Feeling someone’s warm touch on my hand woke me up. White surrounded me. I couldn’t seem to focus. I was in a bed in what looked like a hospital room or a prison, and I wanted to sit up, but couldn’t find the strength. My throat too dry to scream, allowed only a raspy whisper to escape.
“Christy. Christy. It’s okay to wake up,” a voice said.
Where was I? Help me! Someone help me. I remembered being in a forest running. Run. Run. Scary memories filled my mind.
“Christy, it’s me, Rick. You’re safe.”
Rick? My heart slowed its thundering pace, and I could finally make out splashes of color around the room. I took long, deep breaths.
“Jeremy?” I rasped, looking straight at Rick.
“No, it’s Rick. You’re safe.” He handed me some water, and I gulped it down.
“Where’s Jeremy?” I said, looking around the room for him but finding Summer sitting on a chair in the corner instead. A part of me felt relieved. Summer was okay. Rick was okay. But was Jeremy okay? “Is he all right?”
“Jeremy’s here, in the hospital,” Rick answered.
“He’s alive?” I gasped.
“Yes, he’s alive.” When he said this, he looked at Summer and her eyes rolled, telling me there was more to the story, and it wasn’t good.
“I have to see him,” I said, trying to sit up again, only to be overcome with dizziness, and having to lie back down. I was scared. It must be bad if they wouldn’t tell me.
I heard a door open and a tall, thin woman with hair pulled back into a low ponytail, walked straight toward me. Her face was soft and kind, not a wrinkle anywhere. Her wide eyes never looked away from me. Rick moved aside to let her get close to me.
“I’m glad to see you’re awake. I got a bit concerned when you didn’t wake up right after taking you off the sedative this morning. But, better late than never.” She looked in my eyes and then gently moved her fingers over my face.
“Who are you?” I asked. My face felt stiff.
“Sorry, Christy. I’m doctor Eisen. I’ve been taking care of you since you got here.”
“Why?”
“Well, you had a pretty nasty fall. You had some deep cuts on your face and arms. Luckily, we were able to get a plastic surgeon here quickly enough to patch you up so that you’ll have minimal scarring.”
“Scarring?” My mind raced. I remembered the trees slapping my face and then my face scraping along the forest floor as I tried to get air. I gulped and touched my face. It felt rough and bandaged.
“I have this antibiotic ointment that you’ll need to use on all your cuts and scrapes until they heal. To help them heal, I also got you some cream to go on after the antibiotic ointment. Use it twice a day. If you do this, you will likely have no scarring.” She handed me the two tubes of medicine and smiled. “Do you have any questions?”
I said, “No,” but wanted to ask a million.
“I’m going to do a few tests to make sure you are able to travel.”
She poked and prodded and asked me questions as well as had me do certain movements with my body.
“Ouch!” I said, as she touched a particularly tender spot on my side.
“Make sure you get ointment on that graze, Christy. It could get infected.”
“Graze?” I tried to twist and look at what she was talking about.
“Don’t you remember how you got these injuries?” Dr. Eisen asked.
“I remember getting whipped by tree branches and falling hard onto the ground, but I don’t remember any grazing.”
“A bullet grazed your side. You are one lucky girl. You also have three very large, nasty bruises on your body, but you are so young, you will heal nicely.”
“Okay.”
“That doesn’t mean that you won’t have to go see your doctor when you get home. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Everything I just went over, as well as my private number, is here in your discharge papers. If your doctor at home has questions for me, he must contact me directly. I am the only one who has worked on you, besides the plastic surgeon, and no one knows you are here, except me. The plastic surgeon’s private line is also listed here.” She pointed to a spot on some papers she was holding.
“Now, a shower will make you feel better. Be careful with your face. Don’t’ get it wet for another few days. We would have liked to have kept you here for those few days, but the FBI is insisting that you get home today. I suppose it will be nice to be surrounded by your family while you heal. Your injuries are hardly life-threatening, but still.”
“How long have I been here, anyway?” I asked
“Two days.”
“Two days?”
“Well, we chose to sedate you, to up the chances that your face would heal correctly.”
I didn’t know what to say. Would I be a monster?
“I’ll be calling you tomorrow to make sure you go see your doctor.”
“Okay.” Did my parents know what had happened?
“Great. Now you go right ahead and shower. Get yourself ready, but take your time. Don’t let the FBI rush you too much—I wish you all the best. And I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“’Kay.” Something about her made me feel comfortable and that comfort left when she walked out the door.
“Tell me about Jeremy.” I shot at Rick. A horrible feeling gnawed at me.
“We’ll go see him. But first, you need to shower and get dressed,” he said.
“No…Take me to him now…Please.”
Summer chuckled and said, “Yeah. I’m sure he wants to see your blindingly white butt peek through that hospital gown. Let’s go. I’m always up for a good laugh.”
Unfortunately, she was right. The insanely thin, short and breezy hospital gown I had on revealed much too much. I gasped, my face burning, wondering what Rick might have seen already. The warm fuzzies I’d been feeling knowing Summer was alive began to fade quickly.
