Whipping Boy
Chapter Two
Once the paramedics finally lifted the injured man onto their stretcher and loaded him into the ambulance, then started driving to the hospital with the sirens on, Regina, Zelena, and Chad immediately followed in Kelly's car, as she drove her sister, who was too panic stricken and deeply shaken by Rogers' poor state, and her fiancé, who was still covered in their friend's blood since he had begun to keep his hands over his stomach wound in hope of keeping him alive. Henry also followed behind them in his own car, while Margot stayed behind at her mother's and aunt's bar to be there for when the police arrived to ask their questions about what had happened to one of their own.
When Rogers was rushed into the operating room by the doctors who had run out to meet the paramedics as they unloaded the injured man from the ambulance, Regina, Henry, Kelly, and Chad all continued to follow until a few of the nurses stopped them from entering the room after their doctors, then urged them to have a seat in the waiting room while they waited for word on their friend.
Another doctor quickly encouraged Chad to go wash up so he wouldn't frighten the other few people also waiting within the waiting room for their own loved ones, which the doctor from San Francisco complied to, though not before telling the man who he was and that he wanted to help them to save his friend's life. Unfortunately, the doctor refused to let him do so because he was a friend to their patient and told him he had already done what he could, then finally just walked away from him.
A short time later, Chad came back out from the bathroom after he finished washing off Rogers' blood the best he was able to and had changed into a pair of scrubs which the nurses gave to him to wear as well. When he returned to the woman he loved and her sister, as well as their other friend, Regina had just hung up her phone, then she stood up again and anxiously began to pace back and forth in front of them while she hung her head against her hands in frustration.
"Who did your sister just get off the phone with?" Chad quietly asked his fiancée when he came over to sit down beside her and Henry, until the younger man stood up, then finally pulled Regina into his arms to hold and comfort her, knowing how afraid she was for the man he knew she loved.
"She just called Detective Weaver… Rogers' partner," Zelena replied worryingly. "He and Rogers are friends as much as they are partners. And believe me, if you knew anything about their 'true' past, you would understand that them being friends is a pretty big deal. Weaver needs to be here so we can tell him what little we know before the rest of the officers under him begins to speculate what might have happened for themselves."
Upon hearing a little of their conversation, Regina pushed away from her son as she spoke darkly saying, "They can speculate all they want. We both know who's responsible for this. Goth… Eloise Gardener."
Zelena also stood again as she urged her sister to try to stay calm and lower her voice again, then whispered, "I'm sure you're right, Roni. But you can't say this for certain. We have to tread carefully and trust that Weaver will discover the truth about who did this to Rogers."
"Who is this… Eloise?" Chad questioned as he joined the others, then pulled them further away from those around them who had begun to be curious about what little they might be able to make out from their conversation. "And why do you suspect she might have something to do with your friend getting hurt?"
"Eloise Gardener is a dangerous woman who, as hard as it is to believe, is the leader of some kind of cult who all believe themselves to be witches," Henry answered for Regina. "It's crazy, but they undeniably believe it. Sadly, Rogers had been their last victim a little over a month ago. They framed him for murder, kidnapped him, and hurt him pretty badly then too. Did some pretty unspeakable things to him. However, they released him after they poisoned him to get Weaver's help in finding some more of their sister witches. Thankfully, he was finally able to stop them and get the antidote thanks to help from another friend of ours."
Chad looked between Zelena and his friends in disbelief while he uttered, "My God… I can't believe that. That's terrible. How is this woman and her followers not in prison?"
His fiancé sighed in frustration herself, then she responded, "Weaver and the police managed to arrest these witches' accomplices helping them pull off their crimes, but Eloise and the two other women with her unfortunately managed to escape. But now, they're back out breathing free air on account of some scumbag lawyer who is working for her as well. Weaver said he had gotten her out of the charges against her and the others on some gibberish technicalities. Unlawful searches, slander, entrapment, etc.… etc.… It's all ridiculous, yet Weaver hasn't been able to fight against this lawyer on these bogus claims yet. He's far too good. He's a criminal, but he's good at what he does."
"I'm sorry," the doctor from San Francisco replied again while he reached out to take her hands in his own, then pulled Kelly into his arms to hold her as well. "That's terrible. I understand why you think this woman's responsible for what's happened to Detective Rogers now. How long has he been missing? I'm surprised none of you have mentioned that he has been."
"That's because he wasn't missing," Regina answered curtly. "Or at least as far as we knew, he wasn't. He's been out of town for awhile. For a little more than six weeks. After all that happened to him, Rogers left the Heights in the hope some time away would help him to pull himself together again. He was understandably shaken after all that those bitches did to him. We had no idea he was in trouble."
Before they could continue talking, Weaver finally walked in through the hospital wing's doors, then continued walking towards his friends when he saw them standing in the hallway outside of the waiting room and with sincere concern he immediately asked, "How is he? How serious has he been hurt?"
They all looked between him and Regina as she angrily responded, "He's very lucky to still be alive right now. Eloise somehow got her hands on him again because we couldn't protect him!"
"You and I both know you're right, Regina, but until we find out for sure what happened… it's best that we not throw around any false accusations unless we wish to deal with more nonsense from her new lawyer friend," Gold replied more calmly, though his eyes showed his own anger over his partner being hurt again as well. "Now… tell me what happened earlier tonight when Rogers returned to your bar."
