Chapter 20

My mind was in a cloud by the end of the day. I hadn't really even paid much attention in any of my classes. My brain was stuck on Josh. I just couldn't believe he had cheated. He had always been such a stand-up guy that it seemed outside of his character.

More than that, I didn't buy his contrition. There was an entitlement to his thinking that he couldn't seem to get past, even now. I was really worried for him. If he didn't snap out of this way of thinking, he was going to end up digging himself into a hole he couldn't escape from.

I was completely lost in my thoughts as we started out the back of school on our walk to Zoe's house. It had been weeks since Mrs. B stopped picking us up, as things had now died down. I am certain had I not been so preoccupied, I would have seen what was happening. As it is, I didn't notice anything was wrong until I heard the squealing of tires.

I looked up to see a car accelerating towards us. The rear window was open and a gun was sticking out of it. This is when something weird happened. It was like everything slowed down a little around me. I could feel myself moving but seemed to have a lot of time to think as I watched the car drift towards us.

I reached out, my arms slowly climbing to grip Zoe with both hands. Lifting her off the ground I threw her into a grassy area well clear of where I was standing. I knew what was coming. I knew who was in the car. And I knew who they were after. If Zoe was clear she would be safe. The landing might be hard on her, but she would be safe from a bullet meant for me, and that is all that really mattered.

The car was passing me by that point. Zoe was still in the air, flailing but already out of the immediate area of danger. I could see fire spitting out of the end of the gun. I could even make out the bullet traveling my way, but I could not move my body fast enough. I started to drop and twist away, trying to get out of the way of the bullet, but there was no way that could happen. While the world seemed to be moving slow, my body was moving at the same slow speed and there was no way I could dodge a bullet.

With the first impact everything snapped back to the correct speed. It felt like I had been kicked by a mule, the bullet smacking very high in the left side of my chest, almost as high as my shoulder. The next impact was at the very edge of my shoulder. It felt like fire was lancing its way through me.

And then I was on the ground, the back of my head smacking against the asphalt. The pain was excruciating in both my head and my chest. I could feel the world turning dark. The last thing I could see was Zoe's face leaning into my field of vision. I could hear her voice calling for me, but it was so far away. The tunnel was getting darker.

And then ... Nothing.

It was dark. I managed to claw my way out of the tunnel just a bit. I could hear a beeping sound. Someone was yelling. I could feel the hand on my good arm being held.

"Tell them ... multiple GSW... 10 minutes..."

It was hard to make out the words.

"BP is ... worried about shock ... unit's plasma..."

My throat was so dry. I managed to croak one word.

"Zoe..."

The hand holding me squeezed. I knew she was there with me. And then I fell back into the tunnel.

My next trip into consciousness I seemed to have a better hold on the world. It was so bright, much brighter than the last time. I got my eyes opened most of the way. Ceiling tiles were rushing by.

"Caspian ... can you hear me Caspian."

My throat was still too dry to speak, I nodded.

"I am Doctor Chang. You have been shot and we are taking you into surgery. Do you understand?"

I nodded again.

"Do you have any allergies to medication?"

I shook my head no.

"What..."

That is the last thing I heard from the doctor as the darkness enveloped me again.

I don't know how long I was out that last time. When I came to the tunnel wasn't there any longer. I wasn't awake through some kind of haze, but actually awake. It was dark outside and I could hear a slow, steady beeping sound. Glancing around I saw Zoe and Vicki squeezed in a fairly big chair together. The girls were asleep with Zoe resting her head on Vicki's shoulder and Vicki with hers on top of Zoe's in a little clump. They looked so peaceful.

Tina was propped up in a corner, Tami next to her. Both had their eyes closed. The door opened spilling a little light in the room and I saw Mrs. Bell come in. She must have noticed me moving, because she hurried over to me. She must have been trying not to wake any of the girls, because she kept her voice to a whisper.

"Cas. How do you feel?"

"Sore. Really tired. There was a car and someone had a gun."

"Yes. Someone did a drive by shooting."

"Who?"

"We don't know yet." Tears were streaming down her face. "Cas, you got Zoe out of the way. You saved my baby again."

"This time it was my fault though. They were aiming for me. I couldn't let her be hurt by a bullet meant for me."

There was a shout from the corner of the room.

"CAS!!"

And with that, all the girls were up and huddled around my bed, each trying to hug and kiss me. Mrs. B had to put her foot down and raised her voice.

"Girls, you need to give him some room. We are all happy he is ok, but he won't be if you smother him."

They back off from the bed a little bit, all but Zoe who held my hand in a death-tight grip. The door opened again.

"What is all this racket, I said you could stay if ... Ohh. He's awake."

The woman made her way to my bedside, pushing several of the people clustered around me out of the way to make room. She started reading the machines and checking on the various tubes and wires attached to me. She then lifted the bandage and looked at one of the wounds before shaking her head and reapplying it. Eventually she stopped and addressed everyone in the room.

