Honor Thy Mother & Thy Father Ch. 24

Two FBI agents were waiting for William, when they heard the gunshots. They ran to see what had happened. They saw the two men running down the street, with their guns still out. They yelled for them to stop, but were fired upon instead. They returned fire killing both men, in a hail of bullets.

Onlookers pointed towards the man who had been shot. One agent ran to see if he could help. When he arrived he saw it was William Zabo. He was bleeding from the back of his head. His jacket and shirt had holes in them, but he was not bleeding front his chest. He tore open his shirt to find a bulletproof vest.

"You smart son of a bitch."

He called for an ambulance, which was there in four minutes. They took him to NYU Medical Center; the same hospital where Jemma gave birth to his son in, to look him over.

A nurse tried to cut the jacket off him, but the scissor would not cut through the material.

"What the fuck is this stuff made of?"

Groggily, William said, "A combination of silk and Kevlar. My head hurts, can have an aspirin?"

Agent Abrams was standing at his bedside. He shook his head. "William, you took 6 - 9mm bullets at close range to your chest, and all you want is an aspirin?"

William replied, "I have the pain in my chest also; so could you make that two aspirin."

The agent laughed. "Mister Zabo, you are something else. We got the two men who tried to kill you. If they were the other part of the four-man reconnaissance team, that means we only have the nine-man assault team out there looking for trouble remaining. If we're lucky, they'll get smart, and disband."

"Would you get me your boss on the line please? I don't want him to yell at you, I want to yell at him."

Michael picked up the phone and said, "William, I have bad news and good news, which would you like first?"

"Michael, I have bad news and good news, which would you like first?"

"Okay William, you go first."

"I just got shot six times in the chest, while walking down First Avenue, that's the bad news. The good news is I was wearing a bullet resistant suit and a bulletproof vest so I survived. There is still a leak in your organization Michael. Who knew I was going to be walking down First Avenue today? We vary the pickup point every day. Who has access to that information? Next time they'll shoot me in the head, and I won't be so lucky."

"Who is with you now?"

"Agent Abrams is with me."

"Let me speak to him."

"Abrams here, sir."

"I want you to take everything he was wearing, every bit of clothing from shoes to his tie, and bag it. I want to see if anyone put a sensor on him, while he was traveling around town today."

"He is not going to be happy leaving the hospital naked, sir."

"Call for a team to meet you at the hospital, and take him home. Sweep the house before he goes in to make sure it's clean, and then let him in to get dressed."

"Yes Sir, I'll take care of it."

"Give him the phone; I hope he doesn't rip my head off when I tell him this."

"Go ahead Michael; give me the bad news and the good news."

"William, there was an attack at the Castronova family mansion, several hours ago. The entire family was wiped out, with the exception of Philip, and his family."

William grabbed his chest. "What did you say? Everyone is dead. No, no, only a madman would do that. This is impossible, this can't..." William collapsed on the bed.

A nurse ran over to him as alarms rang.

Abrams picked up the phone and said, "Sir, I think he had a heart attack; they are working on them now."

"God dammit, I shouldn't have told him. Keep me informed on his condition."

Michael called the bunker underneath the Hudson River and spoke to Jemma.

"Jemma, William is at NYU. They think he had heart attack, after I gave him some bad news. I will have my men bring you to the hospital right away."

Jemma screamed, "William, don't you dare leave us."

Patty ran over to her and asked what happened.

Jemma told her. Patty looked around the room at the agents who were preparing to take Jemma to the hospital. She said in her most authoritative voice, "If you think for one second you are leaving here without me, you are out of your fucking mind."

Stephano put his hand on her shoulder and said, "That goes for me too."

The lead agent recognized a revolt when he saw one, and was not about to argue with them.

"Pack up people; we are going out for a breath of fresh air."

25 minutes later, six SUVs drove into the emergency room parking lot of the hospital and with automatic weapons drawn, and led Williams' family into the hospital. He was still in the ER receiving oxygen and IV fluids, but the machines on the wall all looked good.

Patricia said, "You just wanted attention, and some company."

"Trust me child, this is not the way I wanted to get attention."

Jemma gave young William to Stephano, and crawled in bed next to his father. She said, "If you ever scare me like this again, I'll kill you myself. I wouldn't know what to do if you weren't with me."

