Disclaimer: I do not own AHS.

A/N: Hey guys! Said I'd try and update the majority of my stories if not all, so here's a brand new chapter! Thanks for still reading! Love you all.

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CH 25- Misery Loves Company

…

Lana slowly roused herself from a heavy slumber she had suddenly found herself in with no memory of what had happened to get her there in the first place. There was this pulsing pain in the back of her head and her arms felt sore, prohibiting her from stretching out here arms. She groaned, lifting her head and sitting up right. She tugged at her arms but they wouldn't budge. They were tied behind her. Lana's eyes flung wide open. She wasn't in Ellie's room. Lana now found herself tied to a chair with a bandana around her mouth. Tears raced down her flushed cheeks as she looked around, trying to figure out where she was.

It was dark and there was dirt and hay at her feet. The air smelled of wet wood and oil. Lana closed her eyes trying to wake up from the nightmare that was in fact reality. Her chest heaved up and down with her panicked breathing. She tried to keep herself calm but it was hard to concentrate when she was terrified and her head hurt something fierce.

She tried to scoot the chair from its spot and pull herself free but she was tied down tightly. She looked around again to realize she was inside what seemed to be a small shed. She glanced up to the only window the shed had. It lay on the wall to her left, high from the ground. Lana tried to cry out but couldn't due to the cloth in her mouth.

The shed door opened and Lana stopped her struggling to land her eyes upon the person that had entered. Oliver. She should have known. Of course she knew it was he who had taken her there. Her heart pounded wildly against her chest as Oliver approached her. He looked calm for the most part. He strolled over to her with his hands in his pockets but Lana knew better than to be fooled by his calm exterior. A rage was brewing within him.

Oliver looked pale, exhausted and worn. As if he had been crying for days without eating anything. He calmly walked up to the chair Lana sat in and squatting down, placing his hands on her thighs. They gripped her tightly and she fought back to cry out.

His dark brown eyes looked up at her. She looked back at him, waiting. The seconds between them felt like minutes and the silence was unbearable.

"I am going to ask you once and I want you to answer me honestly." Oliver said gravely yet calmly, "Where is my daughter?"

Lana tried to calm her breathing but remained silent. Oliver had no idea Ellie was at the hospital. It was then Lana realized where her child still was. She began to panic not knowing how long she had been in the small shack. Her heart raced for her daughter hoping that she was okay. Her eyes began to water and the tears rolled down her cheeks.

Oliver grew impatient and yanked the bandana out of her mouth.

"Help!" Lana cried as soon as she could speak.

"Shut up!" Oliver gripped her thighs tighter causing Lana to yelp out in pain, "Don't bother screaming because no one can help you. We're a long way from civilization."

The old farmer had finally passed. His children had come and taken his body to have it buried upstate—or so Oliver had heard them say. The farm would be alone for a long time and Oliver couldn't believe his luck and thanked the old man for choosing that exact moment to die.

"I am going to repeat myself and you are going to answer me."

Lana's lips trembled with fear and pain. She met Oliver's angry eyes and knew he wasn't going to give her any mercy.

"Where is my daughter?"

"What—what are you going to do to her?"

Oliver's eyes narrowed slightly. "Don't you worry about that."

Lana glared at him. "You're not going to take my child from me."

"My child!" Oliver snapped as he stood to his feet rapidly, "She's my daughter! Now where the hell did you hide her, you bitch?"

Lana leaned her head back, taking in Oliver's rage with all the calmness her body could muster. She had become very familiar with his temper. "Ellie wouldn't like to hear you talk that that way to her mother."

Oliver leaned down slightly meet her eyes. "Don't mess with me, Lana. You are on mighty thin ice and I am running out of patience and excuses to keep you alive."

"Do what you want with me, Oliver. I don't give a shit. Just know that you will never see her again."

"What did you do with her?" The words gritted through his teeth.

Lana kept her gaze on him but remained silent. Oliver pulled back and slapped Lana clean across her face. Lana took the blow and hung her head, wincing at the pain stinging her cheek.

"I will not waste my time with your games. Tell me!" He shook her shoulders.

Lana pulled her head back. "I'm not going to."

