Work. Practice. Train. Study.

Neeka put on her sunglasses and we got back on the bike. She fired it up and we raced out of the parking lot and headed home. I managed to peek a couple of times on the way, but mostly I hung on with my good hand and kept my eyes tightly shut. During the ride, I worked up the courage to drop out of trance to see how bad my hand would hurt without it. The world resumed its normal speed and clarity with a whip-crack sensation. My hand throbbed worse, but that was all.

Bambi had the doors open for us when we got back to the house. Neeka pulled the bike right into the workshop and I hopped off as soon as it came to a stop.

Neeka horsed the bike around to point it back toward the door and I went to the back of the room with Bambi and plopped down in the desk chair.

"Any of those energy bars around?" I asked. "I need a snack."

Bambi took a box of a dozen out of the bottom of the cabinet and handed it to me. I ripped the plastic off one with my teeth and swallowed it in four bites. Before it hit my stomach, I was biting into another one.

"Better go easy on those," Bambi said. "You'll spoil your supper."

I laughed with my mouth full and crumbs fell out onto the desk.

"Don't worry," I mumbled around a mouthful, "I'll still be hungry."

She looked at me with concern in her eyes and as Neeka walked over, she said, "Did you get hurt?"

"Yah. I got shot. Intentionally." I held up my throbbing hand. "I caught a bullet to keep a deputy from being killed. Snatched it right out of the air. Surprised the heck out of myself. The suit worked, though. It stopped the bullet and kept it from going right through."

"Are you all right?"

"No. It broke every bone in my hand. Hurts like hell. Let me tell you, being shot is no fun at all. I really don't want to have to do that again."

Bambi reached for my hand. I flinched, but then I held it out and let her peel the glove off. The hand was swollen and red, but all in one piece. I put it palm down on the desk and was happy to see that I could straighten out my fingers again.

Neeka decided to make a point. She asked, "So. Knowing how bad it hurts to get shot, would you do it again if you needed to, if it would save a life?"

"Every time." I said, putting my elbow on the desk and leaning my head on my good hand. "I made that choice when I did it. And I didn't know then that the suit would actually stop the bullet."

"Weren't you scared?" Bambi asked.

"Petrified," I said, smiling. "But I did it. I actually had things under control until Deputy Murphy tried to join in the party. I can't blame him too much. He thought he was saving me."

Bambi saw how spent I was and decided it was time to go into Mom mode. She said, "You run upstairs and have a good soak. Use my bathtub if you like. I'll get us reservations for dinner. I think you need another steak."

"Or two," I said, climbing to my feet. Bambi and Neeka peeled the suit off me and helped me up the stairs. My adrenalin was used up and my body was tapping every energy reserve it had to fix my hand. I felt like I'd been run over by a truck.

Once Neeka and I were relaxing in Bambi's whirlpool bath, I started to feel better. The pain in my hand seemed to have spread all over me. It wasn't as bad as before, but now everything ached. I held out my good hand to Neeka and she slid over next to me and put her arm around me. I put my head on her shoulder and closed my eyes.

"I did good, didn't I?" I asked her in a small, tired voice.

"You did good, Sam," she told me. She let us slip into the warm bubbling water until only my head was above the surface.

"What did you talk about with those two while I was inside?"

"Not much. I told them where you were and what you planned to do. I told them you were drawing the robbers away from the hostages and that you intended to take out the one with the shotgun first because he was the biggest threat. I told them when it was over. There wasn't a lot of time for chatting. You were only in there for a few minutes. I know it probably seemed a lot longer to you."

"Unhunh!" I agreed. "Everything seemed to take forever. I probably should have taken more time, but when I saw how scared those kids were, I felt like I was already running late, you know?"

"Yeah. You know Grogan had the snipers watching you. He told them not to fire, just to report what they saw."

"So what did they see?"

"Not much. They could only see the robbers walking past the ends of the aisles. I did hear them report right after we heard the shot. The guy said on the radio that it looked like the perp had been 'snatched right out of his shoes'. He was laughing when he said it.

"Yeah. I was in a hurry and I only had one good hand at that point. I moved as fast as I could to get the gun away from him and then get him away from the gun.

But you know the worst part? It wasn't getting shot. That hurts, but I can handle that. The worst thing was seeing the looks on the faces of those kids. No child should ever be that scared. I'm going to be seeing that for a long time."

Neeka tried to get my mind off of it before I started to dwell on it. She said, "So what do you want to do next?"

"Work. Practice. Train. Study. I want to be ready next time. I want to be as ready as I can be."

"OK, we'll start as soon as you feel up to it. I'll come over in the morning and we will have a session before lunch. How's that?"

"Good. That's good. I feel better now."

"Ready to get dressed?"

"Yeah. Let's go eat a cow."

Bambi picked a different restaurant this time. This one was called The 6440, simply because that was its address. It was out east of town in some scruffy looking woods and wasn't nearly as fancy as the places we had been before. There were neon beer signs all over the walls and the floor was littered with peanut hulls and cigarette butts. It was a lot noisier, too. A jukebox next to a small dance floor was almost drowned out by the laughter and loud talk from tables where groups of men were sharing pitchers of beer.

"The steaks here are supposed to be very good," Bambi said loudly so her voice would carry over the noise. "But we can try somewhere else if you don't like this place?"

The atmosphere was pure Thank God It's Friday. Other than the beer-drinkers celebrating the end of the workweek, several tables had couples out for a good time and only two tables, besides ours, had families who were just there for the food. I spotted a couple of tables occupied by groups of girls who were there to flirt. I could tell that because of all the furtive primping and the tugging at clothes that were too tight. I was relieved to see them because I had been feeling a little out of place in my blue mini-dress with the halter-top that connected to a small gold chain that went around the back of my neck. It was backless and one-piece. I had worn it because it was easy to pull on and didn't have any buttons, zippers or clasps that would have required two hands to operate. It was also very stylish and had a neckline that plunged almost to my waist. It was wonderfully comfortable, as all the clothes from Morton's shop were.

The 6440 looked like it had started out as a restaurant with roadhouse ambiance, but then had turned into the real thing. The energy of the place had me tapping my feet to the music.

I shook my head at Bambi. "This place is fine with me!" I said. Neeka, Bud and Jim all nodded their assent, as well. This joint was much livelier than many of the places they had been with 'Oaks' or 'Elms' or 'Terrace' in the name. The loud music and laughter made me feel like anything might happen.

Our waitress was a plump middle-aged woman who didn't bother to introduce herself. She put a bucket of old-looking unshelled peanuts on the table and took our drink orders with only the minimum necessary effort.