Jordan's POV
I look up from my forms and see the plump, grumpy face of my boss, Mr. Craw. I groan inwardly, ''visits'' from him meant trouble for the center. Every time he's come he causes messes leaving me to clean up. I'll just pray that everything will go smoothly.
I get up and shake Mr. Craw's hand.
''Mr. Craw, it's a pleasure to see you. What brings you here?'' I ask.
''Do I need a reason to come to the company I'm sponsoring?'' he says gruffly, glaring at me with his old bloodshot eyes.
''No sir,'' I say in my usual calm, cool voice. ''I just like to plan ahead, you know me. Would you like a tour? Or would you like to see a few of the 4400's themselves...''
''No more tours,'' He interrupts me.
''A 4400 it is then,'' I say giving him a small smile. ''If you would please just follow me.''
I lead him down the right-hand corridor toward some of the guest rooms. Please, God let this go well...
Mr. Craw's POV
Collier escorts me down a hall of nicely painted doors. He had better walk slower if he wants to keep his job.
He finally stops at a door with a few music posters on it. A large "Keep Out" sign takes up a lot of the door space. Collier knocks on the door a few times but nobody answers. He gives me another small smile and opens the door.
We enter the room and I find it nicely furnished. It is somewhat obvious a teen lives here by the looks of the floor and bed. There are a lot of clothes and cds strewn about everywhere. There is also a guitar in the corner.
Collier is walking over to a blonde-haired teenager that is seated at a metal desk. The teen has a growing pile of crumpled papers to the side of him and headphones over his ears.
Collier taps him a few times before finally getting the teen's attention. The young man looks up and mouths the words "What do you want?" Collier gestures behind the boy and the teen looks at me.
He obviously doesn't want to talk to people. The boy gives Collier a pleading look, but it has no effect on Collier's stern stare.
The teen sighs and takes off his headphones. This is really starting to get annoying. Collier and the young man walk up to me. I give Collier an expectant look and he smiles.
"Mr. Craw, I would like you to meet our most famous 4400 at the center, Shawn Ferrell,"
I stare at Shawn for a few moments. So this is the famous "Healing Shawn" I thought he would have been older. Is it a good idea for someone that young to hold that much power?
"It's nice to meet you," Shawn says half-heartedly. He smiles a little and holds out his hand. I stare at his hand skeptically for a moment before shaking it with a nasty grin.
"I've heard so much about you, Shawn," I say, staring at him strangely. The boy looks uncomfortable shaking my hand and side-glances at Collier.
Collier's cell phone rings and Shawn and I look up.
"I'm very sorry but I have to take this. At least this will give you time to talk, right?" Collier says this while walking to the door. Shawn is giving him another pleading look but Collier's already on the phone and out the door.
Shawn frowns at the door and then at me. Shawn sighs heavily and goes back to his papers at his desk.
Nobody has ever walked away from me before; I simply do not tolerate it. Especially not from a teenage healing freak! This boy thinks he is something special, but I can put him in place! I walk up to the boy and watch him intently for many minutes.
Shawn finally looks up from his papers and glares at me.
"Can I help you?" he asks a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"I was just curious as to what you were writing,"
"Nothing," he mumbles and turns back to his paper.
"It looks like you're doing something," I reply, in a collective tone. "Why won't you tell me?"
"Maybe it's none of your business!" He yells, staring at me square in the eye.
I snatch up his paper and start to read. I know it's rude but I don't ever care.
"Hey! You can't do that!" Shawn yells after getting over the shock of my rudeness.
"You're writing to your family? I thought they kicked you out?" I say.
"They didn't kick me out!" He cries. "I ran away, but Jordan told me I have to write them at least once a month."
"Why?" I ask. "Who would want to hear from their freak murdering son who ran away? Yeah, I know all about your little life-sucking power you used on your brother." I was really pushing the boy's buttons by the looks of his face.
The boy is breathing heavily with emotion. He snatches back his paper and points toward the door.
"Get out, now," He says slowly and quietly.
"Why? Are you going to suck my life away? I'd like to see you try."
