A/N I do not own John McBain or any of the other OLTL characters. All others are my own creation. Please don't sue cause I am broke and have nothing to be sued for anyway.

Chapter 20

Chris entered the room expecting to see Shelly sick or sad or something. What she found was a Shelly she didn't even recognize. Turning on John and Michael like a lioness protecting her cubs she hissed at them, "What the hell did you do to her?" Running the rest of the way to Shelly Chris gently cupped Shelly's face and looked straight into her lackluster eyes. "Shelly!" she demanded of her friend.

John moved closer to Shelly and Chris wanting to help. He was stunned when Christina jumped up and took a swing at him, jumping back quickly avoiding the blow, he put his hands up in a sign of surrender. "I just want to help." He said.

"Help?" Chris hissed at him, "Haven't you helped enough! Look at her she's practically catatonic! Just what the hell happened to her? What did you do?" Taking Shelly's hand she held it in her own hoping to get some reaction out of Shelly. Seeing her like this, so lifeless, it was almost as if she were dead! Sucking in a deep breath she continued to attack John and Michael, "She trusted you! Shelly would have done anything for her family and look at her! Look what you did to her!"

Michael had had enough of this, Shelly was his sister and he might not know her very well or at all even but he would never hurt her! "Stop it right now! One Shelly is our sister and we would never do anything to harm her...In any way! And two neither John nor I did anything to Shelly! She had a bad dream and woke up screaming. She said a few things then went into this state. And for the record I'm a doctor and I know what I'm doing. That's why we called you." Michael stated forcefully, but not mentioning the visions. He didn't know if Shelly had told Christina about them and he didn't want to be the one who did it.

"She had a dream?" Christina immediately asked, calming down slightly. Looking at John and Michael sharply she asked slowly, cautiously, "You said she said something? What did she say?" Hoping that it hadn't been a vision. Shelly had told her about some of them and they were terrible for her. But to have one send her into a state like this meant that if it was a vision she had it was beyond anything she had ever experienced before.

It was John who spoke this time. Carefully watching Christina's face he said flatly, " She said and I quote 'NO, He, She and there was so much blood'." Deliberately sounding unaffected he watched her reaction hoping to tell whether she knew about the visions. When she paled and glanced quickly at Shelly and then back at Michael and finally him John had his answer. She knew; he was certain that she knew about the visions.

Michael also paled as he heard this. It was worse then he had thought. Just those few words indicated something so horrible that she had been unable to deal with it and had retreated into a safe place, inside her own head. He looked between John and Chris and saw something he didn't understand. It was as if there was an understanding between them. Shaking his head to clear that notion he looked at Chris again and said, "We need you to talk to her. See if you can get through to her. Physically there isn't anything wrong with her. She is in this state because she can't deal with something, if she had some one she trusts and loves maybe she will come back to us."

Shelly ignored him for the moment and kept staring at John. "Has she been having headaches or nightmares often? Has she been acting strange or withdrawn?" She needed to know how many visions she had gotten in the past 2 weeks. It was rare for her to have more then 1 a month but if she had been dreaming often then something had changed with her ability or with Shelly herself.

"She has had 2 or 3 visions in the last couple of weeks." John told her not beating around the bush any longer now that he was certain Christina knew about the visions. "The first was the night we found her and I think she had another when I stopped a robbery."

"John!" Michael hushed. 'What are you...?"

"Mikey, she already knows about them." John said back.

Nodding at that Chris looked again at John, "You said you think? You're not sure?"

"Well, I was in the shower and Shelly just kinda cried out in pain and when I came out she was holding her head and crying. Then she looked at me and told me she saw someone out side and that it might have been the motel manager. I went to go check it out and there was a robbery attempt." John explained.

"During the day? She was awake when it came?" Chris asked stunned.

"Yeah, Why?" John asked.

"Because she has never had one while she has been awake before." Chris said simply, not knowing what this meant. "Look I need to be alone with her. I don't want to offend you but can you leave?"

John looked at Michael who nodded. After they left Chris sat on the bed directly in front of Shelly and took both her hands. "Shelly. It's me, Chris. Come on girl you got to come back to me. I need you Shel. You're my best friend. Theses last few weeks have been hell with out you." Chris said starting to cry a bit. "When I heard about that car chase I thought I had lost you. I didn't think I could hurt more. But then I heard you were ok and my world was ok again. So you have to be ok Shelly. You have to be!

Out in the living room John looked at Michael and asked the question that had been on his tongue for hours. "What if this doesn't work?"

"I don't know John, I don't know." Michael said sadly. He was a general doctor not a psychologist and if thins didn't work he knew that they would have to consult someone else.

They both sat down on the couch and waited.

Chris continued to talk to Shelly for hours. She talked about their childhood and their family and finally she began to talk about their boyfriends. Chris had just said something about Herbie when Shelly said one word.

"Rex."

"What? Shelly? What did you say?" Chris asked excitedly, happy that her friend was back with them.

"His name. Herbie's real name is Rex." Shelly said again blinking. Her head pounding and feeling sick to her stomach she looked around. She remembered the vision and she began to cry. The image of Natalie being raped fresh in her mind. This dream had been different too. It had been as if the events were happening to her. She had seen what Natalie had seen. She had felt the pain and terror that Natalie had felt, the humiliation and the anger. When Natalie had been raped it had felt as if she herself had been the one violated.

Cris simply pulled Shelly into her arms and stroked her hair in a comforting gesture. "Its ok. What ever it is it will be ok." Murmuring comforting words into Shelly's hair Chris was silently horrified. Whatever had happened it had almost broken Shelly, Shelly, the strongest person she knew.

Shelly cried for a few minutes then pushed away filled with determination. It would be ok; it would be ok because she would make it that way. Knowing she needed to tell John about the vision she started to speak. Then pausing as if confused she asked, "What are you doing here Chris?"

"They called me."

"They? They who?" Shelly wanted to know.

"Your brothers."

"Michael is here too?" Knowing that if David or Jerry were here they wouldn't have been able to not be in the room right now. They tended to be a bit inpatient.

"Yes." Chris said wistfully.

Shelly looked at Chris and seeing her expression said, "He is a hottie isn't he?"

Chris blushed and looked away. Changing the subject she said, "So do you want to talk about it?"

Shelly was the one to look down this time, "Yeah, maybe you better get John and Michael too. They need to hear this and they need to hear what I plan to do about it."