A woman in blue scrubs and a white lab coat stepped out from a door behind the desk.

She had a stethoscope around her neck and dark hair pulled back in a neat bun.

“I am Dr. Rao,” she said, looking at Ethan and then down at me. “Are you here for Mary?”

“Yes,” Ethan said, stepping closer. “How is she?”

Dr. Rao led us away from the busy waiting room into a quieter hallway.

“She had a very bad fall down a flight of concrete stairs,” Dr. Rao said. “The impact caused a severe skull fracture and swelling on her brain.”

She paused, looking at me for a brief second before looking back at Ethan.

“She is currently in a comatose state,” Dr. Rao explained. “We have her on a ventilator to help her breathe.”

My heart sank, though I did not fully understand the words.

I knew what a ventilator was because Mrs. Higgins had once talked about the machines that keep people alive when they are too tired to do it themselves.

“Can we see her?” Ethan asked.