incapacity, either,' Walter Delaney said, 'but it'll be at least a day
or two before we can be sure of that.'
Emil Procnow ran one slender hand through his curly black hair. 'He's
coming through this really well, Mrs. Mcgarvey. He really is.'
'But?' she said.
The physicians glanced at each other.
'Right now,' Delaney said, 'there's paralysis in both legs.'
'From the waist down,' Procnow said.
'Upper body?' she asked.
'That's fine,' Delaney assured her. 'Full function.'
'In the morning,' Procnow said, 'we'll look again for a spinal
fracture. If we find it, then we make up a plaster bed, line it with
felt, immobilize Jack from below the neck all the way past the filum
terminale, below the buttocks, and put his legs in traction.'
'But he'll walk again?'
'Almost certainly.'
She looked from Procnow to Delaney to Procnow again, waiting for the
rest of it, and then she said, 'That's all?'
The doctors exchanged a glance again.
Delaney said, 'Heather, I'm not sure you understand what lies ahead for
Jack and for you.'
'Tell me.'
'He'll be in a body cast between three and four months. By the time
the cast comes off, he'll have severe muscle atrophy from the waist
down. He won't have the strength to walk. In fact, his body will have
forgotten how to walk, so he'll undergo weeks of physical therapy in a
rehab hospital. It's going to be more frustrating and painful than
anything most of us will ever have to face.'
'That's it?' she asked.
Procnow said, 'That's more than enough.'
'But it could have been so much worse,' she reminded them.
Alone with Jack again, she put down the side railing on the bed and
smoothed his damp hair back from his forehead.
'You look beautiful,' he said, his voice still weak and soft.
'Liar.'
'Beautiful'
'I look like shit.'
He smiled. 'Just before I blacked out, I wondered if I'd ever see you
again.'
'Can't get rid of me that easy.'
'Have to actually die, huh?'
'Even that wouldn't work. I'd find you wherever you went.'
'I love you, Heather.'
'I love you,' she said, 'more than life.'
Heat rose in her eyes, but she was determined not to cry in front of
him. Positive thinking. Keep the spirits up.
-His eyelids fluttered, and he said, 'I'm so tired.'
'Can't imagine why.'
He smiled again. 'Hard day at work.'
'Yeah? I thought you cops didn't do anything all day except sit around
