Strange Ways of Destiny

Surprisingly warm and dry Tuesday morning. Well, when I say morning, it’s 11:30AM. And I was already up. What the hell am I doing up at 11:30AM on Tuesday morning? Certainly not sleeping. I only have lectures since 3PM. And I usually sleep until 1PM. But not today. Today I have this feeling in my gut. That something is going to happen. Something important. I tried to shake it off, but I still could feel it.
“I should go out. Get some coffee, maybe.” I thought.

So I got out of my pajamas and dressed up as a normal human being. Thank God my mom hasn’t got hold of my wardrobe, because then it would have been filled with dresses and skirts and heels only. That’s why I was glad that my parents and I weren’t close. Sure, they bought me an apartment in central London and mostly paid all of my taxes and studies, but we weren’t that Sunday-apple-pie kind of family. Of course I loved them, but I wanted to be on my own for a while. And they got it. After all, they still had my baby sister to torture. Or maybe it looked like torture only to me considering Cressida loved pink things and dresses and shit. However, I was a little daredevil.

So, I put on some dark blue jeans, a shirt and a hoodie, jumped into red sneakers, grabbed my leather jacket, a wallet, my phone and keys and headed out. It was sunny and I quickly regretted not bringing my sunglasses. The air was somewhat fresh, considering I was in central London, where traffic is always moving. As I was walking down the street looking for some cafeterias, I tried to figure out the source of the feeling I had for the past half an hour. Am I having an exam today? No. It’s the beginning of the semester, so I’m cool. Do I have to be somewhere? Am I seeing someone important? Am I waiting for some package? No, no, no! So what was it? I started to get angry with myself for worrying, but I usually trusted my instincts, so it was a good reason for me to be worried. Finally, I found an attractive looking little Starbucks, so I went inside. I ordered myself a Hazelnut Frappuccino and sat in a booth in the corner of the shop. Then I felt that feeling again. But it was so strong now it almost hurt. Not physically but mentally. Like something in my mind was shouting “Look at me, hey! I’m here, pay attention to me!” but again, I tried to ignore it. I looked around the shop. It was very quiet. Maybe too quiet. It was noon, so a lot of people should be on lunch breaks by now, but it seemed like time stopped. There was a couple chatting on the other side of the shop, an elderly woman next to a window near me and one man, not very far from the entrance. He looked familiar.
He was talking on his phone, and when I heard him speaking, I knew who he was. Benedict Cumberbatch. I could recognize that voice from a crowd. Shouldn’t I be screaming? No, because he’s a person, just as same as us (except hotter, more talented and etc.) and I already met him once. I asked for a picture and he was nice enough to take it with me, even thou I saw that he was in a hurry. So I figured I wouldn’t bother him and let him enjoy his day, at least for a while, until some crazy fangirls attack him. I still couldn’t get that feeling to disappear, so I started scanning outside the window. Everything looked average, the same like every day. Until I noticed a strange man. He was wearing some jeans, jacket, sunglasses and a hat. But he looked off. He was just standing in the middle of the street starring directly at the shop. And he was talking. But he wasn’t on his phone. Even if he was kind of far but I could still make it out that he was wearing a Bluetooth set. I also saw a black car just around the corner with someone sitting inside. Maybe it was a coincidence, but they looked related. But then that dude started to put something out of his bag, and I quickly recognized that it was a gun. He aimed at the shop and I quickly saw, that Benedict was the target. I don’t know why, but I wanted to protect him. Maybe because he was my idol, or just from pure humanity, I jumped off my seat and started running towards him also shouting “DOWN!
I glanced over the window and saw the dude firing. I reached Benedict and pushed him of his chair hoping the bullet wouldn’t touch him, when I suddenly heard a loud noise and felt an excruciating pain. It was chaos everywhere. I heard screaming, shouting, ambulance and police sirens. After a few moments I realized that I was lying on the ground yelping and whining as silently as I could, give the fact that I was just shot. As far as I could make it was my left shoulder. I tried to sit, but I was fast pushed down by strong arms. “Hey, hey, lay down, ambulance is coming.” Benedict was the one holding me down. “I’m fine.” I tried arguing, but I saw his face and I knew that I couldn’t win this. I just gnashed “Fine” and started breathing heavily, that way making the pain go away just a little bit. As I said, I am daredevil, so some pain was no news for me. I got my arms and legs broken, some ribs too, so shot wound was new to me, but pain is pain, you can’t do anything about it, just learn to cope with it. Either way, I lied on the floor like I was told and waited for ambulance to take me to ER. “What’s your name?” someone asked me. “Tessa. Tessa Morgan.” Then I felt a needle jab and moments later I passed out.