Glaring at Summer, I swung my legs around to get off the bed. Every part of my body felt bruised and every move hurt. I stifled a moan.
“I know,” Rick said. “You must be totally stiff and sore. There are some clothes for you in the bathroom. Take your time.” He turned away from me as my feet hit the ground.
I wasn’t going to take my time. I was going to be as fast as I could so that I could get to Jeremy. Once inside, I took my clothes off gingerly and noticed the three dark purple, black, gray and yellow bruises the doctor had told me about. The one on my right hip was the deepest shade of black, my right collar bone was not far behind and my left shoulder was a bit lighter gray. I looked in the mirror above the sink and was shocked. My face had a bunch of white strips of tape on it, some exposed long scratches and my left cheek was scraped, red and swollen. I pulled back in surprise, hitting my body into the door, causing a rush of pain from all the bruises.
“You okay in there?” Rick asked.
“Fine,” I said, looking at my bruised and battered body one more time. I covered my mouth, remembering Jeremy’s body falling onto mine, landing on big roots sticking out of the ground and watching Nathan perform CPR.
I had to see Jeremy.
In the shower, each stream of water stung. I clenched my teeth and worked as fast as I could manage to clean myself. Stepping out of the shower sent stabs of pain in my knees. It did feel good to be clean, though.
I examined my face again after drying off. It looked like I was an actor, playing a part in a horror movie. The only thing I didn’t have was black eyes. I wondered how well I would heal. Would I be scarred? Maybe I deserved some scars for causing so many people so much pain.
I didn’t have any makeup to hide the mass of scrapes, cuts and stitches and didn’t think it would do any good, anyway. I used the antibiotic ointment and then the anti-scarring lotion liberally and kept my hair down, in an effort to hide my face. Mercifully, the clothes they gave me were sweats—fashionable sweats, but sweats nonetheless. Marybeth would die,
but I had no choice. I wished she was here.
I took a deep breath before opening the door, giving me courage to face the others. Now I knew what they’d seen when they were looking at me, and it scared me to death.
They sat, watching TV. Rick stood abruptly and said, “How do you feel?”
“Much better, thanks.” I looked at the floor, trying to hide my face.
“Good,” he said. “Let’s go.” He walked to me and took my hand. I was sure it was hard for him to look at me—heck, it was hard for me to look at me. But, to his credit, he never flinched when he did.
“Where to?” I asked.
“We’re going to see Jeremy,” Rick said, grabbing my little hospital bag and opening the door. Two FBI agents stepped in front of the door.
“We’re ready,” Rick said to them.
One agent started walking down the hall, and we followed. The other fell in behind us.
“So, what happened, Rick?” I asked in a whisper.
“We don’t have to talk about it, Christy. Really.”
“I want to know, I mean, if you can tell me.”
“Well, remember the guys Jeremy saw at the end of that tunnel he led us down? You know the one under the pool table in the game room?”
“Yeah.”
“After the house had been cleared by the FBI and we were in the ambulance, those people who were outside the tunnel ambushed us.”
“No way!”
“There were about twenty of them and they went after us.”
“Don’t you mean they went after Christy?” Summer interrupted. “No one came after any of us—only her.”
“Thanks a lot Summer,” Rick said, seeing my eyes fill with tears.
“Well, it’s true, and I’m just saying…” Summer continued.
“Well, stop saying it,” Rick hissed. “She’s been through enough. This isn’t your fault, Christy. Don’t forget that.” He leaned over and whispered, “I’m glad you’re safe.”
I leaned into him, unable to speak. Had he forgiven me?
“Yeah, we are all really glad you’re safe,” Summer hissed. “We can’t wait to go home. The FBI wouldn’t let us go home until you could. Thanks a lot! And we have to lie and say we were in a bus crash. We can’t even tell our families the truth.”
A bus crash. A good explanation. An easy excuse.
Outside Jeremy’s room stood two more guards, who hesitantly let us inside. The agents who were outside our hospital room joined them. Jeremy, lying on his bed, looked at me, smiling. I ran to him and hugged him hard, crying.
“You are okay. I was so worried about you,” I said into his chest.
That’s when I noticed he didn’t hug me back. I pulled away and looked at him. He still smiled, but didn’t move. Was he repulsed by my horrible face? Or was he mad at me?
“I was so worried about you, too,” he finally said, his voice catching. His face bore the same wounds, some covered up with white strips, from the slapping branches as mine did, but his eyes sparkled, like always. “You were so brave. I’m proud of you.” His eyes glistened with tears and one lone tear slowly fell down his left cheek.
“What’s wrong with you Jeremy?” Panic welled up in my heart as I waited for an answer. My heart punched hard against my ribs.
“Not much.” He chuckled. “I’m just a little paralyzed.”
“Paralyzed? No. No,” I said, laying my head on his chest hoping I would feel his strong arms wrap around me and hold me tight. They didn’t, and I let the tears flow freely, wetting his shirt. No one spoke for a long time.
I looked him straight in the eye. Tears still spilled easily from his now. “What happened? Paralyzed? How?” I asked even though I knew the answer. He was paralyzed because he tried to protect me.
