Chapter 18
The sight before her enraged Bella to no end. What harm could a baby cause? She understood why she'd been strapped down, but Lucy? A baby, who couldn't even hold her own head up yet. Why did she have to be strapped into the crib.
Bella's fingers fumbled as she reached for the restraints to free her daughter. Tears streaming down her cheeks in sadness and rage at the sight. Bella snatched up her little one when she was finally free. Lucy's eyes lifted and took in her mother's disheveled form. Bella could sense the hope radiating off her little girl, even though she couldn't understand completely what was going on.
Bella crept to the door again, baby in her arms, and peeked out at the hallway. Her outburst hadn't been as disastrous as she feared. There was no one in the hallway. No guards running up and down the long passages. Just silence.
It was eery. And worrisome. Where was everyone? It was as if they'd been left… for dead. Forgotten.
No!
Bella immediately banished the thought. Her captors wouldn't do all of this, just to abandon her. She had the sudden thought that they might even be watching her right now and her attempted escape. There was nothing she could do if they were though, so she continued on her way with Lucy in her arms.
Door after, hall after hall. nothing. Until finally she came across an elevator. Bella stopped at the doors. Trying to decide what to do. The button was right there. All she had to do was reach out and press down. She could be free.
Just as she went to press it. The doors opened. And before her, in his white jacket stood the man she feared the most.
The Doctor. The man who had tortured her for years.
"Bella." He said lowly, before reaching out with a small device, and shooting her with it. Bella's body went ridged. Her arms and legs spasmed. And her head exploded with pain.
She'd be tasered, with a baby in her arms.
Bella was dragged back to a room and stripped. She was forced into the horrible, stiff white clothes she'd worn all those years before. And then was strapped down to the bed, her bonds tighter this time, with bindings placed on her fingers and hands as well.
Thankfully, Lucy was placed in her mother's room. A small relief given the situation.
When Bella finally came too, she was disheartened by her surroundings. She'd got so far. Only to have her escape attempt foiled. They must have been watching her.
The doctor was here, she realized suddenly.
In her room.
She smelled him before she saw him. He always smelled clean, too clean like antiseptic, and medicine. The kind that made her hurt or pass out. Immediately she began to struggle. She still couldn't see him. But she knew he was near.
Suddenly a hand reached out and touched her arm. It was cold and frail. A hand she knew all too well.
"Shh." The voice said.
"Let me go." Bella pleaded. "Let me go."
"Now? After all the trouble I've gone to, to get you home?" The voice chuckled.
"Please. Please. Please." Bella begged. Twisting and turning in her restraints.
"My dear." The voice of the Doctor said, finally coming to stand in front of her. "I'll never let you leave my sight again."
...
Far away, Edward was frantic. The PI had nothing and Emmett's men were laying helpless in the hospital. One critical, in surgery. The other stable, but unconscious in his room. Bella and Lucy were gone. Snatched off the street.
The police were doing all they could. But with the limited amount of information they had from eye witnesses, the PI, and security company, they had nothing to go on.
Emmett scoured the notebook found on Marcus with his notes from the day at Alice's boutique. Everything he saw was written down. They'd even found the photo he'd taken of the man following Bella with dirty blonde hair, which Emmett had handed over to the police. But still nothing.
These people were good. But Edward couldn't lose hope now though. Bella and Lucy needed him.
Esme tried her best to comfort her son but she was feeling the same pain as her boy. Her newest daughter and granddaughter had been taken from underneath them. Part of her had thought the PI and security had been over the top, but apparently it hadn't been enough.
She should have listened to Bella. They all should have. And now she was gone.
Some family they were, she bought disheartened.
...
Back in Bella's cell The Doctor had hooked her up to an IV. She was being pumped with something that made her vision blurry and her body floppy. The Doctor said he wanted to see the effect different drugs had on her system, given that she had a different genetic make up to him. He was 'curious' to see how'd she react to them. He didn't care that it made her want to throw up or that it made her already sore head throb harder. If anything, that was even better, and he furiously scribbled away on his notebook.
The days wore on the same way for Bella. Each hour a different cocktail of medication to see how it effected her or interacted with the previous mixture. She was exhausted after just a few hours, but the threats against Lucy were enough to motivate her.
"Get up!." The Doctor yelled after she'd fallen for the fourth time. It was getting harder and harder to make it to her feet. "Don't make me hurt the baby."
"No. Not Lucy. Please, just give me a moment." She begged helplessly for the umpteenth time.
But The Doctor didn't care, instead he just injected her with the next round while she was down.
"Up." He demanded. "Get up! Get up!"
"Please."
There was suddenly a knock on the cell door and Bella thanked God she'd been saved, for the moment at least.
"Sir." The man at the door said. "We're ready."
"Good, good." The doctor responded, gleefully rubbing his hands together. "We're moving, my sweet." He said over his shoulder towards Bella.
"Moving?" She managed to mumble out.
"Yes. Too many people are looking for you here. You made quite the little family during you escape. It's time we moved on." He explained.
Bella's eyes went wide. At least here they had a chance of finding her. Who knew how far and remote The Doctor would take her, given the chance.
She needed to try and escape again.
This time, she wouldn't fail. Her life and Lucy life depended on it.
