Sara's Promise (25 page)

Annie stepped up to the desk with such force that her hands slapped the top. "Sandra Grafton. I'm here to see Sandra Grafton. Is she here?" she asked, her voice trembling.

The receptionist stared at her, startled. "Are you family?" she finally asked.

"I'm her mother."

The receptionist quickly went into action, escorting Annie through the electronic doors and into an empty waiting room.

"I talked to your husband a few minutes ago," the receptionist said. "He's on his way. The doctors will be in to talk to you as soon as they can."

Annie nodded and watched the woman leave. Sitting down in one of the hard, plastic chairs, Annie dropped her face into her hands and prayed. She prayed to Sara to keep Sandy safe. She prayed to the luminous face to not take Sandy before her time. She sat, rocking her body back and forth in the chair, and prayed.

"Annie?"

Annie looked up into William's strained face. Behind him stood Sam, looking anxious and scared. Without hesitation, she stood and enveloped them both in a hug.

William held onto Annie a long time. Even after Sam broke away, he held Annie close. He felt Annie's tears on his shoulder through his sweatshirt, and that only made him want to hold on longer. Finally, grudgingly, he pulled away.

"How did you know?" he asked, amazed she had arrived at the hospital before he had. Who had called her? When he'd arrived, the receptionist had told him his wife was already here. "My wife?" he'd asked, confused, thinking she'd mixed him up with one of the other families. And then, when he saw Annie in the waiting room, he understood. The receptionist had mistaken Annie for Sandy's mother.

"I just knew," Annie said softly. William didn't even question her. After all the incidences that had occurred, it seemed only natural to him that she'd instinctively know about the accident.

"Mr. Grafton?" a voice said from the doorway. A doctor in a white jacket stood there, beckoning to him. William rushed over to him while Annie stayed behind, reaching for Sam for reassurance. The two stood there, arms around each other, waiting.

William returned, his face solemn. He faced Annie and Sam. "They're taking Sandy to surgery," he said. "She has internal bleeding and one lung was punctured and collapsed. The doctor said they'd know more after surgery."

"Will she be okay?" Sam asked in a small voice.

His tone tore at Annie's heart, and she struggled to control the tears that threatened to spill again.

William opened his mouth to reassure his son, then closed it, remembering five years before when he'd reassured his children that their mother would be fine. He'd been wrong then. Would he be wrong now? "I don't know," he finally admitted to his son. "All we can do is wait."

And wait is what they did, for four long hours as no word came back from either a doctor or a nurse. They sat in those hard plastic chairs, they paced, and they each took turns going to the machine down the hallway for coffee. Then, they waited some more.

"She didn't even want to go out tonight," William said to no one in particular as they sat there, William flanked by Sam and Annie. "Her friend called and she said no at first, then decided to go after all."

She'd been angry with him again, because he was sitting home all alone on a Friday night when he should have called Annie and apologized, begging her to come back to him. He didn't have time to tell Sandy that Annie was gone that day on assignment, and that he was planning on calling her the next day. Sandy had just raised her arms in exasperation at him, sighed, and then said she was going out. And that was the last he'd seen her before the call came from the hospital.

Annie just sat silently, waiting for William to say more, but he didn't. The stress of waiting for word about Sandy's condition was unnerving. The fact that she'd been gone on assignment for the past three days and had driven eight hours before getting home and crawling into bed didn't make matters any better either. She'd only been asleep for two hours before she was awakened by the horrific dream. Her nerves were frayed from stress, coffee, and lack of sleep.

After more time had passed, and everyone still sat silent in their seats, Annie reached out each hand, one to William and one to Sam. They both grasped on tight, holding on for dear life.

The doctor finally came in, pulled a plastic chair up in front of the trio, and began to explain the situation. Sandy had suffered three fractured ribs, a torn aorta, which had been the cause of the internal bleeding, and a punctured lung, which had collapsed. She had also broken her ankle in two places and had various cuts from the glass when the front windshield had blown out during the roll.

"The good news is she's doing much better and even though she'll have a long healing process, your daughter is definitely going to live," the doctor told William, his face breaking into a warm smile. "She had been wearing her seatbelt at the time of the rollover, and that's what saved her life. If she'd been thrown from the car, she may not have fared so well."

William, Annie, and Sam let out a collective sigh of relief.

"When can we see her?" William asked as the doctor stood to leave.

"She's in recovery now and should be in a room in the Intensive Care Unit in an hour or so. A nurse will come and get you after she's been moved."

William nodded as the doctor turned to leave, then reached out and touched the doctor's arm to ask one more question. "What about the other kids in the car?" he asked. "How are they doing?"

As the doctor turned back to face them, they saw the answer in his tired eyes before he said the words. "No one else survived," the doctor said softly. "Your daughter was the lucky one."

William convinced Sam to go home to get a few hours of sleep.

"She'll be asleep for hours," he told his son. "Get some rest and come back."

It was after seven o'clock in the morning when Sam finally left, leaving Annie and William in the small waiting room alone. It had been a long, emotional night, and Annie's whole body felt the strain of it. She knew William felt the same way too by the creases in his forehead and the dullness of his eyes. The enormity of the situation left them drained. They each felt elated at the fact that Sandy was going to live but then guilty for feeling happy, when a car full of young people had died. It was too heart wrenching to even think about, and neither one of them wanted to say the words out loud.

William reached for Annie's hand, bringing her out of her thoughts and into the present. He held it loosely, as if he wasn't sure if he should but wanted to feel her touch just the same.

"Thank you for coming here," he said, turning to look into her eyes. "I don't know how you knew, but I'm glad you did. Having you here has made this nightmarish situation easier."

