After Pope's demonstration, Tom forces Matt to go back to school.
"Don't worry Tom, I'll make sure that Matt gets there," I say coming up behind Matt.
"No, its ok Laura, I'm sure you have other things you have to do," he says.
"Actually, I better be getting there myself," I say.
"Laura's been helping Mrs. Ronan teach. She was there for my class. She taught us how to do math, it was so cool," Matt gushes and Tom smiles.
"Yep and I found that I really enjoyed it too," I tell them.
"That's good to hear that you you've found something you like to do," Tom says.
"Yeah it is. Well come on Matt, you're missing English," I say and put my hands on his shoulders and steer him inside.
Later that day after the classes are over, I'm about to leave the classroom when Matt comes to me.
"Hey Laura, what you said earlier, about teaching me all the military stuff, do you mean it?" he asks a little shyly. I smile at him.
"Of course I did," I tell him.
"Here," I pat a chair, "Have a seat."
That afternoon I'm serving dinner with Lourdes while we talk. After everyone is served, we take some food for ourselves and sit down with Anne, Tom, Hal, Ben and Matt. Everyone is talking and I jump right into the conversation. A half an hour later someone taps my shoulder.
It's Uncle Scott, "Hey Laura, can you help me with something?"
"Um, yeah, sure," I say and get up to put my bowl away before walking with him to a classroom.
"Ok, so what do you need help with?" I ask as we walk.
"You'll see," he says cryptically.
"Ok, why the need for all the secrecy?" I ask.
"You'll see," he repeats and I chuckle. I don't say anything until we get to the classroom and I gasp when I see what's sitting on the table. It's an old projector and a few tins of reel. I walk over to it, looking at its condition.
"Where did you find this?" I ask him.
"It was behind the library in storage. I also found some short movies. I thought that we could set it up in the gym and play them. Everyone's been so stressed lately, I thought it would be fun," he says.
"Yeah, but what do you need me for?" I ask.
"Matt said something to me yesterday about how you loved movies and something about how to play them," he says.
"I don't remember saying that and unfortunately I don't know how to set this up. My dad used to have a projector, but he got rid of it when I was young, so I don't remember how to use it. But I'd be happy to help in any way I can, I think it'd be a great idea to play these," I say.
"Well lucky for us, I do know how to set it up. Now can you help me move this stuff to the gym?" he asks.
"Of course," I say, taking one side of the projector as he takes the other. I have to carry most of the weight, but I don't mind. I know how much everyone is going to enjoy this. When we reach the gym, we set it down in the middle of the floor.
"I'll be right back with the film reels," I say and I walk back to the room. On the way there I pass another classroom and see something that I think we could use. I take it and get the film reels. I go back to the gym where Scott is plugging in varies cables and wires to the projector.
"Oh, what have you got there?" he asks.
"The reels and a white sheet. I was thinking we can somehow hang it from the support beams in the ceiling," I say.
"Well, you're going to have to figure out how to do that, but it seems like a good idea to me," he says and goes back to his wires. I think about how to set the sheet up and go to find some cord and textbooks. When I find some I make holes in the top two corners of the sheet and thread the cord through, tying knots to hold the cord in place. Then I look at the ceiling. I cannot think of any way to get this up there except for throwing it. So I try that. After fifteen minutes I'm about to give up when I get it. I use the textbooks to hold the cord on the ground so the cord won't come back over the beam and I have to start over again. Then I try to second one, which doesn't take as long to get than the first one. I weigh that one down too and start to lift the sheet. I pull on the cord until the sheet is all the way off the ground and flat.
"Good job, for a second there I thought you weren't going to get it," Scott comments.
"I love your overwhelming faith in me," I reply sarcastically and he laughs at this.
"Come one and help me over here, for some reason this isn't working," he says and I sit down next to him.
Well, we were right. The movies were a big hit. Everyone, well mostly everyone is now sitting in the gym laughing their heads off at the movie. I'm sitting in between Jimmy and Hal as I laugh at the two flowers, or what I think are flowers. Hal just puts his head down and chuckles.
I nudge him. "Lighten up and try to stop acting so grown up. It's funny."
"Yeah, yeah, you sound like my mother," he jokes and I laugh, my laughter blending in with everyone else's. We go back to watching the movie, which is very funny when I see Tom and Anne out of the corner of my eye. Tom doesn't notice me looking at him and for some reason I see sorrow and dread in his face. This makes me very worried. I try to go back to the movie, but I just can't.
"I'll be right back," I whisper to Jimmy and walk out of there. I was intending to just take a walk through the halls when Anthony comes running past me. I know that run; that's the run that says that something is seriously wrong. I run to catch up with him and hear him yelling from inside Weaver's office.
"Captain, Dai's back sir. He's wounded real bad. Please come," Anthony informs him and they all rush out of the room at a room.
"I'll go tell Anne to meet you in the med lab," I shout at them.
"You do that," Weaver yells back at me as he races out front.
I run to the movie and slow to a walk. There's no reason to alert everyone else. I find her and whisper to her that Weaver needs her NOW in the med lab. She taps Lourdes shoulder and gestures for her to come. They stand and follow me out. We run to the med lab as Anne puts her hair up.
"What's going on?" Lourdes asks.
"Dai just got back and he's wounded really badly. Weaver's going to meet us here with him," I inform her as we reach the med lab. We wait for a minute before a group of fighters come rushing in carrying an injured Dai. I move out of the way so Anne and Lourdes can work and stand in the corner with Tom and that one guy whose name I don't know and can't see him name tag. I don't want to leave, but I don't exactly know what to do either. Weaver walks over to Dai and talks to Dai as Anne and Lourdes try to work around him. Weaver walks over to us and a moment later so does Anne.
