The House in the Woods

Who is she again?

Jennifer/Hannah POV

The nurse had given me an extra pair of scrubs before she brought me up, so I go in the bedroom to change. I grab my phone and go into the conference room that Owen and Sean were working in. I go through the files to see if there is anything new that I can learn.

I dial the phone and put in my password. Alexander sounds sleepy when he answers the phone on the third ring. His tone sounds concerned when he says, "Are you okay?"

I try to keep my voice down when I say, "I don't know if I can do this, Alex."

Alex says softly, "What happened?"

I say, "I had a conversation with Sean and Owen. I thought they both had left the room, and I totally broke down. I guess Sean was not far enough down the hall because he came back and sat down on the floor and hugged me until I cried myself out. I need to get out of here. I am going to screw it up."

Alexander says calmly, "Just breathe, sis. In and out, Hannah. I am going to call the doctor in the ER and get them to send you up something up to calm you down without spacing you out. You have been through a lot today. I think that you are having a panic attack."

I try to get my breathing under control and say, "What about our other problem? Have you heard anything?"

Alexander's voice sounds a stressed when he responds, "You know that I will let you know if we hear anything. Keep your phone on silent so it does not go off around the boys, but keep it with you. If there is any threat, we will pull you out, you know that. We have ten men at the hospital right now, and the Academy probably has double that number for their guys. Jesse and Conner are assigned to you and have already worked out an escape plan. Dillon, Sam and Jack are on Melinda. We have both an bulletproof SUV in the hospital parking lot and a medivac helicopter staged at the Picken's County airport that can be in the air and on the roof landing pad within five minutes. There is no way that Jeremy will get close to you, Hannah."

I feel calmer and say, "I know that you have it under control. I am just scared, and seeing the boys will stirred things up again."

"You have only talked to Owen and Sean so far?" Alexander asks.

"Yeah, the others have been sleeping. Sean gave them all some sleeping pills," I say.

"Well you passed the first hurdle then. If you are okay now, I need for you to hang up because there is a nurse on her way up. Stay strong, sis. This is almost over," Alexander says as he hangs up.

I barely have time to put my phone away before the elevator doors open and a nurse walks out of the elevator. She walks over to me and says, "Hi, Ms. Jeffers. We were finally able to speak to your personal physician, Dr. Sampson, and he updated your medicine to include a mild sedative that you have taken in the past."

I take the pills and swallow them with some water.

I look at the nurse and say, "I was looking in the day room, and I noticed that it was a little bare. I know that there are teenage boys that are also in quarantine. Since there is no cable for the TV, I was wondering if there is someone that can arrange for a gaming system, some games, and some DVDS. I also want to see what can be arranged for food for the day. I have a friend that can go and get everything if we can get it approved through the hospital administration."

"That is really sweet of you. I know that the boys will appreciate that. I will have someone come up and talk to you," the nurse says as she walks out of the room.

Less than half an hour later, I had worked it out with Dr. Sawyer. She explained that she could approve everything that I requested as long as I realized that this part of the hospital did not have WIFI and could not get cellular service. (She had no idea that I could get out on my phone, and I was not going to tell her in case she tried to take it away from me.) I asked that she give the list of things to purchase to Conner with a message to get back with the as soon as possible. At the last minute, I added two weight sets and some work out mats. I knew that I would need distractions to get these boys through the next day or two.

Everything arrives before the boys wake up. The hospital staff is not really equipped to set everything up, but since Conner is a techie, I know that he made sure that the boys had the cords, batteries, controllers and anything else that they would need to make it work. My thought was that having them set it up themselves would keep them busy for a few minutes.

I am not sure how he pulled it off, but Conner was actually able to get up to the floor with the delivery crew. I could not hide my laughter when I saw him in the space suit. He gave me one of his intimidating looks, but it just made me laugh harder.

Conner softens his look and says, "If you don't stop laughing at me, I am not going to give you what I have in the bag."

I look at him and say, "What is in the bag?"

He laughs and says, "You did a complete list of things that you thought that the boys would need, but put nothing on the list for yourself. I got you some a couple of changes of clothes, workout clothes, your own stash of chocolate and some shoes. Keep the shoes on, Hannah. If we send you a text, you need to be able to move and move quickly."

I give him a serious look and say, "How is she?"

He lowered his voice and said, "She is stable, but has not woken up from the surgery yet. They got the bullet out. She lost a lot of blood, but they have plenty on supply. She has some internal bruising, but no broken bones other than where the bullet hit. She looks really bad, but honestly, I have seen her in worse shape. The Academy is overseeing everything, but they think that we are hospital security, so we are able to keep tabs on her. Hopefully she will wake up soon, and we will know where we stand. I will text you when she wakes up. Oh, and the other girl Sang, she is fine. They stabilized her and the only reason she is in the ICU unit is because they want her in the room next to Melinda."

"I know that the main concern is Jeremy, but have you heard anything about Noah? Dillon has worked for us long enough that Noah might recognize him, and I cannot take a chance that they would let him up here," I whisper.

"I heard something about they were going to fly him in on the Morgan jet, but I have not heard whether he has arrived yet. The Picken's County airport is small, and while they might be able to land their jet there, we went ahead and rented the whole thing out for a week.  This means that they will only be able to land at the Atlanta airport, and then he will have to drive up here which would take at least an hour," Conner says.

"Okay, you better get back downstairs before they come looking for you. It seems like you have everything under control," I say.

"You owe me big time for this, missy. I am expecting that you will either go to the compound, or take a nice vacation after this is done. I am going to need the break," Conner says.

"I am starting a new job next week, but I get to work from home most of the time so that will be a nice change of pace. I will tell you all about it later," I say.

I walk Conner to the elevator, and he is safely on his way down before I hear the bedroom doors start opening and see five teenage boys walking down the hallway towards the dayroom.