Stu jerked back, barely missed getting hit in the fast wsith her fist. Instinctively he came back to push her into the bed by her shoulder so she would hurt him or herself.

"Blasted," he grumbled. Even she was strong for being so frail looking. "Someone help me!" He let his booming voice yell louder than anything else in the hospital wing.

Her fingers scratched at him. The bed rail had stopped her right leg from striking out at an area that Stu cherished about himself. The woman was a fighter, he saw that. It was the language coming out of her mouth.

"Fucking Taliban Fucker!" She yelled her eyes boring into his with a hate he had never even seen a fan have for him.

Two nurses and her doctor came in, an orderly on their heels and then the Doctor Stein he met from earlier. Stu let go of Abigail, so that the medical staff could get her under control. But it seemed to be a futile attempt, her heated gaze was on him as he moved away. Eyes wide and all forms of terroristic threats were yelled at him.

"I'll fucking kill you, you damn Taliban punk ass fucker!" She yelled those stinging words at him, the kind that could get to a man's heart.

She was seemingly oblivious to the fact that a a nurse managed to get a syringe of something into her IV. She still yelled, she still fought, nearly kicking the orderly in the face with her right foot in a vain attempt to get up out of the bed to attack him. The Doctor had to pin her shoulders down to the bed, the other nurse held down her arm so the other nurse could load her up with something that could knock her out. Even the machines attached to her were making all sorts of fuss.

But the Englishman stood at the doorway, frozen as he grasped the door jam just to keep from walking out completely. They had to bring in restraints to stop her from lashing out at everyone.

"You killed him, you fucker! You brought him to his death! He was shot In the back, he didn't deserve to die!"

Her fighting and cursing started to fade. Even his girlfriend Tori never cursed as much as this woman did. Larry was able to hear most of what she was yelling before drifting off to sleep.

"What's going on?" Larry asked. "What happened?"

He looked between Stu and the medical staff, probably worried that she had hurt herself.

"It's post traumatic stress disorder. She mistook your friend here for a terrorist." Doctor Stein said motioning to Stu. "I think it's the beard." He leaned down to check on Abigail's left leg.

"Are you okay, Stu?" Larry asked.

"Fine, she didn't manage to hit me, but came close to breaking my nose. She has a bloody good hook to her."

"I'm sorry about that, Stu." Larry tried to apologize to him.

"Why? She has every right to be scared. She obviously had been used in some way than what anyone knows. I know what the being beaten looks like. Maybe if you hadn't noticed but she's got a crooked nose." Stu said nodding to the woman.

He could spot a broken nose like his own anywhere. Stu could at least understand why she thought he was a terrorist.

It was probably his own dark hair and his beard that scared her.

He began to wonder what all had happened to her while being held hostage. Stu felt for the woman, being hurt in the way she was. She didn't deserve all that had been given to her.

Scratching his beard, Stu stepped out of the room to give Larry time with his cousin. Stu already felt responsible for her freak out moment on him. Maybe a walk would be useful, he decided.

Lost in thought, Stu walked the hall. There wasn't much of anything going, not that he noticed because his head was back with the injured woman. There was a large window ahead of him, once he had looked up. It was a floor to ceiling window, there was a bench seat there just to rest in.

Dropping into the seat, he stretched out his leg and flexed hiss right arm. That Abigail was really strong, a fighter. Much like he had been back in the day. It only made him smile to himself.

Out the window he saw a familiar river, the Rhine River, a prominent river that ran through Berlin. He remembered the times he had come to Europe for his bare knuckle boxing days in his younger years. The years when he didn't look like a Picaso painting. A bent nose one way, large elephant ears. At least that was what he was seeing in the reflection of the window.

"Aren't you King Barrett?" A man asked.

Stu turned his head and found a man in a white lab coat looking at him. He was another doctor for the hospital with pepper gray hair, even his thick mustache was streaked with gray. The man had a chart tucked under his arm, his head tilted to the side as if he couldn't believe that there was a WWE superstar there.

"I am." Stu answered holding his hand out.

"What brings you here?" He shook his hand.

"A friend actually. His cousin is here."

"Lt. Abigail Winters, everyone know about her." He smiled before leaning against the opposite wall from Stu. "I'm Peter, Dr. Peter Conrad. Nice to meet you, King Barrett."

"I'm surprised you're not calling me all sorts of vulgar things."

"You're a bad guy in the WWE, it doesn't mean you're one in real life. Coming here to help your friend, that's an honorable thing to do. Work around here has slowed down because of America's less involvement with Iraq right now. When she came in, it was a massive shock to all of us."

"Because people thought that she was supposed to be dead?"

"Pretty much, yeah. She has been okay that is up until her recent surgery."

"What happened?"

"Staff infection. She's been down ever since. I've been helping her ortho doctor try to figure out why. It's been a roller coaster ride with her since she's been here."

"Bloody hell," Stu mumbled, leaning back in his seat. "She's had it rough."

"It's the nightmares she's been struggling with."

"Nightmares?"

"Yeah, I've seen them before. Wakes up screaming for Karim, whoever he is. And when we ask she won't give it up."

"PTSD, that's what her doctor said."

Dr. Conrad nodded, understanding what was said. "He's right. Since working here I've seen my fair share of extreme limb loss. Arms, legs, one man had a mangled face that killed him later on. It's always so hard to deal with the nightmares. I had served on the front lines in the Gulf War and seen pieces of men coming through the unit I worked. Men crying, begging for their mothers. It gave me nightmares and I wasn't on the front lines."

"What did you do with the nightmares?"

"I had to get a therapist, I had to talk about it. But that was only if I wanted to talk about it."

Abigail was a soldier, she would want to keep what was in her head to herself instead of telling it to some stranger.

"It's the missing limbs that people have the hardest time to deal with."

"What do you mean?" Stu looked at the doctor.

Dr. Conrad sighed, turning towards the window and looked out. "It has a lot of influence on someone's need to survive. If you're missing one part of you, you don't feel whole enough."

"Have there been suicides as a result for this?" That was not something Stu wanted to think about but it was something he knew he had to warn Larry about.

"Sometimes you get to the patient before they get to themselves. She's a woman, everything about life is made to look perfect you know. You've seen the scars."

"Seen them? She bloody near decapitated me with a single punch."

The doctor laughed. "Reflex. She thought she was safe…"

"I know she was hurt, I can see it. I was a fighter like she was, not for military but a street brawler. I've had my fair share of scars. Some of which come from Germany."

Stu scrubbed a hand over his face, scratching at the scruff that was starting to get out of hand. He didn't think that someone would get so depressed that they would ever think about suicide. It was something that didn't happen to him, at least not in the circle around him.

"So what do I do about it?" He asked the doctor.

"I don't know what you can do about it. That's up to her and her family to decide. All I know is that once you're injured like she was it's kind of hard to find happiness in life. I know of one soldier that was a double amputee and he had a fiancee who was a teacher. Lucky for him he was a license teacher. They went on to teach together at their local school. He's never been happier. But, unless she can find something that lights her life, it's going to be one hard road."

Somehow, Stu could understand that.

"Why tell me this?" Stu asked.

"Because someone has to know what to expect when it comes to her injuries. I'd rather be told straight up than get the damn run around. Wouldn't your friend want that?"
"I suppose. I'll tell him when I return to the room."

"Well, I have to get going. We don't just deal with the military. I have a sick kid to look in on." Dr. Conrad said, pushing off from the wall.

He waited a few minutes until after the doctor left to head back to Abigail's room. It took a few moments because his cell phone went off. It was his ring tone for his girlfriend.

"Tori," Stu said as he picked up the phone.

"Where the living hell are you, Stu?" She asked, demanding actually.

"I'm helping Larry out."

"With what, his divorce was a long time ago."

"His cousin, actually." He couldn't understand why Tori didn't care for Larry. He never was a part of her clique of friends with the WWE.

"Cousin?"

"Sister Abigail, she's not dead. Look, I need to go. I have a few things to tell him. I'll talk to you later when I'm back at the hotel we're staying at. Love you."

"Yeah, you too." She then promptly hung up.

Sighing, Stu got up, turned off his cell and then walked back to Abigail's room

Sorry for the long delay everyone. I have had such a hard month in July and I have finally gotten back to the utmost need to sit down and continue with this story. I really do love all the comments I have been getting and the PMs that you all have been sending me asking about my other stories. I want to focus on this project for right now and maybe then a short story series that I have had put on the back burner for a long time.

I'll be back again soon, I promise. I still have a lot of summer time issues preventing me from sitting down every day to write.