, that we’ll know something. You should take Dylan home and get some rest. You can come back later.”
“No, I can’t. I can’t leave him. I have to be here.” Alex turned away. “I need to go back to him now.”
“Alex, don’t give up on Daniel. He needs you to believe in him. It’s been proven that some comatose patients have a certain amount of awareness of what’s going on around them. If you give up on him and he senses it, then he might give up too. You have to help him fight.”
Not responding, Alex left the room and walked away down the hall. Lily watched her leave, feeling suddenly helpless. Yesterday, she had begun to suspect something about the redhead’s feelings toward Daniel. Now she knew for certain. Alex was in love with him. That knowledge deepened the doctor’s sorrow. Every man Alex ever loved had left her in one way or another, first her father, then Steve Kramer. And, now, there was a good chance that she would lose Daniel too.
Lily went down the hallway, heading for the exit. There were things that she had not told Alex, concerns the doctors had about Daniel’s condition. There was the concern that the hemorrhaging would interrupt or even completely cut off blood flow to other parts of the brain, which would result in a lack of oxygen to those areas. If that happened, massive brain damage could occur. If Daniel managed to survive, he would most likely never regain consciousness, and, even if he did, there would probably be severe, permanent impairments.
Trying to think positively, Lily pushed those thoughts out of her mind and hurried her pace, suddenly needing to get out of the hospital and into the open air.
Alex slipped into Daniel’s room. Cliff was standing by the window staring outside, and Bonnie had returned to her place in the chair beside the bed. They both turned to her when she entered. Seeing them, what she had intended to say fled her mind. Instead, she whispered, “I’m so sorry. This should never have happened.”
“How did it happen?” Cliff asked, stepping away from the window. “Bonnie said that a tree fell on him.”
Alex took a deep breath. “My son, Dylan, was caught out in the storm, and Daniel went after him. There was this oak tree. The storm blew it down. I-it was falling straight toward Dylan. Daniel . . . he . . . he grabbed him and covered him with his own body. H-he saved my son’s life. He did this for Dylan.” ‘And it’s my fault this happened because I was the one who let Dylan go out,’ she silently added, unable to speak those last words aloud.
Fierce pride swelled in Bonnie’s heart. Her son had saved a life. It was just the kind of thing that he would do. Daniel cared so deeply for others. Even when he was a child, he always gave aid to those who needed it, defending those who couldn’t defend themselves. From the beginning, she had known that if her son chose to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a minister, he would be the kind of minister who gave his all to the people he preached to. And he was. She’d seen that on Hope.
Cliff looked at his son, stunned by the news. Daniel had risked his life for another human being. He had done this thing knowing that he could die. And it had been for someone who was not even family. How was it that Cliff had not seen this in Daniel? How had he missed seeing the depth of compassion, love, and courage that was within his son?
Cliff thought back to what Daniel had told him in their room at the Widow’s Walk, to the moment when he turned down Cliff’s offer to be a partner in Cooper Ministries. At the time, Cliff had been upset over Daniel’s refusal. He hadn’t really paid attention to what his son was saying. Afterwards, he had realized that Daniel had a connection to the people he preached to that was missing from Cooper Ministries, something that needed to be brought back. Yet Cliff had still failed to see what lay beneath Daniel’s words to him, the love and devotion, the deep faith, the giving spirit that was there for anyone with eyes to see. But Cliff hadn’t seen it. For most of Daniel’s life, he had judged him, taking note of every transgression, every way that Daniel did not fit the mold that Cliff wanted him to--that is when Cliff was actually paying attention. Most of the time, he’d been so wrapped up in running Cooper Ministries that his family had taken a back seat. And now, his only child was lying near death, and Cliff Cooper was only just realizing that he’d never really gotten to know him.
“I need to call home,” Alex told Daniel’s parent, though she didn’t quite know why. “I was going to take Dylan back to Hope, but I can’t leave now.”
Bonnie searched Alex’s eyes. She saw there an anguish and fear so deep that it made Bonnie’s heart ache for her. If she’d had any doubt that Alex Stone shared Daniel’s love, she didn’t anymore.
“Where is Dylan?” she asked gently.
“He’s in the waiting room. They won’t let him into the ICU because he’s too young.”
“I’d very much like to meet him. He’s a member of Daniel’s congregation, isn’t he? I sat next to him during the Sunday service.”
Alex nodded, surprised that Daniel’s mother wanted to meet Dylan and that she remembered who he was. “He’s Daniel’s acolyte. He never misses a service.”
