Disclaimer: I don't own.

Author's Notes: hey antiIRONY, Stockholm syndrome is named after a perplexing case in Stockholm in 1974 when four people were held captive in a bank vault for six days and became attached to their captives. Usually in fandom, this is because the captor happens to be a dashing young adult who happens to have a soft spot for other such good looking people and whatnot groans Right, while this may hold a more romantic note, the Stockholm syndrome is actually a very interesting psychological reaction to violence and this latter version of the Stockholm syndrome is what I'm hoping to convey in my fic. Okay, enough lecturing, hope you all enjoy the story

-Chapter Two-

Adam sat in the hospital bed feeling more than a little disoriented and desperately wishing he could go home and be in his own bed. Maybe he could ask one of the nurses very nicely if he could leave. Then he could go home, relax in his own bed, maybe pop in one of the Lord of the Rings DVDs into his TV and watch it, get his mind off of the last three days.

"Adam!" Adam looked up eagerly to see Bombay at the door, coming in. Okay, so maybe he couldn't go home just yet so this was good. He missed his old coach when he went off to greener fields, leaving the Ducks to fend for themselves as scared freshmen in a whole different school.

"Hey coach," he said. He sat up easily; honestly, he was feeling fine. He was perfectly healthy so why weren't they letting him go?

"How you feeling?" Bombay said, good-naturedly. Adam shrugged.

"Perfectly fine, I don't get why they're insisting I stay here for the night. I really want to go home, or at least back to the dorms."

"They're just making sure you're recovering from the trauma." Adam cocked his head. Sure he was terrified at first but the whole experience was…strange. Surreal. Nothing really traumatic, that made it sound so…so dramatic. He wasn't a drama kind of guy.

"Trust me, I'm not traumatized," Adam assured, with a wry grin. Bombay didn't return it and Adam could tell that although Bombay's tone of voice was kept light, he was tense and stressed.

"It isn't always apparent at first, Adam, just be sure to keep talking. You might want to keep things bottled up inside, about what happened, but I want you to know, I'll listen okay?" Adam listened with a slightly amused air. Why was Bombay making such a big deal about this? Sure, he had been terrified at first but it was really okay after awhile.

"Okay, Adam, you seem to be okay, like you said, so I'll ask you something now that I was planning on asking later, when you were more grounded."

"Sure, ask me anything."

"Are you prepared, Adam, to testify against your captors? You have to, seeing as how you were an integral part of this crime." Adam froze.

"Wait, what?"

"You have to testify. These men are criminals, Adam, they shot one of the captives, don't you remember?" Adam shrugged, he did remember but the whole ordeal had been like a dream. He wasn't sure what he had dreamt and what he hadn't.

"I know they are," Adam finally said, hollowly. Bombay seemed satisfied, but Adam wasn't finished.

"But I won't testify against them." Bombay's eyebrows descended in confusion and surprise.

"You won't…testify?"

"I can't." The words came out a little more testily than Adam was planning. "I won't."

"But…Adam, the court needs your accounts."

"They can get others to testify. I won't do it." Bombay frowned. He thought this was rare. He thought this wasn't possible. There had to be another reason.

"Adam, are you afraid? I promise you, we will protect you. These men won't be able to hurt you if you testify."

"I'm not afraid," said Adam. He was starting to get angry. "I don't. Look, can I be alone now?" He faked a yawn; he didn't bother making it seem realistic. Why won't Bombay leave him alone? He couldn't testify against them, not Junior. He and Junior were friends; they had an understanding. He couldn't; it'd be like testifying against Charlie.

"They could have killed me, especially Junior. They didn't, and now you're telling me to help me put them in jail?" Bombay just stared at Adam, trying to figure out how to make the boy lying in the hospital bed think rationally. He was being irrational; he wasn't thinking.

"Adam, I was wrong. I shouldn't have brought this on you right away. It was my mistake, rest up for a couple of days and I'll check on you sometime soon, okay?" Adam wasn't dumb. He knew his unwillingness to cooperate in the testimonies had something to do with this abruptness of Bombay's leaving. He was smart enough to realize that but he was also smart enough to follow Bombay's lead.

"Sure, I'll see you around then." Watching Bombay leave, Adam suddenly felt a growing ache in his temples. His hand reached to his ipod and he jammed the earphones into his ears almost violently. He turned up the volume as high as it would go.

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping

…………………………………….

"Hey Banksie." Adam opened his eyes, somewhat irritably. Couldn't they tell that he was trying to sleep? He checked his watch and realized with a minor shock that what he thought had been five minutes was actually three hours. It was evening now. He looked around him and saw the Ducks surrounding him.

"We had to sneak past the nurses," said Julie, cheeks flushed with excitement. A rule abider, just like Adam, even breaking a minor rule, such as too many people visiting a patient at one time, held a thrill for her.

"Hi." Adam honestly felt at a loss for words. What was he supposed to say? Before this…whatever it should be called happened, the Ducks knew everything about him that he had wanted them to know. They were well worn into each other but now he was filled with jagged edges that he wasn't sure he wanted the Ducks to sand down into smooth edges. Something had happened that the Ducks expected him to share but he wasn't sure if he wanted to. He marveled at how much three days could change him.

"How you feeling?" asked Dwayne. Adam shrugged.

