It took only three minutes to run from the hospital main building to the children’s special care unit and another five to climb two flights of stairs because Avi’s niece was kept on the second level, which housed long-term patients.
When Beth got there, however, she was breathless and warm as though she had just completed a marathon. Her limbs shook, a pain in her knee reminding her of the fall. Strands that had escaped her hair tie stuck to her face and neck.
A pair of nurses looked up from their station as she came through the entrance, clearly trying to determine whether there was an emergency. The looks acted like a slap of common sense, and Beth quickly downshifted to a walk and tried to assemble herself into someone who belonged here rather than someone who had just sprinted acros
