Although Jaci was the first one out of surgery, Judi was the first to regain consciousness.  When she woke her dad was next to her bed.  He came to the recovery room as soon as Jaci was brought there.  When Judi was brought in her bed was placed next to Jaci’s so he could be close to both of them.  He walked back and forth between the beds until Judi started to stir.   He stayed with her looking nervously over his shoulder from time to time at Jaci.  As Judi became more lucid she squeezed his hand hard.  He took his left hand and wiped her hair back from her forehead.  She mumbled something several times.  He didn’t catch it the first few times but when he had to look away.  “My knee, it hurts so bad.  Daddy make it stop hurting.  It hurts worse than when I broke it.”  Tears came to his eyes.  Her left leg was the one she broke when she fell off her bicycle.

He motioned to the nurse, she came over and he told her what Judi said.  She went over and pulled her chart, read it and looked at her watch.  She shook her head from side to side.  It was too soon for any medication.  Within a minute Judi mercifully slipped back into the fog of the anesthesia.  Her father looked away in time to see Jaci’s eyes blink and open.  He handed Judi’s hand to Katy, one of the female agents in the room and moved to her bed.  He took her hand and stroked it.  She stirred again and he wiped her forehead, something he had always done when they were sick.  She alternately opened and closed her eyes, each time they were open a little longer.  Finally she focused on his face and started to cry, “Daddy, he shot us, he shot me in the knee, it hurts, it hurts so bad.  Help me daddy.”  He did not even ask the nurse, he knew the answer.  He picked up a cloth, moistened it with cold water and started wiping her head.   That was all he could do for now.  He had heard nothing of Mitzi’s condition since the three of them were taken to surgery.