Chapter 36

I woke up in the hospital two days later. The nurses attempted to keep me in bed, but I wasn’t going to calm down until I found out what had happened to Rachel. Detective Stanfield came in and helped the hospital staff to get me back into bed by answering my questions.

Rachel was in a private ward in another part of the hospital, recovering from surgery. Due to the nature of her injury, she had to have an emergency heart transplant. It turned out that Dan’s death was fortuitous. He was of a universal blood type and his heart was in perfect condition. The doctors had been amazed that I had been able to make Rachel’s heart properly pump blood, as damaged as it had been. From what the doctors told him, she would make a full recovery. Stanfield also told me that Rachel’s parents had flown up from Houston. When I asked why she was in a private ward, Stanfield said it was because her wings were still uncased.

A doctor came in shortly after that. He was amazed by my recovery, especially since he didn’t understand what had knocked me out in the first place. He wanted to do more tests, but I refused. After a quick examination, he released me.

After I got dressed, I went to see Rachel and her parents. Even after facing off with Jacquelyn, and not giving in to the impulse to kill her on the spot, apologizing to Mr. and Mrs. Hendrickson was the hardest thing I would ever do. I even confessed that it had been my own stubbornness that had gotten Rachel hurt. Mr. Hendrickson waited until I had stopped talking long enough to tell me that he had spoken to the Detective. Stanfield had told them that I was the only one able to stop Jacquelyn. If it hadn’t been for my actions, Rachel and possibly many other people down the line would have died had Jacquelyn escaped. The Hendricksons didn’t blame me for what happened and were glad I had helped to bring Jacquelyn to justice. It was enough for them. It would have to be enough for me too.

Once I felt calm enough, I went to see Rachel. The hospital staff had gone beyond normal duty for her. They set up extra rigging for her wings. Upon seeing her, I knew something had changed. A lot of the radiance that had given her that unearthly beauty was gone. Seeing her laid up in bed, she looked like a fallen Angel. Then she opened her eyes and looked to see who had come in.

Her eyes were still sky-blue and the lack of any makeup allowed me to see a soft blush fill her face. She moved to sit up, but I crossed the room and laid a hand on her shoulder, pushing her gently back into bed. I reminded her that she needed to rest and she looked away as she gripped the dressing gown at her chest. I could see in her aura that she was embarrassed, but her current state of dress and the lack of makeup didn’t bother me in the least. I clutched her hand with mine.

She looked up at me and smiled when she saw the way I looked at her.

We talked about her recovery. She would be going to Houston because her family would hire people to help. She couldn’t afford it on her own, plus the additional stresses of day-to-day living wouldn’t help either. I asked how long she would be gone. She shrugged. She didn’t know. There was more than just the physical recovery, which would only take a few weeks. The emotional trauma, however, could take months or years. It could be something from which she would never recover.

I had known that Rachel and I weren’t exactly destined to be together, but she was still my friend, and friends supported one another through hard times. I told her that I would visit. I might even be able to help in small ways. I knew I could heal the incision on her chest, as well as the sutures on the veins and arteries around her heart. It would give her immediate strength and allow her to focus on the other aspects of recovery she mentioned. She smiled at the offer but declined. It wasn’t that she didn’t want it, but the doctors had to crack open her ribcage to complete the replacement. She had to wait for those bones to heal.

I nodded and squeezed her hand. I promised to learn more about being a Psionic. Not to mention, discovering all of my dormant abilities, which would allow me to help her further. I would see her back on her feet so as to watch her blonde ponytail bounce when we ran again. She smiled and said she would hold me to that.

As for Rachel’s secret, she shouldn’t have been worried. Grace took the news about Rachel with as much surprise as snow in the middle of summer; a surprise, but nothing to be angry about.

Eric and Ellen had visited me while I had been unconscious. They found me as I was leaving Rachel’s room. Grace had told Eric my secret, which I expected. Ellen, on the other hand, had known, or suspected, for years that something was different about me. She saw the news reports regarding the shooting at the mall, and the arrest of Dan Baxter. She had also found videos on YouTube that had been linked to those incidents. With a certain level of excitement in her eyes, she asked me what I could do. I shook my head and took her back to my place to show her. There was no getting out of it.

Classes started just like clockwork. Heaven forbid such a huge event in my life cause the rest of the world to stop or even slow down. I may have been behind by two days already, but before I started attending, I decided to tweak my schedule. Detective Stanfield had suggested I try something in either criminal justice or forensic science and see how it suited me. UTA didn’t offer anything in forensic science, which disappointed me. However, their criminal justice program offered internships for students with local law enforcement as well as other areas of law administration. I changed Basic Structure for Introduction to the Criminal Justice System.