Hours later, Molly sat with Shay’s sleeping head in her lap, watching the clock on the waiting room wall. Shane had been in surgery for over 5 hours. In the beginning the doctors were giving her frequent updates, but it had been over 40 minutes since she last heard from them. She was beginning to worry. What if something went wrong? What if something happened to her? What if she didn’t ma—No. She stopped herself. She wasn’t going to go there. She wasn’t going to let herself imagine the worst. She had to have hope. She had to be strong. She stared at the clock. 41 minutes since the last update.

            “Molly,” Jenny called out, as she touched Molly on her shoulder and pointed down the hall. There was Dr. English, the surgeon who had been operating on Shane, heading towards them.

            Molly gently lifted Shay’s head from her lap and stood up. All of her friends and family also got up, eager to hear the news. Molly walked to the doctor and asked, “Is she out of surgery?”

            “Yes,” Dr. English replied, still drying his hands on a towel that matched his scrubs. Shane’s friends and family all breathed a huge sigh of relief at this news as Phyllis placed her hand on Molly’s shoulder and squeezed. Molly momentarily allowed herself to relax, but that was ripped from her quickly. “But,” Dr. English continued, “she’s not out of the woods yet. There was a lot of swelling in her brain. We don’t know how long she is going to be out. It could only be a few hours. It could be a few days.”

            Molly drew in a tight breath. She could feel the walls closing in around her, the floor falling away from her, the room beginning to spin, the light beginning to darken. She stumbled backwards, but Phyllis caught her. “Molly!” she called out. “You okay?”

            “Uh, yeah, I’m fine,” Molly replied, as she tried to shake herself back awake. Facing the doctor, Molly asked, “So she’s in a coma?”

            “Sort of,” Dr. English conceded. “But we are doing everything we can for her. She’s going to make it through this.” He reached out and squeezed Molly’s upper arm as a way to express his empathy. “Would you like to see her?” he asked, softly.