DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS

e new University Medical Center like a doc

tage negotiato

tte, North Carolina, to Jackson, Mississippi, a flight prompted by

injury and death, and there was

as descending. She hit the call button and started bouncing on her toes.Hospi

ther. Five months ago Jim Morse had died in this

anced ovarian cancer. She had already outlived her prognosis, bu

now

oftly, and the

clothes leaned against the rear wall in a postu

h. The woman glanced up as Alex entered the c

many times since the shooting that s

man, raising her hand to the pan

Alex, stabbing th

id the intern, who looked maybe twen

ke you right u

sissippi to relieve Grace, who was struggling to teach full-time and also to care for their mother at night. Unlike J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, the modern Bureau tried to be understanding about family pro

had not

he pressure, and she did-right up until the moment she cracked. The problem was, she hadn't r

e shoulder, but her face

mmitted the ultimate sin, and she'd c

d have been a miraculous escape (being grazed by a couple of pellets that

cheek, sinuses, and jaw, lacerating he

ed great things, but so far the

n (they could do little to repair the "punctate" depressions

sn't con

y matter? Five seconds after she was shot, someon

C. three times to be with Alex, despite being exhausted from taking care of

it was Grace lying in an intensive

ertainly n

en-year-old son play baseball when she collapsed. Seconds a

d a blood clot near Grace's brain stem, the

here as punishment duty after the shooting). Her mother was too upset to be coherent

to reach before boarding the plane. Bill Fennell explained that while the neurological damage had initially not looked too bad-

also carried serious risks of its own. Bill Fennell was a commanding ma

lated the events of the past hour. Though still breathing on her own, Grace had lapsed

e had known since chil

beneath the seat and marched to the front of the 727. When a flight attendant challenged

aim, then jumped the cab queue, flashed her creds again, and told the driver she'

sucking in astringent smells that hurled her four weeks back in ti

ough it like a first-time parachutist leaping from a plane, steeling herself for free fall,

tation. Several cubicles were curtained off, but through the transparent wall of t

t his handsome face was furrowed with anxiet

the cubicle. Bill rushed to the door and hugged her to his chest. She'd always fe

reason,

ome kind of contact, an af

elicopter," he said in h

eve you made

he al

," Bill said in a st

sciousness a couple of times

ed, but with hope

t of the cubicle. She looked about fi

e's neurologi

said the woman. "Are you

nickname derived from her middle name,

ase call me Al

e," Bill said in an

or me?" Alex asked,

l she can

e cons

ou should prepare yourself for"-Dr. Andrews gave Alex a l

was breathing on her own, and I was encouraged. But the stroke

imes produce miracles, but it can also cause

Grace for an MRI. She's still breathing on her own, and that's the best h

ew she was desperate to talk to you, and once she's intubated, she won't be a

win

to you. Her speech center has been affec

d," Alex sai

I just be with her? I don't care what