Infinity Chapter 41 - Aftermath

[itztigress3]

Chapter 41 – Aftermath
POV:  Zac
Word count: 3125

October 15, 2013

Alexander was sleeping very well in the hospital provided crib but I was wide awake, praying endlessly that she’d wake up. The room was very quiet except for the machines telling me her heartbeat was strong and steady, that her blood pressure was fine. I was considering sleep when I heard the slight rustle of fabric and I turned my head to look at the bed, given Alexander wasn’t moving. Her head was in a different position and she was looking right at me. She blinked a few times and I got a cup of ice gave her a few of the cubes.

“Where am I?” She asked.

“Alexander Memorial Hospital in Alexander Illinois, boy did we pick a good city.”

She blinked a few times. “Alexander, where is he…”

She started to move and I stopped her. “No, Alexander is asleep right there. He’s fine, nothing is wrong with him. Robert and Max sandwiched him in a bunk, which probably saved his life.”

She blinked a few times and I leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Just rest Emily, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”

I alerted the nurses and they checked vitals but left her alone as she’d fallen asleep again. Knowing she was ok, I let myself sleep. It was Alexander that woke me up about 8.

“He’s been awake for a little bit I just can’t get him.”

I looked at her and found her to be alert and awake, she even sounded good.

“When did you wake up again?”

“Six or something, nurse came in and checked and changed bandages and fixed my IV.”

I got up and got him, laid him down on the bed to change him. She wouldn’t take no as the answer to not letting him nurse so I didn’t argue, let her.

“How did you feed him yesterday?”

“They told me I could a pump but there was something about you being unconscious that seemed weird by that and at first they didn’t
recommend it. I asked Maddi what to do and she and Max said it was safe if I used her stored milk. So, that’s what we did.”

She raised her eyebrow. “So, you fed him Maddi’s breast milk?”

“The doctor, Max, and Maddi all said it was safe.”

“It is, just…I didn’t think she would…I guess I should thank her.”

“She’s in the hotel across the street along with everyone else.”

“I’ll assume we lost everything?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. I haven’t left the hospital. We both got checked out and then we’ve camped out with you.”

She looked down at him and I caught the sadness and before I could really say anything she was crying.

“Emily? What is it? Alexander is fine honey, there’s nothing wrong with him.”

“How can he be ok Zac? I let him go when I hit the dresser.”

I sat down on the bed and tilted her head up. “You didn’t let him go Emily, Max said he pulled him from you, Robert shoved you into a bunk and they took him and sandwiched him between them. Honey it’s what saved his life because you fell out of the bunk, if you had been holding him he would have hit the same thing you did, only it would have hurt him more.”

“Max took him?” She asked.

“From the pieces I heard, Maddi had another vision and she said Alexander died in your arms. She called Max terrified and screaming at him. When he realized something bad was happening he took Alexander from you. Honestly, he wasn’t much worried about you he said given her vision Alexander was his priority.”

She blinked a few times but seemed to calm down. “I don’t remember that, Max taking him.”

“You’d hit your head pretty hard on the dresser, evidently you hit something else.”

“The rails for the bunks, hit the edge. It’s kind of fuzzy really.”

“The doctor said you were fine physically, he was concerned about brain swelling but was pretty certain there was none. No broken bones.”

“I suppose that is good, just a cracked head?”

I smiled. “Yeah, but hey your awake and your fine.”

“I feel oddly good considering I was tossed around like a rag doll.”

That was a plus but I still waited until he was completely done nursing and just sitting there, seems like mama was his chosen person right now, now that I blamed him it’s right where I’d want to be too.

“Have we heard anything from the police or detectives?”

“We haven’t but all of the crew members along with my brothers have spoken to them. They were waiting on you to wake up.”

She tilted her head some. “Ian did this.”

“Why him?”

“The last message he sent you simply said boom that was minutes before I heard the explosions.”

“Well, you can have Craig check whatever they find, they should be here soon.”

She groaned. “Do I have to deal with my brothers?”

“Yep.”

She pouted but I knew she would anyway, she played with Alexander some and I got us both something from the cafeteria about 10, doctor approved her to eat since she was dead set on nursing him. I got Alexander something as well, knowing he’d want lunch soon. Taylor called the room as he was eating, apparently the police wanted to speak to us and he wanted to know if we needed them to get Alexander, which we didn’t. There was a knock at 1 and I told them to come in. I was expecting several detectives or officers; instead a single man came in.

He was wearing a grey pant suit, tailored to fit him perfectly. There was a FBI badge hanging from his breast pocket and he carried a black leather bag. He was close to my height, shaggy black hair and striking green eyes. I was startled by how bright they were against his dark hair; his skin tone was well tanned.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hanson?” He asked.

“That’s us.” I said.

“Good evening, I am Special Agent Spencer Grant Marshall, I work for the FBI.”