Shawn's POV
Fury was clouding my vision. I couldn't just let a man I've only known for ten minutes speak to me that way.
I glare at the man again and tell him to leave but he just laughs. That's it.
I wrestle the man to the ground and press my palms hard against his chest. I watch the man turn a pale white and a loud scream escape the fat man's lips. A door creaks open to the side of me and I can hear a lot of footsteps walking around.
I clench my eyes shut. My mouth is starting to bleed, and all I want to do is get off. Somehow, this life-sucking ability is hurting me too. I cry out and tears fill my eyes.
Somebody pulls my body off of Mr. Craw's and wraps me in a hug. I shake from the tremors of pain still going though my body. What had gone wrong? It's always hurt but not that badly. I want to see what happening to Mr. Craw but somebody is still embracing me firmly. I hear voices in the background but it quickly dies away as I started sobbing loudly.
A soothing voice calms me down a little and hugs me tighter.
"Do you want to go rest awhile, Shawn?"
I nod my head and pull out of the warm hug belonging to Jordan Collier.
He guides me carefully into a room a couple doors over, supporting me a lot of the way. We entered the room and I feel very dizzy, I stumble a lot before falling down on the plush carpet. Jordan half-carries me the rest of the way to a bed and before I black out...
Jordan's POV
I lay Shawn down on the bed and place a blanket around his body. I wonder, what the hell happened in there! I stare at Shawn a long time. I'm going to kill Mr. Craw if he hurt Shawn. Although, I'm thinking Shawn did more of the hurting. I notice the blood on the boy's lips for the first time.
I go to the bathroom and wet a hand rag. I wipe the blood as well as I can then inspect him some more. His hands are an odd shade of purple, as if they were bruised or something. I cannot really rule out anything else so I pick up my phone and have Devon call a doctor.
A few hours later, after I have checked on the Mr. Craw situation some more, Dr. Bailey arrives. She is our private doctor, meaning, she already knows about the 4400's abilities, and has previously given Shawn a few checkups.
"Dr. Bailey, I'm so glad you could come see us on such short notice," I greet her.
"It's no problem at all, Mr. Collier," she replies with a smile.
"Call me Jordan," I say. "Shawn is down in the guest room, he's been unconscious for a while now. I'm a bit worried."
"Shawn's a tough kid, he's going to be fine" she says knowingly. "Just take me to him and I'll evaluate his true condition."
"Okay, right this way"
I lead her past a few doors until we finally arrive at the now occupied guest bedroom. We walk in and find Shawn still resting in the same position I left him a few minutes earlier.
I sigh; "He's all yours," I sit down in the nearest chair and watch.
Dr. Bailey walks up to him and examines his eyes, mouth, and hands. After taking many notes, she sticks a clean thermometer in his ear and waits a few minutes.
"103," Dr. Bailey announces, after reading the thermometer. "So he's running quite a fever, but he should be fine with some bed rest and medicine."
She checks her notes once more and looks up at me.
"What I'm really worried about is his hands," she says. "They seem to have been severely damaged by something on the inside. Do you have any idea what it could have been?"
I stare at the sleeping form of Shawn for a few minutes then back at Dr. Bailey.
"I really, honest to goodness, have no clue," I say. "But I can ask him when he wakes up. Do you know when that will be?"
"How long has it been since he's blacked out from the attack?" Dr. Bailey asks.
I check my watch, "About three hours."
"Then he should come around by tonight," Dr. Bailey smiles and nods at me and examines her notes again. "You should have one of the nurses bandage his hands. Give them some time to heal, don't let him use them too much."
"Okay. What about the fever?"
"I can prescribe a fast-acting medicine that should have him able-bodied in about four days."
"That's fine, thank you very much for coming down." I say leading her out the door.
She rips out a prescription from her folder and hands it to me. I thank her one last time before shutting the door. I sigh and stare at Shawn once more. My cell phone goes off and I answer it.
"Jordan Collier,"
"Mr. Collier, Mr. Craw has woken up, and he's not at all pleased…"
"I'll be right there," I hang up the phone and sigh. I steal one last look at Shawn before turning out the lights and heading towards the hospital quarters. It's going to be a long night.