After I successfully located Saoirse, I had trouble persuading her to leave the hospital during her shift.
"How do I know you are who you say you are? Isn't it just a little suspicious, some random guy claiming to know Sinead, asking me to drop everything, leave work and go with him?"
Saoirse looked around her as if searching for something.
"Where is security?", she demanded of the receptionist behind the maternity ward's main desk.
The young woman looked from one of us to the other nervously and picked the phone up off the receiver.
The thought of a phone gave me an idea. I rushed over to the desk, grabbed the phone out of the receptionist's hand and set it down on the base, effectively canceling the number she had just dialed.
Keeping one hand on the phone, I reached in my jeans pocket with the other. I fished out Sinead's cell phone, which I'd brought with me and held it out to Saoirse.
"What's this?", Saoirse asked, gesturing to the cell phone with suspicion.
"Take it.", I replied. "It's unlocked. It's Sinead's cell. I used it to find both your and Amanda's numbers. Sinead really needs your help."
She took it from me and looked at it, confirming what I'd told her.
"It is Sinead's.", he said thoughtfully. "You're telling the truth?"
The tone of her voice made it sound as if she found it more likely that I was Sinead's kidnapper than trying to find help in saving her life.
"Yes.", I said earnestly. "Sinead was muttering in her sleep about needing your help. She has a bad infection and she won't wake up. I think she's in a coma. The doctor I had look at her didn't know how to help her."
For a long moment, Saoirse looked deep in thought.
"Okay," she said at last, "I'll come and help. But only for Sinead, not for you. And you'd better pray that you are who and what you say you are. Because if you've done something to Sinead, we are going to kill you."
I didn't bother to ask who the 'we' in that hypothetical situation was. It didn't really matter. What mattered was that I get Saoirse to Sinead as quickly as possible.
"Wait here, I have to go talk to my supervisor."
As she walked away, I took my hand off the desk phone and smiled at the still-nervous receptionist.
In fifteen minutes, Saoirse returned and we were walking through the hospital, with her following me as I led her the way I came in.
"This had better be for real, and not a trick, or you will regret it!", she warned me. "The only way they would let me leave is if I used up one of my sick days."
"This is for real, and both Sinead and I will thank you later.", I replied.
Outside, I unlocked my truck and we both got in. I started the vehicle right away and before she'd even gotten her seat belt on, I pulled out of the parking space and drove for the parking lot's exit.
"Do you usually drive this fast?"Saoirse asked me critically.
"No, not habitually. But I am serious when I say that Sinead is very ill and needs your help." I took my eyes off the road long enough to give her a serious look. "I don't know about your kind," I continued as I swerved around a slow moving- car. "But usually when someone goes into a coma, it's not something to take lightly."
Far away, in the reality that is the external world of Earth, I sensed someone nearby me. I don't know this person, but they are not a threat.
I can tell. Besides, the Great Goddess would let me know otherwise.
The person stays by my side and says and does nothing. Just sits there.
'All the better.' I think. 'I don't need any distractions.'
In the deep darkness of my internal world, I keep focus. I know a secret that I share only with the Goddess. The Great Goddess of All has shared with me a secret of healing, growth and regeneration. The technique is close to meditating, to the legendary Earth art of cultivation.
Collecting from the energies around me; from the air around my body, and the ground far below this house, I use my new set of spell techniques to collect it up and use it, change it into a way I can utilise.
I don't remember earlier, when I called for Saoirse's help. She is the best healer I know. A white witch in the healing arts. She is the one closest to discovering the technique I am now using, herself. And by herself too.
I further empty my mind, finding that pure stillness. No effortful or automatic thoughts; just quiet.
Then, I am ready. Though it takes time, I begin the slow repair work of veins, skin, fat, and muscle that starts cell by cell.
Saoirse laughed.
"How can you laugh? Aren't you supposed to be Sinead's friend? How can you laugh when she is in a coma!"
She just shook her head at me.
"Clearly you don't know as much about Sinead as you think you do."
"What does that mean?", I asked angrily. I didn't take kindly to someone suggesting I didn't know my own mate.
"Sinead has a different immune system than us earthlings. She also has a powerful Goddess backing her up. Do you really think that her Goddess will let her die? I doubt that it is in the 'cosmic plan'"
Annoyed as I was by this, I had to admit that it made some sense.
'Was I over-reacting just because Sinead is my mate? Was I being a little too over-dramatic?'
"Are there any other important insights into Sinead that you would like to share with me?", I asked hopefully.
"No, not really. If you want to know more about Sinead, then you should ask her about things yourself."
She was right about that. I could do that, as long as Sinead got well and got out of her coma.
But Saoirse was right. How much did I really know about Sinead? What planet was she from? What realm? I didn't even know what her race was. What her people called themselves.
I needed to know more about all of this. Not just because Sinead was my mate. Because of the Goddess who had made contact with me. Because of the portal that had opened up on our pack lands. All of this was getting really close to home.
Saoirse and I didn't talk much for the rest of the drive back to my house.
As I parked in the driveway she broke the silence.
"And where are we exactly?"
"We are on my pack's lands. This is where I live."
"And Sinead is inside."
The way Saoirse said that was not a question, it was a statement that implied something was going on between us.
I cleared my throat and said, " Let's go. I'll take you to Sinead."
She followed me inside, up the stairs and into the room.
"Doctor, you can leave now."
Dr. Fionn stood and without saying a word, left the room. As I went to close the door, Saoirse stopped me.
"Don't close that! In fact, you'd best open that window." She gestured to the only window in the room.
I opened it as she looked over Sinead. She took her pulse and then looked at me.
"She could be in a coma for a short while, or a long time. I am not sure which. But I know I can help with the fever, the infection and the wound right now."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Yes. What herbs do you have? I …"
"What do you need? I can get you pretty much everything."