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Paige said, "It's your town. You lead, I'll follow."

"I thought this was your day off."

"What would you like to do today?"

Paige went up to the third floor and into Jimmy Ford's room. He was still in a coma, attached to an array of tubes feeding him intravenously.

"I'll wait for you here."

"If you don't mind," Paige said, "I'd like to make a quick stop at the hospital."

It was one of those clear days in San Francisco when there was a magic in the air. The night wind had swept away the rainclouds, producing a crisp, sunny Sunday morning.

"It is, but there's a patient I'm concerned about."

Jason had arranged to pick up Paige at the apartment. When he arrived, Paige was surprised at how pleased she was to see him.

"Fair enough."

"I won't be long," Paige promised as she got out of the car.

"No problem." Jason drove her to the hospital.

"Good morning," Jason said. "You look beautiful."

A nurse was in the room. She looked up as Paige entered. "Good morning, Dr. Taylor."

"Good morning." Paige walked over to the boy's bedside. "Has there been any change?"

"Thank you."

There was no point in burdening him with her problems. "Everything's fine," Paige said.

Paige smiled. "We mustn't break the law."

"It's been several weeks now," the nurse said. "It doesn't look good, does it?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Yes, doctor."

He's not going to die, Paige thought. I'm not going to let him die.…

"Let's play real tourists today," Jason said. "There's a state law that all tours have to start at Fisherman's Wharf."

Paige felt Jimmy's pulse and listened to his heartbeat.

Jason got out of the car as Paige approached. "Is everything all right?"

"He's going to come out of it," Paige said firmly. She turned to the unconscious figure on the bed and raised her voice. "Do you hear me? You're going to get well!" There was no reaction. She closed her eyes a moment and said a silent prayer. "Have them beep me at once if there's any change."

Fisherman's Wharf was like an outdoor carnival. The street entertainers were out in full force. There were mimes, clowns, dancers, and musicians. Vendors were selling steaming caldrons of Dungeness crabs and clam chowder with fresh sourdough bread.

"No." Not since last week.

"There's no place like this in the world," Jason said warmly.

"Have you ridden a cable car yet?" Jason asked.

"You haven't lived! Come along."

"I'd love to."

Jason adopted the nasal tone of a tour guide. "Ladies and gentlemen, for your information, the oldest street in San Francisco is Grant Avenue, the longest is Mission Street -- seven and a half miles long -- the widest is Van Ness Avenue at one hundred twenty-five feet, and you'll be surprised to know that the narrowest, DeForest Street, is only four and a half feet. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, four and a half feet. The steepest street we can offer you is Filbert Street, with a thirty-one and a half percent grade." He looked at Paige and grinned. "I'm surprised that I still remember all that."

"I'm sure you were good."

Paige was touched by his enthusiasm. She had seen Fisherman's Wharf before and most of the other tourist sites of San Francisco, but she did not want to spoil his fun.

Jason laughed. "That's right. When I was going to high school, I used to work weekends as a tour guide."

They walked to Powell Street and boarded a cable car. As they started up the steep grade, Jason said, "This was known as Hallidie's Folly. He built it in 1873."

"The best. Would you like to hear some of my spiel?"

"And I'll bet they said it wouldn't last!"

"We're going to take a carriage ride."

Ten minutes later, they were seated in a horse-drawn carriage that took them from Fisherman's Wharf to Ghirardelli Square to North Beach. Jason pointed out the places of interest along the way, and Paige was surprised at how much she was enjoying herself. Don't let yourself get carried away.

Paige had heard the hospital staff speak of it.

When they alighted from the cable car, Paige looked up at Jason and smiled. "What's next?"

The meal turned out to be a banquet. They started with lobster pot stickers with chili sauce, and hot and sour soup with seafood. That was followed by filet of chicken with snow peas and pecans, veal filet with Szechuan sauce, and four-flavored fried rice. For dessert, they had a peach mousse. The food was wonderful.

They went up to Coit Tower for a view of the city. As they ascended, Jason asked, "Are you hungry?"

The fresh air had made Paige very hungry. "Yes."

"Good. I'm going to take you to one of the best Chinese restaurants in the world -- Tommy Toy's."

"Tell me," Paige said, "did you always want to be an architect?"

There was a boyish quality about Jason that Paige found very attractive.

Jason shrugged. "Once. We were both too young. It didn't work out."

"I had no choice." Jason grinned. "My first toys were Erector sets. It's exciting to dream about something and then watch that dream become concrete and bricks and stone, and soar up into the sky and become a part of the city you live in."

"Do you come here often?" Paige asked.

Sounds like a lot of my patients, Paige thought.

"There's nothing else I would want to do, or any other place I would want to live. This is a fabulous city." His voice was filled with excitement. "It has everything anyone could want. I never get tired of it."

"I'm one of the lucky ones, Paige, spending my life doing what I love to do. Who was it who said, 'Most people live lives of quiet desperation?"

"As often as I can."

Paige studied him for a moment, enjoying his enthusiasm. "You've never been married?"

I'm going to build you a Taj Mahal. I don't care how long it takes!

It was late afternoon when Jason said, "Have you ever been to Noe Valley?"

"I'd like to show it to you. It used to be farms and streams. Now it's filled with brightly colored Victorian homes and gardens. The houses are very old, because it was about the only area spared in the 1906 earthquake."

"No."

"I'm sorry."

