Free The Alaskan Rescue by Dominique Burton Page A

to see somebody she knew. He hurried to her bed.
    * * *
    C OLE CAUGHT HIMSELF . All he wanted to do was
kiss the woman senseless and tell her how happy he was that she was alive. But
the best thing for her right now was the care of a doctor. Also a friend. That’s
what he was going to be.
    He gave her a warm smile. “New York, you’re truly our miracle
patient.”
    “I am?”
    He nodded. “You gave us all a scare. You were rushed into
surgery for the tibial fracture on your leg and reconstructive surgery on your
arm. Those surgeries went well—until you had a pneumothorax emergency.”
    “I don’t understand,” she said, obviously confused. He could
tell she wanted more from him, but he refused to show any emotion.
    “It means your lungs were going to collapse.”
    “Oh, dear.”
    “Don’t worry. You’re doing much better.”
    “Can you tell me about my leg? Will I dance again?” Sashi
looked at him with hope.
    He turned to glance at Daniel for support, gripping his hands
together to keep them from touching her. “Yes. You had one of the more fortunate
kinds of leg break. You’ll need to be on crutches for the next eight weeks, but
with two to four months of rehab, you should be dancing again.”
    * * *
    S ASHI AWOKE AGAIN TO A hospital room
filled with flowers. An older man wearing a white doctor’s jacket over a suit
stood up and walked over to her. Cole stayed in the background. “Hello, Ms.
Hansen. I’m Dr. Samuelson.” He extended his hand and she shook it. He had a very
firm handshake.
    “Dr. Stevens and I have worked very hard on your case and we’d
been waiting for you to wake up. In fact he had a pager that alerted him the
moment you did. That’s how he was able to get here so fast.”
    She smiled at Cole. “Thank you,” she said before turning her
attention back to the older doctor. Sashi liked the soothing quality of his
voice. It had a familiar ring, too. “I guess you’re from Brooklyn.”
    “No, from Queens, but close,” he said with a laugh. “Not many
people in this part of the country can guess my hometown. Where did you
live?”
    “In Manhattan at the Joffrey Ballet School, then moved to the
Village with six other girls all trying to make it big.”
    “Did you make it big?”
    “Would I be here if I had?”
    “That depends on your conception of making it big. Many girls
would give anything just to be accepted to that school. You have to tell me what
you consider ‘making it big.’”
    Sashi’s head started to reel. “Can...can you tell me what day
it is?”
    “Ah...now you want to start talking about reality.”
    She looked at Cole. “Could you tell me if my mother is around?
The blanket from my bedroom is here, but I don’t see her or my friend Kendra.
Where is she? Joe said everything would be all right.”
    The two doctors exchanged glances. The silence allowed her to
give voice to her fears, the premonition she’d had all along. Tears began to
course down her cheeks. “No...no, she can’t be!” Her body became racked with
sobs. “How can my best friend be gone?”
    The older man handed her the tissue box that was next to her
bed. She grabbed several tissues and hid her face behind them. “I tried to stop
the bear, but Kendra took off then climbed a tree. I couldn’t stop the
bear.”
    Cole came over and sat down on the bed. He took her hand,
clearly trying to comfort her.
    The other doctor sat down in the nearest chair. “Sashi,” he
began, “I want to tell you a story.”
    “Why? What story?” Sashi struggled to stop crying.
    “This is a good story. I think it will help you. Early on in my
practice a young man brought in a picture of his family—his wife and three
beautiful children. He showed me the picture and I agreed he had a lovely
family. Then he asked me a question. It was one of the hardest questions I’d
ever been asked in all the years I’d practiced psychiatry.”
    Sashi’s heart was pounding. She was terrified of what this
doctor had