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had seen overwhelmed, impotent, often bored visitors to patients in the ICU staring up at the monitor screen as if it were televising some sort of sporting event.
    Almost subconsciously, she herself scanned the screen, making a mental note of the various tracings. Details, always details. Three of the tracings resonated to a mild extent—a drop of five in the mean blood pressure, the appearance of occasional extra heartbeats (one or two every minute), and also what seemed like a slight change in certain portions of the individual heartbeat tracings. The observations were not enough to trigger any alarms, and also not the sort of thing neurotypicals were likely to pick up on. They were just… there.
    'Okay,' she said to the twins. 'I'm sorry to have gone off at you like that. You're right. We do have our hands full.'
    The extra beats were of little concern to her, and in many instances, at a rate of only one or two a minute, were the result of stress, mucus in a bronchial tube, or even a stimulant such as caffeine. In fact, Petros was on some IV theophylline, a bronchial tube dilator for wheezing that often stimulated heart muscle irritability. But Thea felt certain that the subtle changes in what was known as the PQRST complexes of Petros's cardiogram were new from when she first arrived in the unit.
    '… starting with the health care proxy Father left,' Selene was saying.
    The news startled Thea's focus away from the monitor.
    'He left a proxy?' she asked, surprised that no one had mentioned it before now. 'What does it say? Who did he appoint to administer it?'
    'Actually,' Selene replied, sweeping a wisp of errant hair back into place, 'it doesn't say much. It turns over all decisions regarding his treatment to the four of us.'
    'The four of us?' Now Thea was incredulous. 'Did he leave a living will?'
    Selene shook her head.
    'None that anyone's been able to find. His secretary had the proxy in a file with our names on it. We have the power to decide if heroic measures should be instituted or continued, but only if we four are in agreement.'
    'Including Dimitri?'
    'Including Dimitri.'
    Selene's expression and tone made it clear what she thought about including their oldest sibling.
    'Petros Sperelakis, the master of control,' Thea said.
    'Right to the grave,' Niko added. 'There's a copy of the proxy in his record. We've already signed off on it.'
    'Did Dimitri sign?'
    'Not yet. I don't think he's even been here more than once. The proxy doesn't really say anything other than we four must concur on any action.'
    'In that case I'll be happy to sign.'
    'But you're not certain what you want to do about instituting heroic measures?'
    'Niko, look at him. We've already instituted heroic measures.'
    Out of the corner of her eye, Thea saw an increase in the frequency of the VPBs (ventricular premature beats) from one or two a minute to four or five. Something was irritating the electrically charged cardiac muscle, possibly the theophylline, she was thinking, although a number of other possibilities began marching through her mind. She glanced about for the intensivist—the specialist in critical care medicine—but he didn't seem to be in the ICU.
    'I see what you mean,' Niko was saying, 'but that still doesn't answer the question of what to do if—'
    'Tracy,' Thea cut in, 'what's up with these extra beats?'
    'I just saw them, too, Thea,' the nurse said.
    'His pressure's dropped as well.'
    'He's been having some VPBs all day, but this is more. I've been here with him all afternoon. I can page the intensivist. He's at din-ner.
    'I think it's okay if he's not going to be too long, but do what you're comfortable with.'
    'What's happening?' Selene asked.
    'There are some very small changes in his monitor—widening of the QRS complexes and also some subtle changes in the QT interval and the PR interval.'
    'You are too much.'
    'I'm not sure I agree with you about the changes, sis,' Niko said.
    'Well, Niko, you're the cardiac