Just Taken

Chapter 9

While Dennis and Joan were busy with one of the guards, Declan ran into the room Melanie was in. Declan looked around to see what the room was like when he noticed Melanie in bed. Declan wasn't aware he had sisters, let alone seen them before. Liam had been told about his sisters, but Declan didn't know who they even look like. As a curious toddler, Declan climbed onto the bed to get a closer look at Melanie, not knowing who she was. Melanie noticed someone was in her bed but couldn't do a thing about it. The shouts of his name echoed, but Declan wasn't able to climb back down and Melanie was getting worried.

"Who is this? Where are his parents?" Melanie thought.

Declan wasn't familiar with the stranger danger, all he sees is someone who was in bed, needing to wake up in hopes he had found a playmate. Melanie could tell this was a small child but didn't move at all, thanks to the medication she was forced to take despite her demands NEVER to give her anything for pain. To her, the pain was the reason that she's even alive and rather put up with that. Declan noticed that Melanie looked at that lady he had seen in a picture but never this close. Melanie couldn't just access the nurse button because she knew Mel, Emma, Jenny, and Linn were listening to the meeting and didn't want to give them away. However, Declan kept looking around to see what was there, and he found what appears to be a toy phone and presses it.

"Don't do that" Melanie whispered.

Declan kept pressing the button.

"Please stop" Melanie finally spoke.

Declan kept playing with the device as if it was a toy, not knowing he was making Melanie sicker as one of them was for morphine. Melanie was feeling the effects of the morphine, making her sicker. Finally, an orderly came to see what was the problem and caught Declan. The orderly got Declan off of Melanie and away from the buttons on the device, before giving him a random object to play with. The orderly knew Declan didn't mean to harm his sister, let alone know who she is. The medical staff went to check on Melanie, but they too were greeted by Dennis and Joan. One of them explained about the call from Melanie's room, which Joan was alarmed and ran to check on her only daughter. Melanie was knocked out, not sure how much morphine she was given. Declan wasn't sure what was going on till he saw his parents looking at him, knowing he did something wrong. The orderly explained that Declan didn't know what he was doing, he was just acting like any other child. Both Alan and Carol understood that Declan didn't mean to harm Melanie, but Alan would have to explain that to Joan, who was pleading for anyone to help Melanie. The corridor was filled with the sounds of silence, as they waited for any word on what was happening to Melanie? The families were moved into a private waiting room while Melanie's life was on the line.

At the meantime, Mel, Emma, Jenny, and Linn were all listening into the convention, not realizing it was just an innocent mistake by a child. The foursome just looked at each other, not knowing what was going on even when one of them tried to get one of Melanie's parents. All they heard was a click, and dead silence, giving them a reason to fear. This prevented them into finding out, someone had found the recording devices but thought they belong to a co-worker, who accidentally left it behind. Jenny had to call Geri and Victoria because they had been working on the court case, they were all involved. Geri and Victoria got to the location, which was Emma's flat, they had agreed upon to go over what was happening.

"We got here as soon as we can. What the fuck happened?" Geri asks.

"Not sure, they were drugging Melanie. No wonder she didn't want pain medications." Mel said.

"How much were they giving her?" Victoria asks.

"We don't know. The call cut out before we can get the name of what kind of poison was being pumped into her. She was pleading for them to stop." Emma said.