It takes Nicki a couple of moments to process the words. “What the hell, Shawn,” she says under her breath, eyeing the nurse, who has stopped ten feet away, watching them. “What is wrong with you?” She wrenches her arms away from him and goes into Kate’s room. The bed is empty, rumpled, as though Kate had just gotten up to go to the bathroom. Walter stands by the window with his back to the door, and in the chair next to the bed is Finn, with Ross on her lap. “Vroom vroom,” Ross says, playing with a wooden tongue depressor, flying it through the air like an airplane before crashing it into the side of Finn’s head. “Boom. Crash.”

“Ross, baby,” Nicki says. She goes over to him, pets his head like he’s a kitten. His too-long blond hair sticking up at unlikely angles. “What are you doing? Did Aunt Finn bring you here?”

“Hi, Mom,” Ross says, enthralled with his airplane, which has miraculously recovered from the crash and is now circling Nicki’s arm.

“Hi, Nicki,” says Finn.

Finn is staring her down, but she refuses to acknowledge her. She is still recovering from thinking her mother was dead, she doesn’t need to deal with her judgmental twin making her feel even worse. She turns to Shawn instead. “What happened?” she asks. “Where is she?”

“She must have woken up and then left,” says Shawn. He rubs his hand over his face, then shakes his head. “There was only about twenty minutes between the last time someone checked on her and when Finn and Ross got here and found her missing. The hospital is looking into it now.”

“They’re looking into it? They lost a patient, Shawn. They should be doing a little more than just looking into it.”

Shawn sighs. “They’re doing everything they can, Nicki. Seriously.”

“Nana’s gone,” Ross says. He throws his airplane onto the bed, as if to make a point.

“We’ll find her,” Finn says, giving his arm a squeeze. She smiles. Nicki could choke her, she really could. The world starts to spin again, and she sits down on the bed, gripping the edges as if she were about to fall off.

“Are you okay?” Shawn asks. “I can get Katriina to go look after the twins tonight, if you want to stay here for a bit. And I called Hamish, he just left Terrace Bay, he should be here in a couple of hours.” Nicki feels Finn flinch, but she doesn’t say anything. Shawn puts his hand on her shoulder. “Do you want some water or something? You look like shit.”

“You said shit, Uncle Shawn,” Ross says.