Author's Note: I know it's not the twentieth, but it's not my fault. I had planned on updating yesterday, but it didn't happen. My Internet decided to be a butt and wouldn't do anything, and I was mad already because the manga CD of Fruits Basket that I got wouldn't work, but I have good news! I can do Review Responses again. It won't disconnect me because we switched out computers and have a free trial of a really old AOL version. Also, I didn't go to camp because my friend backed out on my, but I didn't feel like writing last week and took the week off I guess you could say. But here's the chapter, and I hope you like it!

I HATE IT WILL NOT LET ME SEE STATS, OR DO HARDLY ANYTHING, AND NOW I CAN'T DO REVIEW RESPONSES! I'M GOING TO KILL SOMEONE!

Chapter Eight: Rescue

Tomonori leapt out of his car as Mana screamed, "That's it!" Fear for his precious, little boy consumed him. They had driven well past the speed limit, but after quickly explaining the situation to the cop who had pulled them over a motorcade had escorted them. Tsukasa's picture had been plastered on TV and newspapers. Everyone knew of the pretty, lost, little boy.

Tomonori flung the door open, thanking God that it was unlocked. "Tsukasa?" he screamed running up the stairs he spotted. "Tsukasa?" he yelled again. He stopped in the hallway, listening for any kind of sound. He could hear a noise down the hall, a cross between a yell and a sob. "Tsukasa?" he said again, softer this time. He heard something down the hall, a new voice. "Tsukasa?" he whispered hoarsely beginning to run down the hall. He came to an open door and froze.

There was a woman on her knees rocking back and forth making the first sound that the man had heard. Lying at her feet was Tsukasa in a pool of blood around his arms. He could see a huge gash on the child's arm. There was a knife near the woman, bloody. He could see the child's chest moving steadily up and down. He thought the child had passed out from blood loss and pain, but Tsukasa turned his head to investigate the new sound. He looked at his surrogate father, eyes exhausted and full of pain.

"Daddy?" the child said quietly, disbelievingly. He had to be seeing things. How could Daddy be here? He had thought he had seen him earlier, but he had been seeing things and his daddy has disappeared when he had tried to touch him, to snuggle into his warm, safe arms. "Daddy, are you really here, or are you going to disappear again?" Tsukasa tried to move, to go to his father, but pain shot through his body, stiff from lying on the floor for so long and dizzy from the blood loss. He collapsed back on the floor as Tomonori came out of his trance and ran forward, falling to his knees at the child's side.

"It's okay now, I'm here, and everything's going to be okay. I'm here and I'm real." He turned his face away from the child and screamed to the police, Mana, Kaname, and Itsuki that he had found him. Soon footsteps were pounding on the stairs, following Tomonori's instruction as to where he was.

"Daddy," Tsukasa whispered again, tears running down his cheeks again. His father was really here, he was really here. He could feel the man's hand on his head, gently petting his hair and stroking his face. "Daddy, it hurts. Everything hurts. I don't like her. She's scary, mean, and she hurt me. Please," he said beginning to sob, "don't let her hurt me anymore."

Tomonori wanted to scoop the child into his arms, but was afraid it would only hurt him more. He settled for leaning in close, laying his head lightly on top of the child's head, stroking his hair and face, the only parts he dared touch. "She's not going to hurt you anymore, I promise. I'm not going to let her. We're going to get you out of here and make you all better, okay? It's okay now; no one's going to hurt you."

The man looked up as several paramedics came through the door and began to examine the child. Tomonori stayed at the child's head. No one asked him to leave, and he wouldn't have even if they had told him to. He was never going to leave Tsukasa's side again.

Tsukasa watched the paramedics examining him, wondering what they were going to do to him. He had heard horror stories about all the horrible things doctors and nurses did. They were talking to each other, using a bunch of medical terms that was beyond the child. He settled for closing his arms and leaning in toward his father's touch, ignoring whatever they were doing to him. He finally heard them addressing his father and decided to pay attention.

"We've got him on a morphine drip for the pain. He's going to need stitches on his arm, and he's lost a lot of blood, but he'll make it. He's going to extremely sore from what I can see of the bruises on him, but in a few weeks he'll be good as new." Tomonori nearly wept with relief, but didn't think it would help the child to see him break down into tears.

"Sakura," the child said, word slurred from the morphine entering his system making him even more tired. Tomonori looked down at him.

