This Love…

S3E1: Fear of Falling Under

Aiden jumped out of his chair as soon as Kayla entered the waiting room. He had wanted to go in with her when she examined Chase, but Kayla had insisted that he stay back. "Is he going to be okay?" They had taken Chase to the hospital once Hope was able to wake Aiden, who had fainted upon seeing that his supposedly dead son actually alive.

Hope took his hand. "Sit back down. I don't want you fainting again," she said gently.

He looked at her as if he were going to protest, but then sat back down next to her instead.

Kayla sat across from them and spoke softly. "He is going to be fine. He has several bruises all over his body, and he is a little malnourished from not having had a decent meal in days. I'm starting him on a nutritional supplement and I'm going to make sure to get him fed and back on a healthy schedule of eating. I'm going to admit him for a few days just so we can get him back on track. "

"Did he say where he was all this time? Whose body it was that I saw?" Aiden asked.

Kayla shook her head. "He doesn't want to talk to me. I don't blame him. He doesn't know me every well. But he did give me permission to talk to you about his condition."

"Can I please see him?" Aiden asked. "And please don't say he's resting. I spent the last year and two months thinking my son was dead. Now that I found out he's alive… I can't wait any longer to see him. I need to see him now. Please, Kayla."

Kayla hesitated, but then her expression relaxed. "All right. But just for a half hour while he eats! He needs his sleep."

"Thank you!" Aiden said, getting out of his chair. He turned to Hope. "Will you come with me?" He held out his hand to her.

Hope raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you don't want some father-son time alone?"

Aiden shook his head. "I need you for moral support. Please."

Aiden's eyes were so pleading that Hope couldn't say no. She took his hand and let him help her up.

"Thank you," Aiden said, slowly leading her to Chase's room.

"Hey, Son!" Aiden said as he walked into the room, holding Hope's hand, a huge smile on his face.

Chase smiled weakly. "It's good to see you two back together. Dad, I know how much you love Hope." His stomach growled.

Aiden nodded. He then looked at Hope and smiled. "That I do!" His eyes were filled with love for her.

"And I love your father." Hope kissed Aiden's hand, then smiled awkwardly at Chase. "Kayla's having some food brought in for you."

"I hope it's not peanut butter and jelly. I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime," Chase quipped. He then nodded at Hope's vastly swollen belly. "You're pregnant?"

Hope nodded.

"With twins! You're going to be a big brother to a new baby sister and brother!" Aiden told him excitedly.

Hope looked down at her stomach and smiled as she gently rubbed it.

Chase's expression was unreadable. "Congratulations I guess."

Just then, Maxine came in with a covered food tray. She set it on top of the portable table, and rolled the table next to Chase's bed.

"What is it?" Chase asked.

"Why don't you open it and see?" Maxine asked. Her tone was light and her smile was forced, but she was civil. Hope knew that she more than likely still harbored hard feelings toward Chase about him having raped Ciara. Heck, Hope didn't blame her, for she obviously did too. It was only for Aiden's sake, and because of the circumstances, that she herself was being civil to the boy who had raped her daughter.

Chase took the lid off, and his eyes lit up at the sight of a double cheese burger, and a huge helping of fries on his plate. He also had a can of Pepsi. "It's been so long since I have had a cheese burger and fries, let alone a double cheese burger and fries!" He dug right in. "Mm… So good!"

"Dr. Brady decided to let you have this for tonight since it's been so long since you've been able to have anything good to eat. But tomorrow starts the healthier meals. We need to get your nutrition back," Maxine warned him.

He was too busy eating to care.

Maxine nodded politely at Aiden. "Congratulations on the return of your son."

Aiden nodded at her; grateful. "Thank you, Maxine."

"Hope, it's always good to see you," Maxine said. "Are you keeping those babies healthy?"

Hope smiled. "I'm trying my best!"

"Good to hear," Maxine said before leaving them so that they could talk to Chase in private alone. She shut the door behind her.

"Chase, do you mind telling us what happened? I saw your dead body after you died in the car crash. I mean, I know now that it obviously it wasn't you, but do you know who it was?" Aiden asked once she was gone.

Chase paused from his eating, his face having fallen a bit. "Can I please eat first?" It wasn't a rude tone. It was the kind of tone that reminded Hope of the ten-year-old little boy Chase had been when she first met him. For a moment, she actually felt sympathy toward him. "Sure," she replied for Aiden.

