the edge. The tower! If we could get into the tower!"
The tower was bolted and chained, and he didn't believe she could ever break those locks. He refused to go with her. He was afraid they'd be caught.
They didn't let anyone see her when they took her away, but he had seen. He was the one who saw her first, far below the open tower window, crushed and broken, red and blue against the blinding white of the snow.
Lighting another cigarette with the ember of its dying forerunner, Nicholas sank onto a cold concrete bench in the outdoor smoking area. He wondered if Trissa was awake yet. He'd seen the breakfast carts wheeled off the elevators thirty minutes ago and already some empty trays carried back to them to wait their return to the kitchen.
He had probably lost his opportunity to be with her, to offer a warm hand of reassurance when her eyes opened to another morning on this earth. It was a morning she hadn't wanted to see, wouldn't have seen if he hadn't bought it for her. He wondered if she would thank him for that. Or curse him. Why couldn't just the rescue be enough to free him from Doreen's ghost? But it wouldn't be. He had known that all along. There was still more rescuing to be done. The damsel was still in distress. Since Doreen, he had made himself recognize the signs.
*****
Trissa was not alone when she woke. The rustle of sheets and the creak of the bed next to her as it was readied for an arriving patient had roused her. She had watched in fuzzyheaded silence, trying to let her confusion dissipate with her wakening memory.
"Are you awake, Sweetie? Do you need some help getting up?"
"Yes, please," she said meekly as her efforts to sit up made her head buzz and spin.
"That's okay. Take it slow." The nurse's aid offered her amply padded arm and shoulder to lean on, guiding Trissa off the bed to the bathroom. "Now, don't be shocking yourself by looking in that mirror. It's all bruises; they'll fade. No stitches, no broken bones. From the looks of you, you came off lucky."
Despite the warning, Trissa could not keep her eyes from straying to the mirror when they passed it on their way back to bed. She gasped at the battered waif staring back at her. Her oversized hospital gown gapped at the neck revealing the clear outline of fingers there, her father's fingers. All the panic of last night flooded back, bringing tears and dizziness threatening to swamp her. She clutched tighter to the aid's arm and her knees turned to jelly.
"Whoopsie! I've got you." The capable woman reacted quickly to her unsteadiness and had her swiftly and gently tucked back into bed. "You just rest a bit, Honey. We'll get you some breakfast and take another look at you. We won't let you go until Dr. Edmonds says so. Don't worry. He's one of the best. And, of course, with Moira on duty," she smiled and patted her name tag, "You've got the best of the best looking out for you, too. Meantime, I'll see if I can find that hubby of yours. He was glued to your bedside all night. He's got to be around here someplace."
Her mind still swirling with memory, Trissa did not catch the meaning of her words until she had whirled out the door. "My hubby?" she puzzled after her. "Hubby?" She was mistaken. She must be thinking of another patient, another room. Yet the word brought back another memory from last night. The doctor shining his light in her eyes, then probing her with questions as he poked and pressed her body.
"Does that hurt?"
"No."
"How about here?"
"Oooh, yes."
"Mm-mmm. Do you feel dizzy or lightheaded?"
"A little."
"Are you married?"
The question was delivered with the same clinical brusqueness as the others, and before she had considered the oddity of its inclusion, she answered it. "No... Huh?"
A nurse had arrived then with a tray of instruments and pulled the curtain tightly around the examining table. The bright lights made her head swim and she closed her eyes against them. "Trissa, the nurse is going to help you get ready, I'll be back in a minute. We'll be finished soon and then you can rest."
She saw his kind smile when she squinted up at him. Yet it did not unpucker the frown on his brow. She moaned a little and slipped out of full consciousness when the