At first, it was just indeterminate yelling, but eventually he could make out some “Not MY tax dollars” and “Don’t pollute our schools!” chants. So uncreative. The protestors from the left could always at least rhyme.

He could tell Mimi had done what they’d talked about in advance, and cranked up the sound on the microphones, because everyone on their side suddenly got a lot louder and almost drowned out the protestors.

The protestors kept chanting, but the police kept them a few yards back from the last row of seats. Thank goodness most of the reporters were still looking at the stage and taking notes. Granted, a bunch of the photographers had turned around and were shooting pictures of the protestors, but he’d expected that.

Theo heard a commotion behind him, a shout, cheering, and more shouting. He turned around to see a cop on the ground, and protestors, now with masks on, running toward the seats as they waved their big wooden sticks that had moments ago held protest signs.

One of the masked protestors was running toward him, maybe to attack the politicians, maybe to attack the crowd—he didn’t know which one. If he charged at the crowd, Maddie was right there in the middle. And Theo couldn’t get to her in time. He spun back around.

“Maddie!” Theo yelled. “Watch out!”

She jumped up, turned around, and tripped the guy running toward her. She grinned at him, and he grinned back. Until he saw the look of panic wash over her face. She pointed and started to run toward him.

“Theo! Oh no, Theo!”

And then everything went black.

Maddie screamed. She raced toward Theo, lying still on the ground, and in the process knocked over the protestor in her way, who was just getting back to his feet. She’d tried to warn Theo, but she’d clearly done it in the stupidest way possible. He’d said, “Watch out,” to her—why didn’t she just repeat him, or point, or do anything but say, “Oh no!” What was that supposed to communicate to him? Definitely not that someone was about to hit him over the head with a two-by-four.

She got to him just as the medic did.

“Theo? Theo, are you okay?” She knew she wasn’t supposed to shake him, but she now understood why people always did that when someone was unconscious. Anything to try to make them wake up, sit up, smile, tell you everything was going to be okay. Instead of shaking him, she reached for his hand and squeezed. He didn’t squeeze back.

She was worried that the medic would make her let go of his hand, but he just reached for Theo’s other hand to take his pulse.

A photographer came over and tried to take a photo of Theo, lying there on the ground, and she jumped to her feet to block him.

“I swear to fucking God, if you try to take a picture of him like this, I will destroy every camera you’ve ever owned.”

The man tried to stare her down. Oh please, she was the mother-fucking queen of the stare down. She pushed his camera out of the way again, as he tried to move it around her to get a picture of Theo.

“Have some fucking decency,” she hissed. Two police officers walked over to them, and the photographer turned away. Maddie knelt back down next to Theo and watched the medic working over him.

“Is he going to be okay?” she asked. She tried to keep silent, but she couldn’t help it. She needed to know.

The guy didn’t answer at first and kept working on Theo, but he finally looked up and nodded, though he wasn’t smiling.

“Vital signs are okay, but I can’t tell you anything for sure. Stay with him. Someone will be back.”

Like she would do anything other than stay with him. She stared at him after the medic left, as she held tightly to his hand, like doing that would make some of the strength seep out of her body and into his. She watched his chest go up and down and was a little reassured by his regular breathing. But his eyes were still closed and his hands were still slack inside of hers.

Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay, please be okay. She chanted it over and over in her mind, like a mantra or a prayer.

After what felt like forever, the medic was back, and this time he had two other people and a stretcher with him.

“Ma’am, we’re going to need you to let go of his hands. I’m sorry.”

She forced herself to let go of him and stood up.

“Where are you taking him? He’s Theo Stephens; he works for the Berkeley mayor. I need to come with you.”

They all shook their heads in unison as they put the stretcher down where she’d been kneeling.

“You can’t come in the ambulance, but you can meet us at the hospital.”

Maddie finally looked up from Theo, for the first time since she’d come running over to him. It felt like hours had passed, but it had probably only been five or so minutes. The protestors were all in handcuffs, way back against the fence, and there was only one other person being worked over by the medics. She looked up toward the stage and got a shock: the politicians were still talking. And people were just sitting there, listening to them, like nothing was wrong, like Theo wasn’t lying here on the ground. What were they doing?

Maddie wanted to run up the aisle, yell at them, shake the mayor, Theo’s boss, for the love of God, who was just sitting there looking unconcerned. But then she looked back down at Theo, as they strapped him in before wheeling him toward the ambulance. This is what he’d want, damn him. He’d want the stupid show to go on. He’d been working toward this for months, and he cared about these people, this issue. He wouldn’t want to derail the whole day because some racist asshole hit him on the head.

She went back to her seat to grab her purse so she could follow the ambulance to the hospital. She picked it up and turned to go, but a blond woman holding a clipboard grabbed her arm on her way out.

“Is he okay?” the woman whispered. “My boss said to keep going, so we did, but it was killing me to see him over there.”

Maddie looked back up at the stage and saw the mayor’s eyes on her. Okay, maybe he wasn’t so unconcerned.

“His vital signs are okay, they said. I’m following them to the hospital now. Can you tell the mayor that for me?”

The blond woman nodded.

“I will. I’m Sybil. I work for the governor. Here, this is my number.” She tore a scrap of paper from her clipboard and scribbled a number on it. “Can you just text me and let me know what’s going on?”

Maddie tucked the piece of paper into her wallet.

“Okay. I have to run.”

As soon as she got outside the school grounds, she did literally that, and ran to her car. The hospital was close by, a straight shot down Ashby, thank God. But of course there was traffic, and horribly long red lights, and a nightmarish parking garage, so it wasn’t until almost twenty minutes later that she ran into the ER.

“I’m here for Theo Stephens. He should have gotten here maybe about ten or fifteen minutes ago? I’m his . . . wife.”

Was she going to have to prove that statement? Apparently not; the woman at the front desk just checked Maddie’s ID and gave her Theo’s room number. She hid her left hand, just in case.

She forced herself to not run through the halls of the emergency room, so it felt like forever until she got into his room. There were two doctors standing there blocking him, so she couldn’t see his face.

“Theo?” She looked at the doctors. “Is he okay? Is he awake?”

“Maddie?” His voice was weak, but it was his. He looked up at her and reached out his hand. She almost pushed one of the doctors out of the way so she could grab it.

“Theo. Oh, Theo, you’re awake.” His eyes were open, but he looked bleary and out of it. She looked back up at the doctors. “I’m sorry for rushing in here—” She wasn’t sorry at all, but she assumed she had to say that. “Is he going to be okay? Did they tell you what happened?”

The doctor who she’d almost knocked over patted her on the shoulder.

“Mr. Stephens, do you feel okay to receive visitors? And can I—”

Theo stopped her with a wave of his other hand.

“I want her in here. And you can tell her everything.”

The doctor turned back to Maddie.

“He should be okay, but we need to check him out for a bit more time. He has a concussion, but we’re still figuring out what the effects from it might be. I’m Dr. Stewart. The medics told us what happened, but if you were there, we’d love to hear it from you, too.”

The doctor’s voice was gentle and soothing, and she looked at Maddie and at Theo like she really cared. She made Maddie feel better immediately.

“I was there. I can tell you.”

Maddie told the doctors the story of the rally and then the protest turned riot, and just as she got to the end, she gasped.

“Alexa! Oh God, I have to tell her what happened. What am I saying? She probably already knows what happened. She’s probably freaking out.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked back up at the doctors. They looked confused. “Sorry. Theo works for the mayor—no, right, I already told you that—but Alexa is my best friend, she also works for the mayor, they’re all going to be so worried, I just want to make sure everyone knows where he is.”