Chapter Five
Payback
“What happened?” I mumbled as I woke up what seemed like a few hours later with a splitting headache
“You were getting hysterical about something, so your uncle hit you with a double load of Morphine to knock you out.” Grammy told me while wiping my face with a damp cloth.
“Could you have the nurse come in with something. I have a headache like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Sure. I think you could probably use a dydee change as well.” I was told with a slight grin as she pressed a button on the side of my bed and called a nurse in.
“Where’s Misha?” I asked looking over to my left and seeing an empty bed.
“Who? Oh, the other boy? They released him a couple of days ago.”
“Days? Just how long was I out?”
“They kept you sedated for the last four days. They felt that the mental anxiety you were going through was hindering your recovery so they kept you under to let things heal a bit more before you face the other things. Your grandfather said he was going to be in later this afternoon with some other people from his office” I just nodded at this as the nurse walked in followed close behind by my aunt, uncle, and his mom.
“How are you feeling?” I was asked by my uncle.
“Not bad considering I have a headache that could split Granite.”
“That’s to be expected. I’m sorry I had to do that to you, but with how agitated you were getting I didn’t want to take the chance of you pulling any of your stitches out.”
“That makes sense. I owe you guys an apology from how I acted the other day.”
“It’s all right Ian. Under the circumstances, we’ll just chalk it up a the stress of the moment.” my uncle’s mom said in a voice that said I was forgiven for my outburst and that the matter was closed.
“Thank you ma’am.”
“And none of that “ma’am” stuff either. You can call me Nana.” I was told with a smile. After a quick diaper change. I started to learn about my new grandparents.
My aunt’s mom’s, name was Judy and was a high-ranking case worker with the local division of CPS. I guess that was how she was able to pull the strings needed for her to be the one to get me from the Wu’s. She had my aunt when she was still in high school and hadn’t seen the father in years. She met her late husband in college and were married soon after graduation. I found out that I had several other cousins by her half-brothers and sisters.
Nana, whose name I found out was Carol, was a retired lawyer and spent most her time now spoiling her grandkids. I found out that her husband Tom, whom I had yelled at a few day before, was the Assistant Special-Agent-in-Charge at the local FBI office had handled the sexual abuse section. They had three other sons, and a daughter, aside from my uncle and father. After learning between my aunt’s and uncle’s families I had some Fifteen other cousins I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed. I just hoped they all accepted me for who I was.
Shortly after lunch, my grandfather came into the room with two other gentlemen and sat down next to the head of my bed. Once they came in everyone else excused themselves and I soon found myself alone with them and feeling rather nervous.
“Just relax Ian. Nothing is going to happen to you. I was just wanting to know if you still meant what you told me the other day or if it was just the stress of the moment?” My grandfather asked calmly while brushing some of my hair out of my eyes.
“Yes sir, I did mean it. I’d love nothing more than nailing Mr. Wu’s ass to the wall.” I said bluntly.
“Watch the language please. OK. Here is what’s going to happen. These two gentlemen are going to ask you some questions and I’d like you to answer them to the best of your ability.”
“OK.” I answered nervously.
“Don’t worry nothing is going to happen to you. I’ll be right outside the door if you need anything.” I was told as my grandfather got up and walked out the door.
After introducing themselves to me, the agents started asking their questions. Right from the start I could tell that it was going to be a long afternoon since the older of the two kept trying to pull the good cop/ bad cop routine on me.
“Would you go get my grandfather please?” I asked the younger agent several hours later.
“We don’t need him in here. Just answer the questions.” The older of the two said angrily.
“Get him now.” I repeated coldly.
“I told you we don’t need him.”
“Fine be that way. Tom could you come in here now please!” I called loudly enough to have been heard down the hall.
“What’s going on?” We were asked when my grandfather entered the room.
“Could you get jerk off here out of the room. He keeps trying to give me the bad cop routine. And I’m getting sick of it. Every time Agent Thompson asks me a question, jerk-off here keeps twisting my words around and makes it seem like I was doing this willingly and that I could be brought up on charges as well. Now do you guys want my help or not?” I announced feeling like I was again at the end of my rope.
“Are these claims true, Thompson?”
“Absolutely not!” Jerk-off interrupted.
“I wasn’t talking to you. Thompson?” The younger agent was asked again.
“Yes sir. They are. James was coming across as very heavy handed and made several uncalled for comments regarding possible charges being levied against Ian.”