Aiden looked at her, and then at Chase. "What she said. Take all the time that you need."

~*came back to me.*~

When Chase finished his dessert (a slice of chocolate cake), he set his tray aside without saying anything for a moment.

Aiden was starting to think that Chase wasn't ready to talk about it yet. However, just as he was about to tell Chase that they didn't need to talk right then if he didn't want to, Chase spoke. "The one that died wasn't me obviously."

"Who was it?" Hope asked, genuinely sounding curious.

Clyde is in prison, but that doesn't mean he didn't have someone to do his dirty work on the outside." Chase looked at Aiden. "He still wanted revenge on you, Dad. Through outside connections, Clyde found a guy my age named Adam that looked a lot like me. He was a street thug who apparently didn't have much money. He lived in a dinky little trailer with his big sister from what I heard. So, Clyde's surgeon connection took him and made him out to look not only a lot like me, but exactly like me. He got the idea from Andre having made a doppelganger of you to do his dirty work. He had Jeremiah offer Adam five-hundred grand to first torture you by acting rebellious, and then kill you. He knew it would kill you emotionally as well to think that you failed me as a father so much that I hated you and wanted to kill you."

Chase paused to take a drink of his soda. "As soon as I was out of the institution, Clyde told Jeremiah to take action. That night at the concert, I was outside on my own smoking a cigarette by the stage doors in hopes that I'd see Tom, Mark, or Travis."

"You smoke? Since when?" Aiden asked.

Chase rolled his eyes. "It wasn't a real cigarette. It was an electric cigarette. I never used nicotine in mine. Anyway, I heard someone coming up behind me, but I just assumed it was either one of my friends deciding to wait with me after all, another smoker, or another fan eager to see the guys. Suddenly, I was hit hard from behind and knocked out cold. That was when the switch was done. The car accident and Adam dying obviously wasn't meant to happen. It was just bad luck. Clyde apparently gave up after that, thinking that you believing I was dead was just as good of a punishment."

"So they decided to keep you and torture you?" Aiden asked.

Chase shook his head. "Jeremiah had a son my age named Trevin, who was really sheltered. He wasn't allowed out unless it was with Jeremiah, and he was incredibly lonely for a friend. So, Jeremiah decided to keep me as Trevin's friend. Of course, unbeknownst to me, that meant they had to drug me. Their surgeon friend initially injected me with the drug since obviously I wouldn't willingly take it. But later, after it had affected me, they continued to give me the drug in pill form. The drug made me forget everything up until after the switch. The drug made me very susceptible to believing whatever they decided to tell me. Jeremiah and Trevin told me that I was abandoned by my real parents, and that my parents had left me on the streets to fend for myself. Jeremiah said that he had found me out there almost dead, and had brought me to the hospital. He told me that, for the past five years after that, they had taken care of me and become my new family. In reality, I had only been there a couple of days."

"And you believed all of it?" Aiden asked.

Chase nodded. "That was the effect of the drug. I don't even know what it was called, but it was strong. So, thinking they were my family, I trusted them. I kept taking the pills. They told me they were to prevent seizures; that I'd get horrible seizures if I didn't take the medication. Of course, I believed that too." Chase shook his head. "Jeremiah treated me just like his son. We had to work in this stuffy room with florescent lights harvesting marijuana. Jeremiah and Trevin claimed it was medical marijuana, but looking back, I doubt they used it for medical purposes. They sold it."

"We're they good to you?" Aiden asked; tearing up at the thought of this being done to his son because of him.

Chase shrugged. "Sometimes yes, but mostly no." His expression grew serious. Jeremiah would beat us both. Sometimes it got so bad we couldn't even get out of bed the next morning. One time, Trevin and I were taking a break and we were tossing a baseball outside; playing catch. I guess I threw it too far because Trevin missed it. Instead, it hit a window and broke it. Unfortunately, Jeremiah came home right at that time and knew it was us. There was no time for us to come up with a lie about how the window got broken. Jeremiah grabbed us both by the hair and tossed us down onto the ground. He then when at it; pummeling us both. Trevin just laid there and took it. I tried to fight back, but Jeremiah broke a shard off the already broken window and cut my arm with it. I was in shock."

