Chapter 15

"What's taking them so long?!"  Isaac was watching the clock's hands move ever so slowly.  It had been forty five minutes and not a word from his parents or the police officers who'd all promised to keep them informed.

Jason looked over at Isaac.  "Ike, they're probably filling out paperwork and stuff.  Don't forget how much red tape this kind of thing generates."

Zac now walked up to the two of them.  "Jason, do you think he's ok?"

"Oh, I'm sure he is or the man that found him would've said something.  No news is good news, so..."  He was cut short by the ringing of the phone.  Isaac and Zac looked at each other.  The others looked up from their dinners.  They had been allowed to order room service, usually considered a treat, but tonight it just made it more obvious that their lives were suddenly turned upside down.  Jason picked up the receiver.  He looked at the six children, all watching and listening to his every move.  "Hello?  Yeah, they're eating dinner.  How's Tay?  Oh...  St. Mary's?  They'll be there.  I'm sure everything's fine, he's probably just a little freaked out.  Keep me posted."    Jason hung up the phone.  "That was your dad.  Tay's alright but they just want to check him out so they're taking him to the hospital, OK?"

"They gave him back?"  Mackie asked.

"Yeah, they gave him back.  Your mom and dad want Zac and Ike to come up and you guys are gonna stay here with Frank, alright?"

Jessica spoke up.  "But, we wanna see Taylor."

"I'll tell you what," Jason said, "if he's not coming home tonight, and it's ok with your mom and dad, I'll come back and take you up to see him, ok?"

"Ok." She wasn't pleased.  They all went back to their dinners.  He motioned for Isaac and Zac to go out into the hallway.  Isaac had a feeling he hadn't told them everything.  Once he shut the door behind him, Jason looked at the two boys.  "Listen, I didn't want to scare them, but your dad said something was wrong with Tay and I could hear your mom and she sounded pretty upset.  They want you guys there for him, so let's go."

"But, what's wrong?  Is he hurt?"  Zac was sounding panicky.

"He's not dying or anything Zac, they just needed to find out.  He's probably just scared half to death, I would be."  Jason tried to reassure them.  He went to get one of the other security people to stay in the room with the kids.

"Ike, what if they shot him or something?"

"Zac, they would've told us, the old guy said he was ok and I'm sure he is."

"Yeah, but..."

"Zac!  Stop it, now.  All we can do is go and see.  C'mere."  Isaac grabbed his little brother and hugged him close.  "Everything's gonna be alright."

