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again. There was a
tube in his throat to help him breathe; soon the tube would be removed and he
would talk again.
                  He believed her. He didn't know her, but he
trusted her.
                  He tried to think, but words boomeranged
around in his head until he couldn't make sense of them. He didn't know...
There was so much he didn't know. He didn't know anything. But he couldn't
catch the words and arrange them in proper order so he'd know what it was he
didn't know. It just didn't make sense, and he was too tired to fight.
                  Finally he woke to find that his thoughts were
clearer, the confusion different, because the words made sense even though
nothing else did. She was there. He could feel her hand on his arm, could hear
her slightly hoarse voice. Did she stay with him all the time? How long had it
been? It seemed forever, and it nagged at him, because he felt as if he should
know exactly.
                  There was so much he wanted to know, and he
couldn't ask. Frustration ate at him, and his arm flexed beneath her fingers.
God, what would happen to him if she left? She was the one link he had to the
world outside the prison of his own body, his link to sanity, the only window
in his world of darkness. And suddenly the need to know coalesced inside him
into a single thought, a single word: Who?
                  His lips formed the word and gave birth to it
in silence. Yes, that was the word he'd wanted. Everything he wanted to know
was summed up in that one small word.
                  Jay gently laid her fingers over his swollen
lips. "Don't try to talk," she whispered. "Let's use a spelling
system. I'll recite the alphabet, and whenever I get to the letter you want,
twitch your arm. I'll do the alphabet over and over until we've spelled out
whatever you want to say. Can you do that? One twitch for yes, two twitches for
no."
                  She was exhausted; it had been two days since
the first time he had woken up, and she had been with him for most of that
time. She had talked until her voice was almost gone, her words giving him a
bridge out of his coma into reality. She knew when he was awake, sensed that he
was terrified, felt his struggle to understand what had happened. But this was
the first time his lips had moved, and she was so tired she hadn't been able to
grasp what he'd been trying to say. The alphabet game was the only way she
could think of for them to communicate, but she didn't know if he'd be able to
concentrate enough for it to work. His arm twitched. Just once.
                  She drew a deep breath, forcing her exhaustion
away. "All right. Here we go. A... B...C...D..."
                  She began to give up hope as she slowly ran
through the alphabet and his arm lay motionless under her hand. It had been a
long shot, anyway. Major Lunning had said it could be days before Steve's mind
would -be clear enough for him to really understand what was going on around
him. Then she said "W," and his arm twitched.
                  She stopped. "W?"
                  His arm twitched. Once, for "Yes."
                  Joy shot through her. "Okay, W is the
first letter. Let's go for the second one. A... B..."
                  His arm twitched on the H.
                  And again on the O.
                  He stopped there.
                  Jay was astounded. " Who?   Is that it? You want to
know who I am?" His arm twitched. Yes.
                  He didn't know; he really didn't know. She
couldn't remember if she had mentioned who she was, except when she had first
begun talking to him. Had she thought he would remember her voice after not
seeing her for five years?
                  "I'm Jay," she said gently.
"Your ex-wife."
     

  Chapter Four
 
                  He was very still. Jay had