I couldn't believe it, all these years later and that crazy heifer was still working in that hospital? That was some luck on our part, I knew that not only would she take damn good care of the boy, she would run interference for him with Lou and hell, if we needed her to, she would smuggle his ass out of there. I called Bella's number right away.

"Bella, sugar, not only can we trust her, she is your new best friend. Let me talk to her a minute, okay?" She didn't say anything, but I could hear her breathing and then I heard a sniffle.

'J.D. they butchered him. They ripped the ring out and he's cuffed spread eagled to the damn bed." It's a damn good thing my phone is a tough one because if it wasn't it would have shattered under my clenched fist. Edward came over and put his arm around me, as the tension rolled off of me.

'Bella, let me talk to her, she's a great chick a I know she will help, she is the one who stabilized me so Edward could get me to San Diego, and I never even told her goodbye. If I can get back in her good graces, we will have more help than we need."

"I don't know if that's fucking possible, because it seems that right now we need a whole fucking bunch.!"

I heard Alice's voice in the background, "Did you get the pictures you needed of this part, I need to put a bandage back on." interrupted by Bella's telling her that someone needed to talk to her. All business and professionallike she got on the phone, "If you could wait about a half an hour I could call you back, but I am with a patient right now." I interrupted her, "I know you are gal, that's my friend you are taking care of there, and I know you are doing a damn good job of it." I heard her gasp and then a soft voice whispered, "Jasper? Is that really you?"

"Yeah hun, its me. I'm so sorry I didn't say goodbye to you, but it was thought you would be safer if you didn't know where I was. We didn't know if Lou would hurt you if he suspected you helped me, so I just moved up to Portland and started over. That fella you are taking care of is part of my family."

"Oh Jay, I missed you so damn much! When Edward left I begged him to tell me if you were okay, and he wouldn't even tell me if you were alive or dead, he just said to forget about you and forget that I even knew him! I knew he went to the Northwest, and I hoped you were with him, but I had no way of finding out without drawing attention to you and to myself, and I damn sure didn't want to do that. I have missed you boys so much and I hate that those rotten bastards hurt you and were able to get away with it."

I knew we had an in with her and I hoped that I would be able to rebuild my friendship with her once we had him out of there and safe, but for now I needed her to give me a breakdown of who and what we were dealing with and just how bad of shape he was in, she would be able to give us the most accurate picture of our chances of getting him transferred out, or what our other options were.

"Alice, how bad is he? Can we get him transferred or is he in truly bad shape?"

"He's improving quickly. I had to fudge the results of his last competency test in order to keep the goon squad at bay. I'm afraid if he gets sent back to the jail he will get an infection in his stitches or he might have another, "accident". I sedated him when he got overwrought earlier, so he will stay groggy for awhile, but if he's an actor, he needs to use that to keep them convinced he's still out of it. The doc on the case is worried that his ass is in the sling if he suffers any lasting damage, so if he stays gorked for long enough, the transfer might be easy to get pushed through. We need to talk to him and let him know what's up so he can be in on the act so he doesn't act to with it for anyone else."

She was a light at the end of the tunnel. With her on board I knew we would get him out of there unscathed, now all I had to do was get Bella to leave him there without killing anyone on her way out the door.

"Can I talk to the woman in the room with you? That's his woman and she's a might bit testy about things and I need to get her calmed down before she comes unglued all over things."

"So he really isn't gay? I would have thought that with the piercing and how pretty and well groomed he is that he had to be, especially after what he did on that video and the way he acts around that other boy in his band." At that point I heard Bella in the background. "He has a little boy with me. We are a family. I…I love him and I need to get him the hell out of here, please, please help us do that."

I think you could have heard a pin drop in the two rooms that were connected by that cell phone. Edward looked at me and grinned ear to ear as I grinned right back at him. What we had known all along was finally out in the open. We could hear Alice awkwardly trying to comfort Bella who was by no means a huggy person, as the line went dead.

I heard that. There is no way in hell I am going to let her know I am awake now, but my heart is about to bust out of my chest. Not only has the cavalry arrived, they love me. Laying there, hogtied with my junk in the breeze and thankfully numb as hell, I don't give a fuck about anything else. She loves me. Its going to be okay. J.D. and Edward are close by and she is here, so I am going to be getting rescued one way or another. I can just stay asleep. I feel her hand on my thigh as she moves around taking pictures of the damage those bastards did to me, and let me tell you buddy! It took all the thoughts of what she would do to me once we were out of here, to not get a little worked up and happy to see her. I heard her sniffle and that made my heart just drop into my guts, she was crying? Bella doesn't cry. Not over anything. But there she was crying over me. Holy fuck.

"We are going to get you out of here and I am going to make them pay for what they did to you and then you are in soo much trouble once you are better!" That was the Bella I was used to. She stroked my cheek and I figured it might be safe to wake up just a little as I heard the nurse finish her conversation with J.D. and come back over to wrap up my pecker and start on my head. I twitched and licked my lips, which were bone dry and cracked to hell and gone.

"Is he waking up?" Bella sounded hopeful as the nurse finished bandaging my parts and covered me up, only to start unwrapping my head.

"He might. This tends to pull the hair that wasn't shaved off and even when I am gentle, it still stings a bit, and he is responsive to painful stimulus."

OUCH! God Damned right I am! Holy Shit! I don't know how in the hell people endure waxing and shit like that. Having your hair pulled out by the roots hurts like hell!" I groaned and opened my eyes, to see Bella, red-eyed and worried looking, standing there looking at me. I tried to say her name, but because my mouth was so damned dry and I was so goofy feeling I couldn't do much more than mumble at her which seemed to just upset her more.

"Oh good Lord boy, you sure know how to get yourself in some messes don't you?" She bent down and hugged me, kissing my cheek and gently wiping the tear she got on me off. "I don't know if I should kick your ass for worrying me half to death or be thankful you are alive and kicking?"

I tried to smile at her, but nothing seemed to be willing to cooperate too well with me right then. I don't know what the hell that nurse had shot me up with last, but it was a hefty dose of goofy. I did mange to get my hand to twitch in the cuff and she reached up and held it as she bent down to talk to me.

"Listen to me. We are working to get you transferred to a hospital closer to home. You have got to use all your skills to make these people believe you are worse off than you are, okay? I don't care how undignified you have to be, but they cant find out you even are capable of understanding anything. You have to stay in the hospital until we get you away from them or the charges dropped. Alice, here is going to help us as best she can, and she's a friend, but trust no ones else. I hope to have you moved in the next day or so, but until then you just sit tight, sleep as much as possible and act as hurt and brain injured as possible. Don't answer any questions and damn sure don't act like you remember anything. Don't even try to talk to anyone.

Talk to anyone? That wont be hard. Apparently the happy drugs ole nursie shot me up with have rendered me incapable of coherent speech, but I look her in the eyes and try my best as I squeeze her hand extra hard, "love you". as the room faded to black again.