"Jemma, when our little one is three years old, I'm going to start a business for you. You must learn to become independent of me. You cannot always depend on me being here. I am old and feeble minded. You may have to take over all my businesses one day, and run them successfully. Maybe I'll start you off with a Diamond store; after all Diamonds are a girls' best friend after all."

Jemma went to hit him, but kissed him instead. "When you are well I will hit you, but not until then."

A doctor came by and said, "Mister Zabo, we want to run some tests on you. We know you have some minor fractures on your ribs caused by the bullets, but you also have an arrhythmia in your heartbeat that could be caused by all the excitement or other causes. We would rather be safe than sorry by sending you home."

Startled, Jemma asked, "What bullets?"

William asked calmly, "Who is the Head of Cardiology in this hospital?"

"Doctor Sanderson."

"Tell Doctor Sanderson I want to speak to him immediately. I don't want to speak to his secretary or his associate; I want to speak to him."

As soon as William was finished talking, Jemma pinched his arm and asked, "What bullets?"

"It was nothing really dear. Two men ruined my suit and shirt today. They shot me in the chest six times, but I had my bulletproof vest on and it only hurt a little."

"William, you are no longer allowed outside without an escort. That is not a request that is in order. Until this nonsense is finished, I want you protected at all times. If you say no, that means I can go out with our son. I would love to take him to Central Park, and watch the trees change colors. Either you do what I ask of you, or I will do what I please."

"Jemma, you are not being smart. These people don't care who you are or what you are. These people will kill you just to see you bleed."

"I believe you are getting my point dear. Think about what you just said, and apply it to you. I have no desire to be a rich widow. I would rather be a poor wife instead. When Michael told me you had a heart attack, I nearly had one. Before you said you are old and feeble minded; so I will have to take care of you. I will beat the crap out of you if you ever try to go out without an escort. Do you understand me, husband?"

William looked at Stephano and said, "You would think it was my fault I got shot today. I think she's going to build a fence and put Junior in with me. It's going to be like a prison or a big crib. I'm beginning to realize what you're going through with my daughter."

Stephano laughed. "Dad, you are only feeling the tip of the iceberg. Wait until she gets you home, ties an apron around your waist, and tells you to start cleaning the bathroom."

Patricia punched him hard in the ribs. "I have never told you to clean the bathroom."

Stephano replied, "That's because Brad hasn't finished putting it in yet."

"I wonder how he and Bonnie are doing?"

"Are you kidding me Patty, those two are foregone conclusion. You started changing him, and gave him a chance to build our dream house. He realized he could be more than a swinging dick. He became an architect because of you, not because of his years of schooling. You made him sit down and put his mind to work. No sex for six months will do that to a man. No sex for a year and a half will drive a man crazy. It will even make a man say 'I do.' Then you throw Bonnie into the mix, and I force him to tell the truth to a woman, for the first time in his life. To his amazement, it actually worked. Disregard what Brad's mother and grandmother did to Bonnie at our wedding. Brad is absolutely smitten with her, and Bonnie has been lusting over him since high school. They will move in together, and wait until April to get married."

"You have it all planned out for them?"

"No I don't, it just feels like that's the way it's going to happen."

"Steph, I want to go home."

"Shouldn't we wait until we get the results of your father's tests?"

"Yes, of course, we will wait for your tests to come back dad, and then I will give Michael a heart attack."

William laughed. "It will serve him right; he did this to me. Where the hell is that Doctor?"

"I'm right here Mister Zabo, you are not the only patient in this hospital, and many of them are sicker than you are. I have looked at your chart and I'm wondering why I'm here?"

"Children, would you leave me alone with Doctor Sanderson for a few minutes. Close the curtain Doctor I'd like a little bit of privacy with you."

"Alright Mister Zabo, what can I do for you?"

"Doctor, if you ever speak to me in that tone of voice again you will never be able to speak again. I want you to call Doctor Stephanopoulos. He delivered my wife's baby a short time ago. Ask him what he knows about me. It will be a very short conversation. When you are finished talking to him, get your ass back in here, and we will finish this conversation."

Doctor Sanderson was taken aback by what William said, but did what he was told to do. He called Doctor Stephanopoulos and asked him one question. Doctor Sanderson's face turned ashen. He hung up the phone and returned to Williams's side.

"How may be of service Mister Zabo?"

