Interlude 3

Matt and Tricia’s dad were talking in the kitchen when the window blew in. We all looked on in shock as Matt’s shoulder exploded in a spray of blood. Everyone screamed and Mr. Saunders ducked, running for Tricia who was starting toward Matt.

“RUN!” he screamed even as he collapsed to the floor. “OUT THE FRONT!”

I saw him grab his phone and prop it up next to the cabinet and hoped he knew what he was doing. I grabbed Emma and ran before she could go to him. He was my Master. I grabbed what was most precious to him and took her to safety before she could go to him like she wanted, like I wanted. I took her out to the street and we called 911 together. I gave the address and said that Matt had been shot. I told them that it was Vance Waterman. Just then we heard more shots, this time from inside the house.

“He’s in the house! HE’S KILLING MATT!” I screamed into the phone in near panic. Tricia was flailing to go back into the house and so was Emma. Daddy took her from me so I could talk to the dispatcher. I told her the address again and that I needed police and ambulance. Mom had Beck around the waist and was holding her back. She was screaming that she’d kill him. Gina was screaming too and her father was holding her. Her brother, Hector was the only one of us who looked calm. It wasn’t real to him. He stood impassively while his mother kept a grip on him. If anything, he looked at the door with anticipation, like he expected Matt to pop out with the shield on his arm and an eagle on his shoulder. Lilly clung to Mom and was screaming wordlessly.

All I could do was stand there and wait and pray. He didn’t have the shield. Hector had it in the living room when first shots were fired. Had he gotten to it? Was it bulletproof? We heard more shots and I thought it sounded like one of them hit something metal. God, I hoped so. We were so close to getting him back. We couldn’t lose him now. Not now!

“DO SOMETHING!” I screamed into the phone. I could hear sirens distantly. I couldn’t believe how far away they were. They’d never get here in time.

The dispatcher gave me an update in minutes. “HE’S DYING NOW! NOT FIVE MINUTES! NOW!”

More shots and then a scream of rage from the back of the house and a sound that I couldn’t place. After that, there was silence. I sobbed. I wasn’t the only one. I could hear the sirens coming closer. Was Matt dead? Was he still fighting. The calm of the night was only broken by the sound of help approaching. The first to arrive was a police car. The officers were just approaching with their guns drawn, pointed at the ground to ask us which house.

The door opened and Tricia screamed again. I looked up and saw Matt standing there. He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. He was covered in blood. The shield gleamed wetly along one edge and there was bloody foam on his lips, but he was alive. “It’s over,” he said and held up Vance Waterman’s severed head, holding it by a handful of hair. One of the cops turned and vomited loudly. Matt took a step and I could see his strength give out. He collapsed onto the frozen lawn, his eyes staring at us without seeing.

“No!” I whispered, going to him with the others, the phone forgotten in my hand. Paramedics arrived a few minutes later and I was suddenly pushed aside while they started on him.

I hung up on 911 and I realized I had Matt’s phone too. He must have been holding it when I took his hand. It was still recording. I stopped it and went through his contacts hoping he hadn’t memorized the number. I breathed a sigh of relief and pushed the call button.

“Matt?” Dr. Spencer asked groggily. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Lana Powers, Dr. Spencer. Matt’s been shot. Paramedics are working on him right now. It was Vance Waterman.”

“I’ll meet you at the hospital,” she said and hung up.

As we stood by, Emma looked at me and we nodded to each other.

Tricia and Gina were still frantic. I took Gina by the shoulders. “Call the girls. Tell them what happened. They need to know it’s over, but they need to know about Matt too.” She nodded. I turned to Tricia and had her call Cheryl since they were close. I used Matt’s contact list to find Donald’s number and informed him what had happened. He said he was on his way and he’d meet us at the hospital.

Emma was talking to police and informing them that DA Forbes needed to be here right away. For now there was nothing we could do but watch and hope that the paramedics could get him to the hospital. Hector was crying now. He’d never seen a hero fall. This night would stay with him forever. Daddy got everyone organized and into cars to go to the hospital. No one was sleeping tonight. The police let us go, but cautioned that we’d need to talk to officers at the hospital. There wasn’t going to be a lot we could tell them. Emma got into the ambulance with him. As his fiancee, that was her place. I wished it were mine, but so long as he lived to give me a place at all, that was what was important.