Jason came back into the hallway.  "Let's go."

~~~~

"Mr. and Mrs. Hanson?"  Diana and Walker stood up.  "Hi, I'm Dr. McCawley.  I've been checking out your son."

"Hello, I'm Walker and this is my wife Diana.  How is he?  Why was he throwing up blood?"

"Well, we don't know yet.  He doesn't appear to be hurt badly.  It looks like he took a blow to the face, that's why the nosebleed and the dark circles.  He's got a nasty bruise on his side, we'd like to get an X-ray of that.  His hands look worse than they are, very bruised and skinned up, from his struggling, I'm sure.  Um...  Do you have any idea where he's been?"

Walker answered, "No, he was abducted sometime last night by two people and he was found tonight unconscious."

"I'm really concerned about something, he's acting very skittish, which I would expect anyway, but I think he's recovering from the effects of some sort of anesthesia.  And did you realize he'd had an IV?  The shunt is still in his arm, they just cut the tubing."

"What?!  Why would they do that??!"  Diana's fears were beginning to get to her again.  She couldn't bear to think about what her son had been through the last twenty hours.

"That's what we're going to have to find out and Taylor's not talking.  If you could just go in and see if you can get him to let us help him.  After what he's been through, we don't want to manhandle him, but he won't let me or the nurses get near him.  If he would just let us start an IV, maybe we could sedate him a little and get a better look at him."   She opened the door and they followed her back to an examining room.

Taylor was sitting up on a table with blue jeans and tennis shoes on but no shirt.  His mother immediately saw the purple bruise on his side.  He had his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms clasped around his legs tightly.  Before, he had looked almost groggy but now he looked very alert.  He looked up to see his parents coming towards him and looks of relief and distress all played about on his face simultaneously.  His mother embraced him and he lay his head on her shoulder and cried for all he was worth.  His father spoke to him, "Tay, they want to help you.  So you gotta let them do some things, alright?  We just need to make sure you're alright."

"Baby, what happened to your side?"  Diana pulled back from him and gently touched the bruise.  "Did someone hit you?"  He shook his head and kicked his foot out.  "They kicked you?"  He nodded.  "I'm so sorry...  Why won't you talk to us?"  Taylor put his hand up to his throat.  He swallowed and grimaced.  "Does your throat hurt?  You have a sore throat?"  She felt his forehead and to a mother of seven it was obvious to her he was running a temperature.  "Alright now, you need some medicine and they need to get an X-ray, so you're just gonna have to lay back and let them get on with it, don't you want to go home?"

Walker recognized the voice as the one she used when there was no choice in the matter.  All her children knew the voice and responded accordingly.  A nurse handed her a gown and asked her to get him out of his clothes and into it.  Walker helped him down off the table and out of his jeans.  He lay back on the gurney and his mother covered him up with a blanket.  A nurse came in and Diana watched a look of fear come over his features.  "Just look at me Tay, you're ok, nobody's going to hurt you anymore.  They just want to help, ok?"

The nurse took his arm and his mother saw that there was indeed a needle already in the vein.  "Can't you just use that one again?" she asked.

"Well, this needs to go to the detectives as evidence."  She carefully pulled the needle out and put it in a plastic bag.  Then she prepared to put in a new one.  "My name's Jeannie.  I'm gonna try not to hurt you, Taylor."  She said to him.  "Make a fist for me with the other hand.  I know it's hard but it'll be over in no time."  Her voice was soothing.  She was thinking to herself that he looked like he was in shock or something, he'd obviously been through a lot.  Though he watched her every move, he didn't respond to her at all.  Luckily, he was thin enough that she could still find a vein and once the needle was in place she used extra tape because she had a feeling he might just try to pull it out.  She was a pediatric nurse and though he was six feet tall, he was still a boy and she knew she needed to treat him like one, especially right now.  She hung the bags of various fluids above him.  The thermometer she'd stuck in his mouth beeped and she took it out, "101.8"  she said to Diana as she jotted it down.  "He's a little dehydrated, nothing serious."

A commotion out in the hallway caused everyone to look up.   "I don't care about that!  He's my brother and I want to see him now!"

Zac's voice could be heard all over the emergency room.  Taylor shot up in the bed causing Jeannie to jump back.  The door opened and Zac barged in with Isaac trying to keep up, both followed by two nurses who were unsuccessfully trying to get them to wait out in the hall.  At the sight of his brother, Zac broke out into an all out run.  "Tay!  Oh my God, you're ok!"  He nearly knocked Taylor out of the bed and for the first time in hours and hours Diana saw smiles on both their faces.  Isaac had caught up now and he joined the other two in a reunion.  Dr. McCawley entered looking a bit peeved, but when she saw the smile on the face of her patient, it turned to relief.  She had been very concerned about Taylor's mental state but now it looked like he might come out of it alright.

"Alright, alright, I want those x-rays now, please.  I wanna see everything"  she said to the nurse.  "If everyone would just go out in the waiting room, we'll keep you informed."

She was met with such a chorus of complaints and such that she suggested that the boys just accompany him down to the x-ray department, even though it was very much against the rules.  Walker picked up Taylor's jeans that had been discarded on the floor.  The quiet left in the wake of the boys was broken first by the sound of change falling out of the pockets, and then by the sound of glass hitting the floor.  It was a sound that captured everyone's attention.  It hadn't broken, it was a small vial about the size of a film canister.  He reached down to pick it up, on the outside in black marker was written:  In an MMMBop they're gone...

Inside was a clear liquid with two tiny little pink buds moving with it.  "What's this?" He spoke as he looked at it.

Diana looked as well but couldn't recognize it as anything she'd seen before.  Dr. McCawley walked over to them.  Diana looked at her.  "Do you think it's a drug or something?  Ed said when he found Taylor, he seemed like he'd been drugged, right Walker?"

"Yeah."

The doctor opened the vial and smelled the contents.  "No, this is alcohol.  Is this Taylor's writing?"

Diana looked up at her husband.  "I don't think so, I mean, it doesn't look like his writing."

Walker added, "You grade all his papers, you oughta know."

Dr. McCawley looked over at the nurse, "I guess this is evidence too, but I want to send it to the lab first, I want to know what these things are."  She handed it to the nurse who dropped it in another plastic bag and walked out the door with it.

Just then one of the detectives poked his head in.  "When can we talk to the kid?"

