Excerpt
The young woman heard the voices before she could make out the faces. She felt the gentle touch of a hand clutching hers. Smelled the strong scent of a familiar perfume. Slowly, she opened her eyes and through a gauze of milky whiteness, saw a woman gazing down at her. An older woman, pretty, but rather frayed around the edges. She looked familiar, but her name evaded her.
"Oh, Robin, sweetie," the woman whispered, squeezing her hand. "Thank God you're going to be okay."
Robin. There was a name she recognized. She moaned, and tried to speak but something was stuck in her mouth. Some contraption. The confusion in her brain cleared a bit, and she suddenly knew who the older woman was. Tammy.
The young woman blinked and tried again to speak. Nothing but a soft groan came out. A movement beyond Tammy's shoulder caught her eye. She recognized him, also. He was gazing at her, a tender, anxious expression on his face. An overwhelming rush of love flowed through her. They really did care about her. It was so wonderful to finally have a family...after so many years of not having one.
"Robin, the nurse is going to give you something now to make you sleep." Tammy squeezed her hand. "But we're going to be right here all day, okay?"
"That's right, Cupcake." Michael edged over and smiled down at her. "We're not going anywhere until we know you're out of the woods."
Dimly, she saw a woman in a brightly-colored jacket inject something into the IV line that ran into her left arm. Almost immediately she felt as if she were floating away. But she struggled against it, wanting to say something...wanting to ask...something.
Her thoughts were all muddled. But just before the darkness closed around her, one thought rang through her consciousness with crystal clarity.
Why were they were calling her Robin?