In answer Brown lunged and slammed a fist into Sean’s face, knocking him over a chair and onto the floor.
Michelle instantly put herself between the general and Sean.
“Back off!” she snapped.
“I’m going to kill you,” screamed Brown, and he tried to lunge past Michelle to get to Sean. She gripped his wrist and twisted it sideways and ripped his arm behind his back. He gasped, bent over in pain, and then with a massive effort broke free. When he took a swing at her, Michelle ducked and neatly clipped Brown’s legs out from under him. He fell heavily to the floor. She put a boot on his back.
“Stay down,” ordered Michelle.
When Brown tried to rise again, Michelle kicked him to put him back down.
“Stop, Michelle, just stop.”
Sean had gotten to his feet. His face was cut and bruised and already swelling. Brown rose, too.
Sean stood in front of him. “You want to take another swing, go ahead. I deserve it. Go ahead.” He grabbed the general’s hand and made a fist with it. “Go ahead,” he shouted.
But Brown backed away, obviously confused by Sean’s outburst. He sat heavily in a chair, put his face in his hands, and silently wept.
McKinney stood, flashed his ID although Brown wasn’t even looking at him, and said, “General, I’m with DHS. My sincerest apologies for what happened to your wife. Please rest assured that I will do all I can to make sure everyone responsible for this horrendous state of affairs is held fully accountable.”
He glared at Sean when he spoke this last part.
Sean stood there, his face bloody and puffy. He looked at no one other than Brown.
The door to the waiting room opened. The surgeon appeared, still in his operating room scrubs.
“General Brown?”
Brown looked up, his eyes wet with tears. “Yes,” he said shakily.
The surgeon moved over to him and spoke in a low voice, but one that Sean and Michelle could still hear.
“Your wife is out of surgery. She did well. Now, the bullet did quite a bit of damage and she’s still not out of the woods, but I’m hoping for a fairly complete recovery.” He added, “It was a miracle she didn’t bleed out. Whoever stopped the blood loss right after she was shot saved her life.”
Michelle glanced encouragingly at Sean, but he was now staring at the floor.
“Would you like to see her?” the surgeon asked Brown. “She’s not conscious of course, but—”
Brown quickly said, “Yes, please.” He followed the surgeon out of the room without a backward glance at any of them.
Sean sat down while Michelle grabbed some tissues out of a box on a table, wet them at the water fountain outside the door, and used them to clean Sean’s face. He neither stopped her nor assisted her. It was as though he didn’t even know she was doing it.
McKinney sat down across from them. “Damn, he really cleaned your clock. Can’t blame him, though.” He added snidely, “Good thing you had your partner here to defend you or else you might be in the hospital too.”
Michelle snapped, “Sean didn’t exactly fight back, did he? And just for the record the person who stopped her bleeding out is this guy,” she added, pointing at Sean.
“But she never would have been shot in the first place if not for him.”
“Actually, he was the one who told her to get the police and then go to her car and drive to the Pentagon. If she had listened to him, none of this would have happened.”
“No, if he hadn’t gotten her mixed up in this none of it would have happened.”
“He’s right, Michelle,” said Sean. He pushed her hand away from his face and stood. He looked down at McKinney. “You’re right.”
“Glad we agree on something. Now let’s get down to it.”
“To what exactly?” said Michelle since Sean did not appear to be listening.