When we got to the hospital, she joined us. “He’s ... His heart stopped on the way in. They got it going again, but there’s so much blood.”

She excused herself to make some other calls and inform other people before returning to us.

“He expected this,” Mr. Saunders said quietly when we’d been sitting in the waiting room for a while. “We were talking about what he thought Vance’s next moves would be. He predicted that he’d get high and then look for a gun. I think he just managed to find both of those faster than anticipated.”

“Maybe he already knew where to get one,” Beck said. “He knew where to get drugs easy enough. Drug dealers would know how to find guns.”

That was a sobering thought. Matt’s phone rang and I looked at the number. It wasn’t a contact. I answered it. “Who is this?” someone asked, surprised that the phone was answered.

“Lana,” I said simply. “Who’s this?”

“My name is Joshua Forbes. I was looking for Matt Russell. This is the number he gave me.”

“This is his phone, but he’s not available. What can I do for you, Mr. Forbes?” I asked, getting Emma’s attention and my parents’.

“I wanted to let Matt know that the police have located Vance Waterman and he doesn’t have to worry.”

I looked at the phone before putting it back to my ear. “We know. We figured out Vance wasn’t gonna be a problem when Matt carried his decapitated head out of the house and dropped it in the front yard. Matt doesn’t have to worry because he’s in surgery right now. Vance shot him. I don’t know how many times, but he’s fighting for his life. I don’t know how you know Matt, but your information is a little old right now.”

“What?” he said. “I’m the district attorney. I was talking to Matt a couple of hours ago. What happened?”

Now that he mentioned it, I remembered his voice from the recording Matt had played me of their meeting. Was that really only yesterday? “Vance shot him through the kitchen window and he told us all to run while he bought us time to get away. That’s all we know until he came out the front door with his shield and Vance’s head.”

“Oh Sweet Flying Jesus!” he said. “I’ll see you all at the hospital once the scene is cleaned up.”

I hung up and went to hand the phone to Emma, but she shook her head. “You’re doing fine,” she said. “I can’t take my mind off Matt to answer the phone.” I nodded and hugged her, both of us trembling slightly.

We stood like that for a long time and then separated. People started filtering in over the next hour. Dr. Spencer assured us that Matt’s surgeon would move Heaven and Earth to save him when she arrived. “She’ll drag him back from the gates of Hell if need be,” she said certainly. “Samantha has a soft spot for Matt. He couldn’t be in better hands.”

“I think I met her once,” Emma said, surprised. “Matt invited her to the house once.”

Dr. Spencer nodded. “He thinks very highly of her,” she said, “and the feeling is mutual. If there’s a doctor that’ll fight well past the point another surgeon would give up, it’s Samantha. Count on it.”

“We already are,” I told her and she came and hugged me.

“I called Alice. She’ll be here soon for you and Becky,” she said gently, letting go of me and hugging Beck gently.

Donald showed up, wanting to know what had happened. When he found out, he shook his head and went to make a phone call to work to report the family emergency.

Lilly had been a complete wreck through all of this, weeping on Mom’s shoulder. She’d run when Matt told her like the rest of us had, but she was certain that Matt was going to die. When Donald came back, she clung to him. He was all the family she had right now.

The girls showed up with their families and we all waited overloading the waiting room until a lot of the parents went to the cafeteria. It wasn’t serving at this hour, but there was more space for everyone there. Hanna showed up and wanted to know what had happened.

After we were there for three hours, Dr. Spencer went to check on the state of the surgery. She was gone for what seemed like hours while we waited. I paced, I got irritated when someone took my seat, I looked for messages on my phone and his, I tucked them both into my pocket and paced some more. Eventually she came back and gave us the bad news.

