Ryan and Christine had been married happily for ten years, even though their jobs both required them to travel, causing them to spend a lot of time apart.  One day, in mid-January, Christine was supposed to fly back to Billings from a business trip in Denver; but, on the way to the airport from her hotel, she was hit by a semi.  After being rushed to St. Luke's Hospital in Denver, Ryan received a phone call, informing him that his wife had several severe injuries from a major car accident, and that he should come to Denver immediately.

Ryan's first thought was to book a flight and get to Denver with in a few hours, but he could not find any flights that had space seats open until the following night.  Instead of waiting another twenty-four hours, Ryan packed a bag and quickly piled into his Ford F-150.  If this had been a normal drive, he could have made it to Denver in about nine hours, but he encountered several issues along the way.  In Casper, a freak snow storm hit, closing down all the main roads.  But he was able to talk one of the traffic control workers to open up the roads, by persuading him that the truck could manage anything.  Although he was held back by three hours, Ryan was able to get back on the highway twelve hours before it opened for everyone else.  To make up that time, Ryan picked up speed and completely bypassed Douglas, not even considering that his gas tank was running low.  About twenty-five miles south of Douglas, the truck ran out gas, and Ryan had to talk someone into giving him a lift to Glendo to get enough gas to refill his tank.  Once again, this diversion took about an hour.  From that point, Ryan stopped only when he needed gas (in Wheatland and Fort Collins).  He finally made it to the Denver Metro, in time to hit rush hour.  When he tried to take a side road to the hospital, he started to speed and was pulled over by a large, old police officer.  By some miracle, he was able to convince the police officer to not give him a ticket, and to escort him to the hospital.  It took nearly fourteen hours to reach the hospital, and when he walked in, Christine's doctor was waiting to speak to him.

Christine had lost all function on the right side of her body and had been in a coma since she got out of surgery.  Her doctor said that Ryan could spend as much time with Christine as he wanted, as long as he did not touch any of the tubes that were attached to her, particularly since she was not able to breathe on her own.  The following morning, Ryan got up from the chair beside her bed, to go get some coffee, and accidentally pulled several of the tubes, including the one on her face.  Unknowingly, he left the room.  When he returned, the room was filled with doctors (and a crash cart), attempting to resuscitate Christine.  Unfortunately, by doing the one thing that he was told to avoid, he had created an even bigger accident that took his wife's life.