Thanks to Charles’s blood donation, Debbie survived the night. Drake, Jessica, and her parents stayed at the hospital. They slept on and off in the waiting room in the ICU. They were allowed to see Debbie two at a time and for only ten minutes at a time. Debbie had been unconscious most of the night. She had opened her eyes once when Jessica and Drake were in the room, but her eyes fluttered closed within five seconds. The staff said the doctor wanted Debbie sedated for the night so she could rest and to make sure she didn’t make any sudden movements that would tear her stitches.            Charles had been gracious enough to spend the night at the hospital just in case Debbie needed more blood. Plus, the hospital staff wanted him to stay close by because they had slowly drawn two pints from him. Of course, it wasn’t all at once, but two

It was five thirty, and Drake and Jessica were sitting at Debbie’s bedside. Debbie had just finished picking at her dinner.“Baby, you should eat some more. You need to keep up your strength,” Jessica mumbled.“Oh, Ma, that’s not food. It’s a science experiment, and lunch wasn’t that much better,” Debbie said with a deep frown. “Daddy, can’t you get me a cheeseburger with mayo?”“Sweetheart, the doctor doesn’t want you to eat anything greasy for a while,” Drake said solemnly.“You two seem down about something. I thought the doctor said that I was going to be okay,” Debbie said.“You are, honey,” Jessica said quickly. “It’s just . . . we have something to tell you, and we don’t know how to . . . tell you.”Debbie looked at her and then she looked at Drake.“You know I love you, don’t you, Debb

            Jessica had left. Bobby stepped to Charles. They were eye to eye. Neither one of them blinked.            “If I had seen you fourteen years ago right after I found out she was pregnant, I would have busted yo ass. Job or no job,” Bobby said darkly. “Now that you know that you’re a father, I’m sure you understand.”            He understood. If some guy got Debbie pregnant, he would shoot him in the face. “I do. But I hope you know that I was in love with her. It wasn’t a one-night stand. I love her still, and I told her so.”            Bobby’s thick eyebrows rose. “What’d she say?”            &

            After Charles had carried an unconscious Jessica to a hospital room for the nurse to examine her, he walked with Drake and Bobby to the hospital employees’ elevator.            The maintenance guy had said he had never seen anything like it. Debbie had pried the panel off the wall and rewired the elevator to do what she wanted it to do. “It’s sloppy, but they got the job done,” the maintenance man had said.            Security had a camera in the elevator. Everyone’s mouths had dropped open when they saw Debbie enter the elevator with a coat and boots on. She had looked half dead on her feet. She got off in the employee garage. Three security officers along with Bobby, Drake, and Charles had searched the garage, and there was no sign of her. 

            Three months later. . .              The living perpetrators who were responsible for the mass shooting at Michelson Investments on Madison Avenue were captured eight weeks ago. Their trials would start in two months. They were sitting in the city jail without bond. Calvin had been right. They shot up the place and everyone they could out of some sort of entitlement of justice for losing their jobs.The Michelsons and the Washingtons sat in the spectator seating in the courtroom. Charles, Jessica, and Debbie sat at a table several feet away from the bench. Arthur Whitman had just finished his petition to the court to have Debbie’s last name legally changed.Jessica had filed an application to change Debbie’s birth certificate to state that Charles was her father. But in the state of the New York, they had to