"Michael, I'm fine!" Stella shooed, trying to squirm away from Michael and the pillow he was about to put behind her.

"Are you sure? Do you wanna lie down in bed instead?"

"I've been in a bed for almost a week; the last place I wanna be is in bed! The couch is fine."

"Okay..." Michael replied. "Do you want something to eat or drink?" he said, getting up from the position he was kneeling in next to the couch and walking towards Stella's kitchen.

Stella shot him a glare, "Michael."

Michael stopped and turned around, looking at Stella with concerned eyes.

"You don't need to do all this, okay? I can do it myself." She said, pushing the blanket off and swinging her legs over the edge of the couch. She went to sit up – placing one arm on the pillows beside her, and the other on the back of the couch to push off from – but couldn't manage to push herself up without causing pain. The pain medication she had been given wasn't anywhere as good as the morphine she got at the hospital, therefore feeling almost every sore muscle and broken bone so much as twitch.

"Ugh," she groaned, wincing and grabbing her side, lowering back down. Michael was at her side in seconds.

"No, you can't. See?" Stella looked up and gave him another glare before looking away. "Look, I'll stop 'bugging' you, if you stop trying to do everything yourself, okay?"

Stella hesitantly nodded in agreement, "fine."

(...)

"Josh!" Leon called from his desk. Josh came rushing over.

"Yeah?"

"I think I know where Matt is."

"You think? Last time you thought, it wasn't him." Josh stated.

Leon smirked, "I had a look at the street cameras dating back to the kidnapping, and I managed to find Matt and follow him to what must've been an escape car. It was pretty run down and had no plates, so it was pretty easy to follow. Anyway, so it turns out that he went to a motel in Footscray – can you believe it? I mean, he didn't even leave town! – And I haven't seen him since. I called up the motel and they said they had no one under the name of Matthew Brown, so no doubt he's using a fake name."

"So you haven't seen him leave, right?"

"Nah. Unless, you know... He turned invisible!" Leon joked. Josh didn't even take notice that Leon was trying to make a joke. Ever since they thought they found Matt – even before; when Stella was kidnapped – he hadn't been himself. He's more pissed off and angry. Josh wanted to find Matt so bad, because Stella was one of his best mates, and it broke his heart seeing what he did to her.

"Well I'm gonna go over there and check it out. What's it called?"

"Palms Motel. Want Lawson to go with you?"

"Nup," Josh replied, walking out the room.

(...)

Two hours had passed and Stella and Michael had watched another movie. It was dinner time and Michael was cutting up fruit and veggies for a salad, since there wasn't anything else in the house to cook with and Michael's parents usually always cooked for him, so he wasn't much of a cook.

Stella had managed to awkwardly and painfully get off the couch by herself and was walking over to the kitchen and Michael.

"What's for dinner?" she asked.

"Salad. There's nothing else to cook with here! I think I might go shopping tomorrow, wanna come?"

"You. Shopping. Really?" Stella joked.

"What's wrong with that?" he replied, looking up from the carrot he was slicing.

"Michael, you live with your parents!"

"So? Free rent! Plus, I'm a family man."

"Oh!" Stella said, lifting her eyebrows. "Right!" she added, nodding her head and lowering her eyebrows.

A few seconds passed and Michael spoke. "Anyway, do you wanna come?"

"Nah, I don't think I'll be able to stand up for that long to be honest." She said quietly. "Besides, I think I'm gonna give Frank a call tomorrow and see if he can come over. I wanna talk to him about Matt's brother. See what actually happened."

"Good idea."

(...)

Josh drove to Palms Motel and talked to the owner, showing a picture of Matt and asking if he was there. The owner said he was, so Josh went to the room he was staying in. He found no one in there, but Matt's stuff was still there.

Josh was rummaging through Matt's things to see if there was any indication on where he might be.

"Leon, I got nothing here. Have you found out anything, yet?" Josh said over his coms.

"No, sorry. I've checked the street cameras all around the area, and I haven't seen him. It's like he's literally vanished into thin air!"

Josh sighed to himself. "Well keep looking, okay?"

"Yeah, I'm doing that."

"Good."

(...)

Stella put her knife and fork down on her empty plate. "That was actually really good!"

Michael chuckled, "I'm glad you liked it!"

Stella smiled at Michael. Michael stood up and put Stella's plate and cutlery on top of his, taking it to the kitchen. When he came back he went over to Stella and kissed her on her forehead.

"You look kinda really tired! Do you wanna go to bed now?"

"Mm-hm." She replied, nodded her head. Michael helped her off the chair and to the bed. Stella was about to get some pyjamas out of the drawer and get changed, but it had been a long day and she just wanted to go to sleep. Stella went over to the bed and awkwardly lied down on it, groaning and wincing on the way.

"Aren't you gonna change?" Michael enquired.

"Mm-mm," she mumbled, head buried into her own soft pillow for the first time in days.

"Okay. As least take off your jacket and belt, yeah?"

Stella pulled her arm out of one of the sleeves of her jacket and undid her belt, pulling it out of the loops in reach, and then slowly turned over to her other side and did the same. Michael grabbed her jacket and belt and put them on the floor, then walked over to the bag he packed before Stella left the hospital, of things he would need while he was staying at Stella's. He got out his pyjamas – a pair of navy blue trackies and a grey t-shirt – and got changed.

By the time Michael got changed and turned off all the lights, Stella had already fallen asleep. Michael covered her up to her shoulders with the doona and slowly got in the other side of the bed, trying not to move the mattress too much in case it woke her up.

Michael lay there on his side, admiring the sleeping Stella. He couldn't help but replay the events that had happened over the past week in his head. He couldn't stop thinking about how scared he was when he heard she'd been kidnapped. He couldn't stop picturing Matt beating Stella. He couldn't stop wondering if they'd ever find him. It broke his heart to see her so weak; it just wasn't Stella, she's always so tough and strong.

Michael fell asleep with those thoughts going through his head.

A/N: Sorry for the longish delay in updates, I haven't really been able to think of what to write in this chapter, and I ended up changing it around a little so what was gonna happen in this chapter will be in the next, etc. Plus I've had a lot of things I had to do, and I haven't really been feeling that well. And of course, I wrote most of the chapter on my iPod, and when I was about to send it over to the computer, I bloody deleted it, didn't it? ARGH! So I had to re-write it all :|

Also, I was going to make this chapter longer, and I didn't really get to finish it how I wanted, but I felt bad cos I haven't updated in like a week, so I decided to just leave it as it was, and just continue in the next chapter (as one would assume!). But that just means an extra chapter, right? :)

And lastly, I know nothing much has happened in the last few chapters, but I can say that after the next one there will be more action and we will find out where Matt is!

Okay, really, last thing! I promise! Please review! Pretty please! :D