They took a bay cruise under the Golden Gate and Bay Bridge. Jason assumed his tour guide's voice again. "And there, ladies and gentlemen, is the storied Alcatraz, former home of some of the world's most infamous criminals -- Machine Gun Kelly, Al Capone, and Robert Stroud, known as the Birdman! 'Alcatraz' means pelican in Spanish. It was originally called Isla de los Alcatraces, after the birds that were its only inhabitants. Do you know why they had hot showers every day for the prisoners here?"

"No."

"Is that true?" Paige asked.

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"No need to be. She's married to a very wealthy meat packer. Have you been married?"

I'm going to be a doctor, too, when I grow up. We'll get married, and we'll work together.

"So that they wouldn't get used to the cold bay water when they were trying to escape."

Paige shook her head. "No."

"It sounds lovely."

"We hardly know each other. How could you…?"

"I knew it from the moment you said, 'Don't you know you're supposed to wear a white coat on rounds?' That's when I fell in love with you."

"Jason…"

"I'm a firm believer in love at first sight. My grandfather saw my grandmother riding a bicycle in the park and he followed her, and they got married three months later. They were together for fifty years, until he died. My father saw my mother crossing a street, and he knew she was going to be his wife. They've been married for forty-five years. You see, it runs in the family. I want to marry you."

Paige looked at Jason and thought, He's the first man I've been attracted to since Alfred. He's adorable and bright and genuine. He's everything a woman could want in a man. What's the matter with me? I'm holding on to a ghost. Yet deep inside her, she still had the overpowering feeling that one day Alfred was going to come back to her.

Jason hesitated. "My home is there. Would you like to see it?" He saw Paige's reaction. "Paige, I'm in love with you."

It was the moment of truth.

"No!" Paige said. "You can't! I'm his doctor. I say he has a chance to come out of it! We're not going to let him die."

"Paige…"

Benjamin Wallace said, "At the hospital ethics committee meeting this morning, it was decided that Jimmy Ford's condition is hopeless. We've decided to remove --"

When Paige reached Jimmy Ford's room, there were three people there beside the comatose figure in bed: George Englund, Benjamin Wallace, and a lawyer, Silvester Damone.

And at that moment, Paige's beeper went off. It sounded urgent, ominous.

She turned to him, and her eyes were filled with tears. "It's Jimmy Ford, my patient. They're going to take him off the respirator. They're going to let him die."

She looked at Jason and made her decision. "Jason…"

"What's going on here?" Paige demanded.

Jason watched Paige's face turn pale.

"I have to get to a telephone." Two minutes later, she was talking to the hospital.

She was shouting into the telephone, "No! Absolutely not! Tell them I'll be right there." She slammed the phone down.

"What is it?" Jason asked.

"But I've been monitoring his condition," Paige pleaded. "He's been stabilized for weeks. He could come out of it any moment."

"No," Damone said firmly. "Today."

"No, but…"

George Englund turned to Paige. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we have no choice."

Silvester Damone spoke up. "It's not your decision to make, doctor."

"Can you guarantee that?" Damone asked.

Paige looked at him defiantly. "Who are you?"

The lawyer said smoothly, "Doctor, I'm sure it benefits the hospital to keep patients here as long as possible, but the family cannot afford the medical expenses any longer. I'm ordering you now to take him off the respirator."

"I'm the family's attorney." He pulled out a document and handed it to Paige. "This is Jimmy Ford's living will. It specifically states that if he has a life-threatening trauma, he's not to be kept alive by mechanical means."

"Just another day or two," Paige said desperately, "and I'm sure…"

"Then you'll have to do as you're ordered, doctor."

Paige looked down at the figure of Jimmy. "No! You have to wait a little longer."

"Thank you, doctor," the lawyer said. "I'll leave it to you to handle it. Ill notify the family that it will be taken care of immediately, so they can begin to make the funeral arrangements." He turned to Benjamin Wallace. "Thank you for your cooperation. Good day."

"We can't do this to Jimmy!" Paige said.

"I know."

George Englund squeezed her arm. "I'm sorry, Paige."

Paige watched the two men leave the room.

They watched him walk out of the room.

She was alone with the unconscious boy. She looked at the respirator that was keeping him alive and the IVs that were feeding his body. It would be so simple to turn the respirator off, to snuff out a life. But he had had so many wonderful dreams, such high hopes.

"Very well."

Dr. Wallace cleared his throat. "Paige…"

"What if we got him out of here and hid him in another room? There must be something we haven't thought of. Something…"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone with him."

Benjamin Wallace said, "This isn't a request. It's an order." He turned to George Englund. "Do you want to…?"

"No!" Paige said. "I'll… Ill do it."

He had so very much to live for.

Paige stood there looking down at him, tears blurring the room. "Damn you!" she said. "You're a quitter!" She was sobbing now. "What happened to those dreams of yours? I thought you wanted to become a doctor! Answer me! Do you hear me? Open your eyes!" She looked down at the pale figure. There was no reaction. "I'm sorry," Paige said. "I'm so sorry." She leaned down to kiss him on the cheek, and as she slowly straightened up, she was looking into his open eyes.

I'm going to be a doctor one day. I want to be like you.

Did you know I'm getting married?… Her name is Betsy… We're going to have half a dozen kids. The first girl is going to be named Paige.

"Jimmy! Jimmy!"

He blinked and closed his eyes again. Paige squeezed his hand. She leaned forward and said through her sobs, "Jimmy, did you hear the one about the patient who was being fed intravenously? He asked the doctor for an extra bottle. He was having a guest for lunch."