“This is a crock. I want an apology right now.” James said jumping to his feet. With a smile, I pulled out a tape recorder that Nana had slipped me earlier that morning and handed it to my grandfather. For his part, my grandfather just shook his head with a rueful smile. It was almost like he had expected something like this.
“James, you’re relieved from this case, and suspended until further notice I want you in my office first thing Monday morning.” the older agent was told after his boss heard the tape.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” The agent was asked before he got to the door. He turned around to see my grandfather holding out his hand. With a snort, the agent pulled out his badge and gun and tossed them on the foot of my bed.
“Glen if you could continue for now. I’ll have another agent come out to assist you as soon as I can.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Sorry about that.” I said as things settled back down.
“It’s OK. The guy really is a jerk.” Glen told me with a smile. After about an hour later, a male and female agent joined us. After bringing them up to speed on what had happened so far, I noticed that one of them had brought a Laptop computer with them.
“Does that thing have secure Internet access?” I asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“You guys have been saying that you wanted enough proof to get a warrant for the server in the Wu’s house right?”
“Yes, and we know about the site that the Wu’s run, but we’ve never been able to get into it. Even some of our best hackers have failed. I’d love to meet the person that did the security for it.”
“Glad you like it. If you reset your access to these settings and use this user name and password I think you’ll get what you’ve been looking for.” I told him after writing some things down on a piece of paper.
“Could you excuse me for a minute. I need to give him his afternoon meds.” The nurse told Agent Thompson as she started laying out two syringes and a couple of small vials on my table.
“Sure.” She was told as Glen started working on setting his computer to the specifications I had given him.
“They want to try you out on a new antibiotic and pain killer. The pain killer may make you a little sleepy” I was told as the meds were injected into my I.V..
“I’ll check back on you in a few minutes.” I just nodded to this and saw that Glen had finished setting his computer up and had already logged on
“My god.” Came the whispered curse a few minutes later.
“Tom, you better get in here and take a look at this.” Agent Thompson called out.
“What now?” My grandfather asked a moment later as he walked through the door.
“Jesus.” On hearing this, I looked up to see my grandfather and the other agent looking rather pale.
“Are you copying this?” The younger agent was asked in a very choked voice At that moment, the door opened and Megan walked in.
“Hey Gramps. I didn’t know you were here.” Megan started to say before she caught a look of what was downloading onto Agent Thompson’s laptop.
“Oh God.” Came the strangled prayer as Megan bolted into the bathroom and started getting violently ill. I started crying as it hit me that I was the cause of all the emotions that were going on. Before I knew what was going on, I had a team of nurses, and doctors surrounding me and I was falling into darkness again
“What’s going on?” I asked hoarsely what seemed like a few minutes later. As I became more aware of my surroundings, I realized that I was back in the PICU.
“Easy there.” A nurse said while pressing on my chest to keep me from sitting up.
“What happened?” I asked again.
“You had an allergic reaction to some of the medication. Let me go let your parents know that you’re awake.” I just nodded at this as I slipped back in the dark embrace of sleep.
When I woke up several hours later, both my aunt and uncle were sitting by my bed.
“Hey.” I told them weakly.
“How’re you feeling?” My uncle asked as he looked at the monitor that I was hooked up to.
“Like someone ran me over with a truck.” I answered, as I tried to sit up a wave of pain stopped me from getting very far.
“Your ribs will be sore for a while. The reaction you had to the medication caused your heart to stop and they had to shock you to get it started again.
“How’s Megan doing?” I asked.
“She’s fine.” My aunt told me as she gently stroked my hair.
“Could you tell her I’m sorry about what she saw?”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about.” Before I could reply to this, Dr. Moran walked into the room.
“I’m glad to see you awake there. You gave us quite a scare there kiddo.” I was told as she patted my leg and started giving me an exam.
“Well, you don’t seem to have any other thing wrong with you. We’re going to keep you here overnight and unless something else happens we’ll have you back in a normal room tomorrow afternoon. With luck, we should be sending you home by this weekend.” This statement caused both my aunt and uncle to look up in surprise.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes. All of the tests we ran before his reaction came back clean. And his incisions are healing nicely. I spoke with Dr. Lavin earlier. He feels that barring any further complications, he’ll be able to remove the rings Wednesday morning and after a few days to make sure there isn’t any problems we’ll be able to release Ian. So by this weekend you’ll be able to take your new son home for good.” My aunt and uncle were told with a smile.