CHAPTER 197

Voices.

“Mild traumatic brain injury, several stitches, no broken bones, but a badly bruised hip. The CT showed no significant swelling of the brain, but until she’s fully conscious we won’t know if there is lasting damage.”

A squeeze to my hand preceded my father’s voice filling the room. “I’m having a neurosurgeon flown in from Johns Hopkins. We aren’t taking any chances.”

Yep, that’s my dad. Always the best of everything for his only child. I tried to form words. My hand lay limp within his. I focused and finally my fingers did what I wanted them to. His warm hand gently squeezed mine back.

Another burning pain traveled through my head and the world went dark again.

***

“Take this IV out now. The next person who pushes that bedpan beneath my ass will be wearing it. I can walk six feet to the bathroom to pee.” God, I sounded like a bitch. I’d been grouchy since my father and medical staff woke me in the middle of the night to secretly whisk me away to a private hospital.

Someplace d