“He’s been shot six times,” she said grimly. “The head wound is superficial. The shoulder wound is likely going to take a lot of work to get the full use of his right arm back. The shot in the back penetrated the chest cavity and caused what’s called a sucking chest wound. That means his chest cavity starts to fill up with air and there’s no room for his lungs to expand. It also penetrated his lung, so it’s filling up with blood. The wound to his leg missed the artery which is good news. It’s not life-threatening for the moment. The bullet to his side tumbled some and caused some damage. The last shot was to the abdomen and that’s going to stretch out his surgery a little. Samantha can’t run the risk that the bullet nicked the bowel so she has to go in to check.”

“How’s he doing?” Mom asked. “I know all those injuries are life-threatening by themselves, but he’s young and strong. Is he fading or fighting right now?”

“It’s very early to tell, but his heart stopped on the way in and again on the table once. He’s lost a lot of blood and he’ll have a long road to recovery, but I think he’ll make it. Matt’s fought back from everything life’s thrown at him. I can’t imagine him slipping away now. That’s not the most scientific basis for a positive prognosis, but the rules don’t apply to Matt. He was shot six times and killed his attacker with a movie prop from what you’ve said. He dates multiple girls at a time and unless I miss my guess, more than one of you tried to get back into that house to help him. He’s extraordinary and I hope that extends to his recovery too.”

We all took some comfort in that. A little while later, DA Forbes arrived to talk to everyone who was there. I asked the first question that I could think of. “Where’s his shield?” I asked.

“It’s been processed as evidence,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that it was a clear case of self defense. The crime-scene team is there already, combing the scene for evidence and piecing together the timeline. It’ll take a few weeks, but he’ll get his shield back. How’s he doing?”

Dr. Spencer repeated the list of injuries for his benefit.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” he asked.

“I’m Matt’s doctor,” she said simply.

“If you’re his doctor, then who’s working on him right now?” he asked.

“I’m his doctor, not a surgeon. He’s with the most talented surgeons I could hope for.”

“I see,” he said before turning to the rest of us. “You’ve already given statements to the police?” he asked and we nodded. “There wasn’t much for us to see,” I admitted. I told him about what had happened and how we’d run when he told us to.

“The next thing any of us saw was him dropping Vance’s head on the step and collapsing on the lawn,” I told him.

“I guess he got his wish, after all,” he said. “He promised me that Vance would make the news. The news crews are already all over the street. Don’t worry. There’s police on the scene overnight.”

“When will we be able to do repairs and clean up the house?” Donald asked.

“Once evidence is collected, you should be fine to start. There’s a crime-scene cleanup company that we use. They’re very quick and very thorough.” He handed Donald a card. By tomorrow morning, you’ll be able to return to the house and we’ve already processed the broken window and put up some plastic. That and the back door are the major repairs that need to be done to secure the house. There are a few bullets that need to be dug out of the walls in places and the blood. The fight was pretty well contained from what they tell me”

“I’m gonna start sending people home,” Emma said finally. “From the sounds of it, we still have hours left before he’s out of surgery. I’m not gonna sleep, but there’s no reason everyone else should be up all night.”

“I’ll go with you,” I told her as we started for the cafeteria.

When we got there, a lot of people assumed we were delivering news. We told them about the surgery and the injuries. “Dr. Spencer said they haven’t even started the abdominal surgery yet,” she told them. “They’ll have him ... have him ... OPEN for hours yet.”

She started to weep softly and I took her hand. I was crying too, but I tried to rein it in as much as I could. I didn’t want to fall to pieces. The parents all got up to go home, each of them begging us to call them when we knew something. We promised and then it was just the two of us. We hugged again and then we both broke down. The stress, the fear, the exhaustion, the love we felt for Matt and the terror we felt at the thought of losing him.

When we were cried out for the moment, she sniffed and touched my arm. “You need to call Tabby and Collie,” she said. “They don’t know yet. He was trying to make things better with them. He invited them to come for Christmas. They’ll want to know.”

I nodded and couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought to call them yet. I pulled out my phone and called their number. It rang for a long time before a barely-awake Collie answered.

“Hello?” she mumbled.

“Collie, Matt’s been shot. He’s in surgery right now,” I told her as gently as news like that can come at 3:30 in the morning.

“What?!” she asked, confused.

I repeated myself and told her what had happened.

