A/N: Will Alyssa now get some peace that the man has been caught by the Merry Men? Another shorty chapter but hope you all enjoy. =)

Previous Chapter: "Bomber, we got the guy who did this to you in custody now. You can now hurry up and recover without any worries," Binkie said holding my hand. "We all have you covered and you don't need to worry about anybody getting to you. It's all over now."

CHAPTER 36

I felt a cold breeze nipping at my skin. I rejoiced as I soon realized that I was finally coming out of my induced coma. I slowly opened my eyes and expected to see a band of Merry Men smiling down at me but instead I was staring back into a pair of cold icy gray eyes.

My body tensed up as I tried to scream with all of the energy built up in my body. My throat felt as if someone had run a sheet of coarse sandpaper along the lining of my esophagus. I frantically looked around me and realized that I was in the middle of the woods bound to a large tree trunk.

He grabbed my chin roughly and made me face him. "You thought you were pretty smart and could get away, huh? Well, you're not ever going to have the smarts and survival skills of an actual trained solider, sweetheart."

"But Ithey caught you," I barely rasped out.

"That's where you really helped me out, Alyssa. If it wasn't for you asking that poor man for a ride and then stabbing him his kindness, they wouldn't have gone after him. You had his blood on you after you stabbed him," he smirked. "I couldn't have worked it out any better myself. So thanks to you, I was never suspected. However, now once they realize that you're gone, Binkie will probably spill the truth."

My eyes shot up at the mention of Binkie. I would never forgive myself if he got hurt because of me.

"Don't worry. Your boyfriend is fine. I just knocked him out. We were both assigned to 'Bomber Duty,'" he said in disgust, "so I had the perfect opportunity to nab you once again."

"You. Won't. Get. Away. With. This," I choked out roughly biting back tears with each word that escaped my mouth as my throat burned.

"Of course I won't. But that doesn't mean I won't do everything I can to make him suffer and now that you've ruined my plans, I'll make sure that you follow the same path," he smirked punching me hard in the gut.

The shock rippled through my body. All I could think about was the pain. The cold no longer bothering me.

"It's too bad," he smiled running his finger down my cheek. "I was starting to really like you," he punched me once again in the side with so much force that I was surprised I didn't just snap in half.

"Do you wish you could have me once more?" he said suggestively nipping at my ear.

"R-Ranger," I cried out as loudly as I could.

"Bitch!" he smacked me hard across the face. "What makes him better?"

I felt the cold hard distinct chills up my spine and cried out once again, "R-Ranger!" as another blow to the stomach.

The cold winter win whipped around my hospital gown as I felt blood from the corners of my mouth. My eyes stung with tears and I swear I saw the blurry outlines of blobs in black as one catapulted itself towards Deuce.

"R-Ranger," I repeated once again in relief, dropping my chin to my chest.

"Babe, you're safe now," I felt him cradle my face.

^o^ * ^o^

I woke up with a start once again surrounded by the white walls of a hospital. I groaned and closed my eyes and muttered, "I hate hospitals."

A forced chuckle broke the ambient noise in the room. "Alyssa," Bobby came into view and stroked my hair gently. "You gave us another fright. Honestly, you're giving every man at Rangeman serious heart burn."

I tried to choke out a thank you, "Thank—"

"—Wait," Bobby grabbed me a plastic cup of water with a bendy straw in it and held it to my dry chapped lips. "You need to rest of your vocal chords. They're incredibly bruised and swollen. You don't want there to be permanent damage done to them," he lectured.

"No. More. Sleep. P-Promise," I managed to get out.

"I won't sedate you right now," he promised me. "But you have to stay calm," he instructed.

I nodded my head and squeezed his hand to show my gratitude.

"H-how long?"

"You've been out for about two days now. We were finally able to stabilize you," he smiled.

"W-where?"

"We have him. He's in the interrogation room with Ranger. We've been holding onto him before we decide what to do with him," he stroked my hair and squeezed my hand back tightly. "We were scared we were going to lose you. It was touch and go for a while. But Ranger had us bring in one of the best doctors," he choked out. "You were really weak, lost a lot of blood and taken some really rough punches to your organs."

"I-I'm ok now," I tried smiling back at him.

He nodded. "But I'm afraid that you lost your baby," he answered sullenly.

I sat up and ignored the searing pain screaming through every inch of my body. "B-Baby?"

"You didn't know?" he asked in surprise still holding my hand.

I blinked back tears. And now it all started to make sense — the nausea, the erratic mood swings, behavior…and the bleeding. It hadn't been my menstrual cycle…

"Alyssa, you were about eight weeks pregnant," he whispered softly.

I began to sob quietly as Bobby pulled me into his arms and tried to sooth me. I looked up at him and said softly, "Does anyone know?"

He shook his head, "Only medical staff. I assisted the head physician. I kept your privacy to myself."

Eight weeks? I thought to myself. I carried around another human inside of me for eight weeks without knowing it. I put that life in danger running around without any regard to this being growing inside of my womb. Now because of me this baby would never see the light of day or have the opportunity to allow me to mess up its life by being a horrible mother.

"This is NOT your fault," Bobby said sternly, swiping at his eyes quickly with his hands.

I've seen these men take punches, get shot, and put their lives in danger without any regard for themselves but to see Bobby cry brought a pain to my heart that no one should ever bear to experience.

"This is his fault. He put you there. He took the life," Bobby said firmly. He then quickly recovered and laid me gently back down onto the pillow. "You need to rest up. You've lost a great deal of blood and luckily for you there's nothing broken but you'll get some significant bruising."

I nodded as the tears continued to flood my eyes.

"Everything will be ok," he said kissing my forehead.

I nodded my head.

"Do you want me to stay with you?"

I shook my head, no.

"Are you sure? I don't mind," he insisted.

"I need to be alone," I whispered trying to hold back the tears threatening to escape.

He nodded, "Ok then, I'm going to head back to Rangeman and square away some things. Vince and Ram are right outside your door," he kissed my head and left the room.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the tears poured from my now lost soul. I wanted to scream, punch something, throw shit. What I needed was a good immature temper tantrum. And I didn't even have the capability of doing it. I couldn't scream. I couldn't throw any punches. All I could do was lie there and be a pathetic fool and cry.

NO! I refused to lie here and be pathetic. I spent too of my days being pathetic. I was going to do something. I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep. I'm going to regain my strength and then I'm going to take back my life, my voice, my will power and my dignity.

###