Hey there! What do you think about a new chapter to read?

Some people asked me (in private or in a review) to write a Dawsey chapter. That's legitimate, but in this one, you will understand why I can't do that (for now). There is a lot going on and I am on my way to write the next chapter (update within the next few days hopefully).

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Ale: I know everyone misses a chapter with Matt and Gabby, but as I said just above, it will be complicated to write something down with the couple reunited (read this chapter ^^)

1chicagoSWE: Poor Matt, huh? Do you think I will end this now and he will be fine soon? mhhhh...

Edelmira Gil: Thank you for the compliment ^^ It melts my heart lol And I know you like this story :D Who doesn't?

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Please, leave me a review after having read this chapter and enjoy!

Chapter 13 : Broken soul

After a few hours, the time for Dr. Bennett to start a new shift, the latte allowed logically some stretching in the hallway. He added that it would be a benefit for his patient, and even encouraged him to go out in the park if he wished to. The only condition was to stay in the hallway with someone the time the oxygen therapy was used and the treatment was still effective, he could also go to the park in a wheelchair to not exhaust Matt and his still fragile body. Indeed, he absolutely had to continue the two therapies to fight the infection, and above all, he still have to gain strength. It was important even. He just had to inform one of the nurses, either Serena or Sonia, in order to organize these trips in the corridors or in the park; carrying the oxygen tank and all the IVs was a real challenge, even for Kelly by his side. The wired shouldn't twist, the oxygen tank and the humidifier should be easily transportable, which could be the case with the presence of two people. With Serena, Matt panned a first outing in the hallway just before lunch. For now, he didn't want to go in the park, scared to face the gaze of others. He was still too sick to get out in front of everyone according to him, especially if attached to several IVs, the NG tube, the catheter and the nasal canula. It was far from ideal, but Kelly and the nurse understood his legitimate point of view; Matt didn't yet have the courage to come out and Serena then had an idea she decided to keep secret until the outing. She revealed nothing, even after having seen the suppliant gaze of Kelly, which made Matt smile a bit. A few hours passed during which he rested while Kelly took a shower right newt to him and changed. Serena reappeared in the room at eleven, bringing a wheelchair with her.

"Are you ready?"

Matt nodded, rather anxious for his first time out of the room since his admission four day ago. Well… He literally already stepped out a bit, on the threshold of the door, but in view of his condition at the time, it didn't count.

"The nurse…", Matt whispered.

"What?"

Kelly and Serena knew he said something, but they didn't understand.

"The nurse", he repeated louder. "He's okay?"

Of course, he was talking about Nathan, the one he punched in a moment of panic.

"He, uh… He has a nasty bruise, but he's okay. Don't worry, he'll see worse."

It only relieved Matt a little. It wasn't in his habit to hit someone, even less when he was from the medical staff on duty.

"Hey, Matt?"

He turned his head towards Kelly, his gaze filled with guilt.

"This is nothing. You weren't yourself yesterday. He already forgot, everyone did."

Somehow reassured, Matt nodded again and took a deep breath. With Kelly's help, he straightened and swung his legs out of the bed before putting them on the cold floor. He immediately withdrew them, the sensation he had at the time was particularly unpleasant and made him think back to this wet and stained place he was a prisoner for several days. Friendly, Kelly took out of the bag of clothes he had brought a pair of socks and put them on his feet, taking great care to the bandages around his ankles.

"How long… Did I stay there?"

While Serena was still preparing everything with the wheelchair, Kelly stopped abruptly and planted his gaze on Matt. He didn't want to lie to him, but he couldn't hide the truth either.

"About four days", he admitted.

At this moment, Kelly finally understood that for his best friend, time completely stopped the time of his detention. With the slight light he had, he had no contact with the outside world, his biological clock and his conception of time got unbalanced. In addition to the infection he had contracted, it didn't arranged things.

"And…. You saw everything?"

"A part of it. Not everything, but I know enough to be happy to know everyone buried."

"Trish?"

"She led us to you. You… You would be dead if she hadn't escaped and if she hadn't told everything to the police."

Suddenly, something came in Kelly's mind. Something Matt and him never talked about obviously, but he hit him.

"Hold on… How did you know that… That Trish was there too?"

At the question, Matt looked away, avoiding Kelly. He clenched his fists, swallowing hard.

"We… Met."

