During a pickup touch football game five years into his recovery, Lou did a number on the cartilage and a ligament in his right knee that required extensive arthroscopy. He still clearly recalled the first days following his surgery: The instructions for the Percocet says one or two every four to six hours. Is this one pain I’m having, or a two?… It’s been three and a half hours. What if I take two now and wait an extra hour for the next dose?…

Obsession.

His dormant addiction was making him crazy. The pain of having the narcotics around quickly became worse than the pain in his knee. After a day and a half, he talked things over with Cap, then poured the pills in the toilet, and broke out the Tylenol and Motrin.

Cap had been there for him throughout that struggle. Now, with their roles reversed, he would be there for the man for as long as he was needed. At the moment, though, Lou was worried a lot more about Cap’s sagging blood pressure then he was about reigniting Cap’s addiction.

The chopper circled twice before making a feather-soft touchdown on the helipad atop a glass-and-steel sixteen-story building. The empty landing area, built in the shape of a cross, looked vast enough to accommodate four med flight helicopters. Within seconds of wheels down, a three-person team in aqua Arbor General scrubs began the unloading process. Lou exchanged hugs and handshakes with the crew from the North Georgia Air Rescue and caught up with Cap and the Arbor staff just as the doors to the express elevator opened. Cap and his splint made it inside by an inch.

“There’s an ER team waiting for him,” the nurse said to Lou on their way down. “Everyone is ready.”

Cap was slipping in and out of consciousness again. Surgery could not happen soon enough. Two minutes later they were headed down a long corridor, walking briskly under a phalanx of fluorescent lights. It had only been a few days since he was last in a hospital, but it felt much longer, and just the smell of the place filled him with relief. At times during the hours just past, Lou had serious doubts, but now he felt certain Cap Duncan was going to survive this ordeal.

As if in warning against overconfidence, Cap’s respirations became shallower and slower.

Come on, everyone … Come on!