Chapter 6: The Awakening

I seem to have lost some readership because the sex slowed down. Sorry, but I try to keep my characters as believable as I can. I try to please the reader, otherwise, why write? However this seems to be the right path for this story ... Tom

John remained quiet, as consciousness returned. I'm in a hospital, was his first thought. Something had captured his hand. He tried to move his fingers.

"Oh god, John? Are you waking up?" He heard Elaine's voice. "Please John, wake up."

He rolled his head toward the sound of her voice and opened his eyes. "Did you have a nice trip?" he asked and fell back into his coma.

"Oh John," Elaine whispered. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked down at his still body. "I tried to do the right thing." She let go of his hand and walked out of the room...

"What the hell?" John's eyes flew open. Someone had hold of his cock and it hurt.

"Easy there, I'm almost finished. You have just lost your catheter." He stared wild-eyed at the grinning nurse. She laughed. "Most men I meet never react like you just did."

John tried to focus his attention and failed. Thoughts and sensations drifted through his mind. He felt foggy inside. A small part of his mind told him, I'm drugged.

"John, wake up. Come on, wake up." Someone slapped his face. "Open your eyes, John." He recognized Steve's voice.

"Ugh, what's the matter?" John's eyes refused to focus. The lawyer's face was a barely recognizable blur.

"Hey John, I'm about to remove your IV." He recognized Peggy's voice.

"We're going to help you stand and walk. You are going to walk out of here and I am going to kick someone's ass, whoever gets in out way." Peggy's voice echoed in John's head.

John stumbled along, as he placed one foot ahead of the other. Voices told him what to do and he obeyed the voices. Other voices yelled threats. "Bite me!" yelled Nurse Peggy.

"Get out of our way!" yelled Steve. More people yelled and someone yelled back. John ignored the confusion of voices and did his best not to stumble.

"I'll help you into the car, old buddy," Steve told him.

John was eased into a car seat, a door slammed and they began to move. "What happened?" he asked and went back to sleep.

John woke again. He opened his eyes and looked around him as best he could. He sat up and eased himself out of bed. He was naked. He stood and walked across the room to the ornate door. He took hold of the doorknob and pulled. A big man, a stranger stood in his way.

"Better get back in bed, sir. You have been sick."

Tony yelled, "Dad!" He ran across the room and hugged John.

"Daddy!" Kathy followed Tony and hugged him.

Christine told him, "You're naked." She grinned and stayed where she was, on an expensive sofa.

Elaine stood diffident, as she stood near him. "Oh John," she whispered.

"Elaine, what are you doing here?" John's voice held no emotion as he added, "I thought you were having fun with your new friends, from what the kids told me."

Oh John," she began to sob. "I tried to explain to Tony and he misunderstood. I tried to explain to you and failed." Heavy sobs wracked her body and she stood an arm's length away, her head bowed down.

"Elaine, Tony told me about you meeting some cop in a motel room for fun and games. Elaine, you betrayed us."

He looked around, "Where's my clothes?"

The big man John first encountered when he opened the bedroom door said, "I'm sorry, sir, you must remain here until Mister Coulter returns. It isn't safe for you out on the streets right now."

"I'll go down to the mall and get you something to wear." Elaine looked ready to cry as she walked across the room and let herself out through a door John had not noticed.

Kathy took John's hand and led him back to the bed. "Lid back in bed and we'll explain things, John." She had on her adult face.

He eased himself back onto the best mattress he had ever felt beneath him. "Please explain." He looked around the bedroom. "All I know for sure is that we're not in the Motor Home."

The young people laughed. "I am thankful I have such a wonderfully observant father, Kathy told him.

John saw the bandage on her back. He was filled with dread. "Oh Christ," he whispered. "How did you get hurt?"

Tony started to answer. "Ah Dad, you remember how you got hurt?"

"Which time?" John asked in return.

"This last time, last week when we got burned out."

Tony stared hard at the man he had adopted as his father. "Remember?"

"Oh hell." The memories began to flood his brain with too much information. He remembered the federal cops. He remembered the person who jerked his arm. He remembered falling and then nothing.

"He was a member of the BATF, so his ID says. Actually, he was an investigator for Secret Service. His partner, the jerk that was driving them was from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms."

"What in hell has that to do with us?" Then John saw Christine had a bandaged shoulder and Tony had a bulge under his tee shirt on his right side."

John sat up in bed. He planted his feet on the floor and stood. "Who did this to you." His face twisted into a portrait of rage, the muscles in his arms corded. "Tell me now."

"Dad, you've been sick. Take it easy." Tony tried to grab John's wrist.

"I'm not sick now, I'm mad." John ignored the wave of dizziness and stared hard at Kathy. "Who did this to you?"

The big stranger came into the bedroom. Kathy stared at the man, "His friend shot us. Then they tried to kidnap us and Steve got a court order."

John grabbed a lamp off the nightstand and swung it at the big man as he approached. "I'll kill you," he hissed and raised the lamp again and the man fell.

"Stop, Dad! No! We have it mostly straightened out." Tony tried to grab the lamp from John and failed.

"Oh damn," John muttered. The adrenaline washed out of his system and he sat hard on the floor. He was next to the man he had downed.

Christine took the lamp from John's unresisting fingers and placed it back on the nightstand. "Wow," she said.

"Tony, help me up. I need to go, bad. I can't get up by myself." John held his right hand up.

Kathy got on one side of her father and Tony squatted and lifted on the other. "Daddy, you have to learn to take it easy. You have been ill." The two youths helped the naked man into the toilet.

Christine took the cell phone off her hip and punched speed dial 1 to reach her father. "You better get here as fast as you can and send the paramedics. John may have killed that Secret Service agent they assigned to baby sit us."

"How did he do that? He's unconscious." Steve had a bad feeling he had a whole new set of problems to face.

Christine answered. "John woke up and remembered about the fire and that federal agent that grabbed him. Then he went kind of crazy when Kathy told him how that other one, the real BATF agent shot us."

"What happened next?"

"Our baby sitter came across the room at John and John smashed him in the head with a lamp. John is in the bathroom and the babysitter in on the floor and hasn't moved since John hit him."

"I'll call and get someone there to take care of your protector. God, doesn't the government ever hire anyone competent enough to do a simple job?" Steve disconnected and dialed a number from memory.