"Rogers just stumbled inside and suddenly collapsed no more than a couple of feet from the door," Zelena answered for her sister, before Regina could go off on him again. "He was bleeding heavily from a knife wound in his stomach, which Chad quickly worked to keep pressure on so he wouldn't bleed out. Rogers wasn't cognizant at all, so he couldn't tell us what might have happened to him. His clothes and hair were completely disheveled. Torn. There were a ton more cuts and bruises across his face and body, much like the last time. Burns too. His wrist was broken, his thumb was dislocated, and his prosthetic hand was missing. It was dreadful really."
Gold nodded and then responded, "We can only hope for now that he's strong enough to recover from this attack too. In the meantime, I'll work this case like I did the last time. I'll speak with the detective and officers working the scene at your bar and have them tread carefully. We may get lucky and find a blood trail that may lead us to wherever it was Rogers came from. With as much as you say he was bleeding, I don't doubt that there will be. As for Eloise… we must tread carefully if it was indeed her and her other witches who hurt him this time too. I promise you, Regina… I will do whatever it takes to find out what really happened to him and to take down Eloise once and for all."
The senior detective was about to leave, when one of the doctors working to save his partner stepped out from the operating room, covered in Rogers' blood, then he walked over to them with concern on his face and questioned, "I take it you're all friends of Detective Rogers?"
"He's my partner and yes… he's our friend," Weaver quickly replied as he pulled his badge from his pocket and held it open for the doctor to observe. "How is he?"
"Well… we're far from finished treating him, but I thought I would come out here to let you know that it appears your partner was mugged tonight," the doctor apprehensively continued while he looked between those staring at him as they sought answers.
Chad looked at the man out of suspicion as he crossly retorted, "You're mistaken if that's really your prognosis, doctor. The bruising and lacerations around his right wrist alone points to him having been bound and while I might have been busy trying to keep him alive as I was trying to keep him from bleeding out from the wound in his stomach, I noticed that some of the other wounds…"
The doctor suddenly cut him off as he stated brusquely, "You sound like a doctor. But whether you are, or you're not, you aren't the doctor who is working to try to save that man's life in there and like you said… you were busy trying to keep him from bleeding out. As far as you know, the thugs who mugged your friend probably bound him before they nearly beat him to death. Leave diagnosing his condition to those who know for a certainty what is wrong with him and leave discovering what happened to him to the detective here."
"Just what the hell was that?" Zelena asked angrily upon listening to the other doctor rebuke the man she loved in such an aggressive manner, until he finally just walked away from them again to return to the operating room. "He wouldn't even consider that he might be wrong."
"Because either he's simply incompetent, or he's…" Chad started to explain until Regina cut him off.
She finished for him as she answered, "…he's lying for Eloise and her coven because either she has something on him in order to force him to cover up for her, or he's working for her just like the security guard from the mental ward who helped her to frame Rogers for murder when all of this began."
Weaver nodded in agreement, then turned to Chad again and responded, "Tell me why you feel Rogers wasn't mugged."
"Because for one… the bruising and cuts around his wrist indicate that he had been bound, which isn't typically something muggers do to their victims when they mug them," he sternly replied out of frustration. "They will either just mug them at gunpoint or with a knife to get whatever they're trying to steal, or they'll also attempt to kill them and then run away. I've seen enough patients who were victims of muggings to know what I'm talking about. And second… I might have been busy holding my hands firmly over the knife wound in Rogers' abdomen to try to keep him from bleeding out, but I did also manage to get a look at some of the other wounds too and not all of them were from tonight. Some of them were days old. That's what I was trying to tell that man before he interrupted me. Whatever might have happened to your partner, Weaver… I'm afraid that he was definitely a prisoner to someone while he was beaten over a period of a few days at least."
"I'm so sorry, Roni," he then added sympathetically when he turned to look over at his fiancé's sister again as well. "Look… I will call back the administrators who asked me to return home tonight and tell them I won't be able to make it so that I can be here to help you all figure out what happened to your friend."
Zelena quickly retorted, "But you shouldn't do that. Things here are complicated, Chad. I appreciate that you want to help us help our friend, but you've done that. It's just far too dangerous here right now. I don't want to risk you getting hurt again like you nearly were with Nick a couple of weeks ago."
Chad leaned in to kiss her, then pulled back again and answered, "I'm staying. Whoever did this to Rogers isn't after me and I'm not afraid of them whoever they are. Besides, I trust that you'll protect me if I were to come to be in any danger. You did the last time, didn't you?"
"Are you sure you won't reconsider?" Zelena questioned worryingly.
"I can't, Kelly," he responded. "I might have had it not been for that doctor's misdiagnosis and refusal to even consider that I might be right. But more than that, I want to help you help Rogers. I might not know him, but if he's important to all of you then I would like to get to know him."
Gold looked at the former Wicked Witch's fiancé with surprise at his conviction and then reached out to shake his hand while he spoke again saying, "I have to say, I'm impressed by your fortitude, Mr. Bass. And I want to thank you for wanting to help us save my partner's life. Thank you."
Chad smiled, then replied, "You're welcome. But call me Chad. Mr. Bass makes me sound old."
"Chad then," Weaver answered, then turned back to Regina and Henry again. "I should get going. There's a lot of work to be done. We'll figure this out, Roni."
"Damn right we will," she responded firmly. "We'd better."