Kelly soon understood; he knew she was there. And in view of his behavior, it could only say one thing Trish had been used to reach his best friend, and it wasn't with a simple discussion. It had been more intimate than that. These bastards used Trish as a prostitute offering her services to a man who wanted to satisfy his needs. It was filthy, disgusting. How men could do this? Was it the Hell of human trafficking or just this one ? Kelly had no right to go further, he had to respect the silence of Matt above all. But the latter had to understand what happened to him, especially put words on it. He had to tell what happened down there, sooner or later, he would face this. But today wasn't the right time; it was time to get out of this room, it was the most important thing at the time.

"We get out of here or not?"

Turning back his head towards Kelly, Matt easily understood from his eyes that he had guessed everything; how he met Trish. And he was shared between disgust to know that the one he considered as a brother knew what he had suffered in almost every detail, and relief to see that he didn't wish to have more information, that he respected his silence.

"Okay."

Seeing that he was ready, Serena helped Kelly to support Matt for his first steps. These past few days without really eating and not moving had weakened him badly. He last lost muscle tone because he could no longer maintain his fitness and he was still weakened by his fight against the infection, a duel he seemed to win so far. His legs were trembling slightly, his body was battered and tired. But what he didn't understand was the fact that yesterday, he could easily stand on his feet and he had been ready to run away he needed, but now, only three steps and he was exhausted. He showed his frustration with a loud sigh.

"It is all normal to feel exhausted", Serena assured with a smile. "Your body… Faced a significant trauma, and he had to recover. It will surely take a few more days."

"But… Yesterday…"

"You weren't in your normal shape, you've been surprised by Nathan and the adrenaline flowing in your veins wrecked all your senses", the nurse tired to explain.

Matt quickly guessed that this famous Nathan was the name of the nurse he punched the day before, but nodded understanding what had happened. After an excess of adrenaline, the body no longer respond to pain and is reinforced. He was used to this as a firefighter, and everyone used this amount of adrenaline to save people instead of running out.

"Do you feel able to take a few steps in the hallway?"

Despite the evident exhaustion Matt wanted to continue. He was tired of being locked in the cage walled a hospital room, it made him claustrophobic. Every day, he thought back to his days in Hell, and getting out could bring him the freshness and freedom he so needed. So, he nodded, using Kelly's left arm to stay up, Serena on his left. As his left arm was still in a sling for about one to two weeks, it was hard to move, but with time, he would get there. Once in the corridor, he let out a strong sigh of relief he was holding since his awakening about three days ago.

"I… Stop."

Matt couldn't stand on his legs any longer, he hadn't yet regained full strength, it was obvious. The nurse helped him to sit in the wheelchair, taking great care to position him so that he couldn't suffer from his back and arm. His physic prevented him to walk properly, but the pain he felt while on his feet was too much to bear, whether it came from his back of ankles. The injuries were still too recent for him to be able to walk without any pain.

"It's okay Matt. You can try later again, today or tomorrow. You'll get better with time, and in a couple days, you'll be able to walk longer on your own, and you won't probably have the canula, nor the Foley and this NG tube."

Matt shut his eyes, calming his frustration inwardly by telling himself that everything was normal, that his body had to get used to it again, to do exercises he had forgotten. But how he could have forgotten in only a week?

"Matt? If you want to, I have a surprise for you."

"Yeah?"

"Mh. I didn't want to tell anything until now because I didn't know whether or not you would say yes. But as you don't want to go to the park for now, I thought that going on the roof to… To enjoy the sun could be a good idea?"

The sun. Matt didn't see it for too long. He could suffer all the pain due to his condition, he wouldn't miss this.

"I… Would kill to get some fresh air and see the sun."

