"What do you mean 'No one can help you'?" Was her niece insane? Of course they could help her! They could protect her from him, file a report with the NYPD, and get 24 hour watch on her.

"He's a dangerous man, Aunt Alex" She was angry at even having to state that, look what he was doing to her. Had her aunt's eyes been closed this entire time?

"Yes, he is a dangerous man, and YOU agreed to meet him!" Maybe yelling wasn't the best approach with her niece at the moment, but it was all she could do to keep from breaking. The Eames family had consistently warned her about men like him, and the dangers of the internet, from childhood to her teenage years. How could she have been so irresponsible?

"Okay, Okay I get it! I'm stupid!" Tears welled quickly in her soft hazel eyes. The fact that she had brought this all upon herself choked what little life she had left in her.

Teresa always knew how to hit that soft spot. Alex sighed and took a deep breath, releasing her anger, and replacing it with a bowl full of guilt. "You're not stupid… I just don't understand why you agreed to meet him, why you gave him your number, and why, when things got too much to handle, you didn't come to us"

"It's not Christmas, Its not Easter, Its not Thanksgiving…" Sarcastically, she listed the only times of the year when she got a chance to visit with her aunt and uncle. They didn't come around to see her as much as they did the other members of the family, and in the pit of her being she felt a pang of jealousy. How her sister managed a close relationship with them baffled her.

"Come on, that's not fair" Alex fought back the tears that threatened to show she was truly affected by her niece's chosen line of fire.

A soft sigh escaped Teresa's battered body. "You're right, I'm sorry. Look… I'm really tired; I'd like to get some sleep. Can we finish this later?"

"Sure" Alex gathered her composure, lifted her purse to her shoulder, and stumbled out of the hospital room.

An eyelid sheathing a hazel green eye slowly lifted as the morning sun invited itself into her room. Teresa yawned and looked up. It took her 10 minutes before she gathered the fact that 24 hours had passed since she'd last been awake and alert. She twisted her head to the side and the red flashing numbers on the clock that rested on her beside told her it was 10:30 A.M. Looking to her other side, she noticed that while she'd been in her state of comatose, the nurses had removed the heart monitor. She sat up, resting her arms on her elbows for a bit and looked around the room-nobody. "Peace" she whispered to herself and laid her head back on the plushy pillow. Her body felt better than it had since she'd last been awake, and she could tell the energy was slowly draining back into her system. Sweat began to drench her, and when kicking the covers away didn't work, she stood, walked to the tiny window, and opened it. She stood still as the wind hit her body, cooling her off and drying up the salty fluids that poured over her.

A knock sounded and seconds later the door leading to her room flew open.

"Can I come in?" it was a polite gesture her doctor made, but she didn't see the reason of asking while he was already walking in her room.

"Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?"

"Sarcasm; that's a good sign" His smile brightened up her mood a little.

"I just can't win with you monkeys, can I?"

Doctor Holstein led her back to her bed, and sat her down. As he was wrapping a cuff around her arm to check her blood pressure, he began to speak again. "I'm not following" His smile was inviting, quizzical at best.

"Well, when I'm kind to you, you're kind back, thinking I'm too weak to be rude, and when I'm sarcastic, you're still kind, thinking it's a good thing because I'm feeling better. Can't I just be in the middle?"

"Do you not want to get better?" He peered down at her with big blue eyes.

"Of course I do, but it's always one or the other with you doctors. Haven't you ever wondered what it'd be like to just stand in the middle?"

He concluded that she was drawing from her rape experiences, and was in the middle of confusion and ache. "I like being able to decipher the truth of things. Yes or no answers, that's what keeps me going"

"Well, I suppose you're not missing much" She laid her head back down on the pillow and turned so she wasn't facing him. He was going to draw blood next and her reaction to the needle was indeterminate to the both of them.

He surprised her by sitting down on the bed next to her. "You know, I can recommend a good therapist. She has the highest qualifications and works with your type all the time"

"My 'type'?" She looked at him with blazing eyes. "What's that supposed to mean? You mean the other helpless girls that have been stalked and raped by a man double my age? No thanks, I don't think I feel much like 'sharing'"

He had done a little tap-dance on her last nerve and he could see that. He felt proud of himself; the more he got her to open up, to let it all out, the better she'd feel. "Well you can't think you're the only girl who's ever had this happen to them"

"Of course I don't you babbling idiot"

"That wasn't very nice" he never strayed from his soft tone, and it was hard for her to be angry when he was just using reverse psychology on her.

"I'm tired" She took the easy way out. "I'd like to get more rest"

"Yes, well, you probably should. You're blood pressure is still above normal, as is your pulse" He stood up, removing his behind from the side of her bed. "Would you like anything to eat, drink?"

"No thank-you" Her slightly pale face was turned away from him again.

"Well then I'll be on my way, feel free to buzz the nurses if you need anything" He walked out, shutting the heavy wood door behind him.

As if he had to tell her she could buzz the nurses. The nerve of that man, taking her for such an inept person! Sorely, she sat up and reached for the remote that controlled not only the buzzer to the nurses' station, but the TV towering above her head. "Jerk" she mumbled her words of disgust towards the doctor as she flipped through the channels. She looked to her left, and then to her right, as the ring of a phone blasted, abruptly reminding her of its presence. "Well where is the damn thing" she fumbled her way through the covers, feeling around until she felt the cold plastic material that was the receiver. Lifting it, she breathed her greeting, "Hello?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Who is this?" The voice on the other end most definitely did not belong to any member in her family, leaving only one other person that probably knew where she was.

