“Platoon Leader, do you copy?” the walkie-talkie squawked. “Ben, are you there?” the woman’s voice yelled.
Without thinking, Blayne picked up the walkie-talkie and said, “Sorry. Ben isn’t here to take your call,” then hurled the device out of the window.
Blayne found himself alone in the bell tower. A faint ring resonated from the brass bell as his adrenaline-fueled bravado gave way to a flood of conflicting emotions. He walked to the opposite corner from the window, drawing his knees up next to his chest in a huddled form, as the weight of taking a life washed over him. Silence settled around Blayne, broken only by his heavy breaths. A wave of raw emotion crashed, and he turned his head and vomited on the ground. His chest tightened, and tears welled in his eyes as he grappled with the realization that he had ended another person’s life. Even at that moment, Blayne realized some would call him a hero, but in the depth of his soul, something broke.
“Blayne, Blayne!” a voice yelled from inside the bell tower. He registered the voice screaming his name but not loud enough to move him to action. Seconds later, someone threw their arms around his neck. Blayne was still crying as he looked at Ethan and held onto him like a life preserver tossed to a man who went overboard in a roaring sea.
Amid a flurry of voices and bodies, Blayne was helped to his feet. Then he descended the tower stairs in a haze. By the time his feet hit the bottom landing, he was getting his wits about him. He still shook, and the tears wouldn’t stop streaming down the side of his face.
Ethan sat Blayne outside, and someone handed him a bottle of water. Ethan kneeled next to Blayne and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.
“I’ve got ya.” Blayne reached out, and Ethan curled into Blayne’s lap and clearly wouldn’t let his boyfriend go.
Ethan grabbed both sides of Blayne’s face. “We’ll get through this together,” he whispered before kissing Blayne. “I promise.”
Blayne looked at Ethan. “Sorry. I think I may have vomited in there”
Ethan threw his head back and laughed. “God, I love you, Blayne.” He kissed his boyfriend again.
* * * *
Agent Murphy
When the day’s smoke finally cleared, there were over a dozen fatalities, twenty people who sustained non-life-threatening injuries, whether by one of the gunmen or the crowd, and five dead assailants. William Johnson was the sniper killed in the dorm. They were still waiting for the fingerprints of the three gunmen in the crowd. Thankfully, FBI agents and the ZERO security team had taken the gunmen out reasonably quickly, though Murphy promised to keep their names out of the press. In the melee, no one knew who shot whom. Then there was Benjamin Jackson, who had been shoved out of the bell tower by Blayne Dickenson.
Murphy had been informed of what had transpired. She told the first agents on the scene to secure the tower for evidence. They’d told them Blayne was just sitting outside the museum door against the wall with his boyfriend, who was overprotective.
It took Murphy thirty minutes to make her way over to where Blayne was sitting on the ground with Ethan. With his arm around his shoulder, Ethan sat beside him, and Blayne leaned into Ethan.
She said hello to an agent who let her by. The ZERO security team and band hovered nearby, watching over both Blayne and Ethan. Sarah slid down onto the ground next to Blayne.
“Well, we find ourselves amid a war zone again,” she said, letting out a breath. The evening lights caught a hint of her breath. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”
Blayne turned and looked at Murphy. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and asked, “How do you get them out of your head?”
“You will. It won’t happen overnight. Keep seeing Esperanza Secada. You’re going to need her guidance as a psychologist more than ever after today. Blayne”—she cupped his chin gently in her hand—“don’t do this alone. You have Ethan, you have Kira, you have your Pennington family and you have me.” The words barely escaped her lips as the tears welled.
“What now?” Blayne asked. “I killed someone.”
“Yes,” Murphy said, “but you didn’t murder him. If you hadn’t killed him, he would have killed more people. And while I know this doesn’t make it easier, you made the right call. You made the call any of us would have made if we had the chance. I wish it could have been me in that tower. I wish more than anything you didn’t have to be the one in that position. But you are a hero—and I know you won’t feel like one, even though everyone will laud you with praise. But what you did was heroic. You risked your own life to save others.”
“He was going to kill Ethan. He recognized him and tried to kill him. I just lost it when I realized what he was up to,” Blayne admitted.
“Whoa, you hadn’t even told me that,” Ethan said from the other side of him. “Blayne…” Ethan turned Blayne toward him and kissed him.
“I love you,” Blayne said, the words catching in his throat. “I want to go home.”
Ethan looked at Murphy, who said, “I can get his formal statement tomorrow or later this week.”
“Come on, baby,” Ethan said as he pushed himself off the ground. “Let’s get out of here. I think we’ve done enough for today.”
Ethan reached out his hand to Blayne, who grabbed it and let himself be pulled up. Ethan threw his arm around Blayne’s waist. Murphy stared after them as they walked toward the ZERO family, who enveloped both in a giant group hug.
Dr. Hennigan
Hennigan watched as Murphy talked to Blayne and Ethan. Hennigan wasn’t the right person to have this conversation with Blayne. She rarely felt anything when she had to kill someone. It was built into her DNA, but she knew that not everyone reacted to death as she did.
After Blayne and Ethan left, she approached Murphy, who was still sitting on the ground.
