“You should be off your feet,” she said.

“What’s wrong with you?” Angela asked her brother-in-law.

“He took a hard hit in a hockey game earlier,” Sam said. “We’ve already been here once tonight.”

“I’m fine,” Nick said. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I am worried about you, and you need to sit.”

“I’m sitting,” Nick said, easing into a chair. “Happy?”

Sam nodded. “Now stay there.”

A doctor came through the double doors looking for Brooke’s parents.

Tracy gestured Sam and Angela over to her. “This is my sister, Sam Holland, and my other sister, Angela Radcliffe.”

The doctor nodded to Sam. “I thought I recognized you.”

“We don’t understand how any of this could’ve happened,” Tracy said, her eyes welling with new tears. “Brooke was supposed to be at school in Virginia.”

“I can’t answer those questions,” the doctor said, “but the tox screen came back positive for methamphetamines. We’re waiting for more info from the lab. Based on her lack of consciousness, we suspect it’s some form of Molly, but we also think there might’ve been GHB involved too.”

“The date rape drug,” Sam said, her heart sinking at that news. If she’d been given GHB, Brooke would have very little memory of what’d happened to her.

“Right. We’ve also inserted an NG tube to administer active charcoal, which will neutralize the effect of the methamphetamines. We’ve inserted a Foley catheter to monitor her urine output, as well. Our biggest concern at the moment is hyperthermia, or potential heat stroke.”

Mike kept an arm around Tracy as they absorbed each bit of information. “Heat stroke?” he asked.

“It’s a side effect of the drug, which raised her core body temperature to nearly 105 degrees. We’re working to cool her and lower her temperature, internally via chilled saline as well as externally with ice packs. She was briefly conscious and extremely paranoid about what we were doing to her, where she was and why she was naked. But she couldn’t tell us what she took or what happened.”

“What about the blood that was all over her?” Sam asked.

“We suspect most of it isn’t hers. We’ve been unable to find any open wound that would account for that much blood. However... We’re going to do a rape exam as there’s indication of sexual activity.”

Only Mike’s arm around Tracy kept her from collapsing at that news.

“What kind of indication?” Sam asked, fighting through her own need for hysteria.

“When one of the nurses was putting in the catheter she noticed bruising. Upon further examination, we confirmed vaginal bruising, tearing and fluid consistent with intense sexual activity. Only she can say for certain whether it was an assault, but chances are she won’t remember due to the GHB.”