Flowers and Cards

He’d lost consciousness in the hospital parking lot. One minute he was overseeing that everyone got the medical attention they needed, and warding off the growing pain by telling himself it was all a trick of the mind and didn’t actually exist. The next minute, he was slumped over the steering wheel, leaning on the horn and quite possibly waking the dead. (he was slumped across the front seat with the handbrake digging into his back, although he couldn’t feel it.)

The injury wasn’t that extensive; it was a head injury, yes, but there was no external bleeding and the bruising was under control. The doctors thought that there might be a concussion when he awoke, but nothing more than that. Certainly nothing which accounted for his current state of unconsciousness.

At the direction of Ethan Wechsler, he’d been given an EEG; the readings were abnormal, since there was brain activity but on levels which didn’t match up with normal sleep cycles, yet there was too much activity for a simple coma. He responded to no external stimuli: not touch, not light, not sound, not motion. It was quite like he had simply shut down the cognitive portions of his brain.

It was a waiting game, and so he had been moved to a separate room for monitoring, and to keep him away from some of the chaos.

Then when the others had been treated, Ethan had called the “relative” number on Sean’s medical card.

Morgan jumped when there was a sudden pressure on his hand, but relaxed when he heard Anya speaking…At least he thought it was Anya. Her voice was familiar, but the disorientation of being blind was enough to make him question his own judgement. He managed a weak smile when her cool fingers brushed his forehead. “Anya, its not like I---“ he paused to laugh and wince slightly in pain. The burns on his hands were tender, and as much as he wanted to do nothing but cling to Anya for dear life, he drew away from her. “---I did it on purpose or anything.”

The doctor had drifted off to some other patient, content now that Morgan had calmed down, leaving Morgan to try and justify his actions. He shook his head, barely rolling it across the pillow and back. “No. It wouldn’t matter anyway. I did it to keep you alive.” He lifted his hand, then dropped it again, unsure what to do with it. “And alive you are…I can’t believe you got shot!” He fussed. “Does it hurt?”


Morgan managed another chuckle, though he was feeling anything but full of mirth. “Anya, please. Bring food to someone who needs it. You know Momma is going to swarm this place with flowers and food.” He let his head loll to one side, feeling rather useless trying to look at her with his eyes covered by gauze and bandages. “Take care of yourself first…and then Sean.”

Morgan’s toes wiggled idly under the tight blanket surrounding him as his body began to twitch back to life after his loss of consciousness. He felt stiff and sore, but didn’t dare move much. He wanted to sleep, but he was afraid to. The darkness was suffocating and terrifying, and even being able to hear Anya wasn’t enough to put him at ease. “I’ll be fine.” He lied. “I’ve been through plenty by this point to be able to nap on my own.”

Vincent was one of the lucky ones in the aftermath of the chaos at Gabriel's residence. His ability left him almost physically invulnerable and his military training made him an offensive wrecking machine. His comrades though, weren't so fortunate. Almost all of them suffered some sort of injury save for one or two. The injuries ranged from simple scrapes and bruises to bullet wounds and in Morgan's case, severe burns and some partial blindness it seemed. To Vincent's relief, Clarisse had come away clean and free. He would hate to see such a dignified and beautiful lady as Clarisse marred in some fashion by those monsters know as the MSAD. The doctor had found a special place with Vincent despite their small interaction with one another. Clarisse was sophisticated, well dressed, and had a genuine caring attitude which Vincent felt all woman should possess. She was sort of old fashioned in a sense and Vincent liked that. He was a simple and old fashioned type of guy, but he didn't go as far to think woman were only good for staying home to cook and clean.

The room which housed several members of Hammel's staff was rather busy at the moment with nurses coming and going, not to mention the slight chatter of the now conscious and moving members of Hammel. Vincent himself was situated by the large window of the room, overlooking the hospital parking lot. His back was to the window, his arms crossed and a rather serious look of thought on his face. Vincent had made sure everyone had gotten safely to the hospital and then once they were all checked in, he had left, heading straight back to the school to brief his security team and to grab a fresh change of clothing. He kept a change of clothing at the school all the time for whatever reason my arise. He had slipped on a pair of loose fitting blue jeans, a black tight fitting tee shirt and black work boots. His attire was very casual and helped him relax.

After changing clothes, he had called an emergency meeting of his security team, letting them all know what had happened and then gave the entire team their orders. Vincent wanted a lock-down of the school and canceled all school trips for the next two weeks. All students who lived on campus would be denied permission to leave school grounds and all staff members were to be escorted to and from their cars. Full patrols of the school grounds would be doubled and shift hours extended by a full two hours. The MSAD seemed broken and disoriented for now, but they were still dangerous. The twins were even more dangerous than ever seeing how their leader was dead and Jesse was seriously wounded. They would be back and with a rabid vengeance. Before leaving, Vincent put his number two man in charge and grabbed a few items to take with him. He took a small blue tooth device and attached it to his ear. It was linked to Hammel's security channel, giving him a clear connection back to the school in case something bad went down. He also grabbed a small PDA which was linked to his computer in his office in order to let him look over a few files as he waited back at the hospital.

Vincent's eyes watched one member of Hammel's staff and then moved to another as he tried to analyze them. Each person here had shown so much courage in the fight and while they weren't as organized as they should have been, they all come away alive. What plagued Vincent now, was the aftermath of the situation. Gabriel was dead at Chase's hands and for all Vincent knew, young Jesse was dead as well. This labeled Chase as a murderer, even if it might seem justifiable to the rest of the group. Vincent understood Chase's reason for going after Gabriel in the first place and while it was true that the entire group had more than a good enough reason to attack the MSAD compound, none of those things made anything that any of them did legal. Of course, Vincent knew involving the local authorities in the assault on the MSAD compound would led to many more needless deaths and injuries. Of course, the gunshot wounds which Willow and Anya seemed to have incurred meant that their doctor would be informing the local police department as they were required by law. Vincent would have to reach out far and deep to bury those reports, but with the team he commanded back at Hammel it would be pretty easy.

Vincent sighed a long and deep sigh, knowing he would have to talk to each one of these people once they were discharged from the hospital. Being head of security meant he needed to know just how these people were feeling now. If there was some sort of stress left behind in them, Vincent knew all too well the violent tendencies which could follow. He also had to make sure that the teachers involved understood that they all would have to be remain silent about the events which had transpired. The last thing Hammel needed was their students thinking they could be some sort of super powered vigilantes. All of them here were supposed to be setting good examples and while their assault of the MSAD was justified, it still didn't set the right example.