Chapter seven

"Can somebody help us, please?" Mandy shouted out to the staff in the hospital. The staff, seeing her predicament, rushed forward to help Lucas.

"What happened, do you know?" A doctor asked.

"Someone stabbed him." Mandy explained.

"What's his name?" The same doctor asked,

"I don't know, we just saw him being attacked on the side of a road and rushed to help him. We didn't know he'd been stabbed until later on. Please, can you help him?" Mandy begged.

"Is there any form of ID on him?"

"I don't know, we haven't looked. Please, can you help him?" Mandy was nearly crying.

"We'll do our best, ma'am." The doctor said, as he lifted Lucas onto a trolley and wheeled him away.

A nurse gently asked Mandy if she could wait in the visitor's room, to which she agreed. In the visitor's room, Mandy was questioned profoundly as to the mystery boy's condition when she found him and how she had met him.

Meanwhile, after taking Lucas into intensive care, a nurse made a discovery about the mystery boy.

"He's name's Lucas, and he is nine years old, according to his wallet. It's even got a contact number inside." The nurse told the doctor in charge.

"Nine years old? He looks barely six! Poor kid. Give his details in at the reception desk, porter." The doctor sternly ordered to which the porter, who had helped wheel in the patient, immediately obeyed.

"Okay people, lets get to work. Lets keep him alive." The doctor ordered.

****

Baz was suddenly awakened by the sound of the telephone ringing. Jumping in fright, Baz started to get up to answer it. Trudging his way to the hall, where the phone was located, Baz noticed that there was a note from Matt cello taped to the side of the phone. Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Baz quickly scanned the letter. It said that Matt had gone out roller blading with his friends; Baz just rolled his eyes before answering the call.

"39571, this is Baz speaking." Baz spoke sleepily.

"Hello, is this Baz Sunderland?" A woman, who he had never seen before, asked. Baz just nodded his head.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Do you know of a Lucas W…Woollen…chat?" Baz nodded again, his hand clutching the phone so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Well I'm afraid he was injured as a result of a conflict, and is now at the Buffalo County Hospital, after he was picked up by a couple on the side of a road. We need to know a few more details, can you come down here now, please?"

"Is he gonna be OK? What happened? Who attacked him? Where's his father? He's the one that's supposed to be looking after him. Have you contacted him, yet?" Baz was shaking quite badly now.

The receptionist looked down before saying.

"You have to come down and fill out these forms, it's a matter of great urgency," before she disconnected the call.

Baz sat down in shock. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Not Lucas. Not his Lucas, it couldn't be, but Baz knew that it was Lucas who had been hurt and Baz had more than a suspicion as to who had hurt him. Lawrence Wolenczak. Quickly, Baz wrote Matt a note to say where he was going and to stay with a neighbour until he got back, before scurrying out the front door.

****

When Baz got to the hospital, he got a strange feeling of déjà vu, before he marched up to the same receptionist he had spoken to on the phone.

"Hi, you just called me about Lucas how is he? Can I go and see him?" Baz asked.

"Lucas is still in intensive care, but I can't tell you any more than that. If you wait in the relatives' room, over there and fill out this form please, I can get a doctor to give you more details about his condition." The receptionist replied, giving Baz a clipboard, a pen and a form.

Baz thanked the lady, before heading into the relative's room. When he got there, he noticed there was someone else in there already.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realise there was anybody in here," Baz apologised, as he startled the woman already in the room. "My name's Baz what's yours?"

"Mandy." Mandy replied, staring into her coffee and not really paying attention to anything in particular.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Baz asked.

"No, go ahead. No one's sitting there anyway." Mandy replied, snapping out of her daze. "Where are my manners? Dear me!" Mandy stared to clear a seat next to her, "Here you go, sit here."

"Thank you," Baz replied earnestly. The pair sat in silence for a minute before Mandy spoke.

"You know, you look awfully familiar, have we met before?"

Baz frowned, as he looked up from the paper work and answered.

"No, I don't think we have."

"Oh, you just look familiar, that's all," Mandy replied. "Oh well, maybe it will come to me later on."

Silence elapsed in the room, before Mandy suddenly surprised Baz by leaning her head forward and started to shake uncontrollably. Baz did the only thing he could think of. He put his arm around the woman and comforted her, it was then he realised she was crying.

"I'm sorry, I don't usually do this," Mandy stammered, after she had calmed down a bit.

"Well, it's not everyday you're in a hospital is it?" Baz comforted her.

"I know, but before today I didn't even know the kid even existed. And now, I'm waiting for news about his condition. It brings back so many memories." Mandy sobbed.

"Kid? He hadn't got sandy, brown hair, wearing jeans, t shirt and a pullover was he?" Baz asked, his hands trembling.

"Yes, as a matter of fact he was. I think the nurse said his name was Lucas. How did you know? Do you know him?" Mandy watched as Baz got up and paced round the room, running his hands through his hair, before he sat down again.

"Yes, he's the reason I'm here now." Baz's hands were shaking. "What happened to him? The receptionist wouldn't say."

So Mandy told Baz the story of how they had almost picked Lucas up hitchhiking before a man attacked him and how they rushed to help him. Baz leaned forward when Mandy told him about the man.