“No!” she whispered, horrified. I could hear her moving around, turning on lights. “GET UP!” she shouted to Tabby. “Matt’s been shot! We have to get to the hospital!”

I could hear Tabby in the background, coming awake, wanting to know what happened. Collie put me on speaker so I could explain while the two of them got dressed. “I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. We’re all in shock. He’s been in surgery for about three hours now. It’s probably going to be hours more.”

They told me that they’d be here as soon as they could and hung up.

The two of us went back to the waiting room and there was a lot more space for us to sit and be comfortable.

She sighed after we’d been sitting for a few minutes and then pulled out her phone and made what must have been a difficult call.

“Zoe, it’s Emma. Matt’s in surgery. Someone shot him. No, you don’t need to do anything. I just thought you’d want to know. All we know is that he has a team working on him right now. He’s been in for a few hours now and it sounds like there’s a lot more left. One of the guys from Halloween came looking for him. No, he’s not in custody. Matt killed him. No, he didn’t get the gun from him. He killed him with his shield, we think. Uh, not exactly. We don’t know what happened in the house. He told us all to run and stayed to slow him down.”

I listened to the conversation and sympathized. We’d both had to explain what we knew more than once tonight.

“All I know is Matt came out of the house with the guy’s head and left the body somewhere inside,” she finally blurted. “He was awake long enough to tell us it was safe and then he collapsed. They said he’ll have to work hard to regain the use of his right arm.” She sobbed at that. “In the shoulder, in the back, in the side, in the stomach, in the leg and in the head. Yeah, six times. Damage to his lung, they aren’t sure about the abdomen yet. They were working on his chest when Dr. Spencer checked. No. Go back to bed, Zoe. All you can do here is worry with the rest of us. We’ll all still be here in the morning. Yeah, I’ll let you see him when he’s out of surgery. Goodnight.”

She hung up the phone and put it away, burying her head in her hands for a few minutes. Hanna and Tricia were there with her as soon as she put her head down. I looked around the room and there were a lot of people that were with us just waiting for news. Beck came to stand with me and we exchanged a look. Dr. Gionetti had been in to see both of us and was talking to our parents right now.

Tabby and Collie arrived just before 4AM and we explained everything that we knew about the attack and the injuries and the surgery as it was going at the time of the last update.

“He’ll make it though, right?” Tabby asked with a confidence that was only paper-thin.

“He’s died twice already,” I said. “Once in the ambulance and once in surgery. They’re keeping his heart going. I want to say yes, but there was so much blood. I can’t even tell you how he got that far.”

“He’ll make it,” Emma said. “He won’t give up.” She said it quietly, but with the kind of conviction we all wished we had. I hadn’t noticed her joining us, but she and Hanna and Tricia and Gina had seemed to cling to each other over this. The four of them reminded me of how Collie, Tabby, Beck and I had been with him back in the summer.

The eight of us exchanged hugs and then Emma led us off to the cafeteria where we could talk uninterrupted. We’d be called back if there was any news. I had this sickly feeling like it was turning into a wake as we shared stories about him. I saw the same realization in everyone’s face as I looked around.

“Fuck this!” Hanna said finally. “He’s not dead and he’s not going to die. We’re not talking about him like he’s gone or going or like it’s even in question. He’ll come back to us and when he does, I’m gonna kick his ass ‘til he’s strong enough to fight me off again.”

That got us laughing a little and it lightened the mood some. Everyone needed to raise our heads from the melancholy. We talked more over the next hour and felt a little less anguished when we returned to the waiting room. It was another hour later when we got the news.

I knew she was the one we were waiting for when Dr. Spencer and Emma both got up to greet her. She gave us a minute to gather around. “I’m Dr. Forester. I was the surgeon in charge of Matt’s surgery. He’s alive. He’s critical, but stable for the moment.”

“What can you tell us about his injuries?” Donald asked.