"I feel fine, actually, but both the nurse and Bombay wanted to make sure I wasn't traumatized you know?" Adam said this with a wry grin but it seemed to worry the Ducks.

"Adam if you ever want to talk, we're here for you," offered Luis. Adam thought that was pretty decent of him, seeing as how they were possibly the least close.

"Yeah, Adam, we're here for you," Guy added. Adam caught himself starting to roll his eyes. He blinked rapidly, feeling slightly guilty. Why was all this concern annoying him? He should be glad he had the Ducks to support him.

"Listen guys, I appreciate it, really, but I'm fine. Really." Most of the Ducks looked unconvinced so Adam tried a different tactic.

"I'm kind of tired. I really want to hang out longer but you guys should get going before you guys get into trouble." The Ducks fell for it. They had no reason to believe that Adam would be lying. The Adam they knew wouldn't lie. Despite the shorter than short visit, the Ducks obediently left their friend when he asked them to, except Charlie. He hung behind, but that was okay. Adam figured Charlie just wanted to make sure he was fine and he would leave soon too.

"How are you really feeling?"

"I feel fine, really, why won't anyone believe me?" Adam asked, letting his annoyance creep into his voice. He knew Charlie wouldn't take it personally if he got pissed.

"Because you were held captive in a Krispy Kreme for three days, dumbass," said Charlie, affectionately. He turned serious soon after. "Seriously, you're acting like you're just recovering from a cold or something. It's weird and it's scaring all of us how you're taking it."

"You've barely talked to me," Adam scoffed. "Besides, what do you want me to do? Fly into hysterics every time I see another person?"

"That might be more normal."

"What is normal anyway, Charlie? How do you know how I should be acting? If I recall correctly you were never in a hostage situation." Adam knew he was being childish, using his situation as a crutch to make himself right, but he was getting angry. Why was everyone blowing everything out of proportion? They act as though these captors were criminals. Okay, fine, maybe they were according to the law but they had their own dreams and whatever. People were so damn judgmental.

Despite his internal tirade, Adam really didn't want his best friend to go away mad at him.

"Charlie?" Adam offered, as Charlie had turned to leave. "I'm sorry. I'm just stressed, more than I thought I was I guess. I'm just mad that everyone's treating me like I'm a kid. I'm okay. Really." Charlie nodded. He understood, he had to, as Adam's closest friend.

"I know. Don't be stressed. We won't pressure you if you don't want to talk." Adam nodded.

"And I'm sorry. For before." Charlie nodded again.

"I was really disoriented. I hadn't seen light that wasn't artificial for a long time and to be completely truthful, I was scared, really scared that they were going to hurt me for leaving them."

"What?" Adam's face was closed off, though, and Charlie knew he wasn't going to say anything more.

"I was scared too," Charlie finally said. "I wasn't sure if you were going to be okay." Adam shrugged.

"I guess so. You don't think about that that much when it's actually happening to you, I think. It's good to see you again."

"Same." Charlie got up.

"I have to cook dinner, you know, my mom's out again."

"I'm sorry." Adam winced for his friend. Casey had changed dramatically in the past year and suddenly she seemed to have decided that Charlie was old enough to not need his mother. She was constantly out, trying to find "the one," leaving Charlie alone. To most teenage boys, this would have been heaven, no nagging from their mothers, all the independence and privacy they wanted, but to Charlie it had been heartbreaking. For all his life Charlie had been close to his mom, they were all each other had in the house, but suddenly, his own mother dropped him. Adam knew that unconsciously it was scaring Charlie, scaring him a lot. Charlie was scared that his mom would leave and never come back, much like his dad had, despite what Casey tried to tell him.

"Look, Charlie, how about you bring some food back here and eat with me? All this institutional food and décor is really depressing me." Charlie chuckled a little, despite the lonely expression.

"You know what, that sounds great."

…………………………………….

Bombay paced back and forth in the hospital lobby. Orion finally pushed through glass doors.

"What is it, Gordon? Is something wrong with Adam? He's okay right?" Because Orion had been with his daughter for her weekly treatment, he had no idea what had happened with the release of the captives.

"There is something wrong but not what you think," Bombay said. His face was tight, his mouth set in a hard line.

"Adam's suffering from a lot more trauma than he believes. And it's hard to believe that he is. The boy is healthy, he's talking, and he's holding normal conversations. He seems completely at peace with the whole situation."

"I don't see a problem," Orion started, cautiously.

"He won't testify against his captors."

"That's perfectly normal; he's afraid of the consequences. He wants to forget about this…this experience."

"No, I don't think so. He has this…this weird I to them, Orion. Have you ever heard of Stockholm syndrome?" Orion waited patiently for Bombay to tell him.

"It's when captives start to identify with their captors. Their instinct to survive becomes greater than their judgment of the criminals. Adam's suffering from it. It's clouding his judgment. Without his testimony, these men might be given a lighter punishment than they deserve."

"Are you sure?"

"He's not the only one, Orion. I've talked to friends and family members of other victims and they all seem more or less unwilling to testify, at least severely, against these men."

"Then you mean these captors could make up whatever crap they want and they would get away with it?"

"They could say that they shot one of the victims out of protection, they can say whatever they want. They could get away with nothing but manslaughter charges."

"Why? How does Adam not see that these people are criminals?" Bombay's face was determined.

"That's what I'm going to figure out."

…………………………………….

A/n: I had to remove the lyrics thanks to new rule.