Annoying beeping. This is how I could describe the sound I was woken up to. I quickly realized I was in a hospital. Then I realized that someone was holding my hand. I slowly turned my head, trying to avoid hurting my shoulder even more than it already was. And guess who I saw. You would expect it to be a mother, but it was Benedict. And he was sleeping. His head down, shoulders relaxed, but I could see he wasn’t comfortable in the armchair. I pressed his arm a bit, and he opened his eyes almost the same second. He jumped eyes wide, voice worried. “Are you okay? Does it hurt? Do you need a nurse?” He spilled everything at once and I just giggled. I sighed “I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt. But you could call a nurse, if it’s not a problem.” I smiled.
“No, no, of course, I’ll be back in a second. You rest.” He touched my arm before leaving.
Holy crap. Benedict Cumberbatch was in my hospital ward, staying with me. Wow. But I saved his life. Even bigger wow. I saved Benedict’s life. I felt a grin on my face. Ben walked into the room along with the nurse.
“How are you doing, Tessa?” the nurse asked while checking the machines I was connected to.
“Fine. How long have I been out?” I asked trying to make myself comfortable. Benedict helped me and also answered.
“3 or 4 hours. The operation took most of the time. But they got the bullet out, you’ll be fine.” He smiled at me.
“Okay. Sandra,” I looked at nurse’s nametag, “Could you take all these needles out of me?”
“Why? Is something wrong?” She was concerned.
“No, everything is okay, except, I’m not staying in here.”
Benedict interrupted “What? You have to! You just been shot!” but I just shushed him with my hand.
“If it’s not necessary for me to be here more than I need to, which is enough, because you got the bullet out, I don’t see the point in staying here. So, do I need to be here?”
Sandra looked confused, but slowly answered “Well, no. But we like to keep patients for a few days for observation, that way we make sure they are okay. I would suggest for you to stay… ” but I interrupted “Let me tell you this. I’m not an average patient. I had more bones broken in 3 years than most people have in life, so I know how to cope. Now, please, take these out, or I’ll do it myself, because I know how.”
Ten minutes later I was needle free. My shirt and hoodie were bloody, but luckily my leather jacket was okay, so I just threw my hoodie in the garbage and put my jacket on the bloody shirt. Benedict was keen on convincing me to stay in the hospital, but this time he couldn’t win. So he paid for the health insurance and meds I was given before we left. Benedict followed me out of the hospital. “What did you mean that you had more bones broken in 3 years than people get in their lives?”
“That I got more bones broken than most people.”
“But how do you get them broken?”
“I would say I’m pretty extreme. Why?”
He grinned. “I don’t know. You are so young; I don’t think you should get these kinds of injuries often. You should be more careful.”
I laughed and whispered “But careful isn’t fun. If you want to have fun, you have to take risks. Sometimes dangerous risks. And sometimes you don’t get that lucky and break a bone or two. But you know it was worth it. That’s how I see things.”
“So that’s how you saw yourself jumping in front of a bullet? Thank you, by the way. Never got to say that.”
“I jumped in front of that bullet, because I couldn’t let that bastard take a life. I couldn’t let him take your life. Because you have so much to do. Maybe you don’t even know, but you inspire a lot of people. I bet you even saved lives not knowing about it. Because we see you as that person, who gets us through things.” I looked at him with a smile.
“But you could have died! I’m very grateful, I am, but now you’re hurt.” He looked sad and broken.
“Hey, hey,” I took his hand. Not in any romantic way, but to calm him down. “I’m fine. It doesn’t even hurt. I bet every true fan of yours would totally do the same. I bet YOU would do the same to the person you care about. We sacrifice, we take risks, because we are human. Don’t feel bad for that I saved you. Because I feel good that I did. I thought I would be too slow. And I was pretty scared for you. By the way, did they caught the shooter?”
“Oh, yes, yes.” Clearly, he was deep in thought about what I said. “Where do you live? I will drive you home.”
We got in his car, he drove me home, and we made some tea. We talked about him, me, we laughed from his stories about what Martin does on set, from my stories about bungee jumping, or motocross. Few hours later he left. I took a break from uni, because I couldn’t really act with my armed pinned to my side, so while it was healing I had a holiday. Benedict would visit at least twice a week, but we also texted every day, so we were cool. I got to meet Martin and his kids, Benedict met my parents, because they were also visiting that day, he thanked them that they raised such an amazing person. I wouldn’t call myself amazing, but it was very Benedict of him. We spend a lot of time together, so we became close friends. And I hope that would stay. Months from that day, I still thank that feeling I got in my gut, because if not that, world would have lost an incredible person, and I wouldn’t have met my best friend.