Juncture 3.7

Several hours later, I was waiting inside of the man’s hospital room for him to wake up. Derry had performed her usual treatment, and his breaks and bruises were gone. However his face was still drooping in weird places, his eyelids bent downward and half of his mouth was open. Derry told Siegfried and me that she couldn’t fix it, as it had happened too long ago.

Our best guess was that he had suffered from strokes - and possibly seizures as a child. I know it was shallow, but it was hard to look at. You couldn’t even tell how old he was looking at him. I didn’t think it would get any easier to view when he woke up either.

For safety reasons, we had removed everything that could either be used as a weapon, or that could help him facilitate an escape. We didn’t know the limits of his teleportation, so we had to be careful. So the only things that were in the room were his bed (which was nailed down), my chair (which was also nailed down), and his IV rack. There was a communication device strapped to my wrist in case he could do anything we didn’t know about and I needed to call for help.

So far, he hadn’t moved, aside from some twists and turns. The only noise that escaped him was the occasional groan or grunt.

Major General Siegfried had commanded me to stay in here to apologize when the guy woke up. I agreed easily, seeing how I beat him within an inch of his life. I felt pretty guilty about the whole affair.

I heard a grunt from the guy on the bed, and looked down at him. His eyes opened a little bit, and when he registered who was there, they widened more. He gasped, and the right side of his mouth opened. It was a little bit startling to see. I help up my hands in a placating gesture. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

He calmed down a little bit, but he was still visibly wary.

“Where am I?” was what he asked first. He had that same hoarse tone that he had in the bank, and it still sounded somewhat muffled. I had thought that it was the scarf that made it sound like that, but apparently it was how he always sounded.

“I… can’t tell you that right now. I don’t have the clearance,” I answered. That was a lie, but I didn’t really know where we were either. “What’s your name?”

He waited a second, his eyes flickering up and down, then took a deep breath. “Jake. Jake Smith.”

He was lying. I didn’t know for certain, but I had a strong feeling in my gut. The name sounded fake. I wouldn’t call him out on it now, that could wait.

“Okay Jake. I,” I took a bit to find the right words. They weren’t coming to me fast. “I need to apologize.” Jake looked confused.

“I know it’s weird. You were holding me up with dynamite. Not cool, by the way. Anyway, I used far too much force apprehending you, and I’m sorry.” He nodded.

“Um… I’m not sure how to respond,” He said. “Is there anyone else I can talk to?”

Ouch. That kinda stung. Logically, I knew he had a good reason to want to talk to literally anybody else, but it still hurt.

“Yeah, someone else will be in here soon.” I raised the communicator on my wrist up to my mouth and switched it on by pushing a small button.

“Send in the Major General at his earliest convenience. Over.” The line was silent for several seconds. Then; “Will do. Over.”

I looked over ‘Jake’ one more time. He didn’t look like he was going to do anything rash, so I left. I closed the door behind me and immediately bumped into the Major General.

“Did you do it?” He asked.

“Yep. I don’t think he accepted it, but I apologized.” I scratched the communicator; it chafed. “What are you going to do with him?”

“Well, the same thing I did with you,” He said, “I’m going to recruit him.”

“Actually? He tried to blow up a bank!” I was outraged, to put it mildly. “He tried to blow us up!”

“He didn’t try to blow us up specifically. He tried to blow you up when you were punching him. He’s spirited.”

Spirited? More like dangerous. I didn’t trust the guy, especially since he gave a fake name. But I didn’t have a choice but to listen to him. I was still new here.

“Fine. Am I free to go?” the Major General left, and I headed to the cafeteria. I was starving, and by the time I got there I was famished. The room was empty. I grabbed a plate of food and a cup of water and sat down to eat a quick meal. Since I didn’t have to talk to anyone, I finished quickly and headed back to my room.

I stripped, showered, turned off the light, and got in bed. I put on The Black Panther, and it resumed from where I was watching it the last night. I couldn’t focus on it, my eyes kept losing focus and I was missing snippets of dialogue. I turned it off after five minutes.

I thought about what had happened today. I had gone back to the fifties, I had almost exploded. I nearly beat a defenseless man to death. I looked down at my hand – it was shaking. Even seven relative hours after the fact, I was still full of adrenaline.

I tossed and turned, but didn’t fall asleep. After far too long, I got up out of my bed. I wasn’t going to fall asleep any time soon, so I may as well go for a walk. I slipped on a pair of shoes and left the room. I closed the door and saw Jake down the hall.