"It won't be long, he's in x-ray.  We'll let you know ASAP, ok?"  The doctor answered him.  He didn't look happy, but in here, she was in charge.  He rolled his eyes and backed out the door.

More noise announced the return of the three brothers to the ER.  "What is all this stuff?"  Zac was asking Jeannie and pointing to the fluids all running down into his brothers arm.

"Well, this is an antibiotic, because we don't know what's causing the fever.  This is more or less water with sugar, minerals, electrolytes, all that stuff he needs because he is dehydrated.  This is for nausea and just a little something to take the edge off."

Taylor was getting drowsy, but still listening as Zac was asking all the things he'd wanted to ask for himself.  Zac looked over at him, his eyes were getting heavy, he could tell.  "I think the edge is gone."  He told her.

Isaac reached over to touch Taylor's hand, "Go on and go to sleep, you know you're dying to.  We're not going anywhere."  Taylor smiled at him and closed his eyes.

"Now, will you leave?"  Dr. McCawley had her hands on her hips, but she was smiling.  They looked at her sheepishly and headed out the door to join their parents.

"Did he tell you anything?"  Both Isaac and Zac were being interrogated by the two detectives in charge of the case.

Isaac sighed, "No.  He didn't say anything, about anything.  He's got laryngitis or tonsillitis or something.  Besides, I didn't ask him."

Zac added, "I don't think he wants to talk about it."

The detectives weren't giving up.  "Why not?"

Zac looked at him like he was nuts.  "Well, I was with them for about five minutes and it scared the crap out of me.  Eighteen or twenty hours and I'd be in the nuthouse."

Walker interrupted, "Detective Miller, I want these people as badly as you do.  but until Taylor can tell us something...  I just don't know what else we can do.  We have your number, I'll call you the second we find out anything, but I think maybe they're right and it might take a day or two before he's going to be comfortable reliving whatever he went through."

"You do realize, the longer it takes, the less chance we have of finding them, right?"  The detectives both stood up.

"Yes I do.  But I think that's the chance we'll have to take.  Thanks so much for everything and I promise I'll find out what I can."   The men shook hands and finally the four of them had a chance to just sit and think and be thankful they had their son and brother back with them.

The solitude didn't last long though.  Dr. McCawley came through the door and walked towards them.  They all stood up but she motioned for them to sit back down.  She pulled a chair over and sat next to Diana.

"Well?  What did you find?"  Diana had seen her son throwing up blood and so far no one had come close to telling her why.

"Ok, he has two fractured ribs.  That's it."

"What do you mean 'that's it'?"

"I mean, that is the only thing I can find wrong with him and it's not enough.  Your son is having problems that two cracked ribs alone shouldn't be giving him.  Now, I know he's been through a lot.  I know you'd just like to take him home and forget this ever happened, but...  we're missing something..."  She paused for a moment.  "Mr. and Mrs. Hanson, I've taken the liberty of calling in a specialist.  We've talked and what we'd like to do is put him under and get a good look at his throat and whatever else he thinks..."

Zac couldn't believe what he was hearing,  "What?!  You mean like an operation or something?!"

"Zac!"  His mother warned.  "Let her finish!"

"No, no.  It's just an exploratory kind of thing, it would just be too uncomfortable for him if he was awake.  I don't want to alarm you or anything, but something is wrong.  He's not being quiet, he's being silent.  Mrs. Hanson, Diana, my daughter is a fan.  I know who they are..."  she said pointing to the boys.  "I know who you are and I know who your son is.  He's scared and hurt right now.  You don't have to say yes to this, who knows, maybe I'm wrong and in an hour or a day, he'll talk your head off and sing MMMBop at the top of his lungs... but, I don't think so."   At that moment, her pager went off.  She reached down and looked at it.  "That's our man, you talk and I'll be back in a few."  She walked away leaving four people in shock trying to comprehend what exactly she'd just told them.

Isaac spoke first.  "I don't understand.  Dad, what is she saying?"  Zac and Diana both had tears running down their faces.

"Ike, I don't know any more than you do.  I don't think she knows exactly.  Di, what are we gonna do?  He's had it, I don't know how much more he can take."

Diana wiped the tears from her face, sniffed and stood up.  She looked at the three of them.  "Well, I think he's going to just have to take it.  You know, we've always thought of him as the fragile one, the blue eyes, those pink cheeks, he may look more fragile than these two but he's not.  In fact, he's not fragile at all, he's just spoiled and accident prone!  He's had more stitches, broken bones and such than these two put together.  And he always just deals with it.  God knows he's had more teasing and cruelty heaped on him than anybody should have to put up with and he just deals with that too.  He's strong, he'll do whatever it takes."

She walked through the door once again and found her way back to where Taylor lay on a gurney dozing.  His feet were not covered by the blanket and she had to smile when she saw his socks all floppy like when he was a little boy.  They used to call it Peter Pan feet and it always caused him to trip, it never occurred to him to pull up his socks.  Her eyes traveled up to his hands.  Like his feet, they were a little too big for the rest of him and they were never still when he was awake.  He always talked with his hands, she wondered if he'd been able to speak with them handcuffed behind him for so long.  It hurt her to see the scrapes and cuts on them, he'd obviously struggled terribly to try and free himself.

She gazed now at his face.  It was the same as yesterday and yet she knew in her heart it would never be the same again.  There was pain and fear there that she prayed would eventually go away.  She ran her fingers through his hair and pushed it away from his eyes.  A smile flickered across his face and he sighed.  He slowly opened his eyes and looked into the face of his mother.  "Hi Mom."  She couldn't hear him but she knew what he said anyway.

"Hi baby.  How are you feeling?"

He shook his head and put his hand up to his throat.  "What is wrong with me?"  He looked to her for an answer but she had none to give.

"Well, you have two cracked ribs they tell me."  He nodded and pulled up the gown to show her where they'd wrapped him up rather tightly, in an effort to make them feel better he assumed, but it really wasn't working.  "Taylor...  They need to look at your throat, way down and they think it would be best if you were out.  I don't know what they expect to see or find or whatever...  I know you're sick of being poked and prodded, but...  Iit's just got to be done."

He closed his eyes then opened them, nodded at her and said, "Whatever."

"I love you."  She said.

"I love you, too."

Dr. McCawley entered then.  "Well?"  She looked from Taylor to Diana who nodded her head.   "Ok."  She turned to Jeannie who was now standing beside her.  "Prep him."
 
 
 

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