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have to be a parent to understand.” She took a sip of the steaming coffee, and they agreed that the hospital made the worst coffee on the planet, but they drank it anyway—they always did.
    “He threatened to kill you!” Ben said, with all his feathers ruffled. “He acts like we just got out of med school.” And then he laughed. “I think you impressed the hell out of him when you said you went to Harvard. What did he expect? You got your degree on the Internet?”
    “He’s desperate,” she said, as they finished their coffee and went back upstairs. Bill was waiting for them outside Lily’s cubicle in the ICU. There was no change, and Jessie didn’t expect there to be until after surgery. It was Lily’s only hope.
    “All right, you can do it,” Bill growled at her. “You can operate on my daughter, but I swear, if …” He didn’t finish the sentence this time, and Jessie nodded.
    “I’ll get the paperwork drawn up.”
    “When are you going to do the surgery?” he asked nervously. He would gladly have given his life for Lily’s at that moment, or any other.
    Jessie had already checked and knew there was an operating room available. She glanced at her watch. “We need time to prep her. I’d say in about two hours. I want to review the scans and X-rays and tests again with Dr. Steinberg,” she said, looking at Ben, and he nodded.
    “How long will it take?”
    “It’s hard to say. About eight hours, maybe longer. It could be as long as twelve. It depends on what we find once we go in. It’s a delicate procedure.” He hated the choice he had made to use an unknown doctor, with no time to check her out. But Ben was right—Harvard and Stanford had impressed him. He just hoped he had made the right decision. He didn’t want to take the risk of waiting longer, particularly if waiting could cause more damage. He was putting Lily’s life in this woman’s hands. “We’ll do everything we can,” she reassured him again.
    “Thank you” was all he said in a trembling voice, and went back to the waiting room, as Jessie went to look at the X-rays with Ben, and a nurse drew up the papers. She took them to Bill on a clipboard a few minutes later, and he signed them with tears rolling down his cheeks. The nurse took the clipboard from him, without a word.
    Jessie sent Tim a text message while she consulted with Ben. “Patient in extremis. Crazed father. Surgery in an hour. See you tomorrow. Love, J.” His answer came back a minute later.
    “Good luck. I love you, T.” She smiled and slipped her phone back into her pocket, and hoped that Tim had taken Jimmy bowling, but she didn’t want to write back and ask. She and Ben had a lot to discuss before the surgery. He would be assisting, and they formulated a surgical plan as the trauma ICU team prepared Lily for surgery.
    Bill sat in the waiting room, feeling like he was living a nightmare. He went to see Lily just before they rolled her away to the operating room. He bent and kissed her forehead as his tears fell on her face. Jessie was already upstairs waiting for her. Bill went outside to get some air for a few minutes after they took Lily to the OR. He stood in the parking lot, crying in the night. It was freezing cold, his tears stung his eyes and cheeks. Minutes later he nearly slipped on a patch of ice as he walked back into the hospital. It was the worst night of his life. He lay down on the couch in the waiting room and closed his eyes. He was wide awake and all he could think of was Lily. He hoped the neurosurgeon knew what she was doing and could repair Lily’s injuries. He lay there all night willing her to live and walk again.

Chapter 4
    Adam, Heather, and Jimmy were all home for dinner when Chris left for his date. He stopped to say goodbye to his father in the kitchen, as he was taking two frozen pizzas out of the oven. One of them was slightly burned. And they all complained about the burned pizza, and went back upstairs until the rest