Chapter 7:

Maureen twitched. Through her closed eyes she could tell that there was a flash. A few seconds later, there was another flash. Slowly, Maureen opened her eyes. There was a strange man in doctor scrubs standing at the foot of her bed taking photos of her. Terrified, Maureen began to scream. An officer came bursting into the room with his gun drawn. The photographer froze. Maureen continued to sob. Joanne ran into the room and wrapped her arms around Maureen as gently as possible.

"It's okay, you're safe. Don't you worry, nobody can get you," she soothed. Meanwhile, Elliot showed up and dragged the photographer out of the room.

Outside of Maureen's hospital room, Elliot pressed the photographer up against the wall. Maureen's cries could still be heard.

"Who the hell are you?" Elliot demanded.

"My, my name's Lance Charles. I'm a photographer for the Post. I'm here to get pictures for an article to catch the escaped prisoner." Elliot got right in Lance's face.

"You hear those screams? Those are screams of terror. That woman has been through horrors. Now, you're going to give me your camera and leave." Lance happily handed over his camera and bolted down the crowded hospital corridor.

Once Lance was gone, Elliot went to go check on Maureen. Maureen was still crying. A nurse was busy injecting a clear liquid into her IV. Almost right away, Maureen calmed down. She felt her eyes get heavy. No matter how much she tried to fight it, she fell asleep.

Joanne carefully laid Maureen's sleeping form down on the bed and covered her up. then, she planted a kiss on Maureen's cheek.

"Joanne, you have my apologies," Elliot said. Joanne shook her head.

"It's not your fault, he was dressed as a doctor. Nobody would think not to trust a doctor." Joanne continued to stroke Maureen's wavy hair.

"I'll be right outside if you need anything." Joanne nodded gratefully.

"Thank you, Elliot." Joanne continued to run her fingers through Maureen's hair as Elliot left the room. She wanted to get Maureen something to help her recover.

Maureen grabbed Joanne's hand. She really didn't like this. Dr. Koon was currently trying to check on how she was healing from when Dan had raped her.

"Relax, Maureen," Dr. Koon said gently from the foot of Maureen's bed. Maureen whimpered.

"I don't want to do this, I want to go home," Maureen moaned as she clamped her legs closed to the best of her ability with her cast on her leg.

"Sweetie, please open your legs. I promise, I won't hurt you. All I want to do is to make sure everything's healing like it should so you can go home first thing in the morning." That got Maureen to open her legs. She continued to whimper and squeeze her eyes shut.

"You're dong fine, Mo," Joanne whispered in her ear. After a few minutes, Dr. Koon stood up.

"Okay, I'm done," she said as she pulled the blanket over Maureen's legs. Maureen straightened out her legs. "Everything looks great. The stitches have already disintegrated into your body. You're healing wonderfully."

"So I can go home tomorrow?"

"I don't see why not. Looks like you'll be going home in the morning." For the first time in weeks, the faintest hint of a smile crept across Maureen's face.