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at the hospital and the pancake of a car in the
driveway wasn't going anywhere.
    Charlie threw
him a thumbs-up and pulled the ambulance doors closed behind her.
     
    ***
     
    Jake grabbed the
box of tissues from a table in the hospital waiting room and brought it over to
Jessica and her grandmother. They had been there for almost two hours and
already the two women had gone through five of the tiny boxes of tissues the
hospital left out for patients.
    “Here are some
more.” Jake handed Jessica the box and then took the seat next to her again. Like
everything else in the room it was cheap but functional. “Can I get you
anything? Some water?” His eyes darted across the room to the vending machines
in the corner. The row of colorful machines provided the only color in the
stark white room. “A snack?”
    Jessica pulled
out a few tissues before handing the box to her grandmother. “No, thanks. I'm
fine,” she said between sniffles. “This is my fault. I should have gone up the
ladder.” Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Or made him wait till someone else
could come by.”
    The anguish and
guilt he heard in Jessica's voice had him putting his arm around her shoulder.    “It wasn't anyone's fault. It just happened.”
What else could he say?
    “He's right Jess.
Your grandpa wouldn't have listened anyway. You know how stubborn he is.” It
was the first time Mrs. Quinn had spoken since they'd left the house.
    “I just wish we
knew something. What is taking so long?”
    “Dr. O’Brien is
with him. As soon as she knows something, she'll tell you.” As if by magic the
minute he spoke her name, Charlie walked through a door marked “Hospital
Employees Only”. When she saw the three of them sitting together she paused
briefly before continuing toward them. From her expression he couldn't
determine what kind of update she was about to deliver. Unlike the women
sitting next to him, Charlie seemed remarkably able to control her emotions. Perhaps
one had to in order to be a doctor. He had never thought about it before.
    “You can come
and see him now. It might still be awhile before he is moved to his own room,
but you can both sit with him until then.”
    Neither Jessica
nor her grandmother waited to hear another word. Both came to their feet and
started toward the door leading back to the patient examining rooms. He
expected Charlie to follow right behind them, but she didn't.
    “Thank you for
bringing them over.”
    He could see the
surprise in her hazel eyes but didn't understand it. Had she thought he would
leave the two women back at their house with no way to get here? He had told
her he would meet her here. Or was she surprised to find him still in the
waiting room with the Quinns? While sitting in a hospital emergency room was
rather low on his list of fun things to do, he couldn't in good conscience just
drop them off and leave.
    “Not a problem.”
     

 
     
    Chapter
3
     
    It had been four
days since Charlie walked into the emergency waiting room to get Jessica Quinn
and her grandmother and found Jake with his arm around Jessica's shoulder in an
attempt to comfort her. She'd expected Jake to drop Jessica and her grandmother
off and then leave. She'd been even more surprised to find him still sitting
there an hour later when she'd been ready to leave.
    That afternoon
she started to re-assess her opinion of him.   From everything she'd seen he was nothing like
the man they portrayed in the media. He came across as a caring and
compassionate person who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, someone she
could easily she herself dating if he lived in town. But he didn't. After this
crisis passed he would move on to another one and probably forget about this
little town. Not that she would blame him. North Salem wasn't the most
interesting place in the world, especially compared to the places he could
travel to whenever he got the urge.
    You haven't exactly lived in a bubble. Charlie poured
cream into her