"You will." Oliver pulled back and stepped aside to the side of the cot where upon a shabby table was a tool box he had brought from the old man's barn. He reached inside and pulled out a rusty pair of clippers and approached Lana once again. "For every time you deny to tell me where my daughter is, I will cut off one of your fingers." He showed her the dirty clippers. She felt her heart skip a beat and the fear began to consume her.

"You wouldn't hurt me." Lana said, "I'm the mother of your child…"

Oliver shook his head. "Oh no. I won't let you get into my head again. You've lied to me too many times."

"Oliver…" She spoke to him in that voice she used over the years to calm him down.

"No!" Oliver backed away again at the verge of exploding, "You left me! You left me and you took her! You don't deserve any more chances, Lana!"

"I just wanted a normal life, Oliver." She said, "I didn't want to see my child grow up while I was locked down in some basement. Every time she came down those stairs, she looked older, she looked bigger. She was growing up before my eyes and I wasn't a part of it."

Oliver was stumped by her words. He remained silent.

"I wanted to be her mother. I wanted to be a part of her life!"

"You could have been. I gave you a chance."

"It wasn't the chance I wanted."

Oliver knelt back down in front of her, his eyes locked with hers and his hands upon her lap, lightly this time.

"She deserves better than us, Oliver." Lana said, tears trickled down her cheeks, "She deserves better than the life we were giving her. Don't you understand? No little child deserves to see their mother tied to a bed, locked away forever."

"Tell me where she is." His voice had calmed down.

Lana shook her head. "I can't."

"Why not?" Anger once again began to arise in his eyes.

"Because she thinks you're dead." Lana said curtly.

Oliver stood to his feet and took a step back, "What did you do?"

"She thinks you died Oliver. You don't exist in her world anymore."

Oliver grabbed Lana by the shoulders and shook her wildly, "I should kill you! I should have killed you the day she was born!"

"But you didn't."

Oliver screamed and slammed the clippers on the ground. He hurried to the table and slammed his fists upon the shaky wood. Screaming in anger and frustration. Lana watched utterly terrified of the mess before her. He was exploding right before her very own eyes. Oliver grabbed the table and flipped it over. The toolbox fell over and spilled. Lana jumped at the sound. Oliver turned to her, panting. "I'm going to ask nicely for the last time, Lana. Where. Is. Noelle?"

He stepped over her, causing her to lean her head back. "Ask me all the times you want, Oliver. I'm not going to tell you where she is."

Oliver grabbed her shirt and yanked her closer. "Don't mess with me."

Lana panted softly. "Go ahead, Oliver. Just kill me now because I won't tell you where she is. But I will tell you this. If you do kill me, you will never find her. And without the both of us, the system will take her. She'll grow up the same way you did…Alone and unloved." Lana's heart broke at the sound of her own cruel words but she had to do anything to keep herself alive, "And you don't want that, do you?"

She could see the tears and panic forming in Oliver's eyes as the realizing came to him. "How could you be so sick?"

"I'm not the sick one here. I love my daughter and you bet your ass that I'm going to do everything in my power to keep her safe from you. Even if it means sacrificing my own life."

Oliver pushed back and ran his hand through his hair in order to calm himself down. He replayed Lana's words in his mind knowing perfectly well that without either of them, his sweet little baby girl would be handed off to the system where he grew up. His heart broke at the thought of his little Noelle lost somewhere in the system. It was the one thing he didn't want for his child as soon as he found out about her. And he swore she would never have to live the way he did. Oliver quickly wiped away his tears and collected himself. He gave Lana a rueful look and exited the shed, leaving her alone but alive.

…

Ellie sat on the hospital bed with Julia and Thomas playing a board game one of the nurses had loaned them. Kit had gone to visit the girl after he received the call from Lana informing him that Ellie had fallen ill. Upon arriving, Kit was informed that Lana had not returned from the night before and the child had been asking about her. Kit grew worried and alarmed the police. At first they weren't willing to help Kit for Lana had to be missing for more than twenty-four hours for them to act upon it. Kit then called the detective who had been helping in the case of Bloody Face. Kit told him something bad had happened to Lana for she would never leave Ellie on her own. The detective took her disappearance seriously and quickly got his men to go in search of her.

Ellie looked from the game up to Kit who looked preoccupied with his own thoughts.

"When is my Mommy coming?" her question caught him off guard.