“I saw your badge; it’s nice to meet you, although, we were kind of expecting local authorities.”

He glanced at Emily and then stared for like several minutes before he tore his eyes away from her.

“Yes, we were called in and my specialty was required.”

“What is your specialty?” Emily asked.

He started to ignore her, but then looked at her. “I’m an explosive expert, Mrs. Hanson.”

“Is there something wrong with me? You seem to not want to look at me.”

He smiled some. “My apologies you just look a lot like my wife. Same eye color which I don’t see often.”

“Oddly it’s the same color of my brothers.”

He nodded. “I was called in because it was determined than a series of bombs is what caused your accident. Based on the sounds your crew heard along with the witness, Maddilyn Winters.”

“I heard them too, sounded like three.” I said. Emily agreed with me.

“It’s what everyone said, your driver was cleared early he had not been drinking and Carrick Gerety confirmed that he was talking to him but that his eyes were on the road and he didn’t do anything strange, he did try to prevent the tipping but truly there was no stopping that. The first two explosions took out the wheels, axel and all, the bus had no support on the right side and it just went over.”

“What caused the roll?” Emily asked.

“Momentum, we really are still investigating the accident and what caused it.”

We nodded and he got something from his bag and laid it on the small tray table, it was my cell phone.

“Is this one of yours?”

“It’s his but it was with me up-stairs.” Emily said.

“My second specialty is technology and we recovered this at the scene. We were able to get it on and the last message came from someone you had labeled, Ian with no last name. It was actually a reason for our delay in coming in. We weren’t sure if the message came before or after the explosions.”

“Before.” Emily said.

“Yes. Miss. Winter’s confirmed the time. She really is remarkable at remembering details. You know what message we are referring too then?”

“Yes. I was about to return to bed and I got it, simply said boom with asterisks on the outside. I really didn’t think he meant it.” Emily said.

He jotted down something, asked for our account of what happen and took careful notes.

“You were admitted to the hospital a few days ago for assault, correct?”

“Yeah.” I said.

“I’ve reviewed those records and the report, you said it was a man named Ian, gave a pretty detailed description of him.”

“I saw him, up close. I guess drawing helped me remember the details.”

“Do you think you could draw a picture of him?”

I looked at Emily and she smiled, unwavering confidence is what she eluded all the time.

“I would image that I can, I mean I don’t normally do faces but it shouldn’t be that difficult.”

“Well, given the type of assault it could be more difficult that you think. If you can, that would be awesome. If not, we can certainly have a
sketch artist come in.”

“Ok.” I said.

“Do you know anything about him?”

I sighed heavily and Emily gave him a rundown of what had been going on including the LA attack which wasn’t reported at all. He looked at her and smiled.

“You gave that like you had it planned.”

“He told me the second and gave me the details, although we haven’t told very many people the full details. In fact his brothers just found out the real nature of the attack and they don’t know everything.”

“Understandable. I found reports on you though from Georgia.”

“Yeah…” Emily said.

“It’s still touchy sometimes.” I said.

“Not a problem, I read the report some this morning I didn’t want to bring up bad memories. Um, do you think these two are somehow
connected?”

“Ian has mentioned David and Adam a few times, but I really don’t know if he really knows.”

“Zachary, he knew about things that not many know, so I think he might be the person that David and Adam mentioned selling him too when
we were being held.”

“I read that he didn’t provide a name.”

“Right, he claimed it was anonymous and that he never got the person’s name, I tried pushing the DEA to back his deal down but they wouldn’t, that 1 name didn’t compare to the others they got, which I understood.” She said.

Alexander whined and he jumped, did he not see the baby bed? I got up and picked him up; he snuggled and went right back to sleep.

“I didn’t even see a baby in that crib!”

We smiled. “Nap time and he has his mother’s temper when he doesn’t nap.”

“He looks like you, nephew?”

“He’s our son; he’ll be one the 22^nd.”

“Well, Happy 1^st early birthday.”

Something about him seemed a bit off, but he was an explosives expert and apparently we needed one. Alexander just curled up there and was still asleep, so I didn’t move him. Agent Marshall went through a dozen questions asking about what Ian had sent, when, how he talked, if we had copies and I gave him the information for the account that held everything. He seemed impressed with that but really; we’d been through this shit before! When he was done he provided a card and extra number and left.

“That was weird.” I said.

“Yeah, but least he listened.”

“I don’t like the way he was looking at you.”

She smiled. “Jealous? You? Come on Zac, he’s married and he said I had the same eyes as his wife. So what, there are dude that exist that resemble you.”

“Like Robert?”

“Exactly.”

The doctor came in at 3 and went over the same things and released her but it was just a trip across the street to the hotel, we were still here. Craig and her brothers had shown up at 2 and I wondered if I needed to keep Alexander with me for protection. Craig wasn’t so bad, but the death glares from Aaron and Christopher were.