"That's terrible!" Hope said, covering her mouth. "Didn't you call the police?"

Chase shrugged. "I couldn't! Neither Travis nor I were allowed cell phones. The house had no landline phone, and it was out in the middle of nowhere with nothing else around for a good mile. They didn't even have a computer. Trevin once told me it was so that he could never be somewhere that Jeremiah didn't know he was. It was basically to keep him (and me) a prisoner in his/our own home with no way to contact anyone. Not that we could go anywhere anyway. We were never given any money or even a car. Jeremiah was the only one with a car and he never let us use it without him. He always went out with us wherever we went, and paid for what we needed as we needed it. Again, not that we went out often. He only took Trevin and me out to dinner twice a week , and to a movie once ea month."

Aiden buried his face in his hands. "I'm going to kill him."

Chase continued. "Of course Jeremiah always had me apologizing even though I was the one who got hurt. He would always make me feel guilty for, as he put it, 'making him hurt me.' Travis never fought back because he said it got worse if he fought back. After the cutting my arm incident, I quickly learned to also not fight back, because apparently, the rule stood for me too. Jeremiah's doctor friend made house calls, lucky for Trevin and me. He also never asked questions—lucky for Jeremiah."

"So, how did you escape?" Hope asked, cop-mode taking over.

"One day when Jeremiah was out at work—probably pedaling his marijuana—I took the opportunity to leave. Trevin was sleeping. I hitchhiked until I finally got home," Chase explained. "Unfortunately, I didn't know that Dad had moved back to Salem. I hitchhiked for three days and three nights until I finally arrived in Portland at what I thought was still home. However, when I got there I didn't recognize the cars. I knocked on the door. When a stranger opened up, I asked if Aiden Jennings still lived there. The new owners told me no; that he had moved out of state. They didn't know where to. I didn't remember where Aunt Carol lived exactly, but I remembered where she worked. I walked there, and her boss told me that she went to visit her brother in Salem, but had left no forwarding address. So, I had to hitchhike thirty-one hours back to Salem after just having hitchhiked the thirty-two hours from Poplar Bluff to Portland. And to think it could have been only a three-hour hitchhike had I only known originally that Dad was back in Salem! Anyway, I went to your place since I figured Dad went back to Salem to be with you. If he didn't, I figured you might at least know where he was. I also knew you were a cop I could trust."

"I thought you said you didn't remember your father or your life before being taken," Hope said, an eyebrow raised.

Chase looked at her. "Well, while he was out, I had snooped in Jeremiah's room the day before. In his dresser drawer, hidden under some shirts, I found my wallet. It was stripped of everything but my driver's license and a photo of me and Dad at a baseball game. I remembered everything then."

Hope raised an eyebrow again. "And it all came back to you with just a driver's license and a photo of you and your dad? Usually it takes more than one occurrence—especially when still under the influence of a drug—to remember it all."

"Hope…" Aiden trailed off.

Chase blushed. "I had stopped taking the drug. I suspected that it wasn't good for me. The drug was out of my system by then."

Hope still wasn't buying it. "What made you suddenly suspect that the drug wasn't what they told you it was?"

"Hope, I can't explain it! All I know is that it all came back to me when I saw the picture and my license. Please, no more questions!" Chase rolled over on his side away from Hope, so that he was now facing Aiden. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Hope pat his legs over the blankets almost sarcastically. "We can talk later then." She got up and headed for the door. "Sleep well. I'll see you in the morning." She then took off out the door.

Aiden felt bad. "I'm sorry. Don't take it personally. It's the cop in her. She just wants answers; like I do."

"Well, I gave them, and now she's questioning me like I'm a liar or something! I told her what happened." Chase sat up straight. "I'm not lying, Dad!"

Aiden nodded. "I know you're not, Son. So, if you didn't have any money, how did you eat while you were busy hitchhiking? It had to take you a long time to do all that hitchhiking. You surely couldn't have gone that long without some kind of food!"

"I packed ten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and five bottles of water. It took me six days total to hitchhike. I ate twice a day and drank a bottle of water a day. Well, the fifth and sixth days I only had one sandwich and a half bottle of water per day. Hence why I now hate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and why my I'm dehydrated. The bottles weren't that big," Chase explained.

