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injuries. She’s still unconscious, which is partially due to the hypothermia. She was in the snow for several hours,” he explained. “We don’t know the extent of any internal injuries yet. She has a broken arm, and a spinal cord injury, but we don’t know the implications of that yet either. We’ve done preliminary X-rays, and a body scan, but they’re not conclusive. My partner is a neurosurgeon, and I’d like her to come in to evaluate your daughter for us.”
    “What does that mean? And what kind of spinal injury? Is she paralyzed?” Bill looked like a cornered bull as he said the words, and Ben Steinberg realized he needed to handle him with kid gloves. The resident had warned him of that, but he could see now the level of Bill’s anxiety for his daughter. He seemed like he was going to lose control any minute. He couldn’t bear what was happening to her.
    “We don’t know any of that yet, which is why I’d like a neurosurgeon to evaluate her. My partner is one of the best there is. I called her a few minutes ago, and she’s coming in. We need a little more time to stabilize Lily anyway. We need to get her warmer and her blood pressure up before she could tolerate surgery.”
    “I haven’t agreed to surgery,” Bill reminded him. “And I asked you if she’s paralyzed.” His eyes blazed into Ben’s.
    “It’s hard to assess with her unconscious, but there appears to be limited function of her legs. We need to determine the degree of the injury before we can give you a reliable answer. We just don’t know the full extent of her injuries yet.”
    “When is the neurosurgeon coming in, and why the hell isn’t she here yet?” He was impatient for everything—for answers, but mostly for help for Lily.
    “She should be here in fifteen or twenty minutes. I just called her,” Dr. Steinberg said calmly. He sympathized with Bill’s concern about his daughter, and he had a soothing manner, but nothing was going to satisfy Bill now except the news that Lily was out of danger, and no one could tell him that, not even a neurosurgeon. She had had a very serious accident, and there was no way of telling yet if she would survive it.
    “May I see my daughter?” Bill asked, with agony in his eyes, and the orthopedic surgeon nodded. He hated to have her father see her in the condition she was in, but he didn’t have the heart to deny him. And maybe it would help him understand her fragile state. She was hanging on to life by a thin thread.
    Bill followed them wordlessly into the trauma unit. Lily had been moved into the trauma ICU, and there were two nurses and a doctor with her, checking her vital signs, and doing a neurological assessment before the surgeon arrived and would need the information. Lily was still covered by several electric warming blankets, her long dark hair was in a surgical cap, and her face looked ghostly. She had a breathing tube taped in her mouth, and a machine was helping her breathe. She had IVs in both arms, and monitors attached to her limbs gave them the information they needed, and would sound an alarm if her heart stopped or she stopped breathing.
    Bill was even more shaken the moment he saw her. There wasn’t an inch of her that he could hold or kiss, all he could do was watch her, and gently touch her good arm with his finger. The other arm was in a cast, and a nasty bruise had begun to show on one side of her face, where she had fallen. Bill just stood there crying quietly, and a few minutes later a nurse led him from the room. There was nowhere for him to stand without getting in their way, and as much as he wanted to be with her, he didn’t want to interfere with what they were doing. He had no illusions about how dire her situation was. He sat down in the waiting room again, and the nurse offered to get him a cup of coffee or something to eat. He just shook his head and laid it back against the couch and closed his eyes. After seeing her, it was almost impossible to