"I saw it all in a dream," Annie said quietly. "A horrific dream that woke me and was too vivid to not have been real. That's why I came."

William nodded. He was beginning to believe that Cherise was right. There was some connection between Annie and Sara, and although he thought it strange, he couldn't deny it either. He was just about to tell Annie this, and that he knew all about the dreams, when a nurse came in.

"You can see your daughter now, Mr. Grafton."

William clasped Annie's hand tighter. "Can we both come?"

The nurse nodded. "Of course."

They rose from their chairs in unison and followed the nurse into the ICU and to a room. Even though the room was set apart from other similar rooms, the walls were glass so the nurses at the desk could see the patients. A curtain was drawn partway across the glass wall in Sandy's room, and the nurse's body in the doorway blocked their view.

"She's still groggy from the anesthesia and is on a lot of pain medication, so she probably won't talk yet, but you certainly can sit with her."

William nodded, and when the nurse moved out of the doorway, he had his first glimpse of his daughter. It was hard not to gasp. She looked so beat up, but he tightened his jaw and his grasp on Annie's hand. They entered and stood next to Sandy's bed.

William looked down at his sleeping daughter, thinking if he hadn't been told it was her, he never would have recognized her. Her face was cut in several places, bruised, and swollen. Small, butterfly bandages were all over her forehead, cheeks, and neck. Her strawberry blonde hair lay limp on the pillow, There were tubes in her right hand, and a heart monitor beating rhythmically. Tears filled his eyes and threatened to spill down his face. How could this have happened to his daughter? He hadn't kept her safe. Why couldn't he keep the people in his life safe?

Swiping the tears from his eyes, he looked over at Annie who had rounded the bed and sat next to Sandy on the other side. She seemed undisturbed by Sandy's appearance. Carefully, Annie lifted Sandy's hand and placed it gently in her own.

"We're here, Sandy," she said softly, looking down at the broken girl. "You're going to be okay now. We're here."

William took a step closer to the bed but was interrupted by a voice at the door.

"Mr. Grafton?" a nurse asked, causing him to turn away from his daughter and face her. "I'm sorry, but I have paperwork for you to finish filling out. It shouldn't take long."

William nodded and started to follow her out of the room but stopped and turned back to look at Annie.

Annie smiled reassuringly. "Go ahead. I'll sit with her."

Hearing Annie's voice calmed him. He headed out the door behind the nurse.

Annie sat, looking down at Sandy, silently thanking Sara, the gods, the heavens, and the universe for sparing her life. Sara had protected her. This Annie knew for sure. In her dream, she'd heard Sandy's pleas to her mother to save her, and deep in Annie's heart, she knew Sara had.

Sandy began to move, ever so slowly, turning her head toward Annie. She opened her eyes and looked up into Annie's blue-green ones.

"Mom," Sandy said, her voice barely audible, her breathing labored. "Mom, I'm so sorry."

Annie looked down into Sandy's swollen face and saw her eyes pleading with her. "Shh. Don't try to talk," Annie said soothingly. "Everything is going to be fine. You're going to be just fine."

"Mom, I'm so sorry," Sandy said again, each word requiring a deep breath. "I said I hated you. I didn't mean it." Sandy grasped Annie's hand tighter, with strength Annie was surprised her battered body possessed.

"It's okay, Sandy. I know you didn't mean it. You were a teenager. Teenagers say things they don't mean. I know you don't hate me, dear. I've always known that." Annie placed her other hand over Sandy's in a loving gesture.

Tears formed in Sandy's eyes and fell unchecked down her bruised cheeks. "I love you, Mom," Sandy said through labored breathing. "I miss you."

Annie pulled a tissue out of a nearby box and gently wiped Sandy's tears away, careful not to hurt her damaged skin. "I've always loved you, Sandy," she said softly as Sandy closed her eyes. "And I always will love you. You're my beautiful daughter. How could I not love you?"

Sandy's body relaxed then. Her grasp on Annie's hand loosened. She fell asleep, a peaceful look upon her face.

William had returned right as Sandy began speaking and had stood spellbound in the doorway through the whole exchange. Sandy thought Annie was Sara, and Annie had let her, had even spoken to her like her own mother would have. For one brief second, William thought he had actually seen Sara in the chair and not Annie.

"It's the morphine," the nurse standing beside him said matter-of-factly, breaking the spell. "Patients say things they don't remember later on." She bustled past William to check Sandy's vitals, then with an encouraging smile at William, she hurried back out of the room.

Annie looked up at William, her eyes filled with tears. Those damn blue-green eyes that could have been Sara's. All he could do is stare at her, unable to understand what he'd heard and what he'd seen.

"She thought you were Sara," he said, sounding confused.

Annie nodded but didn't say a word.

William walked over and kneeled beside Annie's chair. He stared up at her with soulful eyes. "You answered just as Sara would have. You called her your daughter. But you're not Sara, are you?"

Slowly, Annie shook her head, then reached up and ran her hand down the side of William's face in a gesture so loving, he couldn't help but place his hand over hers, and bring her palm to his lips and kiss it.

"I'm not Sara," Annie said softly, then kissed William on the cheek, rose, and walked out of the room.

William watched her leave, mesmerized and confused by all that had happened in only a few short hours.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Five days later, Sandy was told she could leave the hospital and go home, but she still had a long, slow path of recovery ahead of her. With her ankle in a cast, the stairs were out of the question for the first few weeks, so William readied the downstairs guest bedroom for her to stay in. He had been forbidden to enter her bedroom upstairs. She'd been adamant, so he respected her wishes, and Sam had brought out the things she needed from her room.