In all honesty, Tony counted himself lucky. He was behind the bus when it crashed, but he managed to hit the brakes in time. He got out the car in a flash, to see if anyone was hurt badly. To his relief, there were only a few cuts and bruises that needed treating, but he still went on to the bus to make sure everyone was okay.
8 P.M.
"Sorry, Jack. I'm gonna have to pass on that dinner. I've got a killer headache." Tony excused himself graciously, and then collapsed to the couch. After a time, he managed to take some painkillers, and then he really hit the hay. Maybe in a few hours he'd be back on his feet.
No such luck. He spent the entire weekend moaning and groaning.
"I know, Jack, I know!" Tony's hands flew across his keyboard. "I'm working on it, I swear! Sorry for missing the meeting, man, but I had a damn good reason for it!" He had a phone on one shoulder, a pencil in his mouth, and fingers moving faster than light. He was behind, because he had missed that meeting. What were the odds of that? He was supposed to have taken detailed notes, and now he was struggling, trying to find out what he had missed so they weren't all screwed.
"You know what, Tony?" Jack poked his head in the door. "Why don't you take a break? Max is on it, now, and I know you've been sick. Just because I'm your boss doesn't mean I'm the devil. Take a break, man, and get back to me tomorrow. Max can catch up from where you are."
"Oh, thank the lord." Tony dropped the receiver, closed his laptop, and spit the pencil out of his mouth. To his surprise, it landed right in the pencil cup he kept on his desk. What an interesting stroke of fate. He pulled on his coat, and had almost made it out of the office when he bumped into, out of all people, Laura the receptionist. Her coffee mug went flying, and acting more on instinct than anything else, Tony fumbled in the air and caught it. He stared at the cup, barely spilled. Was he some kind of wizard today?
"Oh, thanks, Mister Silvestri! That would have taken forever to get out of my clothes. Would have ruined my nails, too." She pouted a moment, took the cup back, and then walked on, pressing a cell phone to her ear. Tony glanced back at her, shaking his head in confusion, and then left.
There wasn't a whole lot of traffic, that day. All the red lights seemed to be at the right places for him to have smooth sailing on his way home.
Wednesday, May 7th: Early Morning"Hey, Tony! You mind grabbing the delivery from Sab? It just came in a few minutes ago, and we could really use the new tech asap." Tony sighed, closing his laptop, and nodded. "I got it, Jack. gimme a few hours."
Once again, like every day that week, every single traffic light seemed to be working in his favor. He could get used to whoever was hacking the lights for him. If they really were.
'Sab', or rather Seventh Avenue Bank, was a key investor of Tony's firm. They delivered both funding and technology to the office, two things that they couldn't do without. He pulled into a free parking spot, right at the entrance, and hurried up the steps with a nod to the guy in charge. It was a pretty low-key bank. There was one security guard, but he was always in the back room anyway.
A gunshot rang out, shattering the glass of the big, bright windows. A masked duo entered the place, holding shotguns and pistols of impressive variety. "Hand over the cash!" Shouted one of them. "Unmarked, if you please, and plenty of it. Just empty the vault, if you like."
Tony couldn't let that happen. This couldn't be happening. He stood up. "Hey, you can't--" He flinched as a bullet whistled past him.
"Down, guy, unless you want a head full of lead."
Tony stood firm, while inside he was wondering what in the hell he was doing. "You can't take away people's livelihoods." He took a step forward, reasonably confident that the man wasn't a murderer, just desperate.
"Bad move." One man's gun was on the guard, whose eyes were wide with terror. The other shot Tony, almost casually. Or, at least, he tried to. The gun clicked, jamming. Tony saw his move, and tackled the robber. He had no idea what he was going to do, but it seemed like the best option to not die.
As they hit the ground, the man's gun went off, shooting the other robber in the should. with a howl, they both fell, writhing on the floor. Tony managed to muscle the gun away from the one underneath him, and then he stepped back, only just realizing how close he had come to death.
Around him the crowd burst into applause. Tony still had no idea what had just happened.
"You saved an entire bank, from two gunmen!" Jack clapped him on the back, while the office whooped and cheered around him. "That's it, everyone, close up for a bit! We're going out to celebrate!"
Everyone smiled and congratulated him, showing him online articles about him, already published by local and state news sites. He wasn't too worried about it. Everything would be forgotten by next week. Still, it felt nice to be the center of attention for a while.
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