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Like all of us, Dad was shocked and didn’t know what to say.

“Were you wearing clothing over this when shot?” Hannah repeated her question when Dad didn’t answer her. Her eyes went off the wound and she looked up at Dad. I knew it was physically hurting her to look at him right now—she told me she couldn’t do it. Yet here she was because Dad was hurt.

Dad finally answered her question by shaking his head.

“Good. No foreign partials will be in the wound which will decrease the wound infection rate. However, from what I can see, you might have nerve damage.” She looked back up at him. “The nervous system, however, can recover quickly. It needs to be cleaned. The bullet itself is sterile; however, your skin going through the wound is what causes the infection. So antibiotics for the first two weeks is important, and keeping it clean. Which means changing the bandage twice a day, and reapplying disinfection cream to it.”

Hannah straightened up and glanced at Mum. “Can you clean this up or do you want me to?”

Mum had tears in her eyes and looked speechless. Hannah was just blowing out all our expectations of her. We all knew she was smart. We all knew she was heading into medicine or whatever related field she picked.

We all knew when we got hurt she was the one to go to get fixed up.

But this was the first time she had explained it to us out loud. And what was really scary was it sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

“Hannah, how, how do you know all that?” Eve said what we were all thinking.

Hannah had just spoken like she was a doctor- not a sixteen-year-old.

“I can tell by the direction of the bullet, the opening of the wound, the amount of blood loss.” Hannah lifted Dad’s arm just slightly, bending it gently. “The movement in the arm, the direction of the bullet, the likelihood of it hitting the nerves. This was close contact. I can tell that by the blood loss and damage to the skin.”

She was leaving us all speechless.

“It needs to be cleaned and disinfected and covered.” Hannah’s eyes went to Mum. “Tight and firm with the bandage and change it twice a day.”

Mum nodded her head. I think, like us, she didn’t know what to say.

“Gee, Hannah, it sounds like you really know what you are talking about. Has anyone told you that you would be great in the medical field?” Andrea was the one to actually speak. The rest of us, it would seem, didn’t know what to say.

Hannah looked over her shoulder at Andrea. “I’ve been offered two places to study medicine next year. I guess I draw attention to myself doing extra credit work.”

“So, do you study how to handle a bullet wound often?” Andrea asked.

“I just know the basics. Trust me, I don’t know everything yet.” Hannah’s attention was back on Dad’s arm. “I just know what is life-threatening and what isn’t. This bullet wound isn’t causing physical incapacitations, meaning it hasn’t hit a major blood supply or critical organ. And well, we all know Dad wouldn’t have a psychological incapacitation. Which is when your mind decides it is life-threatening and shuts down due to fright and fear.”

I always knew she was smart. She was always studying, so why was I so shocked that she knew all that? Her eyes were still on Dad’s arm, but Dad’s eyes were on her bruising cheek. He went to touch her and Hannah must have realized what he was about to do cause she dropped his arm and took a step back.

“Hannah…” Dad started to speak to her but she was quickly shaking her head. She didn’t want to hear whatever he had to say.

She exhaled slowly, her eyes on him. “I need time.” Her words were short, forced and she backed away.

I knew that was exactly what Dad didn’t want. He wanted to fix the damage. Time usually made things worse. Time could cause Hannah to withdraw completely from the family. But she was still here, so that said something, right?

She turned around and headed toward me, leaving Dad standing there.

Hannah gave me a slight smile and she headed for the stairs.

“What about our birthday?” Eve spoke to her, causing Hannah to pause on the bottom step.

“Yeah, Hannah, we still haven’t got you anything, while your sister has bought nearly every store out,” Mum spoke quickly after Eve.

Hannah’s eyes were on the ground. She didn’t seem to care.

“Come on, Nice, there must be something you want. Even you have things you want.” I nudged her, trying to get her to open up a little before taking off upstairs and disappearing from us for the night. Or maybe forever. Who knew what she was thinking…

“What about that party you two wanted? Have you given that any more thought, Hannah?” Dad tried to talk to her. I think he would cave on the whole ‘no teenagers in my bar’ thing, if it meant Hannah got the birthday she wanted.

“I can have anything?” Hannah’s voice was low and she lifted her eyes slowly in time to see Mum and Dad nodding their heads and Eve grinning, thinking Hannah was going to get her the party she wanted.

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