Lizzie wasn’t hampered by waiting for baggage claim once her flight landed; she’d only packed a small carry-on. She walked as quickly as she could to the car rental counter, and within fifteen minutes she was in route to the hospital, just south of downtown Fort Worth. The traffic gods smiled on her and she arrived in the hospital’s main parking lot within forty minutes. Lizzie raced into the emergency room entrance and spotted Joe waiting for her. “He’s in bay seven,” he told her as they walked up to the counter for Lizzie to be assigned a visitor’s pass.
“What happened, Joe?” she asked as she placed the sticky label on her jacket and the clerk buzzed the door for them to continue down the hall into the triage area.
“We were supposed to meet for breakfast like we always do,” Joe began a
