The small voice in his right ear drifted off and soon there was a loud blaring sound in the darkness. And soon even that was gone and there was only darkness all around him. And he liked the darkness.

A woman Pierce had never seen before was running her fingers through his hair. She seemed strangely detached and perfunctory for so intimate an action. The woman then leaned in closer to him and he thought she was going to kiss him. But she put her hand on his forehead. She then lifted some sort of tool, a light, and shined it in one eye and then the other. He then heard a man's voice.

"Ribs," he said. "Three and four. We might have a puncture."

"We put a mask over this nose and he'll probably hit the roof," the woman said.

"I'll give him something."

Now Pierce saw the man. He moved into view when he raised a hypodermic needle in a gloved hand and squeezed a little spray into the air. Next he felt the jab in his arm and pretty soon warmth and understanding flowed through his body, tickling across his chest.

He smiled and almost laughed. Warmth and understanding in a needle. The wonders of chemistry. He had made the right choice.

"Extra straps," the woman said. "We're going vertical."

Whatever that meant. Pierce's eyes were closing. The last thing he saw before escaping into the warmth was a policeman standing over him.

"He going to make it?" he asked.

Pierce didn't hear the answer.

The next time he regained consciousness he was standing. But not really. He opened his eyes and they were all there, crowded close to him. The woman with the light and the man with the needle. And the cop. And Nicole was there, too. She was looking up at him with tears in her dark green eyes. Even so, she was beautiful to him, her skin brown and smooth, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, the blonde highlights shining.

The elevator started to drop and Pierce suddenly thought he might throw up. He tried to get out a warning but couldn't move his jaw. It was like he was tied tightly to the wall.

He started to struggle but couldn't move. He couldn't even move his head.

His eyes met Nicole's. She reached up and put her hand on his cheek.

"Hold on, Hewlett," she said. "You're going to be all right."

He noticed how much taller than her he was. He didn't used to be. There was a pinging sound that seemed to echo in his head. Then the elevator door slid open. The man and woman came to either side of him and walked him out. Only he wasn't walking, and he finally realized what "going vertical" meant.

Once they were out he was lowered and rolled through the lobby. A lot of faces watched as he passed by. The doorman whose name he didn't know looked down at him somberly as he was rolled through the door. He was lifted into an ambulance. He wasn't feeling any pain but he had difficulty breathing. It was more labor-intensive than usual.

After a while he noticed that Nicole was sitting next to him. It looked like she was outright crying now.

He found that in the horizontal position he could move a little bit. He tried to speak but his voice sounded like a muffled echo. The woman, the paramedic, then leaned into his field of vision, looking down at him.

"Don't speak," she said. "You've got a mask on."

No kidding, he thought. Everybody's got a mask on. He tried again, this time speaking as loudly as he could. Again it was muffled.

The paramedic leaned in again and lifted the breathing mask.

"Hurry. What is it? You can't take this off."

He looked past her arm at Nicole.

"Gaw Lucy. Geh 'er ow a dare."

The mask was put back in place. Nicole leaned close to him and spoke.

"Lucy? Who is Lucy, Henry?"

"Ime…"

The mask was lifted.

"Rahvin. Gaw 'er."

Nicole nodded. She got it. The mask was put back over his mouth and nose.

"Okay, I will. As soon as we get to the hospital. I brought the number with me."

"No, now!" he yelled through the mask.

He watched as Nicole opened her purse and took out a cell phone and a small spiral pad.

She punched in a number she read from the pad and waited with the phone to her ear. She then reached out with the phone to his ear and he could hear Lucy's voice. It was voice mail. He groaned and tried to shake his head but couldn't.

"Easy," the paramedic said. "Easy now. Once we get to the ER we'll take off the straps."

He closed his eyes. He wanted to go back to the warmth and the darkness. The understanding. Where nobody asked him why. Especially himself.

Pretty soon he was there.

Clarity came and went over the next two hours as he was taken into the ER, examined by a doctor with a Caesar haircut, treated and then admitted to the hospital. His head finally cleared and he woke up in a white hospital room, startled from sleep by the staccato cough from somebody on the other side of the plastic curtain that was used as a room divider. He looked around and saw Nicole sitting on a chair, her cell phone to her ear.

Her hair was loose now and fell around her shoulders. The phone's antenna poked up through its silken smoothness. He watched her until she closed the phone without a word.

"Ni'i," he said in a hoarse voice. "Thas…"

It was still hard to make the k sound without pain. She stood up and went to his side.

"Henry. You -"

The cough sounded from the other side of the curtain.

"They're working on getting you a private room," she whispered. "Your med plan pays for it."

"Where am I?"

"St. John's. Henry, what happened? The police got there before I did. They said all these people on the beach called on their cell phones and said two guys were hanging somebody over the balcony. You, Henry. There's blood on the outside wall."

Pierce looked at her through swollen eyes. The swelling of the bridge of his nose and the gauze on the wound split his vision in half. He remembered what Wentz said right before he left.

"I dohn remember. Wha else did dey say?"

"That's it. They started knocking on doors in the building and when they got to yours it was wide open. You were in the bedroom. I got there when they were taking you out. A detective was here. He wants to talk to you."

"I don't remember anything."

He said it with as much force as he could. It was getting easier to talk. All he had to do was practice.

"Henry, what kind of trouble are you in?"

"I don't know."

"Who is Robin? And Lucy? Who are they?"

He suddenly remembered he needed to warn her.

"How long have I been here?"

"A couple hours."

"Gi' me your phone. I've got to phone her."

"I've been calling that number every ten minutes. I was just calling when you woke up. I keep getting voice mail."

He closed his eyes. He wondered if she had gotten his message and gotten out of there and away from Wentz.

"Le' me see your phone anyway."

"Let me do it. You probably shouldn't be moving around too much. Who do you want to call?"

He gave her the number for his voice mail and then the pass code number. She didn't seem to attach any significance to it.

"You've got eight messages."

"Any that are for Lilly just erase. Don't listen."

That was all of them except for one message which Nicole said he should listen to. She turned up the phone and held it out so he could listen when she replayed it. It was Cody Zeller's voice.

"Hey, Einstein, I've got some stuff for you on that thing you asked about. So give me a buzz and we'll talk. Later, dude."

Pierce erased the message and handed back the phone.

"Was that Cody?" Nicole asked.

"Yes."

"I thought so. Why does he still call you that? It's so high school."

" 'ollege, actually."

It hurt to say "college" but not as badly as he thought it would.