"He has a deep abdominal laceration, but no internal damage," Anne tells us.
"Is he going to make it?" Tom asks.
"Well he's unconscious and he's lost a lot of blood. I'll have a better idea by morning," Anne says.
"Did he give you his report?" Tom asks Weaver.
It takes a second for Weaver to answer. "Just take care of him. Five minutes C.p."
Weaver leaves with that other guy following him.
"Lieutenant Danner's moving up the food chain. I hear he's career military," Anne comments as Tom walks to Dai's side.
"Yeah, he was one of the lucky ones. He was on leave at Fort Drum when it got hit," Tom says. "I guess Weaver wanted someone with hard combat experience to help him with the planning."
Tom starts to leave and brushes past me.
"What's going on between you and Weaver?" Anne asks. Ok, this just turned into a private conversation, so I walk past Anne to stand by Lourdes.
"It's complicated," Tom says.
"I can handle complicated," Anne replies. Tom turns to her and lowers his voice when he answers, but I can still hear them talking.
"There was an incident on our last scout. I wouldn't call it a nervous breakdown, more like a guy being pushed to close to the edge, but Weaver almost didn't make it back," Tom says.
"That serious?" Anne asks. Tom nods yes in response.
"Does anybody else know?" Anne asks.
"No, only Hal. Once we got back he kind of seemed to snap out of it, so for the sake of morale we decided to keep what happened between us," he says.
"And now?" Anne asks.
Tom thinks for a second. "I'm not so sure that we the right decision."
"Tom this attack's in two days," Anne says worriedly.
"I know, but the last thing people need is me raising doubts," Tom replies.
Lourdes looks up at them, but I put a hand on her shoulder saying to respect their privacy.
"What are you going to do?" Anne asks as he back away.
"I wish I knew," Tom says and he disappears into the hallway full of people. Anne looks back at us and I decide that it's time for me to take my leave as well. I give Anne a passing nod and walk down the hall towards Weaver's office. I haven't gotten any orders yet about my part in the attack, so I have to ask him if I'm even going. I get there and there are a bunch of fighters hanging right outside the door.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"And who are you?" a man asks and I recognize him from Anne's office. He was with Weaver. I instantly do not like this man; he has the feeling of thinking he's better than everyone else just coming off him.
"A fighter of the Second Mass and a permanent fighter on Tom's unit. And who the hell are you?" I ask and a few fighters chuckle.
"Lieutenant Danner, Weaver's right hand man," he says.
"Really, it's nice to meet you. I've heard of you before," I say and stick my hand out. He doesn't take it and I hear a few more snickers from the fighters.
"Danner get in here!" Weaver shouts.
"Oh, and could you tell him I'm here to see him?" I ask Danner and he glares at me. He pushes the door open and slams it behind him.
"Thank you, I've wanted to do that all day," a female fighter says to me.
"No problem, I hate people that think they're better than everyone else," I say. After a minute Tom walks through the door and waves everybody back in. I don't move though.
"You coming?" the same female fighter asks.
"No, I want to talk to Weaver in private," I answer.
"Ok," she says and walks into the room. A few seconds later I hear this.
"Laura, you too!" Weaver barks. I jump a little at how loud he yells this, but walk in.
"So I take it I'm fighting?" I ask.
"Yes, you're going to be…" Weaver informs me of where I'm going to be and who I'll be with.
After the meetings over, which Weaver has me stay behind after to catch me up; I head down to the armory to get my weapon. I had returned it two days ago after seeing that I wasn't going to need it. A plus, it's not really like I need a weapon to defend myself/ others. I get my weapon and load it and then am walking to my room when I bump into Lourdes.
"Sorry," she murmurs, but I can tell that something's weighing on her mind. Usually she is very sharp, not the usual type of person that you walk into. I mean around corners yeah, but in a straight hallway where you can see the other person coming from a mile away.
"Lourdes, something wrong?" I ask.
"Well, um," she says and looks like she's trying to decide whether or not to tell me.
"Lourdes whatever you have to say can stay between us if you want it to," I urge her.
She sighs and then says, "Ok, what I'm about to tell you though, I don't think it should be kept a secret, I just don't know how to tell anyone."
"Lourdes, just start from the beginning," I say calmly and take her shoulders in my hands.
"Ok…" and she begins telling her story.
Anne, followed by Tom, walks into the med lab. I tap Lourdes shoulder and she turns from putting things into cabinets.
"Lourdes, tell Tom what you told me," Anne says. Lourdes looks at me from the corner of her eye and I nod, just barely.
"It's Captain Weaver. I heard what you were saying about him earlier and… he came to me a couple weeks ago and asked me to help him with some medication," Lourdes says.
"Prescribed by your old friend Dr. Harris," Anne adds and something in her tone makes me think that they weren't really friends.
"Yeah, he said he came to me because he didn't want to bother Dr. Glass," Lourdes says. That's new, she didn't tell me that.
"And because he knew I'd ask questions," Anne says.
"Ok, what kind of medications?" Tom asks.
"Phenobarbital to sleep and amphetamines to wake up. It's a classic addictive cycle and once you start it's hard to stop," Anne answers.
"What would that… what would that do to him?" Tom asks and it's obvious the pressure that he's feeling right now.
"Depends on what he's taking. One or two a day, probably nothing," Anne says.
"And more?" Tom asks, rubbing his chin.
"The symptoms could be extreme. Paranoia, mood swings, even hallucinations. Tom if Weaver's abusing his drugs there's a good chance of what you saw in Boston, that could happen again," Anne says.
Tom doesn't say anything; I don't think he knows what to say to this. He just blinks and looks down with his eyes glazed over. I knew that if I were him, I would be thinking this.
What the hell am I going to do now?
