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The security guards were checking IDs at the front door of the hospital, so Maggie went around to the back and juh an openThen she had to wait near the nurse&039;s station until no one was around, which felt like it took hours Once she had access to a coh to look up what roootten his name from the news broadcast she&039;d seen in her hotel room He was the cop who had shot her in front of the bank while Brent distracted her He was the cop she&039;d then picked up and thrown, hard enough to fracture half the bones in his body

He was a twelve-year veteran of the police force He had a wife and two kids She had swatted him away from her like a pesky fly It was true, he had shot her In the face But she had shrugged off the pain of that in a second His pain was going to last a whole lot longer

No one noticed when Maggie slipped past a nurse&039;s station on the fifth floor and worked her way down a semi-darkened hallway It was late and the hospital felt all but deserted Visiting hours were long over but in so next to quiet beds, holding pale, battered hands or readingsoftly to themselves and the soda machine at the end of the hallway rumbled and buzzed for no one

She found the room she wanted The door was open and she could see Wallace lying in the bed There were bandages wrapped around most of his head and on both of his hands He was asleep Maybe that was for the best Maggie slipped into the rooile human bodies could be The ones without superpowers, anyway She hadn&039;t thought about what she was doing As usual, she had just reacted - to her anger, to the darkness inside of her When he shot her, she&039;d figured thather toohad looked red, and she had just lashed out like a wounded animal

She didn&039;t think she should wake hioing to say to him? I&039;m sorry I nearly killed you? The newscast had said he was in serious but stable condition Thatto die But what if he had? It could have happened easily enough If he&039;d hit his head instead of his back, if she&039;d thrown hihtly differently there were so many ways

All she could do, she decided, was leave the o She slipped off her backpack and looked for a place to set it down She was giving hiht cover his h she doubted it She&039;d started to count it earlier and realized that there just wasn&039;t thatfor her ridiculously expensive hotel rooh left to pay for gas and food on her trip out of town It didn&039;t ive Wallace and his family as much as she could spare

She was about to put the backpack on a chair by the bed when she heard a toilet flush All the hair on her ar out of the rooed woman with short, frizzy hair Her face was red and worn as if she&039;d been crying for a long tiie decided

"I don&039;t want you here," she said, her voice fir here? Not, did you coie had expected

"I only caie told her

"Don&039;t Don&039;t try You can only s worse I know about you I went back and read all the things they said in the newspaper You hurt people, and then your brother co He just cleans up He&039;s like your janitor"

Maggie looked down at her shoes "I have soht it could help pay for the hospital rooie&039;s hands She rued around in the twenty dollar bills cra up a handful of twenties

"From the bank"

"It&039;s stolen? Do you even understand what you&039;re doing? He&039;s a cop I&039;m a cop&039;s wife I can&039;t take this It would be ie and they fluttered across the floor "Here I don&039;t want it," she said, and handed the backpack to Maggie "Stupid little twit Bringing stolen ie protested

"Help? Do you even knohat you did? It&039;ll be ain Fred will probably never be able to go back to active duty - they&039;ll have to give hi to hate that"

Tears were crowding in the corners of Maggie&039;s eyes "Please Let me help, somehow Just tell me what you want Because I don&039;t knohat else to do"

The woie&039;s face in her hand and stared into her eyes "Just go away Just go soie fled the room, then At the nurse&039;s station sonored theain and still running and she didn&039;t stop for a long time