Chapter Two - part twelve

   Once more James woke up to bright sunlight from a window. He was in a hospital... again! It might have been over seven years, but it still was too often for his taste. At least this time he didn't try to sit up. He shifted around and that wasn't too bad. He hurt, but it wasn't unbearable. James looked around and found himself in a private room, but he wasn't alone. His day had just gotten a lot better. Sarah was sleeping in a chair beside his bed! He reached over and gently touched her hand. She instantly jerked awake and immediately looked at him. A smile quickly spread across her face, as tears filled her eyes. She collapsed against him and began to sob softly. James just held onto her hand and gently ran his free hand over her hair. They said nothing. Sarah had stopped crying before a nurse stepped in and saw James was awake. She immediately turned and called for a doctor before coming inside. James learned that he was no longer in Damascus or even the Middle East. He was now at Landstuhl hospital just outside Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It had been close to a week ago that everything had happened.

   James soon learned that he had a severe concussion, numerous minor injuries from the shrapnel, in addition to several badly bruised internal organs and cracked ribs, as well as minor internal bleeding. They had removed the shrapnel, stitched up his wounds, and kept him sedated for a few days to give his body time to heal. The doctors said he was a very lucky man. They had flown him here as soon they were certain he was stable enough. Sarah had arrived the next day. James also learned that the situation in Syria was much better than he had hoped for. That wasn't to say it was good though. The negotiations were at a standstill. Sabella and Aadila were the only ones any of the groups would speak with at all now. NATO had been virtually locked down inside their bases since the event. They came under attack by all of the various militia groups and occasionally even the civilian population if they ventured out of the secured areas now. Even inside the safe area they weren't treated well by the Syrians who were there. Many were calling for NATO to leave, but without a functioning government those calls were wasted.

   It was another week before James was ready to be dismissed from the hospital. Surprisingly he hadn't been questioned by anyone yet. When he had asked about that he was told to wait until they had this mess sorted out. At the moment nobody knew what to do or who to talk with. He still wasn't allowed to talk with anyone about anything. Once he was released from the hospital he quickly found himself on a plane. He wasn't headed back to Damascus though. James was headed to Washington, D.C. to testify before the Foreign Affairs Congressional Committee. Sarah wasn't able to go with him. She had been called back to duty once he was released from the hospital. James wasn't sure how any of this was going to turn out, but he had no regrets. At least for now all of the various groups fighting for control in Syria seemed to have stopped fighting among themselves and were concentrating their efforts against NATO. That wasn't the best possible news, but it wasn't the worst he could have heard either. So far those efforts hadn't been extremely violent, they were more like warning shots being fired, but James feared that might change very suddenly if this wasn't dealt with quickly. The Foreign Affairs Committee wasn't happy with what James had to say, but they were even less pleased with how little he actually did know.

   Finally, after several days of testimony, they seemed to be satisfied that he had indeed told them all he knew about the entire mess, little as that was. They did warn him not to speak with anyone outside his command structure yet, especially no one from the press. James had hoped to be returned to Syria after they were done, but that wasn't going to happen. Now it was time to face his commanders and the NATO commanders. That turned into a three week long interrogation as far as James was concerned. He managed to keep his cool most of the time, though he did have to ask to be excused for a time to keep from screaming back at a couple of the NATO commanders. He could understand their anger, but there was nothing he could do about the situation from half way around the world. The NATO commanders were furious, because the commander in charge of that raid was still being held 'hostage' in Syria along with most of his troops. They didn't seem to care that James had been seriously wounded and unconscious when that had happened. They seemed to think that he had played a key part in the entire affair and so was responsible for all of it.

   His own commanders weren't much better when they were alone with him. The fact that he openly admitted that he had knowingly fired on NATO troops didn't sit well with them. James made no excuses though. He simply told them that his orders were to do all he could to help bring peace to Syria and a functioning government if possible. If he had done nothing, then that mission would have failed right there with the death or capture of key players in those negotiations. While they couldn't argue with that, they still didn't approve of James taking part in the actual fighting. James had been out of Syria for going on two months now. He had been allowed to talk to almost nobody. He had learned that almost nothing was known about any of what had happened, outside of those directly involved. The Syrian situation had been in the news for so long that the sudden conflict with NATO forces was almost unnoticed so far. That couldn't last much longer though. Something had to give soon or it was all going to become headline news. Then it could easily get a lot worse for everyone and very quickly!