"I know you are all happy to see him awake, but could you please leave the room. I need to speak with Mr. Grey in private."

She turned and looked at Mrs. Bell.

"You can of course stay with your son."

"Ohh, I am not his mother."

"Sorry. I assumed. Then if you could please step outside."

I held up a hand, "No, They can all stay."

"Mr. Grey, I have some questions to ask in order to give you the best care I can, and it is best if only your guardians stay in the room. This will be very private."

I began pointing to each of the girls in turn, "Mrs. Bell is for all intents and purposes my guardian, if not in the legal sense, and my advisor on pretty much everything. Tina is my sister. And the other three are my girlfriends."

I saw a stunned look hit Tami's face and a smirk cross Vicki and Zoe's faces. They just realized I had figured out their little game.

"So ... speak."

She cleared her throat.

"Ok. We are having some ... confusion with your treatment. First of all, do you know what blood type you are?"

"umm, no. Not really. What type am I?"

"That's the first problem. We can't tell?"

Mrs. Bell's eyebrows shot up, "What do you mean you can't tell?"

"Just that, we can't tell. We ran the standard antibodies test to determine what blood type Mr. Grey is, and his blood didn't react."

"So he is O then."

It was the Doctor's turn to look surprised, "Do you have a scientific background?"

"I am a genetics researcher at the university."

"Ahh. Ok. I should have said, we ran the standard antibody tests and his blood didn't react, at first."

"What does that mean?"

"It clotted with neither the A nor the B group antibodies and showed no RH factor markers. So we typed him at O negative, which is what he received during surgery. The lab tech got interrupted by an emergency and stepped away, not disposing of the samples. When she came back, she wasn't sure where she was in her testing and double checked her last results to make sure she didn't skip a step by accident."

"She found that the blood had then reacted to both the A and the B group antibodies. Which should be impossible. So she called me and we did a second test and watched the results. It was fascinating. As with the initial test, nothing happened at first. Then, the blood separated, which you know shouldn't happen without a centrifuge, and then recombined there on the slide. After recombining it reacted with the applied antibodies."

"So ... wait. That isn't possible. Was your sample contaminated?"

"That was considered. But we drew fresh blood and retested. Eleven times. Same every time."

Mrs. Bell sat down and just stared at the floor. I was frowning, my brain working very quickly.

"So you are saying my blood morphed. By reacting to both sets of antibodies, either my blood changed to become the blood type of the antibody, or the antibody changed to become the same as type as my blood."

She flashed me a quick smile, "Wow, I am surprised you put that together so fast. Yes, that is the conclusion I came to, after about twenty minutes staring at the results I might add. Are you in some type of medical study program?"

"No ma'am. I am a freshman in high school. I just took what you said and made the logical leap to the most likely hypothesis."

"Ha, spoken like a scientist."

Mrs. Bell finally rejoined us. "But, how is this possible."

"Frankly, it isn't. Beyond that his CBC panel had some surprising results as well. His white blood count was high, as is expected for someone who just suffered a serious wound and then had surgery. But the rest of his panel matched what I would expect from a world class athlete in the middle of training. Mr. Grey is in fine shape, but this is beyond what I would have ever expected. And that is not all."

"What else?"

"The inflammation around the wound site is already decreasing. It shouldn't be. It is still fresh. His wound should not reach the proliferation phase for a while. His wound area looks like one that had surgery two days ago, not seven hours ago. Everything about Mr. Grey is shouting he is a medical mystery. And then there is the other thing."

I cocked my head at her, "What other thing."

"No one was able to get an accurate medical history on you."

"Because no one you talked to, including my mother who you most likely called at my house, knows my long term medical history."

"Correct. We have your records. Between what your mother provided and the state had on file for you, those were on hand. But zero extended medical history workup."

"Because no one knows who my parents are."

"Correct again. Not that unusual, but when coupled with a seeming medical mystery..."

I nodded, thinking.

"Doctor ... umm."

"Chang."

"Doctor Chang, is there any way I could convince you to keep my records extremely confidential? Even among other hospital staff?"

She paused, "And why would I do that?"

"Because, I have a feeling what you have found so far is enough to set off all kinds of red flags. People, curious people, are going to want to run a lot of tests. At heart you are all scientists, and I am going to be a puzzle they can't resist. And I do not want to become a lab rat."

"What if the red flags are already raised?"

"They haven't been. Most the administrators are gone for the day. And the staff will be paying more attention to patient care then trying to find something they can use to earn recognition for the hospital."

She laughed softly, "A fair guess. And why would I do that? I do think about my career."

"Access. In exchange for holding anything you find. You can't release my information without my say so anyways thanks to the new HIPAA laws. And I will not be in the hospital indefinitely; you will eventually lose access to me. So, you keep what you know locked up. So just you see it, and I will let you work on the medical miracle."