Kit made his way to the bed and brushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "Don't you worry, she'll be here soon." He didn't know how much longer he could keep lying to her. Ellie nodded and returned back to the game.

…

Oliver spent hours torturing Lana into telling him where she had hidden their little girl but Lana remained stubborn and refrained from telling him. Oliver was at the brink and wanted nothing more than to kill Lana but he feared that her threat would become reality and he wouldn't risk his own child going into the system. He had to find her.

"You know I don't believe in guns, Lana." He said reaching under the pillow of the shabby cot and bringing it out for her to see. "But you're not leaving me any choice."

Lana's angry brown eyes glanced up at him. Her bottom lip was busted, swollen and bleeding. She was flushed and panting heavily. Oliver's wrath had no mercy but she counted herself lucky that she had remained alive for that long. She turned to the gun wondering how much time her luck would last her. He tried everything to intimidate her but she was not budging.

Oliver walked over to her and placed the end of the gun to her temple. "Tell me."

Lana's hate filled eyes locked with his own. "Go to hell."

Oliver growled with anger and pulled the gun away. Why couldn't he kill her? Why was it so hard to bury six years of their lives together? Because deep down, Oliver still yearned for her acceptance. His obsession for the woman had grown beyond him and turned into something so vast that it even terrified him. He wanted Lana in his life, no matter how much she fought against it.

It was fate and fate could not be wrong.

"Fine." He placed the gun back behind his belt, "Don't tell me but soon enough you will." He nodded to himself, "You will." He backed away, exited the shack and closed the door behind him leaving Lana alone.

Lana tried to break free of her hold but her body was too weak. She hung her head; half defeated and let the darkness overcome her as the sun finally set. She didn't care what Oliver did to her. If he beat her, raped her, tortured her or killed her. She was going to protect her daughter no matter what.

Lana too would move heaven and earth for her child.

…

It had been almost four weeks since Lana's disappearance and the police had not found a trace of her. With Lana gone, the hospital rendered Ellie over to the system for child abandonment. Kit fought for the child to stay with him but the system was hard and without Lana's consent and no family connection to the child, he could not take Ellie out of the foster home she had found herself in.

Kit made sure to visit the terrified little girl almost every single day he could.

Ellie sat out in the porch of her new foster home. It was a large old Victorian home that house over twelve children at the moment. Ellie was scared and cried when they took her from Kit's arms and Kit felt helpless to do anything to save her. But the police had found no trace of Lana. It was as if she had disappeared into thin air.

Kit argued extensively with authorities that Lana would never abandon her child, that Bloody Face had done something to her. Only the Detectives on the case held hope that they would track Lana down and bring Bloody Face to justice if he hadn't already killed her.

Kit watched Ellie. She looked sleep deprived and a bit thinner than she was upon leaving the hospital. She was not fitting in very well. Her foster mother informed Kit that she didn't want to eat, do her chores or play with any of the other children. She was stubborn and would not listen. Kit didn't blame her.

"How are you doing today, Ellie?" He asked her.

Ellie kept her doe eyes on the game of checkers between them. "When is my Mommy coming to get me?" She asked.

Kit sighed. "I dunno sweetheart, soon I hope."

Ellie's shoulders dropped but she didn't say anything. He could see the disappointment in her body language even when her eyes were hidden under her bangs.

"Ya miss 'er, huh?"

"Mhmm…"

"Don't ya worry, Ellie. We're gonna get ya home to yer Mama soon enough." Kit said hoping he could keep that promise. Even if he had to fight to get Ellie out of the rut she was in and take her home with him.

…

"Rise and shine, Lana!" Oliver announced when he walked into the shack early that morning.

Lana lay on the shabby cot. She was dirty and bruised and her wrists and ankles were bloody and red from the constraints of the raspy rope Oliver had used to tie her up. Lana had lost track of the days. She hadn't slept well or eaten well and she as sure as hell hadn't showered since the day Oliver arrived at her apartment and caught her off guard. She was tired and weak and at the brink of losing all the strength she had left.

Lana had prepared for Oliver to beat her, even kill her, but she hadn't prepared to be starved to death. Her eyes slowly opened, her vision was fuzzy at first but Oliver soon became clear. He strolled in biting down on a brilliant red apple. Oliver had made his home in the old man's farmhouse while keeping Lana out in the cold shed. He had been starving her out to weaken her will and by the looks of it, it was working.