"Why didn't you just ask to borrow someone's phone, or ask them to take you to the police station?" Aiden asked.

Chase looked him in the eyes. "I was worried the cops were either working for Clyde and or Jeremiah, or that they were friends with them. I didn't want to risk it even when I was in different states. I didn't know how far their reach was. As for calling you, I knew you thought I was dead. Calling you wouldn't have been the best way to tell you I wasn't."

Aiden nodded. "I understand. Then, carefully, he asked what had been on his mind. "How did you know what Clyde and Jeremiah had planned with your doppelganger? They obviously didn't tell you about it if they were drugging you to make you forget being Chase."

Chase hesitated, and then stumbled for the words, but nothing but gibberish came out. "Dad, I'm tired. Please stop asking me questions." Chase sounded annoyed now. "You're as bad as Hope!" He angrily rolled over on his side; away from Aiden this time.

Aiden sighed. He then gently rubbed his son's back. "I'm sorry. I'm just trying to put all the pieces together." He stroked his son's hair. "You might want to brush your teeth before bed. You just ate. Not to mention they haven't been brushed in five or six days, right?" he joked, trying to lighten the mood, which had suddenly turned dark.

Chase didn't respond.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then." Aiden turned to leave.

"Dad?" Chase asked when Aiden was in the doorway.

Aiden stopped and turned around, hoping Chase was going to tell him more. "Yes, Son?"

Chase didn't move from his position when he spoke. "Tell Hope to stop asking questions that are none of her business."

Aiden didn't know how to respond to that, so instead he just left, shutting the door behind him.

~*came back to me.*~

Hope walked over to Aiden as soon as he reentered the waiting room. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed. It's just the cop in me coming out."

Aiden gently rubbed her back. "I know. He's fragile now. He just needs time."

Hope raised an eyebrow at him. "So you think he's hiding something too?"

Aiden paused before nodding. "Yes," he reluctantly admitted. "But we have to be patient with him. He just went through a harrowing ordeal. It could be a while before he talks to us. But in the meantime, we need to do something about Jeremiah."

Hope nodded. "I already put an APB out on him and I also have someone talking with Clyde right now." She frowned. "Not that I expect them to get anything out of him. Even so, hopefully they catch that son of a bitch soon so that he can't harm anyone else ever again!"

Aiden felt his heart melt. "It feels good that you feel that way—considering it was Chase he abused."

"Trevin was abused as well." Hope reminded him.

Aiden's face fell a bit.

Hope sighed. She then put a hand over his shoulder. "I am still upset about what Chase did to Ciara. A part of me always will be. But no one deserves to be treated the way Chase was. Not even Chase."

Aiden relaxed a little. He still wasn't comfortable with the lack of love Hope seemed to have for Chase, but at the same time, he understood.

He put an arm around Hope. "Let's go to the police station. I want to make sure they are doing everything in their power to find Jeremiah. If they don't, I'll hunt him down and kill him myself!"

Hope grabbed his arm. " Aiden, look at me!"

Aiden looked her in the eyes.

Hope's expression was serious. " You leave this to the police. I understand your anger, but I am not going to lose my boyfriend slash the father of my children because he decided to get revenge for his son. The babies and I need you way too much for you to do something that will land you in prison. Heck, Chase needs you too. Trust me, you'll do him more good out of prison than in prison. Got it?"

Aiden sighed. "Fine. Let's just go home then. But they better catch him! That son of a bitch doesn't deserve to be free."

"Trust me. They'll find him. I promise," Hope assured him. She squeezed him tightly as they headed out of the hospital. She just hoped she could keep that promise.

~*came back to me*~

Chase woke in a cold sweat. Even though he had finally escaped from Jeremiah and Trevin's physically, he still hadn't mentally. The nightmares had started the night… The nightmares had started the night that everything had gone to hell for him—the night hell got even hotter for him.

He had hoped he'd be able to leave the nightmares behind with Jeremiah and Trevin, but the nightmares were one thing he couldn't seem to escape from, and he didn't know if he'd ever be able to. In fact, he feared that things were only going to get worse from here. Kayla had big talks of his recovery, but the truth was, this was something he didn't think he'd ever be able to recover from, and there was nothing that Kayla, or anyone else for that matter, could do about it.