Summary: 'You stare down at this motionless, almost lifeless body, and you regret seniding him back to possibly the most unreliable person you have ever known. And suddenly your wondering why you never noticed the signs that were blatantly staring you in the face.'

A/N: Please review. Tell me if I should expand this story or keep it a oneshot.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

You sigh as you sit in the waiting room staring at your hands and you replay the last hour in your head. You were wiping down the counter when the phone rang, you went to pick it up and heard a formal voice on the other end, "Hello, may I please speak to a... Lucas Danes?" You responded, telling her it was you, "Your nephew, Jess Mariano is now in critical condition, we need you here right away." That was 4 hours ago.

4 hours ago that you heard something that may alter and shatter your life completely. They wouldn't even tell you what happened to him. You're tired and irratible and your wondering where the Hell Liz was. Where was she when all this happened? They told you that it wasn't a car accident or anything akin to an 'accidental mishap.' Then, the doctor walks through from the double doors with a troubled expression on his face, you immedaitly stand up and mentally brace yourself for the news.

He reaches out his hand and you hesitantly shake it. "You must be Lucas Danes, Jess's uncle." However, Luke was in no mood for pleasantries and wanted to get straight to the point. He wannted answers and he wanted answers now, damn it.

"Uh yeah, that's me. Is he okay? What happened to him? Is he awake, or even alive or-" The doctor interrupted him.

"Slow down, he's alive, but not awake yet. I think you should come with me and take a look before I tell you what happened." I looked at him strangely, but he ignored my confused look and led me down a long corridor hallway and stopped at a room with the numbers '476.' He stopped me before we went inside, "Brace yourself, he's not looking too good right now." How bad could he possibly look?

Bad. Very, disturbingly bad. He had a huge bruise around his right eye, a small purple swelling under his left, his forhead was wrapped in gauze, a cast was around his right arm and gauze was wrapped around his left hand and wrist, there were bruises all over his body, his left, which had not been put in a cast yet, was heavily distorted and twisted, and the sheets were pulled down to expose a cast around his skinny middle. Luke noticed that he must have lost a signifant amount of weight by the way it looked.He was hooked up to a heart monitor that was beeping annoyingly every few seconds but, Luke reminded himself that it was a good thing that it was still beeping, no matter how annoying. What the hell was going on?

The doctor sighed as he caught the look on Lukes face, "Why don't you sit down and i'll explain to you of Jess's situation." Luke complied, sitting in the chair nearest to Jess's bed.

"It seems that Jess may have been.. beaten. We have to assume this because there are unexplained bruises everywhere, some are handmarks, and there is no way in Hell that any of Jess's injuries were 'accidental,'

they were all done by force."

Luke, for the life of him, could not comprehend the situation. Jess...beaten? The two words did not belong in a sentence together.

"But, even if his stepdad hit him he would have fought back, Jess would not just let someone do this to him, he's tougher than that and has a lot more pride, he would've happily beaten the crap out of the guy who did this to him, but by the look of him, it doesn't look like he even tried to fight back."

The doctor again sighed, "Mr.Danes are you aware that your nephew weighs a mere 90 pounds? That's more than unhealthy, I know ten year old girls who weigh more, it looks like he has not had nutrition or food in his body for quite sometime, maybe even as much as 2 weeks. So as you can see, he would stand no chance against a 37 year old who weighs at least 190 pounds." The doctor explained, he saw the forlorn look on Lukes face and figured he might need some time alone to procees all this terrible information given him, and nodded politely, leaving the room saying he'd give Luke some time to think.

Luke stared down at the motionless, almost lifeless body of his nephew and wondered what he could have done to prevent this, to prevent Jess from going through all this pain. Luke stared down at Jess's wrists then.

On his right wrist,going all the way around his wrist was a huge bruise of a handmark.