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Title: The Shadows Grow Long 3/18
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Tuesday, 5:30am, Private Waiting Room, GW Hospital, Wash, D.C.
Abbey�s world was in the process of righting itself after the major tilt it had taken last night. It was good to know her husband was doing better. Yes, he was cranky� but, well, Jed always got cranky when he was sick, she thought. But when he's right, he's right. She kept hearing him say, �We don�t know what the injury count is yet.�
And the hits just kept on coming.
Poor Stephanie� Abbey knew that the girl would be in for a long night. Her surgery hadn�t even started until after 3 am, when the ambulance brought her in. Stephanie�s mother had arrived a short time after that.
Stephanie�s arrival at the hospital had surprised everyone. It had been quiet for hours, as everyone waited to find out about Jed and Josh. Up until a few hours ago, no one had known that anyone one else had even been injured.
When Stephanie had arrived there had been so much protection around her that Abbey had compared it to Jed's Secret Service contingent. Everyone in the waiting room was stunned when they learned who Stephanie was, and why she was here.
About a half hour later Stephanie�s mother had blown in like the wind, not knowing what had happened, not knowing if her daughter was even alive at that point.
�They sent me in here� where�s the doctor? Who do I talk to about Stephie?� She asked the room at large.
Abbey had stepped up and explained that the doctor would be right in. Although Abbey knew very little about the girl�s condition, she knew one thing this mother needed to know, �Stephanie�s alive,� then Abbey continued, �but she�s currently in surgery. The doctor will be right in to tell you more.� Although they had never met, Sharon recognized Abbey. She was a mother, a doctor, and last night someone she loved had been shot, too.
Abbey stood beside her and held her hand as the doctor came into the waiting room to share the news of Stephanie's current status with her mother. He sounded optimistic - guardedly optimistic because they had just gone into surgery - but optimistic nonetheless. With that news Sharon had gone off to try and call her husband again.
While Abbey sat in the waiting room, Gina Toscano, the Secret Service Agent assigned to Zoey, continued pacing the area� she had been pacing all night, and she passed by Abbey on what the First Lady thought must be the agent�s 100th �lap�. Ever since they had heard about Stephanie, Gina had been blaming herself for Stephanie�s condition
�Come sit down, Gina,� Abbey prompted as the agent walked past again.
The young agent stopped short, looking confused, and it took her a moment to realize that Abbey had said something to her. �Thank you, ma�am; I�m fine.� Gina looked so lost in thought that Abbey wasn�t even sure if Gina had realized that all that had been offered was a seat.
Gina had been arguing with Ron a while ago, and Abbey couldn't help but overhear. "If I could have just ID�d the signal man sooner!" Gina said. In some way that Abbey couldn't fathom, Gina believed that Stephanie was in the hospital because Gina couldn't ID the signal man. "She could have been kept out of this whole mess!" Gina yelled at Ron.
Ron hadn't been able to get Gina to listen to him. He had told Gina over and over how useless that train of thought was; that the actions she had taken & the information that Gina had shared had saved lives. But Gina couldn�t hear this right now; her guilt was blocking her ears. So, as much as he hated it, all he could do was just let her vent. Abbey knew that later on, when things weren't so crazy, Ron would do everything he could to make her understand. Ron wasn't going to let Gina continue to beat herself up over something over which she had no control� that path lead to agents who got themselves killed.
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Stephanie was currently undergoing surgery. Her right thighbone had been hit as the bullet passed through her leg� well, almost passed through her leg: the bullet had broken into pieces as it hit the bone. They were currently removing the bullet pieces and the fragments of bone. Abbey was the only one in the room who knew how incredibly lucky Steph had been. Neither the bullet nor any of the smaller pieces of bone or bullet had severed her femoral artery. Yes, Stephanie had lost a lot of blood; but had she experienced a severed artery in the situation last night, Abbey knew that she would have just bled out, with no chance for any help.
Yet Abby was pretty sure that Stephanie wasn't feeling so lucky.
The details about Stephanie Abbott�s evening kept surfacing, and each was worse than the last. All they had learned so far was this: Stephanie Abbott had driven over from Silver Spring to hear the President speak at the Town Hall meeting last night. And somehow, this young woman had randomly received the opportunity to give Carl Leroy a ride back to the middle of �not-much obviously�.
On the way, he had shot her and left her for dead.
email Teresa
mercier_beaucoup at yahoo.com
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