HEY AGAIN GUYS! I'M SO GLAD EVERYONE'S ENJOYING THIS - GOT TO ADD THE ANGST IN THERE A BIT. DON'T TUNE OUT - I'D SAY WE'RE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO HALFWAY THROUGH THIS STORY. SO - KEEP UP THE REVIEWING - IF YOU'D LIKE TO CHAT ABOUT THE STORY - SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE! I LOVE CONNECTING WITH MY READERS! STAY SAFE OUT THERE!


Bess watched Emma in Henry's arms – watched how close they were – how connected her family seemed at that moment. She knew the two other kids would be at the house within the day – and she'd get to see them all together.

But as Bess watched Emma, she saw the shivers start, and immediately, Bess realized that Emma was there, in bare feet, just a dress on.

"Honey, you're cold…" Bess immediately started to take her coat off, but just at that moment, Henry began to do the same thing.

"Here, I'm not that cold anyway." Henry said.

Then Bess felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to find Isabelle standing next to the medical team.

"Bess, she needs to be treated…" Isabelle said with a knowing look. Bess could read it. There was something wrong.

And she turned to Emma, who was now wrapped in Henry's coat, and she said, "Em, there are some doctors here who want to just check you out and…" As Bess talked, Emma froze, looking past her to the doctors. Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. Bess tried to reassure her, "Em, I'll be right here. They're safe, and they're not..."

Emma backed up again, and said, "No, there's nothing wrong. I just want to go home. I'm fine."

Bess wanted desperately to believe her daughter, because she wanted to take her family home. She overlooked her knowledge about the situation and turned to Isabelle, "Do you think we could take her home and go see…"

Bess' words flattened out as Isabelle shook her head. "No, Bess. There could be something serious wrong."

Bess knew she was right. Isabelle looked at her with a purposeful look, and said, "They might need to restrain her."

All Bess could do was take a deep breath, turn back to Emma, who was still shaking her head, looking at Henry and begging him to just take her home. "I don't want to go. They can't make me. I can't…"

Bess closed her eyes and said to Isabelle, "Ok."

Then Bess walked over to Emma, and set her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "Emma."

Emma kept looking behind Bess, trying to keep track of the doctors. Bess could feel Emma's breathing speeding up, her face was pale, her eyes narrowed and terrified.

"Emma." She said calmly until Emma looked at her, "I'm going to be right here. They're going to just check you out, take you to a hospital, but I won't leave. I promise."

Tears ran down Emma's bright face. She shook her head and whispered, "I can't. I can't go. They'll take me… I can't…"

The whispers turned to screams – irrational screams – as the doctors came behind Bess, and one of them said, "We just need to take a look and make sure…"

Bess held onto Emma's hand as she began to scream and pull away. But she lost hold as Emma was surrounded by doctors and nurses, who kept reassuring as they tried to put her onto the stretcher. They tried for a few minutes, with Bess and Henry trying to tell her everything would be fine.

But Bess knew when they pulled out the needle, when they put it into Emma's skin – Bess knew it was too much.

Emma just shook her head as her body involuntarily stopped resisting. But the fear never left Emma's eyes, and she locked eyes with Bess as they laid her down on the stretcher. The terror was a realized terror – as if she knew something bad was going to happen.

Bess rushed past the nurses and held Emma's hand, "Em, I'm right here."

Henry was beside her in only a second, and said, "We'll be right here."

Tears leaked down the sides of Emma's face, and she just laid there.

Then Isabelle began to fill the doctors in. "She's been favoring her abdomen. Right side. Her arm seems to have a bit of dried blood coming through the dress, and she's barely moved her left hand."

Bess ran along with the stretcher, Henry close behind to be with Allison. The security guards never left Bess more than a few feet. As they ran to the ambulance, the doctor began to cut off Emma's dress at the waste.

And Bess took in a deep breath as she saw Emma's abdomen. A bruise stretched across from the top of her ribs to her hip bone. Every bone could be seen through Emma's skin. And her skin was riddled with dark scars.

"Call ahead to the hospital. I need to be able to run a CT scan on her."

"Have the orthopedic surgeon on call." One doctor said as he looked at Emma's bent wrist as he inserted an IV.

"BP is 60 over 45." A nurse said.

"Have the blood transfusion team waiting."

"Temp is 103.4." Another nurse said.

Bess tried to file it all away in her mind. What were they thinking it was…

But they'd reached the ambulance that was standing there. And Bess jumped to get in after they'd slid the stretcher in.

Her security guard touched her shoulder. "I'm sorry Ma'am, but…"

And she turned around like a Mama Bear and hissed, "I'm not leaving her. You're gonna have to deal with this, Mike."

But Mike just shook his head, "Ma'am. I can't let you. The vehicle's not been inspected, the route hasn't been pre-approved. It will take longer for us to do that than to just let them go and we'll follow them…"

Bess opened up her mouth to argue, but Henry came and took her hand, "Babe, I'll go with and you just follow right behind."

Tears again came to Bess' eyes as she whispered, "I don't want to leave her…"

"I'll be right with her, ok?" And Bess looked into the eyes of the only man she'd ever trusted like that. And she knew he was right.

"Ok. But…" And hse turned to one of the doctors, "What are you thinking it is? What is…"

"Madam President, I can't say for certain, but it looks like she has some internal bleeding, might be close to going into shock, and some other things. Those are the ones we're the most concerned about. We're going to give her a blood transfusion right away once we find where the bleeding is coming from."

Bess would've fallen over from fright if she hadn't had Henry standing there with her. And she nodded, and told the doctor, "Take care of her. Don't let her go."

She hurried Allison along, making sure that Henry was inside the ambulance before she shut her door – and as the ambulance left, she told Mike, "This'll be the last time I EVER listen to you if you lose that vehicle, you hear me?"

Mike chuckled, and said, "Yes, Ma'am."

And Bess leaned back, trying to breathe as the vehicle moved. She felt a small hand take her own, and she looked down to see Alison.

"Mom, it's going to be alright." Alison said.

Bess nodded, leaning down and kissing Alison's head. And she hoped it would be.