But later, after he had indeed left the bed and prepared her the most simple, most kind, most delicious birthday dinner she could have wanted, she knew that something special had happened. She had tasted something, a nameless something that threatened to upset the order of her life as neither Mara's death, nor Sami's arrival, nor Nonny's moving in had yet.

One part of her wanted to run as fast and far as .shf? could. but she didn't move. She stayed in Noah's bed, made love with him over and over through the night, and when he drove her home the next morning through the winter wonderland that Tucker had become, she let him kiss her a final time.

"This isn't over," he warned as though reading her mind.

She didn't answer. There were too many things she had to think about, not the least of which was sitting in a high chair with mashed banana all over her face when Paige walked in the door. When Sami gave her a mucky grin and said through the mess, Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma," Paige wondered if there was a conspiracy afoot. They were trying to snag her by the strings of her heart and tie her down.

She was thinking that she was going to have to steel herself by immersing herself more deeply in those other things that made up her life, when the hospital called to say that Jill was in labor.

Peter called out to Paige as she ran down the hospital corridor, but she simply held up a hand and was gone. So he continued on to the office. Angie was really the one he wanted to talk to anyway.

uGoHteacmaiunguhtt?liner an hour later, between patients She tucked her stethoscope in the pocket of her lab coat and motioned him into her office.

"What's up?" awnheoedisyito9ur oPinion on a patient "Not one of ours, just someone I helped at the hospita! after the accident. It's a thirty-four-year-old female m otherwise good health. She was in the balcony and fell clear of the worst of the debris, but she landed on her lower back. X-rays show a lapse in the spinai cord between T-twelve and L,one. She was a questionable red-code at the time. They considered flying her out, but since it appeared to be an isotated spinal injury and there were so many other pabents with multiple injuries, they kept her here. She's had repeated CAT scans.

The initial swelling responded to the drip they gave her, but she can't move."

"Not at all?" Angie asked.

"Not from the waist down. She doesn't have any sensation. No pain.

No pressure. No tingling." Peter had done his own little tests when he'd seen her. "The neurosurgeon has been in and out. He says it's a done deal.

Paralysis. I want to know if he's right.

"Was this Mike Caffrey?"

Peter nodded.

"He's good," Angie said.

But Peter hadn't liked his bedside manner. At a time when she had no one at all with her, he had bluntly told Kate Ann that she would never walk. Peter had come in hours later and found her in tears. He couldn't help but feel bad for her.

"What do you think about the case?" he asked Angie.

"I'm not a neurosurgeon."

"But you remember every detail of every rotation you did, and you know the neurosurgeon's bible by heart. Should I call in a consult, or is it a done deal.

She thought for a minute. "The CAT scan says there's no swelling?" He shook his head. "But she has no feeling at all?" He shook his head again. Sympathetically she said, "Then it doesn't look good."

That was what he was afraid of. Too much time had passed with no physical response to suggest that movement might return on its own.

What about physical therapy?" he asked.

Is that what they're suggesting?"

"They're not suggesting much. The poor woman is lying there all alone, day after day, not knowing , whst in the hell's voing on."

"Does she have family?"

"Nope."

"Friends?

"Nope."

"She was at that concert all alone?" Angie asked in surprise. I Peter sputtered out a facetious half laugh "Yeah That's the joke of it.

She's the quietest, shiest woman in the world, but she happens to love.

Henderson Wheel. She'd never been to a rock con cert in her life before this. It took every bit of her ] courage to buy the ticket, much less show up." Not that anyone had taunted her. Peter had asked.

In the midst of the music and the lights and the beat, she ad simply faded onto her paid seat in the balcony which was largely the story of her life. Even now she ay in her hospital room, quiet, undemanding, and _ nearly invisible. Peter didn't know how anyone couldn't feel sorry for her.

Physical therapy," he said, hauling his mind back on track. "Will it do much good?"

Angie shrugged. "It'll develop and strengthen the muscles in her upper body. It'll keep her lower body !imber so that she can handle it better, and if there Is a return of sensation, she can capitalize on it. Will it fix what's been broke? No."

Peter ran a hand up the back of his head.

"That's what I thought." He swore softly. He had no idea what Kate Ann was going to do. Neither did sheand she wasn t dumb, by a long shot. He was fast coming to understand that. She knew what she faced.

The Spinal Cord Center in Rutland is a good one," Angie suggested. "Or the Rehab Center in Burlington. If she's willing to go to Springfield or Worcester or Boston, she'll have even more to choose from."

Peter knew all that. What he didn't know she was going to pay for the care that she needed. She didn't have medical insurance, hadn't been able to afford it.

"Who is she?" Angie asked curiously.

He took a deep breath, slipped his hands in the pockets of his slacks, and exhaled. "No one important." He took another breath and said more hesitantly, "There's something else.

I'm thinking of suing Jamie Cox."

Angie looked startled.

Peter was instantly defensive. "You don't think I ill thlnk you should.

I'm surprised. That's all. He's one of yours."

"He's sleaze. Do you know what he's going around town saying? He's saying that the reason the balcony collapsed is that there were too many people up there. That there were more people than tickets he sold. That people snuck in and were sitting in the aisles and standing up in back and on the sides. He's saying that what happened was their own fault, and that no jury in the world would find him guilty. He's saying that no one can possibly prove that that balcony was structurally unsafe, and that anyone who tried would be a fool."

"A threat if ever there was one."

"And untrue. People can prove the balcony was unsafe. Any laborer in town who's done incidental work there has seen the weaknesses.

The problem is, most of them won't come forward because Jamie owns the houses they live in. He's got em by the balls." Peter tucked his hands behind his suspenders. "But he doesn't have me that way. I own my own place. And he has money that can help those people who need care and can't pay for it themselves." Like Kate Ann. She was a perfect example. She had paid full price for a ticket and mustered I up her courage to go to a concert for the very first time. Now she was a paraplegic. No one could give her back the use of her legsit was too late for that but someone could sure as hell make the life that she had left a little easier.

The question," he went on, "is how to get that money. I was thinking I'd ask Ben if he knew of a lawyer, someone out of town, who's good and would be willing to take on the case.