Ch. 2

Sounds. A constant, steady beeping. Muted talking. Beeping gets faster, still steady.

Smells. Rubbing alcohol. Powdered rubber gloves. Sterile.

Sensations of pain washed over me and I heard a groan. Me? Struggling to open my eyes, I vaguely felt a tube coming out of my arm and in my nose. The air felt cold and was being forced to flow into me. Welcoming it, I tried to squint my eyes through the numbing pain and all I saw was a bland ceiling of white tiles. I tried to move my head, but my stomach objected to the attempt.

"Ohhhhh."

"Woah, hold up there. Take it easy, you've been through a lot." A face came into my line of sight. It looked familiar, but I couldn't remember who it was. "We all thought you weren't going to make it for a while there."

"Huh?" I mumbled as I tried to make sense of what he was saying, all the while my head feeling like it was put through a meat grinder.

The man looked at me with concern. "Don't you remember? The attack in the mall?" I shook my head in the negative, immediately regretting the action. "You helped get a lot of people out of there. You're a genuine hero." The look of admiration on his face was unmistakable, and I started to remember. Images started flooding back – the initial explosion, people launched across the store; the burning sensation as it hit; the attempt to get everyone out before the gas line blew.

The gas line! "The girl! Where is she?!" I managed to yell out and immediately shot up into a sitting position. Suddenly every nerve in my body screamed out with a newfound pain. I clamped my eyes shut. Gentle hands slowly lowered me back onto the bed as I fought for consciousness.

"Please calm down sir!" came another voice, a doctor I assumed. "You need to rest. Your body has been subjected to incredible trauma and it needs to recover." I could hear him turn to the other man and speak to him. "I think visiting hours are over for now. He needs to rest."

"All right, doc." he replied, the reluctance in his voice evident. "Just tell me when he wakes up next. He might have a lot of questions."

I heard footsteps and they got progressively quieter. The doctor said something else, but the hard beating of my heart drowned it out. I struggled to stay awake, but the medicine eventually won out. I gave up the fight and let the darkness embraces me again.

* * * * * *

The fuzz in my mind began to subside as the steady beeping woke me from the artificial slumber. Still reeling from the last time I was awake, I started to experiment with opening one eye. That worked, so I open the other. So for, so good. With my eyes open, I turned my head around and surveyed the room for the first time. 'A hospital, huh?' I thought. 'Maybe I got hit worse than I thought.'

The nurse standing in the doorway, once seeing my eyes were open, motioned for someone to come in. The nurse walked in fully and behind her strolled the same man that was in the room with me before. He looked hesitant and wary for some reason, fiddling with his hands. A second later, I saw why. Walking beside him nervously was a little girl. I recognized her face almost instantly and my eyes snapped open.

She ran right up to my bed and I turned to face her. "You're okay?" I asked weakly. She nodded meekly and gave me a little smile. I reached out my hand and she took it in hers. "I was worried about you. What's your name, sweetie?"

"Casey," she said after a slight pause. The man stopped his fiddling, turned with eyes wide open, and looked straight at the girl. I glanced up at him and then back at her. Wondering what that look meant, I continued. "Well Casey, why don't you go over there and sit for a while, while the nice man and I have a little talk. Okay?" She nodded her head emphatically 'no' and gripped my hand tighter. "Don't worry, it'll be okay. I'll be right here." After another firm 'no' nod, I decided to give in. "Okay, you can stay right here." Motioning to the standing man, I asked him for two chairs. He pulled them over from the other side of the room and they both sat, Casey's hand still firmly set in mine.

I knew this would probably be a very long conversation, so I decided to get right to it. "So, what's your name, firefighter?"

He snickered to himself. "Name's Richard Vernon. I was the one you talked into letting you go back into that "ticking time bomb." He tried to suppress a shudder, but unsuccessfully.

I voiced what had been running through my mind ever since I woke up the first time. "Bad?"

"Yeah," he started out. "The whole place just blew apart. Whatever wasn't blown away from the first explosion was taken care of nicely by the second. When you didn't get out of there by the time it hit, I thought you were gone for sure." He looked over at the child. She was sound asleep, her hand still in mine. He put a finger to his lips and continued, whispering now. "I'm sure glad you stayed, though. You saved her life, for sure."

Getting out of his momentary reverie, he turned his gaze back to me. "So, with all that saving people from certain death and general hero work of yours, I never did catch your name."

"Sean Williams. What, was my ID not with me? I could have sworn I brought it with me to-"

"Burned," he interrupted. "You were pretty crispy by the time the other guys and I found you. Worst case I've ever seen, including that of my own people."

"So how long have I… you know…"

"About a month."

My mouth dropped open. "A MONTH?" He shushed me quickly so as not to wake Casey. "A month?" I repeated.

"Yeah. Shortly after you got here, you slipped into a coma. It was touch and go for a while, and you had more surgeries than I thought was possible for a human." We both laughed at that.

"So what about her? What's her story?"

Looking over to her again, his voice took on a confused tone. "Well, we don't know much about her. Thanks to dental records, we identified her parents with some of the victims you helped get out of there. They were dead before we could help them. After it was all over, the cops did some checking. As far as we can find out, she doesn't have any relatives in this state. Some of the boys back at the fire station are taking care of her for the time being, until we can find more of her family."

She looked exhausted; I couldn't even imagine what she was going through right then. "How's she handling everything? I mean is she doing okay?"

"Well, that's the thing. I don't know. She hasn't said a word to anyone at all until just now when she told you her name. She's been here just like this ever since it was possible to visit you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I don't know why, but she always wants to come see you. She practically dragged me out of the house when she found out you were awake. I think she might know you saved her. I don't know how, but I thinks she knows and wants to thank you somehow."

"Well, she's just done that by surviving. I was so worried that she would die there along with me when everything went to hell."

We both looked at her. "Well, buddy? You don't have to worry anymore because I think you're both gonna make it."

Looking down at the soft features of the adorable sleeping little girl, I thought, 'Yeah. I think we will.

'I think we will.'