“His injuries are extensive. He has a gash in his head from a graze. He may have a concussion when he wakes up, but it shouldn’t be as severe as the one Victoria says he suffered from this summer. His right shoulder is going to need an additional surgery to repair the damage in there. We did what we could, but we were concerned with stopping the bleeding and getting his lung re-inflated. He’ll have a couple of chest tubes for drainage and we’re monitoring closely for post-op infections. Those kill as many gunshot patients as the bullets. The drainage and fever levels will tell us what we need to know. He’s on high levels of antibiotics to kill anything we might have missed. One of the bullets punctured his stomach and we had to repair a fair bit of damage there. Another one left him with some damage to the bowel. We had to repair it and that dragged out the surgery a little more than we wanted. His leg was actually the good news. That bullet missed the bone and the major blood vessels. We were able to do that part of the surgery cleanly and we won’t have to go back in there. His chest and abdominal wounds we’re packing off for a day or two in case we need to perform more surgery, but for now, he needs to recover, build up some strength and heal a little before we decide if we can close him up or we need to go back in.”

“You mean all his surgeries will still be open?” I asked, incredulously. “Is that safe?”

She nodded. “He’s better off like this. With so much chance of infection, we need to be able to go back in at a moment’s notice if he needs more surgery. Unfortunately that means visiting him right now is absolutely out of the question. He’s being moved to intensive care right now. You can go up and see him, but he’s going to be in a clean room for the next day or two until we’re satisfied that he’s out of the woods.” She paused and seeing the eager looks on everyone’s faces, she shook her head. “He’s not going to look good. We had to shave part of his head for the wound there. He’s a mess of tubes and drains. He’s on a ventilator right now while we give his lung a chance to inflate and his chest to drain. He’ll barely be recognizable, but if you’ll go with Dr. Spencer, she’ll take you up to ICU.”

Emma went to her and hugged her. “Thank you for bringing him back to us,” she said softly.

We each followed her, all eight of us and his sister, Mom and Daddy, Donald and Gina’s little brother who’d only met him tonight.

She looked surprised by the expression of gratitude and Dr. Spencer smiled at her. “There were a lot more people here earlier. I suspect that many of them will want to have an opportunity to thank you personally. I once told you that Matthew has an incredible aptitude for making other people’s lives better. He touches a lot of lives. Spend some time around him while he’s here. You’ll meet more people than you do in a year of other cases.” She nodded and turned to all of us, gathering us in to take us up to see him.

There wasn’t a lot to see. He was being fed medication through IV bags in both arms, his head was bandaged and he was covered by blankets, There was a nurse in with him wearing a mask and a surgical cap over her hair as she got him settled. I think we all watched the ventilator work slowly as if for the confirmation that he was still alive for a few minutes before we decided to disperse. Gina and Tricia were each going home and the rest of us were headed back to see if Emma and Lilly were going to be able to get back into the house. We went outside and Emma, Gina, Tricia and I started making calls to tell everyone that he was in the ICU and that he’d pulled through the surgery. No one could go into his room because of risk of infection, but as soon as they could, we promised we’d let them know. Right now all they could do is look at him through the glass.

I remembered the last time we left him in the hospital and I only hoped that we wouldn’t get such terrible news this time.

“Lana, when we get home, I need your help with something if you don’t mind,” Emma said softly. “I think we need to post something on his Twitter account about this so people know.”

I nodded. “We should post something to his YouTube account too,” I suggested. “A lot of people follow him there.”

She hesitated, but nodded. “Okay.”

When we all got back to the house, there was a police car blocking the driveway and news vans parked up and down the street. He moved for Emma and Donald to park before he took up his position again and he got out to talk to us.

“They’re all done inside and out,” he said. “You’ll need the back door replaced and the kitchen window, but other than that, there was nothing but cosmetic damage inside. I was told to tell you it’s fine to call for cleanup. A few of your neighbors were by, wondering what had happened, but other than that, it’s been all quiet.” He paused and looked at the news crews that were already out and filming our conversation. “Well, as quiet as things get with THEM involved. If you folks don’t need me, I’ll leave and report in that I’ve released the scene.”

We thanked him and he left. Inside was pandemonium. There was blood everywhere. There were gouge marks in the walls and ceiling from the bullets they dug out of the plaster. The back door was still swinging. There was glass on the floor from the window and the house was freezing. The plastic hadn’t done much to keep the chill out.