"The emergency room physician wants to run a series of cardiac tests on me, which I wholeheartedly agree with because of my age, and the stress I have been under. I do not want to wait in line. I wish to go from one test to the next test in a matter of moments. I don't want new people working on me, I want the best there is. I want copies of every test that is taken given to me when I leave this hospital. I travel a great deal and I have to have that information with me at all times. I prefer to have it on disk with a Data Stick backup. Is this understood?"

"Yes Mister Zabo, I will arrange the test to start at 6 AM tomorrow morning."

"I'm sorry Doctor; I don't get up until after 8 A.M. You can start my tests at 9 A.M."

"Yes Mister Zabo, I will arrange it."

"Thank you Doctor Sanderson, you've been very cooperative. You can send my children back in now."

When Patricia walked in she said to her father, "Dad, what did you do to him? He looked like he saw a ghost."

"No darling, we had a disagreement about when my tests would start. He wanted me to start at 6 AM and I told them I didn't get up until 8 AM. He said he couldn't arrange for my being first in line at those times, and I told him he could, otherwise his machines would not be working. He asked me who I knew that could turn off his machines. I said, the 'International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.' That's when he left, looking like he saw a ghost."

Everyone laughed, but Patty said, "Dad, you are so bad."

"Baby, you have no idea how bad I am."

The next day flew by for William. Thallium stress test, three-dimensional chest x-rays, CAT scans, blood tests, cardiac catheterization, if it was a heart test they did it. William did not remember going to sleep that evening, but he remembered waking up at noon the next day to a smiling Jemma, Patty, and William Junior playing on his bed.

"Can't a man get any rest around here?"

"You've been asleep for 16 hours. Isn't that enough rest for one old man, who has the heart of a lion?"

"Am I a young healthy lion or an old lion, in need of a new heart?"

"You are a young healthy lion that could live another hundred years if he's careful, and doesn't get shot again."

"I take it I did well on those tests."

"Yes, you did very well, but your cholesterol is a little high, and you're going on a diet. You are not overweight, as you know, but we have to get that down, and I don't want you to start taking pills."

"I agree; may I have a pizza?"

"Patty, do you want to hit him now that he's healthy or should I?"

"One of the last things Victoria Valentino said to me about Bruno was 'Damn that man, he could have lived another 20 years if he had not eaten all those pizzas.' So Jemma you have a choice: give him his pizza and shorten his lifespan by 20 years, or keep him around for 20 years and not give him pizza."

Jemma looked at William and then back at Patricia. "Why do you always give me these hard decisions to make?"

William snarled, "Jemma when I get you home you are going to get a spanking the likes of which you have not received in years."

Jemma hugged her husband around the neck and said, "Do you promise; do you really promise?"

"Jemma you are the love of my life, you are incorrigible."

"I know William, but what would I do without you?"

"Jemma, it's supposed to be what would I do without you?"

"I just said that, didn't I?"

"No, you said... oh forget it; I'm going to spank you anyhow. When can I get out of here, and did anybody think about bringing me clothes."

Patty smiled, "We certainly did dad; we bought the best clothes money could buy." She went to the closet and pulled out a large brown bag.

Stephano had to leave the room because he started to laugh.

William saw Stephano leave and said, "I have a feeling this is not going to be good."

"Dad, you always look like a stuffed shirt. We decided to lighten you up a little bit. We wanted you to look like a visitor to New York, not a resident. Jemma picked out the shirt, underwear, and socks. I picked out the hat, shorts and shoes. I must warn you we did this independently of each other."

Patricia took out a New York Yankee hat, white cargo pants, and black flip-flops. William groaned.

Jemma took out a pair of white underwear with hearts and kisses in bright red all over them, a gray muscle shirt, and green and red argyle socks.

William took the bed sheet covered his head and said, "Why were those guys such bad shots. I would rather be dead than be seen in that outfit."

Patty reached in the closet and pulled out one of her father's finest suits, as Jemma pulled out a white on white French cuff shirt, platinum cufflinks, blue silk tie, and Oxford loafers. When William surfaced from underneath the sheet he smiled. "I may be a stuffed shirt, but that is the way I like my shirt to be stuffed."

Jemma said, "You can wear these fine clothes as long as you wear these underneath them." She picked up the underwear with the hearts and kisses, and waved them in front of him.

"I hope we don't get into an accident on the way home, and someone has to undress me and see me in those shorts. I will die from embarrassment."

"You may die of embarrassment, but not of a heart attack William. You will be around with us for a very long time."

The End

Honor Thy Mother & Thy Father

Chapter 24