"Sakura? Is than someone's name, sweetie?" Tsukasa nodded, fighting off sleep. He had to tell them about her. She needed help to.

"She's here to. They're mean… to her to. You have to… help her."

"It's okay, Tsukasa," he heard his father say, eyes closing again. "The police are going to search the whole house. She'll be fine, just go to sleep now, okay?" Tsukasa nodded lightly as he felt himself being lifted. It only hurt a little to be moved thankfully, and then felt himself being put on something. He wanted to see what it was, and tried to open his eyes, but they stayed closed.

"Daddy," he whispered quietly, almost to soft for Tomonori to hear.

"It's okay, I'm right here. I'm not going to leave you ever again. Go to sleep now, baby, you need your rest." Sleep certainly was inviting, but he had to know that his father was going to stay with him.

"Hold… hand," he whispered, trying to lift his hand. Tomonori clutched the child's hand tightly, while keeping his other one on the child's head still gently stroking his hair as the paramedics lifted the gurney into the ambulance. Once they were settled inside and the vehicle was moving, Tsukasa feel asleep reassured that his father was not going to leave him any time soon.

Tomonori sighed in relief as he saw the child's breathes even out as he feel asleep, holding his hand, stroking the top side of it with his thumb. One of the paramedics was starting the stitches on the child's arm. "Exactly how bad off is he?" he asked. One of the other paramedics answered.

"He'll survive. The cut is deep, but he didn't seem to lose too much blood. We can't really now exactly how much until we get to the hospital. He may need a blood transfusion just to be on the safe side. I think that woman there stopped the bleeding. There were a lot of blooded rags in there. I can tell you that saved his life. If she hadn't at least slowed the bleeding we would be having an entirely different conversation right now." Tomonori nodded, finally allowing all of his pent up tears to roll down his cheeks. The one doing the stitches looked up briefly and smiled.

"I don't how you held those in for so long. If it were my kid I would've being bawling my eyes out the whole time no matter how upset it made the kid. I've got a little girl about his age so this is kind of freaking me out. Always seems to hit hard if someone we're helping is about the age of one of our family members, especially our children." Tomonori knew the man didn't expect him to answer. He stared down at Tsukasa, now sobbing. He had managed to regain some self-control over himself by the time the medic was finished with Tsukasa's arm. "He's going to need to stay at the hospital for a few days for observation, but you should be able to take him home by the end of the week if everything goes as it should." Tomonori nodded, taking a deep breath to calm him. He was going to be all right, they both were.

Tsukasa slept through the rest of the day, and all night. He knew that the morphine being pumped into his body through the IV in his hand played a part in it, but he was content to simply stay by his bed and watch him sleep. The cops did come by after a few hours to ask him some questions. They told him they there had been five other children in the house, all alive, but just barely. The little girl Tsukasa had told them to find was also in the hospital, for observation, and her family was with her. The cop had told him that they had been trying to find this couple for years now. He had also told Tomonori that they had found several bodies of the missing children, and as tragic as that was, it would at least provide some closure for their families, no matter how horrible that closure was. Tomonori was just thankful that Tsukasa had been of the six alive children.

The man dozed off and on resting his head and Tsukasa's bed, never letting go of the child's hand. Mana, Kaname, and Itsuki had been by once to see about him, but they hadn't stayed long sensing that Tomonori had wanted to be along with his son, but he wasn't as alone as he hoped he would be. It seemed like there was always a doctor, or nurse coming into the room, making small talk, checking one of the machines the child was hooked up to, and then leaving. He was awoken several times after falling asleep by some infernal nurse coming in to check something, or to change of the of the bags attached to the IV. They had given Tsukasa a blood transfusion just to be on the safe side and to help him heal faster.

It was ten the next morning when Tsukasa finally woke up. The morphine drip had been taken away in the wee hours of the morning, but the nurse had told him that it would take a little while for the painkiller to leave the child's system. His eyes were still groggy, but were no longer filled with the utter exhaustion from the night before, or filled with pain. Tomonori set up straighter and gently stroked the child's cheek. "Hi, sleepy head," he gently teased, smiling. Tsukasa smiled at hearing his voice, and turned slightly toward him, wincing. "Just stay still for now. You've got a lot of bruises all over, and I'm not going anywhere." Tsukasa opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. "Are you thirsty?" Tsukasa nodded, lifting a hand to rub at his eyes, massaging the sleep away as Tomonori went across the room to the ice chips the nurse had left him. He pressed the nurse button on the child's bed before settling down to feed Tsukasa the ice chips.