“Well,” he said, trying to hide how his voice cracked with emotion. “A bullet—”
The door to the room suddenly swung open and a man, who was obviously a doctor, said, “Well, well. Who’s this?” He looked at me, his deep voice soothing. “I mean, I saw these two kids yesterday and now there’s one more.” He gestured toward Rick and Summer and then planted his eyes on me.
“This is Christy,” Jeremy said.
“Ahhh. Your partner in crime. I should’ve known. Her face looks as bad as yours. I think she might have more steri-strips than you.” He moved over to me and grabbed my chin, looking closely at my face. “I take that back. Her cuts seem to be healing better than yours.” He chuckled. “Maybe it’s all these tears. Salt water has such a great healing effect. Now, what are these tears for? Are you in a lot of pain?”
“Only every inch of me.”
“All bruised up—like someone else I know, huh?” He looked at Jeremy, moving toward him. I stepped away and watched as the doctor gently touched several spots on Jeremy’s face. All I could feel was pain for this man who gave his life for me—worse, really. Now he would have a frozen life, unable to do anything that he used to. My insides churned.
“I was just filling Christy in on what happened to me. Could you just tell her?”
There was more? I was going to be sick. I felt hot and looked around for some way to get more air.
“Are you sure, Jeremy? I could leave and come back.”
“No. Really, it’s okay. Tell her everything. She won’t rest until she knows every last detail.” He winked at me. How could he do that? He should be mad at me, not playful. He would live a life of sorrow because of me. I tried to hold it together to know the full extent of the damage I’d caused. I leaned on the closest wall to help with the shaking.
“Well, okay…” the doctor turned to me. “Jeremy was shot. The bullet grazed his lower spine and miraculously missed all his vital organs as it exited his left side. His vertebra chipped a bit, but we think this paralysis will be temporary. Once the swelling goes down and some time passes, we hope he will return to normal.”
“Oh.” I felt a bit of relief. He had a chance to be normal again. I couldn’t help but ask, “What are the chances?”
“It’s hard to say. Everyone is so different.”
“Is it more likely than not?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
I expelled a puff of air and relaxed. My urge to puke left me as I moved toward Jeremy again. “Do you hurt or do you feel nothing?” I asked.
“I can’t feel anything. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.”
“You always look on the bright side of things. How?”
“It’s natural for me,” he chuckled.
After checking a few of the machines, the doctor turned and looked at Summer and Rick and said, “Now, you two watch out for Christy here. Don’t let her laugh too much. We don’t want her cuts to bust open.”
Only Rick and Jeremy laughed. Summer sneered.
“I’ll be back a little later, Jeremy. And Christy, be good.”
“I’ll try.” I answered, watching him leave, wondering why he hadn’t said to be safe.
“Hey, Jeremy,” Summer said. “Why am I still here? It’s not like I saw anything. Those goons out there wouldn’t explain why I had to sit around here waiting for Christy when I could have been home two days ago.”
“We didn’t know exactly what the bad guys knew, so we had to play it safe to keep you safe. We didn’t know if they knew only Christy and Marybeth had seen the whole thing and that you had seen nothing. I think it’s pretty clear now that our mole, Agent Durrant, told them about who knew what. When push came to shove and they only had a slim chance of getting rid of one of you back at the safehouse, they went for Christy.”
A strange relief washed over me, glad I’d been the target, but glad they hadn’t gotten me.
“So, is everyone else safe now?”
“Everyone, including you,” Jeremy said, looking at me. The other kids flew home yesterday.”
“Why couldn’t I go with them?” Summer asked.
“It was easier just to” keep the three of you together, that’s all.”
“
I’m so glad everyone’s safe,” I said. “What about the terrorists?”
“As far as the bad guys go, we think we got them all. They’re all either dead or in custody.”
“Even the Senator and the guy with the crooked nose and—,” I asked.
“All, Christy. You’re safe to go home. It’s over for you.”
The pain in my gut didn’t leave me. I was afraid.
“Don’t be afraid, Christy,” Jeremy said, as if reading my thoughts. “They got ‘em on the run, and besides, I taught you to defend yourself. Just be careful.”
Would I ever feel safe again?
“When are we going home?” I asked.
“This afternoon,” Rick said, almost whispering. “We go to the airport from here.”
“Today? Are you crazy?” I said.
“You mean you want to stay here? All alone?” Jeremy asked.
“I wouldn’t be alone. You would be here.”
“You need to go home.”
The door opened and our “guards” stepped inside. “Time to go.”
I leaned back down to Jeremy and hugged him. “Thank you,” I whispered. I looked at his dark brown eyes and felt tears well up again.
“Don’t cry for me. I’ll be out running before your first tear hits the ground.”
I smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll write to you.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I want to. Where do I send the letters?”
“Send ‘em to FBI headquarters. Nathan’ll get ‘em to me.”
“I will,” I said, nodding. “Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you for my life. Promise me you’ll get better.”
“I will. Don’t worry.”
“You better!” I said, turning to leave.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT