"In an explosion?" Tommy wondered aloud, suddenly remembering how close he was when he set off the bomb, "Wait, how am I alive?"
"Oh it's not that bad. You've only got a few sctatches," the nurse replied, obviously misunderstanding his meaning.
"Oh... okay..." Tommy was still a little out of it.
"Here, let me help you," the woman reached out to help him stand up.
"Um, thanks," Tommy said gratefully. He tried to regain his balance.
"You should go lay down some more, give your body more rest."
"No, I need to leave," Tommy protested.
The nurse disagreed, "No, you need to sit down. I'm going to go get your doctor so he can check you out. In the meantime, if you need anything press that button and I'll be right back here. My name is Amber, by the way. What's yours?"
"Uh, Tommy... I think," the boy awnsered holding his head.
"Well it's nice to meet you, Tommy," Amber said, leading him back up into the hospital bed. "Just sit tight and I'll send up your doctor right up here in just a minute." That being said, Amber turned and walked right out the door.
Tommy laid back and tried to gather his thoughts.
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As soon as the jet landed, the team split up. JJ and Reid started for Mercy Hospital as they had been told. Rossi also joined them to interview John Doe.
"Have you ever noticed that hospitals, the place that is suppost to save lives, always smells like death?" JJ commented, walking through the front doors.
Reid was ready with an awnser, "Really it's not as mcuh the actual smell of death that you smell in a hospital, as it is the disinfectants and sterilizing sprays. You only think it smells like death because your brain associates that smell with hospitals, which remind you of dying. Your smell sensors send that information to your head, therefore making you think that hospitals smell like death."
"... Hey JJ, have you ever noticed that hospitals smell like death?" Rossi asked with small smile. Upon reaching the receptionist's desk he became more serious, "Ma'am, I'm Agent David Rossi with the FBI," he, JJ, and Reid all pulled out their badges and displayed them, "and these are my associates, Agent Jareau and Dr. Reid. May we speak with the survivor of the University of Georgia bombing?"
"Of course," the receptionist replied before signaling to a young woman to come over, "We've been expecting you since your phone call this morning." The woman she had called to walked up to the desk as the receptionist continued, "This is Amber, she works in the area where your John Doe is at. Amber, will you please take these agents up to his room?"
"Sure no problem, he only woke up a few minutes ago; I was just about to send his doctor to him." She then turned to the three waiting people. "Follow me," Amber said cheerfully, "Maybe by now he might have made it to the door."
"What?" JJ looked confused.
"Never mind," Amber laughed to herself, "Right this way." She walked off toward the elevator.
The three agents exchanged looks. They followed her into the elevator.
"So tell me, how bad are this kid's injuries?" JJ asked the nurse as the doors closed behind them.
Amber pushed the button for the fourth floor. "Not bad at all, he's just a little bruised. To tell the truth, I would have never guessed that he was caught in the explosion if I hadn't have seen him being loaded off that ambulance myself."
"That's suprising," Reid commented.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. "Ya'll are FBI right? Do you think that this means that there might be more targets in the future?" the nurse questioned, looking concerned.
Rossi looked grim, "We certainly hope not."
"Ok... his room is right down this hall, room 432," Amber gestured down the hallway to their left.
"Thank you," JJ replied.
The three FBI agents left the nurse behind as they walked down the indicated hallway.
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After Amber left Tommy's brain seemed to cooperate with him better. More memories slowly crept back into his mind.
Tommy laid there in the hospital bed, trying to figure out what could had happened the previous day after he passed out. Realizing that he could not do that on his own, he turned on the television set in the room, with hopes of finding out the truth of what had happened.
The tv flicked on to life on a news channel. The first thing Tommy could do was immediately see the message that was written in subtittles beneath the reporter. ...bombing at the University of Georgia yesterday afternoon. The FBI has been notified of this confusing case and has sent a team of agents to... Tommy turned off the television.
Oh that's just great, he thought, just what I need. He rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Knock, knock," came a voice from the door. The owner of that voice stepped into the room, followed by two men. "I'm Agent Jenifer Jareau from the FBI, this is Agent David Rossi and Dr. Spencer Reid. May we talk to you?"
Oh, this is just wonderful, Tommy thought sarcasticly. Out loud he said, "Sure, come in. How can I help you?"
"We need to ask you some questions about the bombing, Mr..." Rossi started.
"Thomas Landre, call me Tommy," Tommy awnsered Rossi's unspoken question.
"Ok Tommy, do you remember what were you doing at the school?" Rossi continued.
"Um, I was going to class. I had a big test in my Statistics class," Tommy lied. What kind of a question is that? What else would a person say? 'Oh I went to school to blow it to pieces'? he thought.
"So there was class that day?" Reid asked.
"Yes..." Tommy awnsered. Duh, Tommy thought. He was begining to think that these FBI agents were just terrible interviewers.
"Really, was anybody else there then?" JJ questioned.
"Well, yeah, of course. Why wouldn't there be?" Tommy was slightly annoyed now, not understanding the agents' line of questioning.
The agents ignored his question. Rossi tried a different, bolder tactic, "So you had nothing to do with that bomb set off yesterday?"
Tommy stared up at the agents standing above him. A strong sense of self-preservation hit him suddenly and temporarily overpowered his confusion. "No, of course not," he said angrily, "why would you think that it was me? There were hundreds of other people there yesterday. Why not go bother them?!"
The three agents exchanged surprised looks.
"What is the problem now?" Tommy asked exasperated.
"Tommy, there was no one there but you," JJ finally said after a few moments of silence.
The statement threw Tommy totally off-balance. "What do you mean, there was no one there but me? People were everywhere!"
"That's impossible, there were no other people found within two miles of the targeted buildings, only you," Reid added to the conversation.
"But... that's..." Tommy was way beyond confused now, "no, that's not right there were people there... I bumped into people along the walkways, I saw them there, heard them speaking...You must be mistaken," suddenly Tommy's face lit up with a memory, "I was talking to a new girl, she was standing right next to me. Surely you've found her?"
"There's no mistake," Rossi spoke up, "no one was found."
"No people, no girl," JJ shook her head, agreeing with Rossi.
"But I saw her, I..." his voice trailed off as he suddenly remembered something "...knew my name," for a second, the boy looked astonished, almost afraid.
"I would hope that you knew your own name, Son" Rossi awnsered, clearly believing, as JJ already did, that Tommy was crazy. Or at least fell a little too hard on his head during the blast.
"No, not me... the girl, the new girl at the university. She knew my name, but I didn't tell her," Tommy's voice got slower as his brain tried its hardest to comprehend this new mystery. The harder he tried to understand, the bigger his headache grew. His brain was killing him, he had so many questions. Deep in thought, he continued to speak, "She was trying to tell me something, but I don't remember exactly what...You know, she did seem kind of familiar..." His voice drifted away.
"Tommy, we didn't find anyone else." JJ said gently, recapturing his attention.
"But I know she was there!" Tommy insisted.
"Maybe she woke up before you did and ran away before the ambulance arrived," Reid thought aloud, "Do you know her name? She might be able to help us in our investigation."
Ran away? I couldn't get her to leave me when I asked her to. Tommy thought in dry amusement. Whoa, where did that come from? he abruptly questioned his memory. Out loud he replied, "I've never seen her before that day, she said her name was Nicole Gabriel."
Suddenly a noise was heard from the doorway. "Ok Tommy, one of the nurses informed me that somebody was ready to leave?" a doctor, looking down at a chart in his hand, entered the room. Looking up, he noticed the three people standing around Tommy. Eyeing their FBI badges, he asked, "I'm sorry, am I interupting?"
"No, not at all," Rossi awnsered, "We were just finishing." He turned to exit the room.
"Goodbye Tommy, get some rest," JJ said, following the older man's lead.
Reid followed close behind them as they went to report back to the rest of the team.