Donald called the clean-up company and talked to them, asking if they partnered with anyone who did window and door repairs for scenes like this. They suggested a contractor and said they’d send a cleaning team over right away.

We let him handle it and went down to Matt’s room. It was a little warmer here and I went right to his computer. I took out his phone and downloaded the video. “I saw Matt set his phone in the corner to record things before I grabbed Emma and got her out,” I explained to them. “He pressed his phone into my hand when I got to him. He wanted us to have this.” I looked at Emma. “He probably would have given you the phone, but you had his other hand.” She nodded and we waited for the download to finish.

When we played it, we were stunned. We watched it again and then a third time. “If I hadn’t seen him make that same shot at Halloween, I’d never have believed it,” Emma said.

I copied the video file to a CD and then made another copy before I picked up Matt’s phone and disconnected it. I made the call that I needed to make. “Mr. Forbes?”

“Yes, this is DA Forbes,” he said. “Is this Lana?”

“Yes, it is. There’s something you need to see. I’m at Matt’s house. How quickly can you be here?”

“Forty minutes? I have a lot of work to do to piece last night’s events together. Is it important?”

“Matt recorded it on his phone. It shows ... everything. We’re going to post it to his YouTube account. We wanted you to have a copy before we do.”

“Please don’t,” he urged me. “That content will show someone killed brutally. That shouldn’t be out there for people to access for kicks.”

“Matt would argue that it shows someone standing up to defend their home and their loved ones. He’s also going to need the revenue from that for his medical bills after this.”

He sighed. “I can be there in ten minutes,” he said. “I’ll bring the lead investigator so he can see it.”

I hung up and we went upstairs to tell everyone. Mom and Daddy were still there and they all came down to see the video. We all watched it in silence and no one shed a tear when the shield came down on Vance’s throat.

I took one of the copies out to the the rec room and put the disk in the PlayStation to run it when Mr. Forbes arrived.

When he did, we led him and the crime-scene tech that was investigating the forensics to watch the video. They watched it without comment, nodding in places. The investigator whistled at the throw and the catch he’d made and then winced a little as he brought the shield down.

“Just like I said,” he told Mr. Forbes. “Like he was decapitated with a dull axe.”

“Was there any damage to the shield?” I asked him.

“You just watched someone beheaded with that thing and you’re not even a little concerned about the victim?”

“The victim is clinging to life in the hospital,” I said coldly. “Vance Waterman got off easier than he deserved.”

“Aside from the gun violence, what could he have possibly have done to deserve THAT?!” he asked, skeptically.

“He used drugs to subdue sixty girls and then raped them, sold them to other guys to rape them and used the money to pay for the drugs. Personally, I think he deserved a lot worse, but I’ll settle for what we got.”

“You were one of them?” Forbes asked and I was about to answer him when Emma did.

“Matt would be very disappointed in you asking people who care about him whether they were at that party,” she said. “Leave it alone. There’s no case any more, no conviction. Leave those girls alone.”

“I’m not asking for that. Vance’s parents are already planning to file a wrongful death suit. He’ll want as many character witnesses as he can get,” he told us.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have told him that killing them would be overreacting,” she said darkly before shaking her head. “All the more reason to post this video. Put it out in the public eye that he wasn’t the aggressor.”

Forbes looked like he wanted to argue, but he admitted that it would go a long way to swaying public opinion. “Just don’t be surprised if it gets some negative publicity too.”

Emma nodded. “You let me worry about that. I’ve got it handled.” She lifted her phone and made a call. “Mom,” she said. “I need a favor. A big one. I need you to make sure everyone in creation shares a video we’re going to post, but first, sit down.” She explained last night and Matt’s injuries and what the video showed. “We’re going to record an introduction and warn the content is graphic. Then we’ll splice in the clip and post it. I’ll call you back when we’re done.”

She hung up and looked at us. “Done. It’ll be on every Twitter in Hollywood in three hours. Mom’s already logging into hers so she can share it.”

“Who’s your mother?” Forbes wanted to know, surprised.

“Caroline West. We’ll probably hear from Chris Pratt and Chris Evans before the clip is up more than an hour. They both follow Matt online.”

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