Page 2 of Lush Curves

“Yes,” Noah said. “Ask me about the players’ eye color.”

“Deal.” King nodded at Mac and Sam slightly. “Good luck.”

“I don’t needluck!” Noah said. “I just need mymemory.”

“What’s her name?” Sam muttered under his breath as he and Mac hurried down the hall to meet Jax and the woman half-way. “Sarah’s Mom?”

“Annie,” Mac breathed back, close on his heels. “Annie Matthews.”

“Annie Matthews?” Sam said politely when they’d all reached each other.

“Yes.” She was tense and trembling, but her voice was steady. Her face was drawn and pinched, but it had a lovely curve to the cheekbones, a sensual curve to the lips. Sam saw her hands clasped tightly together, and was surprised by the sudden urge to gently take one. He refocused his thoughts, trying not to notice how beautiful and clear Annie’s blue eyes were. He sought refuge in the pedantic and familiar.

“I’m Doctor Sam Innis.”

“How’s Sarah?” she asked immediately.

Sam paused, feeling Jax’s dark green eyes boring a hole in his face, even as he kept his attention on Annie. “Mrs. Matthews, it’s very bad news.” He started to move back to the sofa that she and Jax had just abandoned. “Do you want to sit down?”

“No.” She practically spat out the word, then right away, as if she regretted her harsh tone, she softened a bit. “Tell me, please.”

Sam nodded, then launched into sentences and sentiments that he’d rattled off a hundred times, a thousand times –far,fartoo many times:

“She has a very serious head injury, I’m afraid, and it’s caused her brain to swell. This swelling is pushing down on Sarah’s brain stem, specifically on her RAS – the Reticular Activating System.”

Jax and Annie stared at him, utterly clueless and silent. Beside Sam, Mac sighed deeply.Heknew what this meant, of course; God, did heever. He knew that it meant that Sarah’s life was hanging in a delicate balance – far more delicate than Sam wanted Annie to know right this minute. After all, there was still a hope – slim, but it existed – that things might have turned around a bit by the morning.

“What does that mean?” Annie asked Mac and Sam, those incredible eyes wide with confusion. “What’s a rectangular whats-it system?”

“The RAS is responsible for awareness in the brain,” Mac said, and Sam happily acquiesced to the other man’s superior knowledge about anything to do with the human brain. “When it’s compromised or damaged, a person is rendered unconscious. And when it’s being pushed on – like when a person’s brain is severely swollen – then the person can’t wake up.”

Jax and Annie blinked, and Sam saw that Annie actually looked ill. He was just about to ask her to sit down again when she seemed to give herself a shake. Her face was still the color of parchment, but those eyes had a fire in them now… a rage and determination that gave Sam heart. After all, if Annie had this fight inside of her, and if Sarah was her mother’s daughter, then Sarah’s chances had maybe just improved.

Maybe just a bit.

“I still don’t understand,” Annie said, struggling to speak slowly. “Sarah can’t wake up?”

“Sarah’s in a coma,” Sam said, dropping that dreaded, awful word, the one that struck terror into the hearts of every single person that he had facing him. For so many people,comameantdeath sentence. And for so many patients, that’s exactly what it was. “And as long as the RAS is being pressed down on this much, she’ll stay in a coma.”

Annie gasped, and one again, Sam had to fight back the urge to touch her, to physically offer her the comfort of a warm hand.

Or a hug.

Stop it.

“OK,” Jax said hollowly, and it was in this moment that Sam knew that he loved Sarah. Loved her hard enough to stand by her, all the way to the end of the road. “So how do you deal with the swelling?”

“Drugs,” Sam said, his eyes moving between Jax’s hard face and Annie’s strained one. “Drugs will sometimes reduce the swelling, which then relieves the pressure on the RAS.”

“What do you mean ‘sometimes’?” Annie said, looking so lost, Sam’s heart ached a bit. “Drugs don’t always work?”

“No, Annie.” Mac’s voice was gentle. “They don’t always work… it depends how badly her brain has been damaged by the beating. The more damage inflicted, the worse the swelling, and the harder it is to control. And from what I saw when I checked her eyes, Sarah’s brain has been pretty badly damaged.”

“I – I still don’t understand,” Annie repeated. “Are you telling me that she’s not going to wake up? That she’s going to die?”

“I’m telling you that the swelling is bad,” Sam said, hating to do this, hating it worse than he’d hated it in a long while. “And that Sarah won’t be able to wake up until it goes down. I’m not able to say anything more right now. We need to watch her for the next twelve hours, and see if she’s reacting well to the drugs. We’ll know more tomorrow.”

“But… but…” Annie stuttered. “I can’t… I don’t…”

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