Jeanette's grip on Miss Miller's hand grew tighter, and tighter, as a nurse cleaned up the gash on her right thigh with stinging alcohol.
"It will only hurt for a little while, darling." Miss Miller assured Jeanette, as tears began rolling down her face from the pain.
Brittney was holding Jeanette's other hand, while Eleanor rested her hands on Jeanette's shoulders. When the doctor came in to stitch up Jeanette's thigh, she began squeezing Miss Miller and Brittney's hands so hard, they were in pain.
"Not so tight there, Jeanette!" Brittney yelped.
"You're going to be fine," Eleanor assured her, rubbing her shoulders, "you're going to be just fine..."
Jeanette moaned repeatedly as her thigh was stitched up, her wound was so severe, her thigh was very tender, the slightest touch made her gasp from the sharp, excrutiating pain.
"We're almost done, darling." Said the doctor, as he was two thirds finished with her stitches.
Jeanette moaned some more, but Miss Miller and Brittney never let go of her hands, and Eleanor didn't stop rubbing her shoulders, or giving her a gentle hug around the neck.
"There we go." Said the doctor, as he tied off her sutures. "Now then, I understand you may have sustained an injury to your back, I'd like to take an X-ray, in case there may be any damage to your spine."
"Okay..." Jeanette said, softly.
Jeanette felt embarrassed, lying on the X-ray bed, on her stomach, with no sweater on. She couldn't see it, but everyone commented on the nasty bruise she had on her back. The X-rays didn't turn up anything, but just to be on the safe side, and because of the massive blood loss from her ax injury, they wanted to keep her over night. Shortly later, Jeanette laid in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown, and having an I.V. of plasma stuck in her hand. Miss Miller sat by Jeanette's bedside with her.
"I'm very proud of you, Jeanette." Miss Miller told her daughter.
"Why?" Jeanette asked in curiousity.
"For being such a brave, big girl..." Miss Miller said.
"I wasn't brave, Miss Miller," Jeanette said, sadly, "I was a big chicken through out the entire ordeal with that guy..."
"Oh, Jeanette..."
"I was! I was scared to death! I didn't know what this guy was going to do to me, I didn't know if he was going to hurt me, or even kill me... I was especially afraid he might rape me, and that you would end up finding out..."
"He didn't rape you, did he, Jeanette?"
"I'm not sure... before you came home, he walked into my room... he closed the door, locked it... walked up to my bed... he was unzipping his pants, climbing on top of me, trying to pull my underwear down..."
"Oh God..." Miss Miller moaned.
"But..." Jeanette continued, "I told him I had AIDS... he didn't believe me at first, but I convinced him I had AIDS, and only had a few more months to live..."
"How did that work?"
"He ran out of the house like a he was escaping the mental institution."
Miss Miller ran her fingers through Jeanette's hair. "I'm still proud of you, Jeanette. No matter what, I'll always be proud of you."
Jeanette looked up into Miss Miller's face, and revealed a small smile, before slowly slipping into slumber again, just as Brittney and Eleanor returned from the cafeteria with ice cream for her. Miss Miller brought her finger up to her lips, before pointing at the sleeping Jeanette. Brittney sat the ice cream on the sink counter in the room, before walking over to Jeanette's bedside, and giving her a gentle kiss on the cheek, as did Eleanor.
All the while, the police had finally caught up with Jeanette's kidnapper, Craig, who was in the outskirts of town, resisting arrest, determined not to spend his last few months in the slammer.
"I'm not going, I tell you!" Craig shouted. "If I got but a few more months to live, I ain't going to live them behind bars!"
"Who said you have a few more months to live?" One cop asked.
"That kid! That chipette girl, Jeanette!" He screamed. "She gave me AIDS!"
"That's impossible," added another officer, "she doesn't have AIDS!"
"Of course she does!" Craig screamed. "She told me herself!"
"Then she told a little untruth, then," said the captain, as he pushed Craig into the back of the waiting police car, "because we sent her blood from your ax to our lab... if she had AIDS, or even HIV, we would've been notified."
