James cracked his eyes open and tried to figure out where he was and what was going on. He was aware of the fact that he was laying down in a bed somewhere. Attempting to look around at his surroundings did no good, though. His vision was blurry and his head was swimming. Where was he? What had happened? Nothing made any sense to him. He tried to think, to puzzle it out, but his thinking was too sluggish. It felt as if his head was underwater. James tried to raise his hands to his face and found that they were bound at the wrist.
Blinking several times and forcing himself to clear his vision, James was finally able to gain sight of his surroundings. Everything still had a blurry surreal look to it, but he could at least make out and identify objects. Now that he could do this, he looked down at his hands and realized why he been unable to lift them. Each wrist was handcuffed to the side of the hospital bed he found himself lying in. He had no idea what he was doing here or why he was restrained like this. James could see the nurse call button but in his handcuffed state, he was unable to reach it.
Struggling for the button anyway, James became aware of an incredible pain in his right shoulder. It hurt to try and move his right arm at all. He looked and saw that the shoulder was heavily bandaged. James tried his hardest to think and figure out what had happened to him. Slowly things began to come back. He remembered going to the apartment in order to pack and escape Wraith. The image of the bald man heading toward the stairs came to his mind. James remembered turning and running into the apartment. Thing lost focus here, but then he recalled being in the bedroom and seeing Wraith come in and fire his gun at him. He must have been hit in the shoulder and went down.
That did not explain why he was handcuffed though. If he had been shot by Wraith, why was he being restrained? Surely everybody knew that he was not a bad guy didn't they? After all, he had been shot in his home. Why would there be a need to cuff him as though he were a criminal? It was frustrating beyond all thought. Did they always put people in handcuffs when they had been shot in their own homes?
Another thought then occurred to him that gave him a severe burst of anxiety. Wraith had been in his home, and it had not just been the two of them. What about Jennifer? He felt sick to his stomach to think about it. James did not know how he had ended up in the bedroom, but he had been alone in there. Wraith would have had to go past Jennifer to get to him. He did not for one second believe that the sick bastard had simply smiled and nodded at her as he moved on to his ultimate quarry. James felt himself on the verge of outright panic. He both needed to know what had happened to her and dreaded the knowledge as well.
James couldn't take it any longer. He began to call out for somebody, anybody, to come and offer explanation. Yet another pain came with this outburst. His head felt like it was going to explode. James did not know why, but it felt like his head had been used as batting practice for the Colorado Rockies. In spite of the pain, he continued to call out until a nurse finally poked her head in to see what the commotion was. She was followed by police officers that regarded him warily as if he might somehow remove the cuffs and attack them both. James thought this seemed utterly ridiculous.
"Can I help you?" The nurse asked without coming close enough for him to stand a chance of touching her or preventing her from retreating out the door.
"What the hell happened?" James asked, barely managing to keep his voice under control. The pain in his head and shoulder teamed up with his anxiety to make it very difficult. "Where is Jennifer? Is she okay? Why am I cuffed to this bed?"
"Calm down man." The cop said, his right hand subconsciously resting on the butt of his gun. "Just calm down."
"Calm down?" James regarded the policeman incredulously. "You are the one with your hand on a gun. I can't move and I have been shot. What the hell can I do? Now answer the damn question. What happened to Jennifer and why the hell am I being restrained like this?"
"Um, hold on." The nurse said looking very nervous. "I will go get a doctor. They will be able to let you know more."
With that she left very quickly with a look of relief on her face. James was very confused by all of it. They were acting like he was some sort of dangerous criminal. He had never been a bad person, and yet he was being treated as if he was of the same caliber as Wraith. It was infuriating, humiliating and bewildering all at the same time. More than anything, though, his frustration and anxiety over not knowing Jennifer's fate was dominant. He would never forgive himself if anything had happened to her. He loved her more than anything and if his weird connection to Wraith had caused her harm or death, he would lose everything he had to live for.
The police officer remained and kept his hand readily on his gun. He looked so nervous James did not dare move or say anything else to him. He had a feeling that anything at all would give the cop an excuse to shoot him, and he really did not want to give him such an excuse. The pain is his head and shoulder were enough that after a minute, James did risk lowering his head back to the pillow. Surely that would not be construed as an aggressive manoeuvre. The officer seemed to relax just a hair to have him back in a more inert state, but his hand still did not leave the butt of his gun.
After what seemed like an eternity, an older man in a white coat came in followed by an attractive woman in a business suit. The doctor was mostly gray, slightly balding, and had a bit of a belly protruding out of his open coat. The woman was exceptionally pretty with full lips, makeup on the heavy side, and short hair with red highlights mixed in with her natural black hair. They both looked at him with much less concern than the nurse and cop had. That was a little comforting to James. At least there were some people in this damn hospital that did not seem to be scared of him.
"Go ahead and wait outside." The woman said to the cop. "We will be fine."
"But he is dangerous…" The cop started to say, but he was cut off by a wave from the doctor.
"Not right now, he isn't." He said. "Don't worry. We will call if it seems like he gets too upset."
With that, the officer gave one more uncertain look in James' direction, but his hand dropped away from the gun and he moved toward the door. Clearly he did not like the idea of leaving the newcomers unprotected. Still, he went ahead and obeyed their wishes. The doctor looked down at James and smiled a kindly smile as if he was looking upon his own child.
"Are you feeling a bit confused?" He asked, never breaking the smile.
"Very confused. I don't know what happened, and nobody will tell me about Jennifer. Is she okay?" James was afraid of the answer, but he still needed to know.
"She is fine. A little bruised, but otherwise unharmed." The doctor replied. "Other than wounds she received earlier. She was just released and is talking to the police. Do you not remember what happened at all?"
"I think I remember being shot by a man that calls himself Wraith." James said. "But there is a lot that is blank too."
"That is to be expected." He said. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Alexi Romanov. You can call me Alex. I am the neurosurgeon here at Saint Mary's Hospital. You received a severe head trauma and we discovered quite an amazing anomaly. This lovely woman with me is Doctor Stephanie Farnsworth. She is an accomplished criminal psychologist. We would like to talk to you about this man named Wraith."