Ashley awoke in the middle of the night to find fifteen missed calls on her phone. Her first instinct was to wake Bill, but as she reached for him, she had an alarming thought.

Wasn’t he on call last night?

Ashley allowed her hand to hover briefly, indulging a momentary false assurance.

Upon touching her husband, she sighed in uneasy relief as the faces of a dozen people she loved flashed through her mind. It was unexpected and troubling, this realization that his safety outweighed all of theirs.

Ashley shook Bill gently. “Wake up, honey,” she said. “Something’s wrong.”