They didn’t answer.
“Body temp is ninety degrees.”
Hypothermia.
“Let’s get a line going, get some warm fluids in him.”
They’d already put him on oxygen, and they’d wrapped him in a heated blanket, one of fancy ones that blew warm air against the skin. Jesse was so cold, so numb, that he could barely feel it.
“Hey, Moretti, how do you feel, buddy?”
But Jesse was drifting again.
It was dark, so dark, the cold sucking the breath from his lungs. Where was she? He couldn’t see her. The current pulled at him, carrying him away from the open water and beneath the ice. He reached but felt nothing.
Come on, little girl!
God, please!
“Jesse! Hey, Moretti, you got her. You found her.”
Hawke?
Jesse opened his eyes, found himself being wheeled into the emergency room. He was shivering now, his teeth chattering, his body shaking. “Is Daisy… Is she…?”
“You did everything you could for her, buddy. Now let us take care of you.”
You did everything you could.
Was she…? Jesus, was Daisy … dead?
His heart seemed to crack, pain lancing through him.
Jesus, no!
And then he was out again.
* * *
“We’ve got a pulse.”
Ellie could hardly breathe, her gaze shifting from the cardiac monitor to Daisy. She lay still and pale, her little body resting on a heating pad inside a forced-air warming blanket, warm oxygen going into her lungs through a ventilator, IVs in both of her arms and electrodes on her chest.
Ellie held her little hand, still so cold. “Daisy, sweetie, can you hear me? It’s mommy. I’m right here, honey.”
They’d flown the two of them via Life Flight to Children’s Hospital in case it became necessary to perform a cardiopulmonary bypass on Daisy, using a heart-and-lung machine to warm her blood and restore her body temperature. But Daisy’s little heart was beating again, her body temperature slowly rising.
“You’re a fighter, Daisy Mae.” Ellie kissed her forehead.
“Your parents are here,” said one of the nurses. “They’re out in the hallway.”
“Thank you.” Ellie didn’t ask for them to be brought back. She didn’t want to talk to them right now. They’d somehow let Daisy wander off, and she’d almost died. She might still die—or have brain or cardiac damage.
If it hadn’t been for Jesse…
He had rushed forward when everyone else had stood by, frozen by fear or shock or indecision. He’d jumped into the water without a moment’s hesitation, risking his life for her precious girl.
She’d asked how he was doing, but no one here knew. She would have called or texted him, but her cell phone was in the first-aid tent back in Scarlet. He’d been so weak when they’d taken him out. Hypothermia could kill. She’d seen it happen. She couldn’t bear to lose him, either.