Chapter 25

Mary had headed straight to bed after they got home, her head still hurt, and she did not feel like being sociable, even with her family. She also needed time to think about her feelings for Richard. She had dated before but had never allowed herself to feel. Growing up almost being ignored had taught her to create a wall between her and other people, not allow herself to need anyone or want anything from anyone. Falling sick had changed a lot in her life, and for the first time in her life, people were there for her. Lizzy was the one person who had been there for her, but with the constant demands from her mother, and then George, they had not been as close as in previous years; until now. Even if Richard had not been at the cabin, she knew that she would still have feel welcome and part of the group, she would have gone with them to Netherfield if Richard had not been there and if her mother was not so insistent that she come home; she was not up for that fight.

For the first time in a long time Mary felt lonely, in previous years she would crawl into Lizzy's bed when she felt like this, so she decided to do just that, Lizzy would not mind. Grabbing her bag, she went to Lizzy's room and crawled into the bed she felt calmer, she could smell her sister, and in a way feel her. She fell asleep almost immediately.

She woke up a few hours later, her headache had returned in full force and she was parched. She took her medication out of her bag, noticing a bottle of water next to the bed she was glad she did not have to get out of bed. She took the medication and waiting for the relief it would provide.

Ten minutes later she was sweating and felt totally nauseous. She pulled out her phone and called Lizzy, she could just call her parents but again she just wanted to avoid her mother's hysteria.

"Hello, Elizabeth Bennets phone, Elizebeth cannot come to the phone right now but if you leave a message I will make sure she gets back to you" a decidedly not Lizzy voice answered the phone.

"Richard?" Mary was confused. "Why are you answering Lizzys phone?"

"Mary? Lizzy left her phone down stairs, and I am not brave enough to go to the room to give it to her. I am still young and innocent." Richard laughed

"Please could you call her, I need her" Mary was feeling grim, and thought that it was just a matter of time before she passed out.

"What's wrong Mary? Have you been drinking? You are slurring, and I can barely hear you." Richard was concerned

"Not drinking, just took my meds and feel so sick, need Lizzy, don't tell parents, too much…" Marys voice trailed away.

"Mary? Mary!" Richard called desperately

He ran up to Wills room and banged on the door "Lizzy! Will! There is something wrong with Mary, I am going to her house."

A very sleep befuddled Will opened the door, an anxious Lizzy looked from behind him, they had obviously been sleeping.

"What do you mean somethings wrong with Mary?" Lizzy asked, quickly becoming alert.

"She phoned you, your phone is downstairs, so I answered when I saw it was her, she did not sound well, slurring her voice." Richard replied, I will get the car out, you guys get dressed."

"What is going on? What's wrong with Mary?" Jane and Charles appeared in the passage, Janes face filled with concern.

"I don't know, but something is wrong. I am going to take Lizzy and Will over there, perhaps you guys can meet us at the hospital and get the paperwork started." Richard took charge, his military training coming to the fore.

Richard broke several traffic rules getting to the Bennet house; he did not care he just wanted to get to her.

Lizzy let them into the house, they all agreed on the way over that they would not wake the rest of the family until they knew what was going on; common sense dictated that Will as the medical person lead the three upstairs. Alarmed to find Mary's bedroom empty, Lizzy indicated to her room, she remembered that Mary often came to her when she needed company.

On finding her in Lizzy's bed barely conscious, Will immediately started to take Marys vitals, her body temperature was elevated, her breathing was shallow, her pulse erratic, he was concerned. As he checked her eyes, he noticed her pupils were fully dilated, like she had ingested a stimulant or recreational drug, her normal meds would not induce a reaction like this.

"Going to get sick" Mary murmured.

Lizzy grab the bin next to her bed, Will helped her sit up, got violently ill, then promptly passed out again. Will laid her back on the bed.

"We need to get her to a hospital, there is no time to wait for an ambulance, we will take her now." Will stood up and looked at Lizzy "I think she has somehow taken a recreational drug or a date rape drug."

