"Tell me it's not true," she heard her emotionless voice saying to no one in particular. "Tell me they're going to be back."
Len kneeled beside her. "Lisa. Listen to me. We're going to take you to the hospital."
"Is my family there?"
"No." He glanced up briefly as Connie walked in. "You need something to calm you down."
"I am calm. I don't want to go to the hospital." In fact, now she felt nothing.
Connie kneeled at her other side. "You need to go to the hospital, Lisa."
"I'm OK. I want to see my family." If she could talk to her family, maybe she could clear all this up. She could drive, if someone would simply tell her where they were.
"That's not possible right now," Len said. He patted her shoulder gently.
"But I want to be with them. I should have been with them tonight. I would have seen the train." Her voice sounded cold and distant.
"She's not crying," Howard said flatly from the doorway.
"She's in shock," replied Len. "Watch for that ambulance."
Lisa was barely aware of the ambulance or the people scurrying around her. Even the IV didn't seem real. Her eyes drooped and she lost consciousness again.
She woke several times briefly; once to see Len and an older officer with white hair talking in the hallway outside her cubicle in the emergency room. Later she woke to find Connie asleep in a chair beside her gurney. Howard was leaning against the wall. Her groggy mind wondered why they were there and why she was in the hospital - and then she fell asleep again.
Fingers caressed her hand gently and then slipped over her palm. Nick was trying to wake her up so they could go to the mall. She opened her eyes . . . but it wasn't Nick holding her hand. It was Howard.
"Good," he said, "You're awake." His voice was warm and gentle. "We were all getting worried about you."
He was still holding her hand when Len entered the room. He glanced at their joined hands, then at Lisa and Howard in turn. "Excuse me," he said. "I can come back."
Howard dropped her hand like it was a hot coal. "No, come on in. She just woke up."
Len walked further into the room. "Actually, I just got off my shift and thought I'd check in on her."