Paul Merris was at the hospital most of the night.  He wanted to see Felicia, to reassure her but he arrived a few minutes after she was taken to the operating room.  He could not be with Felicia but he could wait for her during her surgery.  Her dad sat by himself at the other side of the waiting room, finally after a time he came over to where Paul was sitting and flopped into the chair next to him.  The two men had seen each other only when Paul stopped in to pick up Felicia for a date.  Paul looked over at the older man, tears in his eyes.

“It’s tough, isn’t it?”  The older man asked.

Paul managed to choke out something about a second time.  Only then did Darrell Barton connect the name Merris.  “God, this has to be a nightmare for you, your sister, she was the first one.”

Paul nodded.

“Terrible, every morning after one of these shootings is terrible.  I get trays with legs in them, to verify that they had to be amputated.  Every morning when I did the pathology work on those girls legs I saw Felicia with a leg missing.  I had nightmares about it.”

Paul could do little but nod.

“I hoped it wouldn’t happen.  After all, she wasn’t a cop.  They were the ones being targeted.  You probably are one of the few people who understand what it’s like.”

“The first day I barely looked at my sister.  I only visited her twice in the hospital, the one time she was getting ready to go to therapy.  The first I saw her leg, ah stump was when she came home.  I blew it so bad that she wrestled with me on the living room floor.”

“Oh.”  Darrell’s heart sunk.  If thus guy could not handle his sister loosing a leg could he possibly handle it happening to his girlfriend?  It would be easy for him to walk away.  The happiness she had in the last few months would evaporate.  Felicia would be hurt even more.

“I had to come to grips with it and I have.  I’d like to go out right now, find this guy and shoot him in both legs, empty a magazine in each so they have to be amputated, but I can’t.  If I do, I go to jail and I can’t let that happen.  I need to be here for Felicia.”