"So just shut up, and enjoy the ride!" Said the other officer, before the door was slammed shut.
Craig was transported down to the police station, where he was found guilty of more criminal loitering, kidnapping, criminal mischief, bribery, assault with a deadly weapon, child molestation, wreckless driving, resisting arrest, they even charged him with attempted murder, since Jeanette had gone so long without food, and was wasting away. The police were ready to book Craig for his crimes, but he insisted on seeing a lawyer. The only problem was Craig had no lawyer, so one had to be provided for him. When the news of this reached Miss Miller's ears, she was outraged.
"Lan sakes, alive!" Miss Miller shouted, waking Jeanette from her slumber.
"Hmm? What's wrong, Miss Miller?" Asked Jeanette, with a yawn.
"That man who kidnapped you wants to see you in court!" She told her.
"Why?!" Jeanette asked, focusing her attention on the officer, visiting them in her hospital room.
"He insisted to see you in court about this situation." He told her.
"He stalks me, kidnaps me, forcings me to sing for him, whacks one leg with a hatchet, burns the other leg with his cigarette, threatens me, my sister, and my boyfriend with a gun, chases after us when we escape, and he wants to sue me?!"
"Young lady, I know this is hard for you to believe," the officer continued, "but if you could testify, this could help us book him with an even harder sentence for his crimes... and we're not thinking about locking him up in an ordinary prison..."
"What do you mean by that?" Miss Miller asked.
"We have reasons to believe this guy is mentally disturbed," the officer told them with a chuckle, "he... he claims that you seduced him into doing most of those things to you..."
"Oh please," Jeanette moaned in disgust, "do I look like the kind of girl who would seduce some kind of creep?"
"No ma'am, I'll admit you don't even look like the kind of girl who would try to draw any kind of attention to yourself..."
"Jeanette doesn't dray attention to herself!" Brittney barked. "Jeanette's too shy to even try to say a simply 'hello' to people she doesn't even know!"
"You've got evidence," Miss Miller insisted, "you have our word against his, why must we go through court room drama, when my daughter's been through more than enough trauma to last her a lifetime?!"
"Ma'am," the officer began, "not only are we sworn to protect, we're also sworn to serve... no matter who it is we're serving."
The sounds of Miss Miller and her daughters sighing took over the room at that moment.
"I don't know..." Jeanette said softly, "I don't think I can go through with this..."
"You shouldn't have to go through with this, Jeanette." Miss Miller told her.
The court date had been set, and at the beginning of the week, the Millers and the Sevilles were in court to testify against Craig, who was about to take the stand.
"Do you, Craig Bromson, swear to tell the court the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me, God?" Asked the baliff, as he swore Craig in.
"I do..." Craig responded, sounding like he was about to have a nervous breakdown.
Craig was instructed to take his seat, as the judge proceeded with the trial.
"Mr. Bromson," the judge asked, "you realize that you have been charged with an overwhelming amount of violations of the law, including the kidnapping of the defendant... how do you plead?"
"I plead... I plead... I plead temporary insanity!" Craig snapped. "I... I couldn't help it! Look at her! Just look at her!" Craig started pointing, and waving his finger at Jeanette. "I don't know what brand of perverted witchcraft she's practicing... but she seduced me!"
"Objection!" Miss Miller cried out.
"Sustained!" Craig cried back.
"Order!" The judge beat her hammer against the gavel.
"She's a seductress I tell you!" Craig rambled on.
"She's just an eight-year-old girl!" Miss Miller snapped back.
Pretty soon, Craig and Miss Miller's bickering got out of hand, as the judge repeatedly hammered the gavel.
"Order!" She yelled. "Order! Order! Order in this court!"
The bickering still went on until Craig clutched his chest, and started turning paler by the second. This quieted everyone down for a moment, before Craig fell out of his chair, and onto the floor.
"Mr. Bromson!" The judge called out, assuming he was play acting.
Just then, a man from the jury, trained in first aid, made his way to Craig's body, where he proceeded to check his pulse, and his heartbeat.
"He's dead." He said.