With the emergency over, my body stopped producing adrenaline and I was suddenly feeling very tired. Shauna was abruptly by my side and she used a towel to wipe away the blood from my arms and legs. I hadn’t even noticed that I was covered in the stuff and I had the sudden urge for a long shower. I heard Shauna ask Jenny to get our purses from the table and she started leading me upstairs to my room. I was a bit out of it during all this and I think I was in shock. A half hour ago, I was standing by the dance floor and now I looked like an extra in the filming of Carrie.
I woke up the next morning in my bed at the hotel. I was clean and in my pjs so I must have showered. Everything after the paramedics showing up was kind of hazy in my memory. Despite being clean already, I showered again to help me wake up and got dressed. Our flight home was scheduled to leave this afternoon and so I packed up my things and got them ready by the door before I called up Shauna to see if she wanted to go out for breakfast. I was also hoping that she had some news about the guy who’d been shot last night.
I met Shauna and the team downstairs at the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It had been a busy few days and none of us had the energy to go breakfast hunting. Shauna didn’t have any news about the shooting victim from last night yet. She’d left Alexander a message this morning asking for information about the guy and she hoped he’d call to let us know. While we waited for his call, we ordered our meal and talked about all the places the team had visited. They all agreed that the White House tour was the highlight of their trip.
“Although, watching your run through a hail of bullets to go save that guy was pretty spectacular.” Gabriel said cheerfully and was soon massaging his leg from the kick that Shauna gave him under the table. The glare she was giving him was cold enough freeze water in an instant.
“Hey, the shooting had already stopped by the time I ran to the guy. There was no ‘hail of bullets’. And Shauna, why’d you kick Gabriel just now?”
“Because I asked him not to tease you about last night since you’re so touchy about things like that and he said he would behave. He didn’t behave, so he got a swift kick to the shin. He’s lucky we were sitting.”
“What do you mean? I’m not touchy at things like that.”
“Is that so? I’ve got some memories of a meeting at Hannah’s Home that say otherwise. You set me up for hours of interrogation after I showed a few videos of you saving the day.”
My face turned red at the memory and the team laughed at my expense. I sighed and gave in with a smile. She was right. I was touchy. I seemed to have a problem accepting praise for my efforts. Maybe it was because I didn’t do those things for praise or special attention. I just did them.
My musings were cut short as Ethan and Alexander walked into the restaurant and joined us at our table. They were together again and I started to wonder if they were a couple. There was no overt reason for me to think that, but they kept showing up together. I’d have to ask Shauna later. They’d probably get offended if I asked them and they weren’t.
“Good morning, gentlemen. Do you have any news about the guy that got shot last night?”, I asked as they grabbed some unused seats from the table next to ours and sat down.
“Yes. Good news. Stephen made it out of surgery early this morning and is still asleep. His vitals are strong and barring anything unforeseen they expect him to make a full recovery. It was touch and go for awhile though. He was nearly dead when they got him to the operating room. The surgeon credits the quick work of whoever stabilized Stephan and eased his breathing with saving his life. Without those measures, Stephen wouldn’t have survived to get to the hospital or had enough strength to make it through surgery. It seems like the German people are in your debt yet again, Abby.” Alexander’s smile turned to concern when he saw my expression.
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“Please, not another ceremony. The last one was too stressful, and I’ve already got one of those merit medals things. It’s very nice.”
Shauna and the team burst into laughter again and I pretended to be upset about it. However, I was disappointed that no one seemed to have picked up on my Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference. Where was Uncle Magnum when you needed him? Then I noticed Ethan shaking his head in resignation and when his eyes met mine he said, “Now go away, before I am forced to taunt you again!” and we both laughed at our shared reference. Ah popular culture. I love it! Ethan was obviously a man of refined tastes.
Jenny changed the subject. “So, what was the deal with the shooting anyways? Was someone trying to get to the ambassador?”
Ethan shook his head again, this time in negation. “No. It was just bad luck that any of the bullets found their way into the hotel room. One of the protestors pulled out a gun when the police came to arrest him. He got off two bursts of automatic fire before the police were able to subdue him. He hit three other people. Stephen was the only one that got hit in a critical area and had to be hospitalized overnight. My bosses over at the state department were going crazy last night with worry about a possible international incident. Don’t be too surprised if they want to hand you a shiny trinket as well, Abby. Not only did you save Stephen’s life, you also single-handedly saved American – German relations from potential disaster.”
“Whoa there, Ethan. I just stabilized the guy. Let’s not make a mountain out of molehill. Besides, why would Germany blame the United States for the accidental shooting death of a party guest? There was no way they could have prevented it.”
“That may be so, but logic doesn’t always prevail in these circumstances and someone would find a way to say that the Americans were negligent in how they handled the protesters. The death of the ambassador’s son would not have been taken lightly in Germany and certain elements in the German government would have seen this as an opportunity to rail against the Americans.”
It took a few moments for what he said to sink in. “Stephen is the ambassador’s son?”
“Yes. Didn’t you know? I thought I saw Gerhardt introduce you to him earlier on in the evening.”
“He introduced me to dozens of people. I forgot who they were before he finished saying their names.”
“Oh. Well, he is and you saved him so you can expect quite a bit of attention to come out of this. I have a feeling that you’re not happy about that, but try to look at it as an opportunity to tell more people about your foundation and about the problem of human trafficking.”
My horror at the memory of all the attention I’d had at school after the fire incident was somewhat mollified by Alexander’s suggestion. He was right. If I had no choice, I might as well make the most of it and turn it to my advantage.
Alexander continued, “Abby, you impressed the hell out of the ambassador with the way you took charge of her son’s care. She was wondering where you learned so much. Did you take courses to become a paramedic or something like that? Are you pre-med?”
“No. None of those things. Uhm,…I’ve been reading a lot of medical textbooks lately. One of them is all about first aid and a few of the others talked about trauma situations like last night.”
“Wait. You haven’t had any medical training whatsoever?” Alexander sounded stunned by the idea.
“I volunteer at the hospital every other weekend with my friend, Eva. We play games with the children on the cancer ward. Does that count?”
“No, it doesn’t. Not even a little bit.” Alexander’s calm demeaner was slipping again and his German accent was showing.
“Well, I’m still in high school. I haven’t really had time to go to get any training yet.” I was feeling defensive by this point.
“Then what made you think that you could help Stephen?” Exasperated. That’s what he sounded like.
“He needed help and no one else had any better ideas. I knew what had to be done.”
“From your reading.” He said this as a statement, not a question, but I answered him anyways.
“Yes, I guess.”
Alexander pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to stave off a headache. “Abby. I’m going to ask you for a very big favor. Please never mention any of this to the ambassador or to anyone at State or the embassy. Ever. You’ll give people heart attacks. I think I might be having one now.”
I knew he was joking, but I couldn’t help but pretend to take him seriously. “Do you have chest pain or discomfort? Shortness of breath? Nausea?”
“HaHa, Dr. Abby. Very funny. You may think this is all amusing now, but I know that you won’t think it so funny when the video from last night finds its way to the networks.”
I could feel all the color drain from my face. “Video? Someone was recording last night?”
As I stalked off towards my room a minute later, Shauna and the team were still laughing at me.