“Can you two please stop thinking about the horrible ways you want to torture him?” She asked.

“Months Emily…” Aaron said.

“Big explosion.” Christopher said.

She looked at them. “An hour sitting on the sofa listening to me scream at him, believe me he’s been tortured enough.”

“Not enough.” Aaron said.

She tilted her head down and looked right at him, that look scared even me and I was sure it had nothing to do with me, but she knew everything.

“He’s had a fucking enough; he doesn’t need you two to make this shit worse than it already is. Now stop. You really don’t want me to get any louder.”

Christopher glanced at Craig. “I’m not being stupid and saving you. I’ll do anything but that.”

“Ditto.” Zander said.

“But…” Aaron started and Zander actually put his hand over his mouth.

“I’m no expert on your sister, but dude I wouldn’t push it. I would imagine that there are things that we don’t know or are not aware of. You shouldn’t pass judgment on him without the information. Come on, I’ve seen her mad and really another word from you and she might explode.”

For a moment, I thought he was going to disregard her and Zander but he calmed down and nodded.

“Is there things you’re not telling us?” Christopher asked.

“There is, but it’s not something that I’m going to say so don’t even ask.”

They nodded and everyone went for dinner but us, they brought us something back. She was feeding Alexander, who was sitting in her lap loving the squash that they’d brought back for him.

“Did you check the house?”

“I did.”

“Check the house? She asked you too?” Christopher asked.

“I didn’t want everyone to worry, what did you find?”

He looked up at us. “I don’t think you want to know.”

I took a deep breath. “I know its bad Craig, just tell us.”

“Well, code wise the only ones used were the two of yours and family. Which, we had them down and knew, so I dug a little deeper, it would show you coming home about 6 or 7, usually but then at like 1 or 2, the code would reenter to disarm and rearm about 3 the same thing would happen. So, dug a little deeper because your cameras are triggered when you arm the system, its set to record the entrance and exits and key points.”

We waited on him. “Going back to May there was a man entering and exiting the house, now I checked some things and I’m sorry Emily but there were times where he was in the house with you alone. Sometimes he was there during the day also and there was a time where both of you were home and he was there. I only assume he was in the basement.”

Aaron and Christopher both just blankly stared at him and I could understand he’d been there alone with her, what if he had done something?!

“Since May?” She asked.

“It’s when I detected random entries when it was clear you were at work, I mean hell your always there! I checked every camera, every wire, everything and none of them were hacked. I didn’t detect anything that would confirm he hacked in.”

“He didn’t have to hack the alarm; all he needed was our phones. We changed them in February right before Fool’s and I texted them to everyone.”

“The only ones used were yours and Zac’s.”

“We wouldn’t think anything of it really. So, what did you do?”

“They’ve all been changed again and this time I added a fingerprint system to it. No one can enter your house without scanning their thumb.
It’s not active right now because I need everyone there that you want to have access.”

“What about the gate?” I asked.

“It’s up to ten now, I added a cover and put a plastic case over it, that way you don’t leave smudges on the numbers you use. It won’t leave any traces.”

“So, when we get home we’ll activate the thumb print scanner. I guess that mean’s Alexander’s birthday party will be at the house as well.”

“You have it planned?” Christopher asked.

“Dude, I had that done before we left but I was going for the park but given the new information we won’t be there.”

I felt bad, our sons first birthday and we had to think about some lunatic killing him. She can’t be home alone all the time with or without someone but really what would we do?

“What about the rest of the tour?” Aaron asked.

“Well, Velma canceled the next three shows and then we were scheduled to be home anyway for Alexander’s first birthday and for Halloween. In
November we have Epcot and then a few shows, we’re going to move the next three then. It takes us close to Thanksgiving, but not into. We’ll then hit Canada and a few more next year.” I said.

“Epcot should be awesome.” Zander said.

“Yeah, if we could go.” Emily said.

“You are going.”

“Thirty thousand people and you want to tour Disney? Not happening.”

“I’m not giving up family memories because one lunatic bastard thinks I belong to him. I didn’t give them up when Adam or David was watching and I’m not now.”

She looked a bit stunned but I was right, we hadn’t let them control our lives and I won’t now.

“Guess I’m going to Disney then, what the hell why don’t we just invite everybody?”

“Uh…I already have?” I asked.

She shook her head and kept feeding him, he was almost done though, conversation steered toward what was going on, how she was, and whether the rest of us were ok. She called to make follow up appointments with her, even said she was due for a yearly exam which all of us groaned at that thought, the downside to having all men around you, we don’t want to know those details! They stayed in the room with us until bedtime and then Craig and Christopher stayed, Aaron and Zander had their own room. I lay down with Alexander having not slept much the last two days. I couldn’t wait to get home.