I could literally see his chest swelling with pride as a warm fatherly smile spread on his lips. I couldn’t help but envy Jack at that moment.
“I will let him know. But before you were ‘just defending yourself’, you literally took a bullet for my little girl. I will not forget that.” he said in an insistent voice.
Before I could answer him, the police officer stepped forward. I gave my brief statement that, apparently, was corroborated by the surveillance tapes and the others’ testimonies.
“So ... how is he?” I asked carefully after finishing my tale.
“Who the hell cares!?” Mr. Miller asked roughly. “Let him suffer! The man tried to kill my daughter!”
I could not dispute his feelings, but I was seriously scared about the repercussions of what I did to him.
“As far as I know, he’s breathing through a tube for now. It’ll take some time before he’s healed up enough to be properly processed.” the officer informed me, and I visibly cringed.
“That bad, huh?”
“Yes. But I wouldn’t worry too much, Mr. Brown. It is pretty clear to us that you acted in self defense.” Hearing the officer say this, I took a breath of relief. That prompted Bill to take over, as he tossed me a gun that looked remarkably like the one Campbell had used.
“It’s a Ruger SR22.” he said.
“You have his gun!?” I wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea to touch the thing.
“No, notice the orange Tip, Kid. That’s just a model I brought along so you can take a look at it. It has quite a fanbase when it comes to quiet killing. Campbell didn’t just use a silencer to muffle the ignition-noise, but also loaded the thing with subsonic ammunition.”
“Subsonic .22s? Would they even have enough power to do real damage?” I asked like an idiot, not thinking about the fact that I was lying in a hospital bed after being shot with it myself. I didn’t know much about guns, but I had heard the guys at work make fun about .22s more than once.
“Oh yes, definitely. They can penetrate a skull alright, but then don’t have enough energy left to do it a second time, meaning the bullet bounces around in the victim’s head and literally shreds your gray matter. It also has the added benefit that the recoil is much weaker, making it easier to handle for amateurs. And...” Bill paused to throw a careful glance at Mr. Miller. “ ... going by Ms. Miller’s height, compared to where your shoulder wound is, we’re fairly certain he was aiming for her head when you stepped in front of her.”
“That is why we believe you acted in self defense.” the officer added when I saw Mr. Miller’s hands clench into tight fists. “He entered the house with clear intent, and your actions to stop that seem more than justified.”
“But why!? What’s his problem with Mia?”
“Deluded stalker, Kid. Going by what was found in his apartment, he was completely fixated on some fantasy world, and spent his Holidays ruminating about spending them with Mrs. Miller. He finally reached the conclusion that it must be her children that stopped her from starting a new life with him. So, he decided to do her a favor and free her from that burden.”
I could just shake my head.
“Well, at least they don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
Just as I said that, Nora opened the door. To my astonishment, Mia rushed past her to my side, and placed one soft hand on the side of my face while using her other hand to hold one of mine.
“Welcome back.” she smiled as her thumb started brushing over my cheek, though I could see that her eyes were tired and slightly reddened.
“You Okay?” I asked, unsure how to handle this situation.
“Am I Okay!? What happened to not catching a bullet for me, huh!?”
Her voice was unusually soft, though it was also wavering as her eyes started to glaze over. Which was also noticed by everyone else in the room. Bill and Paul smirked as they stepped to the side, Nora grinned while watching her daughter, and Mr. Miller went back to looking unhappy, albeit not nearly as much as when Mia presented me with a Christmas gift.
“Yeah ... We really have to stop reenacting that movie, don’t we?”
Mia’s smile widened as she suddenly leaned down and placed a soft kiss directly on my lips. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, there was no attempt at introducing her tongue to my mouth either, but it was slow, tender, and savoring. And lasting. It was at least a minute before she broke that kiss. Even then, when I opened my eyes again, she refused to move her head away or take her hand off my face, but instead pressed her forehead to mine and resumed stroking my cheek with her thumb.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” she whispered softly, and that somehow unnerved me.
It was the officer clearing his throat that pulled my consciousness back to reality, while Mia completely ignored the people standing around us.
“Well, I got everything I need. I’ll be on my way then.” he smirked, tipped his hat to the people in the room, and left.
With the officer gone, I finally noticed how many people were still in the room, and I was basically naked under those covers. I grew rather uncomfortable, especially with Mia so close to me with only a blanket hiding my bits. Luckily, Nora seemed to notice my uneasiness, stepped behind her daughter to gently grab her by the shoulders and pull her off me.
“Come on, Honey. Let’s go see to it that your savior has everything he needs.” she grinned, and led Mia out of the room. I immediately seized the opportunity.
“Mr. Miller, Sir ... I need you to do me a favor.”
“Name it!” he immediately agreed.
“I need you to take Mia home and force her to watch the second Speed movie.” I said, matter of fact, causing him to look confused.
“The ... what?”
“You know, not the one with the bus. The one with Discount Keanu Reeves on the boat.”
“I know the movie, Timothy. Why do you want me to make her watch it?”
“Because Sandra Bullock spends the entire movie telling everyone how relationships born from extreme situations are doomed to fail.”
While Bill and Paul suddenly burst out in laughter, Mr. Miller looked thoughtful for a moment before his entire expression lit up.
“Good man!” he was already in motion before he had even finished saying that.
Paul decided to do the same as the officer, and, after he assured me once more that he was only a phone call away should I need anything else from my apartment, left the room as well. When Nora came back, alone, she gave me a lecture regarding the stunt I just pulled on her poor daughter, though it was clear she saw it more as a prank than an actual attempt to get rid of Mia.
I spent the next half hour talking with Bill and Nora, getting updated on what happened with the other attendants of the party after I was taken away. Simultaneously, Nora fuzzed around the room to make sure I was well taken care of by the hospital staff. All that came to an abrupt stop, however, when the door opened again and someone else entered the room.
“You seem to be alright.” Aaron noted, in a remarkably cold voice that drew everyone’s attention.
That tone irritated me at first. Then I remembered what Uncle John had told me about Claire and Ava moving in with him, and understood Aaron’s coldness. Not that it was particularly new to me anyway, but it was clear he blamed me for his marital troubles.
“Why are you here?” I asked, not eager to have any kind of confrontation with him in front of people I had to work with.
“The hospital called, had to sign some paperwork. Do I have to get you anything?”
“You don’t have to do anything, Aaron. Paul has me covered already.”