"This man, what did he look like? Can you describe him, please?" His heart was beating so loud, that he was scared that Mandy would hear it.

"Yes, he had brown hair, quite tanned, like he'd been on holiday recently, wearing shorts and a t shirt that said…"

"…I've been to Hawaii and back," Baz finished.

"You know him, then?" Mandy questioned.

"Yes, he's the boy's father. It's complicated, you see Lucas's mum and dad got divorced and his mum got custody with Lucas, but she remarried and her husband died a while back. Anyway, I was his mother's closest friend and I moved in with her to help Lucas and Matt get over his death. Oh yeah, Matt's Lucas's half brother, by the way…"

"I'm going to see my friend and my half brother," Mandy muttered,

"What?" Baz was clearly confused.

"That's what he said, when I asked him where he was going. He said I'm going to see my friend and my half brother." Mandy explained.

"But my house is over five miles away from where he was staying, where was he when you found him?" Baz asked, dreading the answer.

"He was walking along the side of the motorway, near Maples Way, *" Mandy said.

"Oh my god, he walked three miles. Jesus Christ."

"He had a limp and quite a bad one too, that's why I wanted to ask where he was going. If I knew how far he'd walked, I would've given him a lift. Poor kid." Mandy murmured.

"He had a limp? But when I saw him earlier that same day, he was walking fine. He even ran down the stairs." Baz laughed slightly at the memory.

"Then his father must have done it?" Mandy questioned, hoping she had got it wrong.

"Yeah, I wouldn't put it past him." Baz muttered.

" 'Wouldn't put it past him?' Does that mean that his father's done something like this before? And you haven't done anything about it?" Mandy's voice rose in anger.

"I can't do anything about it." Baz looked out the window, wishing he hadn't said what he had.

"What do you mean you can't? Why not? How long have you known?"

"I've known ever since his mother told me, and I was the one who made her divorce him." Baz was nearly shouting, but then he sobered up a little. "She didn't want to divorce him, she was too afraid that he would find her and Lucas, but I persuaded her. If I hadn't, she would've still been living with him."

"How come Lucas is still with him now, then? I thought you said his mother got custody?" Mandy was puzzled, now.

"She did, but now Lucas has no choice but to live with him." Tears welled up in Baz's eyes. "I didn't want it to happen that way, but it did."

"Couldn't you have gone to the police or social services?" Mandy asked.

Baz shook his head violently.

"No way. Lucas's father, Lawrence, found out something about me, that I don't want anyone else to know and if I do anything, then he's gonna tell Lucas and Lucas will never trust me, or even talk to me again. I try to be there for him whenever I can, but there's not a day gone by that I don't regret sending Lucas back there. But I really don't want to lose Lucas," All his emotions had been kept bottled up for so long now that Baz started to cry, while Mandy comforted him.

"What secret could be so bad that you keep on sending him back to that place? Isn't that blackmail?" Mandy asked.

Baz just remained quiet, Mandy didn't seem too bad but he still couldn't trust her yet.

"Fine be like that." Mandy said.

Just then the door opened, and a doctor entered. Baz looked up and asked,

"How is he doctor?"

"He's not good. His condition is very unstable, at the moment. He's been very badly injured, even before the stabbing, and he sustained three broken ribs, his leg is sprained, he was very badly under nourished, and there are bruises and welts all over his body. This boy has been very badly abused over a long period of time."

Baz looked down at this piece of news, while Mandy glared daggers at him.

"The trouble is I just don't know how bad the abuse was, and so I'm not sure how it's going to effect him, psychologically I mean."

Baz looked pale at this news.

"If it was really bad, how would that affect him?" Baz asked, looking up and dreading the answer.

"If it was bad, then it might be enough to tip him over the edge. I'm not sure how he's going to react, mentally." The doctor sighed. "Do you know who the man that attacked Master Wolenczak was?"

Baz replied, still looking down,

"I'm not sure."

The doctor talked for a few more minutes about Lucas's condition, before leaving them alone.

"There are you happy now? Lucas is seriously ill… And… And you were so worried about one secret, you let this boy, this sweet innocent little boy, get hurt, stabbed by this monster that's his father. Why? For one secret that probably wouldn't compare to half of what that boy has been through. If you were really his friend, why would you let him go back?" Mandy screamed at him.

"Look, Lucas wouldn't even talk to me, if he found out a…" Baz began,

"It's all about you, you, you. Didn't you hear the doctor? Bruises and welts all over his body? If Lucas means anything to you, I would tell him your secret." Mandy tried to mentally calm down.

"I made a promise to his mother, before she died, that I wouldn't tell anyone, including Lucas. Now his mother's dead, I…" Baz shouted,

Mandy looked up sharply,

"His mother's dead?"

"Yes, and ever since he went back, I've been trying to gain custody of him in every way under the sun. Heaven knows I've tried, but Lawrence is just too powerful." Baz was nearly in tears now.

Mandy gently asked him,

"What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know, I really don't know." Baz started crying now, but wouldn't let Mandy touch him.

TBC.

Sorry this part took so long to get done, I had a lot to get done. But the next chapter should be more interesting, I hope, with a lot more Lucas in it!