"Oh," He said teasingly, "What's the matter?" He leaned down slightly, hovering over Lana on the filthy bed. He brought the apple close to her, "How rude of me, I didn't offer you any." He wavered the apple under Lana's nose, tempting her, "If you want to eat, you know what you have to do."

Lana mustered all the strength she had left to glare at him. She then turned her face and buried it in the dirty sheets. Oliver frowned and stood back up. He thought starving her would be easier but Lana was as stubborn as ever. Oliver had gone out when he could to find any clues of where the girl could be but the city was on the look out for him and he couldn't allow himself to get caught. He'd never see his little Noelle again.

Oliver tossed the half eaten apple aside, annoyed with Lana. She was stronger than he thought. Of course, he had been feeding her some scraps to keep her alive long enough for her to tell him but he had not fed her in two days and the last thing he had given her was a dry piece of bread that had sat on the counter over night.

"Fine." He said, "You're only making things worse for yourself." He sneered and left the shack, locking it behind him.

Lana waited until his footsteps disappeared and her eyes darted straight for the apple on the ground now covered in moist dirt.

…

"Wait up!" A shaggy haired boy called out as he chased after his older brother. The two boys were from the ages of nine to eleven and raced their way through the woods. The younger boy struggled to catch up to his brother who was much older.

He came to a stop when they reached a fence that surrounded the small farm. The younger boy bent over and placed his hands on his knees, catching his breath.

"Catch up, will ya?" His brother asked him.

The younger boy stood straight and looked across the fence to the farmer's small house. They boys were from a small neighborhood down the road. They had heard their mother talking on the phone that the man who lived in the farm down the road had died and left the place abandoned. The boy were instantly curious and went off to investigate in hopes that they would somehow find the dead body.

"I bet it'll be in his room." said the older boy as he went under the wired fence and to the other side.

His little brother, who wasn't too thrilled about the idea of finding a dead body, followed after him pretending to be excited about their adventure. However, he only wanted to prove himself to his older brother. He didn't really want to poke a dead body.

"Hurry up!"

"I'm coming!" The younger boy said as he got caught on the fence but managed to free himself.

He ran after his brother until he caught up. The boys made their way through the grain field in the direction of a small rickety shed. The older boy went around the shed to the side of the window. He glanced at it and climbed on top of the milk crates and peered inside. It was dark and all he could manage to see was a dirty cot and an old chair.

"What do you see?" His younger brother tugged on his shirt.

The boy pushed his brother away, "Hold on!" He looked to the floor by the bed where he could make out what appeared to be two legs. He gasped. "I see it!"

"What?" the younger boy stepped back, instantly terrified.

"It's the body!" The older boy jumped off the crates and hurried around the shed. He came to the back where there was a small gap in the wood construction. He grabbed his little brother and shoved him to the hole. "Look through it and tell me what you see!"

"I don't want to."

"Do it! Or are you chicken?"

"I'm no chicken!" The younger boy huffed. His brother clucked at him.

Angry and embarrassed, the boy crawled towards the hole on the wall and slowly lowered his head to see what was inside. A hand instantly dashed out of the hole and grabbed a hold of his wrist.

His eyes widened and he screamed. "Agh!"

His older brother stumbled backwards, falling on his behind. When he saw the pale hand gripping onto his little brother's wrist he screamed.

A woman's face appeared from the other side of the hole. She looked almost dead. "Help…" She wheezed with no strength to speak. The young boy's eyes went wide as he made straight eye contact with her, "Please…help me!"

The older boy grabbed a hold of his brother from the back of his shirt and pulled him from the woman's grasp. Her grip was strong despite her weakened body but Lana saw the boys are her only opportunity to be saved.

"Please." She told the littlest of the boy's who locked eyes with her, "Get help. Get help!" She urged them in a hoarse voice and finally let go.

The two boys fell back and scrambled up on their feet and ran off, screaming. Lana's hand dropped onto the dirt with no more strength left. She had not eaten the apple Oliver threw on the ground. It remained where it had landed.

Lana slowly closed her eyes. Ellie's sweet face quickly filled her thoughts followed by the sound of feathers as large black wings appeared from behind her.