"What?" Richard and Lizzy spoke at the same time, trying to keep their voices down but the implications of what Will had said was enormous.

"We can talk about it in the car, let's focus on getting her to the hospital." Will was very level headed, aware that both Lizzy and Richard were emotionally attached to Marys condition.

Richard ran down to the car while Will picked Mary up, being careful to keep a blanket wrapped around her. Lizzy gathered toiletries, pyjamas and Marys bag with her meds, and followed Will down stairs, closing and locking the door behind them. She would let her family know when they had a better idea of what happened. She could not drop a bomb like this on them.

Will carefully placed Mary on the back seat, indicating that Lizzy should sit with her, placing Mary's head on Lizzy's lap once she was in the car; he climbed into the front passenger seat and reach over to take Marys wrist and take her pulse again. "Lizzy, phone the hospital, tell them we are on the way with a young female, 19 years old, cancer patient with a suspected date rape drug ingestion, raised body temperature, erratic pulse and dilated pupils; they can prepare for our arrival."

Richard pulled the car out the moment Wills door closed, his hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white, his face was grim. As Lizzy ended her call to the hospital he demanded "You need to explain the date rape drug comment Will."

"All of the symptoms presented indicate a recreational or date rape drug, I cannot imagine Mary engaging in recreational drugs in her condition, so the only other logical conclusion. How and when would be the next questions and unfortunately only Mary can answer that." Will knew what he said would distress Richard and Lizzy, he was watching Lizzy's face as he told them.

"We were with Mary the whole afternoon, she had no plans to go out, she told me she was tired and would sleep when she got home." Richard started to plot a timeline in his head. "No one could drug her at the Grind or Vibe, we were there all of the time, so it had to have happened after she got home."

"How is that possible?" Lizzy asked

"We just walked into your house and out, no-one in your house is any the wiser Lizzy." Will said quietly, know that what he just said would add more to her current distress.

Pulling up at the hospital, Will jumped out, calling over the small group of ER staff standing in the entrance, assuming they were waiting for them. Mary was placed on a gurney, as Will debrief the team, who started to attached monitors and set up a drip.

Mary started to murmur and regain a bare moment of consciousness, "Mary, can you hear me?" Will asked.

"Tired, feel sick." Mary muttered.

"Sleep little one, you are safe." Will said to her softly. Lizzy felt her inside turn to mush.

"Sorry to intrude Lizzy, but we need to talk." Dr Bernard had arrived. "We are going to have to test her blood, and as it does not fall within the scope of the cancer or treatment thereof, I am going to need your permission to run tests for date rape substances. I also need to know how she ended up like this" He was looking from Will to Richard.

"We don't know yet, we were just focussing on getting her here." Lizzy answered, realising that both Will and Richard were offended at what the doctor was suggesting.

"I have no idea how her body is going to react to this, I have never had a situation like this. We are going to keep her in for at least 24 hours, until we are 100% certain the drug has worked its way out of her system, and that there are no lasting side effects." Dr Bernard was concerned.

"We can almost certainly say that she ingested the drug at home, about an hour ago" Richard said.

Everyone looked at him.

"She phoned me when she started feeling sick, so that would be roughly 20 to 30 minutes after ingesting the drug, and it took us about 30 minutes to get her here." He shrugged, he had already determined a basic timeline in his head. "It had to have happened at her house, she was going to sleep, so I imagine she fell asleep, in Lizzy's bed for some reason, woke up and had something to eat or drink, so my logical conclusion is that that is where we start looking."

"I would say something to drink, she wakes up thirsty so a juice, water or tea." Lizzy offered.

"That makes sense, we can start in Lizzy's room, and work out from there to Marys room and the kitchen." Will added.

"I am going to stay with her, so that she does not wake up alone, and to keep her safe. My gut says Wickham had his hand in this, not targeting Mary, but she is caught up in this now. You two go and see if you can find the source. No matter what it is do not handle it directly. Get some surgical gloves, seal and bag anything you find. I will get it to a lab to test." Richard instructed, feeling comfortable in his area of expertise.