Kelly smiled, Serena as well. That was what she wanted to hear, but she didn't want to impose anything to Matt. He had to make his own choice, she had to let him say yes or no, especially after what happened to him. The nursing staff knew just the minimum about this, they only knew what was in his medical records, which was not much. But according to what she heard this the room, Kelly knew exactly what happened to Matt, while she, his almost personal nurse, barely knew something about her patient. With Matt's agreement, they headed to the elevator to go up to the roof; the advantage of such a hospital was that there was a chopper base on the roof, so the elevator was planned for stretcher standards. Thirty seconds in the elevator almost were the longest Matt had to face. He felt oppressed, his chest seemed locked and his breathing was more and more difficult as time passed. Once the doors opened, he felt much better, although blinded by the light. Kelly wheeled the chair in which Matt was and he had to get used to the sun light. The wind rose slightly, touching Matt's still bruised skin, who let out a grunt of pure pleasure while keeping his eyes closed. He missed all this, and he felt so good. They remained still for about ten minutes, until the wind became a problem for Matt. Chills were beginning to go through his body, and it wasn't the right time to get sick. He said nothing when Kelly and Serena forced him to come back into his room, even if deep down he wished to have stayed a little longer on the roof. He felt so great, but he understood that his current state didn't allow him to enjoy the sun if there was this cold wind. Sonia replaced Serena for her shift and proposed some soup to Matt, based on what her predecessor told her about their favourite patient. Reluctantly, Matt tried to eat the soup, or rather broth. After what happened in the morning, he was scared to again soil his clean sheets. But against all odds, he had no nausea and no stomach cramps, which relieved him as well as Kelly, who accompanied him with a simple ham sandwich from a vending machine. The two men then allowed themselves to take an hour nap, before being woken up by Kelly's phone. Someone had sent him a text and it was urgent: this someone wanted to see Matt and should be in the room within five minutes.

"Someone would like to see you", Kelly broke the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. This person is waiting in the hallway."

"Oh."

Even if Matt didn't feel able to meet somebody, not yet at least, he couldn't let this person wanting to see him in the corridor and let the disappointment gnaw him or her.

"Okay."

Kelly nodded, sending back a text to this person. After two long minutes, and finally there was a knock at the door. A young woman with brown hair and brown eyes appeared. She stopped her race by seeing the man in the bed, his face still battered but much less that she had seen so far. Kelly wouldn't tell Matt that it was gabby who sent him this text, scared that he would refuse to see her after what had happened in the rotten cage. He wanted to two lovers to find back each other, even a little. Matt then turned his head, seeing the woman standing in front of the door of the room, without moving. She had a giant smile on his lips and she was probably ready to jump on his neck.

"Matt."

Casey locked his gaze on Gabby, his body froze, his breathing stopped, his heart beat stronger and stronger. All the memories he had started to suppress resurfaced, all the torture he had suffered came back to haunt him. Images succeeded one another in his head; these men hitting him, humiliating him, abusing him. He had offered himself to them in the hope of holding on long enough until help could arrive, he had deliberately agreed to be their little thing in order to protect his family. To protect HER, to keep the one she loved alive. He had suffered for her, so much that at the end, he had wished to end this Hell, but he never had the physical strength to pull on his arms and legs and push the barbed wires deeper into his flesh. And they had continued, over and over again, until he possibly admitted where this damn notebook was, but he didn't know anything. He had explained to Oleg that Katya had hidden it in the club by supposition, but he wasn't sure about anything. And even if she really did hid it in her workplace, it was impossible for him to say where it was because she never had time to tell him. The shot fired on Katya, which killed her, resounded in his head, causing him to jump as Kelly placed his right hand on Matt's shoulder. His gaze turned from Gabby to fit into that of his best friend, humidity began to rise from his womb to the edge of his eyes. He so let out a cry, regaining control of his erratic breathing as the same time. Kelly could feel through his hand on his shoulder that Matt was trembling like a leaf. He didn't really understand why, but he had perfectly guessed that the trigger of his actual behavior was the presence of Gabby next to him, the one he loved more than anything in the world. He was missing a piece of the puzzle: he knew what had happened in that cage, what Oleg and his men had done to him, he had seen a big part of it, but what had happened in that head of Matt during these four days in Hell?

This touching and heartbreaking scene was too much for Gabby. She had idealized her reunion with her behalf; he had believed that Matt would be more than happy to see her again after what he had gone through. But it wasn't the case; her presence was only reinforcing his pain. She couldn't inflict this to him, not after what had happened these past few days. She couldn't impose this to herself either. She couldn't even tell him that he was going to be a father in the coming months; it wasn't the right time, far from it. After several intense and emotional minutes, Gabby took a step back.

"I… I shouldn't have come. Sorry."

She turned her back to the two men, hurrying to get out of the room before Kelly could react, then she started running to her car with tears in her eyes. She sat down at the wheel, crying even more, imagining again this moment she had turned over several days in intense moment of happiness. She hadn't expected that. Remembering what Kelly had told her several days ago; that Matt didn't say anything to protect her, something he had said hypothetically, tears flowed even more, invading her face and falling on her jeans and on the wheel. She was sure of this: now, Matt hated her.