"You didn't answer my question" He seemed to be getting agitated with her.

"How did you get this number?" Shaky-the only word to describe her voice and the way she felt-shaky.

"That's no way to treat someone who's sat up day and night, waiting, watching for you to finally wake up"

"What" her voice turned to stone as she grasped his last comment

"Yes. You know that black tank top goes really well with those sweat pants your aunt gave you."

"How do you know what I'm wearing" Looking down, she noticed that he'd hit her ensemble right on the dot.

He laughed full-heartedly. "Oh sweetie, you don't think I've let you go, do you? I can see every move you make. Every time you stand up, every time you move in bed, every time you even BREATH, I'll see."

Was this some kind of sick joke? She looked around but failed to spot anyone.

"Looking for me, sweetie?" He laughed again. "You won't find me; I'm more intelligent than you think"

She sucked in air. He really could see her, and he wasn't messing around, he was truly after her. "What do you want from me?" She remembered her aunt saying something about a trace on a phone from a case they'd had a while back, and wondered if they'd used one on hers. She did, after all, admit to having prior contact, "stalkish" contact, to this freak before he raped her. Her eyes darted around the phone, and when she didn't see anything she got a little concerned, but nonetheless decided to keep him talking for as long as possible.

"What do I want from you?" he sounded confused, shouldn't she already know the answer to that? "I want to taste your blood. I want to taste all of it"

She slammed the phone down. She couldn't help it; the threat had been too much to swallow. Feverishly, she began jabbing the button on the remote that was stamped with a nurse's symbol.

They all stood like mutants her in hospital room, rummaging through everything, including the tray of food that had been sitting on her nightstand for two nights and a day.

"I want everything dusted for fingerprints" Alex commanded. Usually Bobby ran things, but this time, it was her show. Teresa was her dead sister's daughter and therefore belonged under her wing, not his, even though he was her uncle.

"I doubt he's been in here. He's too smart for that. He knows that if he comes within two feet of her, we'll jump him; he understands that she's under our watch. No, he just wants to torment her."

"Then what was his threat about" Alex cocked her head to the side, trying to get the same insight Bobby had.

"It was a figure of speech. He doesn't really want her blood, he wants her. He's obsessed with her, infatuated with the way she made him feel. She gave him the power he needed and he liked that. He probably loves the way she looks, the attention she gave him online. This isn't about death; he doesn't want her dead; she'd be no good to him dead. He just doesn't want her to live a life without him. I'm not saying he's in love with her, we don't know the way his mind works that well yet, but it clearly kills him to see her living a life that doesn't include him. He was probably neglected as a child, probably never had a female pay attention to him before Teresa. He likes the attention she gave him, even if it was negative, and wants more of it. He asked her if she believes in God, maybe he felt bad about raping her."

"No" Teresa stopped him before he could go on assuming anymore. "He didn't feel bad about raping me. He was proud of it. He was proud that he had the strength to make me cry, that he had the strength to make me scream. He relished in the way he could make me squirm under his body. He said he loved the way I sounded when I was screaming for him to get off, that he loved the sound of my voice, and the way my body made him feel when I tried to move from under him. He said he loved the way I smelt when my chest rose with each scream."

Alex stared incredulously at her niece. "Why didn't you tell us this before?"

"It didn't come off as important. It wasn't a threat; it was just something he said through the duration of the rape. I didn't think it mattered"

"Teresa, everything he said to you matters. If there's more, we need to know"

Her eyes said that there was much more, but her heart sang a different song. She was embarrassed, embarrassed to repeat all those private words to her aunt and uncle… all those damn dirty words.

"Teresa, you need to tell us"

Damn her uncle! He was too good at reading people. He could get in her head better and faster than she herself could. "He said I was the only girl who'd ever truly turned him on. He said that he wanted to prove to me how much I turned him on. I got scared and when I tried to run, he snatched my wrist." Tears streaked down her cheeks, staining them, and she continued. "I've never felt such a tight grip in my life. My wrist hurt so badly and he wouldn't let go. He dragged me into his bedroom. It smelled horribly of dirty laundry, and mold. There was a cat on the bed and he kicked it off, replacing its open spot on the bed with me." Her breathing grew more ragged as memories flashed before her eyes. "I begged him not to. I begged him to stop. I told him that we could just forget about the whole thing, and I would go on as if I'd never met him as long as he left me alone. He thought I was insane, and he laughed in my face. That laugh…it killed me, it was so harsh, so full of hate. He was gentle though, careful not to crush me when he let his weight fall on top of me. His gentleness left just as soon as it had come, when he began kissing me. He scratched my thighs-that was the first time I screamed. He enjoyed it. He said my scream was arousing, so he kept at the fondling. Every time I screamed, he sniffed and sucked at my chest. He asked me what kind of perfume I wore-said that it intrigued him, and he wanted to buy more of it for me." Her body began to shake with each new memory. She'd done so well at blocking them all out, and her aunt and uncle ruined that with one simple command for her to tell all. She didn't want to continue, it hurt too much.

"Anything else"

"He raped me, told me how good I was and how good it felt to be in me" Tears wouldn't leave her side now. "He kissed me goodbye and then that's when he asked me if I believed in God"