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The hotel night manager was watching a man who had bid a woman goodbye. He had noticed the man around, before this while this time he was dressed much more plainly than the high-end suits that he had been seen in. Something about this man caught his eye, he was not to be trifled with.
There was something in the way that he stood, this night manager would hazard a guess that he at one point had been a soldier. His eyes had some darkness in them, letting the world know that he had done some things in the service of his country.
As he was watching, the man collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. A woman rushed forward to help him.
Angela Burr had been watching from a discreet distance while Jonathan bid Jed goodbye. She was going back home to see her son and her mother. Jonathan had some decisions to make about where he was going to go. Roper was dead, his body had been found that morning, Jonathan was free to start a new life. She watched Jonathan carefully as he seemed to look out to where Jed had gone in the car.
Like a switch was flipped, Jonathan collapsed into a heap. Angela rushed over to find him in a catatonic state. It was very strange to see eyes that weren’t moving and seemed to be looking beyond her. Other than that, he appeared fine.
Angela called in a friend of hers at the British Embassy so Jonathan could be taken away to a safe location. She watched as he was loaded up in an ambulance, still having that empty stare. His face was completely blank in a terrifying way.
He was transported to a safe location with medical supplies and staff. One of the doctors there, Murray, was tasked with his care. Jonathan would be repatriated to England shortly, he just needed to be stable enough for transport, Murray would go with him.
She looked him over and checked his vitals. Other than the catatonic state, he was reasonably healthy. He had a few broken ribs, so she bandaged those. From there, she attached him to the various monitors and equipment he would need during the long flight back home to England. His eyes were still open and slowly drying out. She put drops in them so they wouldn’t dry out completely.
‘Jonathan, we’re going to load you into a helicopter in a few minutes. I’m going to tape your eyes shut so that they don’t dry out during the journey. I won’t be leaving your side until you’re home in England. Okay?’ She asked Jonathan. He didn’t respond but Murray had never thought he would. It was more about if he could hear the outside world.
Murray fixed the blanket covering him and pushed him out of the room into the elevator. Once they were on the roof, she could see a helicopter that would take them to the airport. There was a pilot plus another couple of medical staff. Angela Burr was also there; she was going to be going with them.
Once Jonathan was loaded onto the helicopter, it took off. Murray didn’t speak to anyone, focusing instead on her patient, Jonathan. He was a more important person than anyone else. Once they arrived at the plane, he was removed from the helicopter and placed on the plane.
After takeoff, Murray made sure that Jonathan was as comfortable as possible in the bed on the plane. It was a nice plane. He was comfortable, dressed in a white hospital gown, and thankfully breathing on his own. Murray opened a book so she could read and watch him during the flight.
Part of the way through the first chapter, Angela Burr interrupted.
‘Do you think he will ever wake from this?’
‘It’s hard to say, catatonic comas can last for years. It’s up to him when he wakes up from this. He’s going to a military hospital at an undisclosed location. I’ll be his primary doctor for the duration of his stay.’
‘Do you have any ideas about what caused this?’
‘No, and it would be pointless to speculate. The only person who might know would be Jonathan himself.’
‘Most people call him Mr. Pine. Why do you call him Jonathan?’
‘Well, it seemed a bit silly after I finished preparing him for transport. It was a bit too up close and personal for last names to be much of a thing. Besides, should he wake, he can call me Diana.
After a very long flight from Cairo to England, Diana was ready to sleep for a week. That wasn’t
going to be possible. She needed to settle Jonathan in his room first.
Once he settled in his room, she took the tape from his eyes as gently as she could. His blank stare greeted her.
‘Well, Jonathan, you’re back in England at an undisclosed location. This will be your room for as long as you are here. I’ll be just over here, on another bed. I dearly need some sleep. However, if you do wake up, please feel free to wake me up.’
Jonathan stayed in a catatonic state for six months. Angela had stopped visiting after month 2 because she lost out in hope that he would get out of it. Diana stayed as it was her job, to take care of him. She was the only person on the base who knew who he was. The other nurses who helped to bathe and change him only knew him as a number. It was safest that way.
The day he finally snapped out of it was a warm sunny day that promised to be quite warm. Diana was peacefully reading a book when she noticed the first signs of stirring.
It all started with his fingers starting to clench and unclench from there, his arms were shifting around. Slowly one by one, his limbs started to shift around, until finally his eyes snapped open to look at Diana with a terrified look. He tried to sit up but was too weak to do so. She moved closer to the bed and spoke.
‘Jonathan, you’re safe. You’re at a hospital. You collapsed and were brought back to England. You’ve been in a coma for six months.’ He calmed down slightly at her words, tried to form words of his own but failed. He tried again and succeeded.
‘Will I be able to walk again?’ he stumbled out.
‘Yes, you just need to recover your strength. Starting tomorrow, a couple of physiotherapists will be in to help you build your strength back up.’
Once Jonathan was fully recovered, his thoughts turned to what on earth was he going to do next? He thought of his late mother who had been a bookseller in an old-fashioned shop. He smiled at the memories of hours of reading. Maybe that’s what he would do with his life.
And so, Simon Andrews with his girlfriend Mary Simmons set up a shop in London, England. It was perfect, a little bit outside of the city but populous enough that they could disappear inside of it.
Jonathan didn’t mind the name change. He just was ready to live a peaceful life in England without the threat of his life hanging over him.