A few minutes later the nurse bustled in, smiling. Tomonori recognized her from the night before. She had a warm personality, and had been the least annoying of all the ones he had met. Someone had told him that she was good with kids and would be perfect for Tsukasa. She smiled warmly at Tomonori before turning to Tsukasa. "Hi there, little one. How are you feeling?" She moved to check something while Tsukasa answered.

"Sore. Everything hurts a little, but not too much. My arms itches though, but I don't think I should scratch it." He lifted up his arm with the stitches in it, looking at it curiously.

"You're right in thinking that you shouldn't scratch at it. You might pull one of the stitches lose, and that would not be a good thing. Is there anything that really hurts, or are you just kind of sore?" Tsukasa thought about this, stretching a little.

"Just sore. Do you know how Sakura is? She was there with me, at that house." He looked between his father and nurse at his side. Tomonori answered.

"She's fine. She's here to for observation. Her family's here to so she's with them, she's fine, don't worry about her." Tsukasa nodded, happy that she was okay and was back with her family.

"Is there anything you want me to get you? A Popsicle maybe? I can make a slushie out of it if you want, and we do have ice cream." Tsukasa immediately nodded, while Tomonori laughed. Tsukasa turned to his father.

"I can have it, can't I?" He sounded slightly worried, only making his father laugh more. He didn't think he would ever be able to deny the child anything that he wanted.

"Of course you can have it," the man laughed, leaning forward to kiss the child's forehead.

"I want a lot, but I don't want to have a tummy ache. I don't like tummy aches." The nurse laughed this time to, smiling widely.

"I'll keep that in mind. We have chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. What kind do you want?" Tsukasa seemed to consider this for moment.

"Can I have a little of all of them? I really love ice cream. It's my favorite food," he declared happily. The nurse laughed again.

"I'll be back in a few minutes with his ice cream." Tomonori laughed and thanked her. He sighed and sat down on the side of the bed, next to the child. Tsukasa scooted closer and laid his head on Tomonori's knees.

"Daddy, can I sit on your lap?" Tomonori was surprised. He wouldn't have thought the child would ask permission to do something as simple as sitting on his lap.

"Of course you can. I hadn't done that yet on my own because I thought it might hurt you." Tsukasa had moved to his knees, arms outstretched for Tomonori to pull him onto his lap. Tomonori scooted over to lean his back against the pillows, curling his legs under him Indian style, settling Tsukasa in the gap, holding him tightly. Tsukasa leaned into him, laying his head in the crook of the man's arm.

"It was so scary there," Tsukasa started quietly. Tomonori stayed quiet, sensing that the child simply wanted him to listen right now, to understand. "She beat me the first night I was there. She said I was going to take a bath, and that she was going to 'break me in.' I didn't know what she meant until she took her belt off. She said that it would hurt, but that it was for my own good, that it would help me remember to obey her. I almost believed her, just for a second, but it wasn't for my own good. It… it was horrible. It hurt so much. I didn't have anything on, and she almost always broke the skin. When she was done she made me get in the bath, and the water was scolding hot. It was only hot water, she hadn't put any cold in. I've got a couple of blisters from that. She did let some of the hot water out after a little while and put some cold in, but it hurt."

Tomonori felt like his heart was breaking, hearing the child's sad voice, and sounding much more like his sixteen-year-old self than the four-year-old body he now occupied. Tomonori stretched his legs out in front of him, leaning against the pillows at his back while pulling Tsukasa up to his chest, letting the child lay on top of him, wrapping his arms around him. Tsukasa buried his face in the crook of his father's neck. He told Tomonori about everything else that had happened, how he had been kidnapped, and the drive there, about the man's story, Sakura, and everything that had been done to him. The nurse had come in once with the child's ice cream, but had left seeing the pair and catching some of Tsukasa's words.

Tsukasa was limp against Tomonori when he had finished the story, absorbing the warmth and safety that his arms offered. Tomonori's shirt now had a wet spot on it, but it wasn't the first time that had happened, and he knew it wouldn't be the last. Deciding to change the subject he asked, "Do you want your ice cream now? The nurse brought it in, but left seeing that you weren't ready for it." Tsukasa nodded, perking up a little at the thought of getting to eat ice cream again. He had only been gone about two days, but those two days felt like a lifetime to man and child.