"Know him? Oh, we go way back…" Joshua sighed, then kneeled to get a closer look at John's injury. "What happened?"
Before anyone could even answer, Andy sighed. With Gwen's help, he slowly picked himself up from the floor. "It's all my fault. We already agreed on a plan to escape, but I couldn't stop myself from shouting when I saw these people coming to save me.
"The kidnapper fired the gun at me to try to kill me, but…"
He glanced rather remorsefully at the unconscious John lying on the floor. "This young man leaped in front of me to protect me. I was unscathed, but I can't say the same for him…"
With that, Andy lifted his head to stare at Gwen. "It's all my fault. Not only did I drag all of you into this, but I…even injured this poor, innocent young man."
Gwen shed a tear when she heard this. "It's not your fault, Father. As for John…"
She sniffed and was about to say something when Luke spoke, frowning, "He'll be fine. The gunshot wound is on his shoulder, and it doesn't look too deep. He'll be okay, but he needs to rest and rehabilitate."
With that, he glanced at the men and asked, "Did any of you call 911?"
The men nodded. "The ambulance is already on its way."
"Good." Luke turned to stare at Andy. "When the ambulance arrives, you should go with them to the hospital to get checked, too. After such a long time in captivity, you might've suffered some injuries not visible to the naked eye or even nutritional deficiencies."
Andy finally turned to look at the man speaking to him. When he laid eyes on Luke's face, however, his eyes widened in terror, and he staggered backward. "You… You…"
He clutched Gwen's arm tightly, and his voice began to tremble. "Gwennie, are you seeing this too? Am I in heaven? Why… Why can I see Luke?"
Gwen paused for a moment before chuckling. "No, Father, you're not in heaven, and he is Luke… This is all very complicated. I'll explain everything to you when we reach the hospital, okay?"
Andy, still wide-eyed in shock, glanced first at Gwen, then at Luke. "Is this what you did when you spent your time traveling the world? Finding an identical twin to replace Luke? Gwennie, I know I'm not in a place to comment, but you shouldn't have a person replace someone else's identity. That's not right…"
Gwen could not help rubbing her brow in exasperation. "He's not a replacement…"
All of a sudden, the sound of the ambulance siren blared from outside the building, and someone shouted up to them, "The ambulance is here! You can bring the injured down now!"
Gwen helped Andy out the door. "Come on. Let's go to the hospital, and I'll explain everything."
When they reached the door, she turned to glance at the unconscious man on the ground and shot Joshua a rather concerned look. "Are… Are you going to tell Luna?"
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