“He sounds like a wonderful boy.”
“He is.”
Bonnie turned to her husband. He was staring down at Daniel. She recognized the look on his face. It was the one he got when he was hiding his emotions, when he was closing himself off from the eyes of others. It was another way in which their son was so different from him. Most of the time, Daniel’s face was open and honest, not hiding what was in his heart.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes, Cliff,” she told him.
The minister nodded, not looking at her.
The two women left, leaving Cliff alone with his son. He sat in the chair beside the bed. The news from the doctors had terrified him. He knew what a hematoma in the brain meant. A parishioner from one of his former congregations had died from one. The doctors had been unable to save her, despite all their efforts.
As he sat staring at Daniel’s face, his entire life with his son began playing out before his mind’s eye, all the things he had missed, the moments he had not been there to share, all because he had been too busy being the Reverend Cliff Cooper.
Suddenly, the last words he’d spoken to his son flooded into Cliff’s mind. Daniel had come to him for his blessing in pursuing a relationship with Alex, and all Cliff had thought about was how it would affect Cooper Ministries. How could he have done that to his son? What if Daniel died with those being the last words he ever heard from his father?
Feeling the utter shame of what he’d done, Cliff took his son’s hand in both of his.
“Daniel, I’m so sorry. All these years I’ve thought only of my ministry. Everything else was in second place--your mother, you. And I didn’t even realize it. I was a stupid, blind fool. Worse than a fool. I took for granted the greatest blessing that any man can ever be given. I love you, Son. I don’t want to lose you. Please don’t leave us.” A sob catching in his throat, Cliff began to pray aloud. “Dear God, please save my son. I have so much to make up to him, so many things I’ve done wrong that I need to make right. I would sacrifice everything I have if it would save him. Please, dear Father, please. I beg of you.”
Wrapping an arm around his son, Cliff laid his head on Daniel’s shoulder and openly wept for the second time in his life.
Alex walked with Bonnie to the waiting room. How was she going to tell Dylan the news? How was she going to tell him that Daniel was dying? ‘No! He’s not dying! The drugs are going to work, and he’ll be fine,’ she told herself angrily. She couldn’t give up on him. Daniel needed her to believe he was going to recover. She needed to believe that he was.
Dylan looked up to see his mother and Mrs. Cooper coming toward him. There was a look on his mother’s face that scared him. Something was wrong.
“Mom?” he said in a tremulous voice.
Alex sat beside him and took his hand. “Dylan, I have some news about Daniel.”
“He’s dead,” the boy whispered as tears filled his eyes.
“No, honey, he’s not dead,” Alex quickly said. “But he is . . . worse than he was before. They’re giving him a special type of drug to help him, but if it doesn’t work, they’re going to have to operate. But we’re going to keep believing that he’ll be all right, okay?”
Dylan nodded, his gaze dropping to his hands.
Bonnie watched the boy. He reminded her so much of Daniel at that age. During their short stay on Hope Island, she had noticed Dylan several times and had recognized in him the same kindness, the same eagerness to help that she had seen in her own son. She’d realized that the boy was Alex’s son, but had never mentioned it to Cliff.
Sitting on the other side of him, she put on a smile. “Hello, Dylan,” she said. “My name is Bonnie. We never did get a chance to meet.”
The boy looked up at her. “Hello,” he said faintly.
“I can imagine you’re probably feeling pretty scared right now about what’s going to happen to Daniel.”
Dylan nodded.
“Well, I’m scared too, but I know that God is with him. You know that too, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we have to trust in God that things will turn out the way they are meant to. I have faith that my son will live. I feel in my heart that his work here on Earth is not yet done.” She took Dylan’s hand. “Do you know what I used to do when Daniel was your age and he got scared?”
The boy shook his head.
“I used to tell him stories about what I did when I was young. Would you like me to tell you about some of the things Daniel did when he was a child?”
“Yes,” Dylan replied eagerly, a smile coming to his face.
Bonnie smiled back at him. “Good. You know, Daniel used to get into quite a bit of mischief back when he was your age.”
“He did?” Dylan responded, surprised.
“Oh, yes indeed. He could be quite a little dickens. But he always had a good heart, and he was always quick to help anyone who needed it.”
Alex watched Bonnie and Dylan, her heart warming toward Daniel’s mother. It was clear where the minister had gotten his kind and generous spirit from. She was terrific.
“Dylan, I need to call Molly. I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?” the redhead told her son.
“You go make your call, Alex,” Bonnie said. “Dylan and I will stay here and chat.”
Alex met the older woman’s eyes. “Thank you,” she murmured.
Bonnie patted her hand, smiling gently.
Alex went in search of a pay phone. By the time she found one, she felt certain that the words she knew she had to speak were going to stick in her throat. It had taken all her self-control to tell Dylan about Daniel without crying. Now she would have to do it again.
Mentally preparing herself, she placed a collect call to the Widow’s Walk.
“How’s Daniel?” Molly immediately asked. When Alex did not answer right away, she got scared. “Alex, what’s wrong?”
“It’s not good, Mol. There’s a hematoma putting pressure on his brain. The doctors are going to try to get rid of it with anticoagulants, but if it doesn’t work, they’ll have to operate.” Suddenly, she found herself blurting out words she hadn’t intended to say. “He’s too weak, Molly. If they have to operate, he’ll die.”
Molly sat down, her legs suddenly feeling as if they could no longer support her. “What do the doctors say the chances are that the anticoagulants will work?”
“They didn’t say. They’re going to wait twelve to eighteen hours to see what happens. By then, they’ll know if it’s working.”
“What are you going to do, Alex? Are you going to stay there?”
“Yeah. I can’t leave now. I have to be here. Could you send someone to take Dylan home and maybe bring me a change of clothes?”
“Of course. Alex, Daniel is going to be all right. He will.” Telling her friend that someone would be there as soon as possible, Molly hung up the phone and began to cry. Just then, her father and Nub came in. Seeing her, Brian immediately went to her and knelt by the chair.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
“It’s Daniel. His condition has worsened. It’s really bad, Dad. They may have to operate, and the doctors say he’s too weak for it.”
Brian pulled his daughter into his arms and held her, absorbing what she had just told him. He and Daniel had not gotten off to a good start, but despite their rocky beginning, the minister had welcomed Brian as a friend and a member of his congregation. He had let Brian join the choir even though the mayor was completely tone deaf. He had cared enough to tell Brian off and try talking some sense into him about his ex-wife. And two days ago, Daniel had held out a helping hand to Brian in a simple but kind gesture of friendship.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Molly. The reverend can be a pretty stubborn guy when he sets his mind on something.”
His daughter gave him a faint smile, which quickly disappeared. “Alex needs somebody to go pick up Dylan. I wish I could go and be with her, but I can’t leave everything in Boris’s lap.”
“Don’t you worry about that, Molly. Nub and I can give Boris a hand in running things around here. You go on over to the mainland and be with Alex.”
“Really? You . . . you’d do that?” Molly asked hopefully.
“Certainly. After all, how hard can it be?”
“Yeah, how hard can it be,” Nub echoed, looking forward to having something to do besides cleaning storm debris off peoples’ yards.
“Well. . . . We don’t have any guests staying in the inn right now, so it would just be taking orders, serving food, and tending the bar,” Molly said. “Do you know anything about mixing drinks? Almost all the regulars just get beer, but there are a few people who order other things.”
“Do you still have that book on mixing drinks?” her father asked.
“Yeah, it’s under the counter by the cash register.”
“Then we’re all set,” Brian told her with the famous Brewster grin.
Molly threw her arms around her father’s neck. “Thanks, Dad.” She kissed his cheek, then looked over at Nub. “Thank you, Nub.”
Molly went into the kitchen to tell Boris what was going on.
“Yes, you go to hospital and be with Alex and Daniel,” the Russian told her. “Boris will whip Brian and Nub into shipshape in no time flat, make tiptop waiters and bartenders of them.”
The blonde smiled. “And I bet you’ll do just that, Boris. Thank you.”
She went to the phone and called Kevin, asking him if he could take her to the mainland. He, of course, said yes, not being able to refuse his wife anything she really wanted. Molly then went upstairs and packed a bag for Alex. She noticed the necklace Daniel had given the redhead lying on the dresser. Hesitating only a moment, she put it in her pocket. Grabbing the key to Alex’s boat, Molly headed back downstairs. Kevin was waiting for her. They went to their house where Molly packed a bag for herself.
“Are you sure this is all right with you, Kevin?” she asked.
“Of course it is, Mol. I’ll have every night of the rest of my life to spend with you. Alex needs you. You go and be with her.”
Molly gave her husband a passionate kiss. “I love you. How did I ever manage to get a prize catch like you?”
“Just lucky, I guess,” Kevin replied with a smile. Then he grew serious. “I’m the one who’s lucky.”
Kissing again, they reluctantly pulled apart, then husband and wife headed down to the dock.