11.
~ "Arthur, wait!" Ariadne cried as she tried to correct the high heel that had almost caused her to trip. Heels that were not meant for her to run in.
The Point Man was quick to turn and take his wife's hand, almost pulling her down the hall.
He had driven like a mad man through the city to get to the run down hospital an hour's drive outside of Paris.
"Why would they bring him here?" Ariadne huffed as she was already out of breath from running. "Did the kidnappers let him go?"
"I don't know." Arthur said as they ran down the long halls. Ariadne could already see a very tall woman with spider like legs and arms.
"Sadie!" she called out and her oldest friend turned.
"He's going to be alright." the spider woman said quickly as both Arthur and Ariadne were breathless from all their running.
"Going to be?" Ariadne cried. "I want to see him."
"Ariadne," Sadie said calmly. "He's in with the doctor right now.
"He's been hurt?" Arthur barked angrily. His worst fear had come true. "Hurt... hurt how... exactly?" he said.
How could he stand it if those animals had touched his son that way?
"Well it seems he's been here for about 12 hours now." Sadie said apologetically.
"What?" the parents gasped. "No one called us!"
"The lady who found him, her name is Claudia, and she's a little senile. She found him in an ally outside her apartment. He didn't tell her he was kidnaped. She called an ambulance and it seems they didn't put it together that he was even blind let alone a missing child. They thought the woman who found him was his grandmother." Sadie explained.
"Is he alright? I want to see him." Ariadne demanded.
The spider woman looked a little nervous.
"When he was found, it seems he was being attacked by a pack of dogs." she added at last.
"What?" Ariadne said as her eyes grew large with fear and shock.
"He's going to be alright. Daniel isn't saying much, but aside from the dog bites and a fever, he's fine." Sadie told them.
"A fever? I want to see my son!" Ariadne said storming past the spider woman and into the exam room.
~ Daniel could hear his mother's worried cries in the next room and cringed. She sounded angry and he wasn't ready to face her.
"Sounds like your parents are glad you're okay." the doctor who had stitched up his arm said.
Daniel didn't like the doctor. He kept giving him something called bee stings to numb the pain on his face and arms before he gave him stitches. It seemed the dogs had hurt him more than he or the old lady realized.
He wasn't sure how he had gotten here. An ambulance had come for him and the old woman had only said he was a local boy.
At first, Daniel had been too afraid to say a word. Afraid he would be in trouble, so he said nothing as the doctor's gave him stitches and asked where his parents were. Eventually, a nurse convinced him his mother must be worried and he gave them the safest number he could think of.
Sadie was a conundrum of a woman. Papa was always mad at her and no one else when she was around. The two of them never agreed on anything.
But when Sadie was there, no one had time to focus on anything else. Instead, all attention was focused on the tall woman, who's shoes made funny noises and who smelled like spicy perfume.
She had come right away. Asked if he was alright. Asked if he knew who had taken him.
"Taken me?" he had asked.
He didn't understand what she meant. Why would anyone take him?
"Don't you remember?" she had asked. "Don't you remember the ballet, and leaving the balcony?"
"I..." he struggled to find the memory. He wasn't sure what he remembered. His face hurt and the drugs were making him confused.
He had sighed and told her he only remembered dogs and the old woman finding him.
The doctor had told Sadie that, aside from the dog bites and a concussion, he was fine.
He shied away from the noises in the hall now. His parents were here now and he was sure they would be angry. he had never been punished before. Not really.
Not like Dominic and Darcy were punished.
Mommy was always sending Darcy to her room and papa was always taking his brother's privileges away. He was scared now about his parent's wrath being unleashed on him.
"Daniel?" he heard mommy's voice coming into the room.
He heard her gasp and let out a sob.
"My baby, what did they do to you?" she cried and he could feel her arms around him. Her safe, warm body holding him close to her.
He felt a raw, uncontrollable urge to cry just then and tried to hold it back.
Mommy smelled like mommy. She smelled of lavender soap and her hair felt good to the touch. She was wearing a soft sweater that tickled his nose and made him bury his face in her shoulder.
He sensed his father was close to. His large hands on his back and he could now smell the subtle after shave in the air as his father was holding him and mommy.
"Daniel, are you alright?" he asked.
The little boy pulled away from his mother. He didn't want his father to see him crying.
"I'm okay." he said weakly. "I just... I ran into some dogs is all."
He felt his father's hands take his. Felt his mother run her fingers through the curls in his hair.
"Yes you did." papa said gently as he heard his mother sniff back tears.
He sensed papa was smiling and knew his parent's weren't angry at him at all.
~ "Will he have scars?" Ariadne asked once Daniel was sleeping in his hospital bed. The little boy was still running a fever and the medicine he was given made him intensely sleepy.
"We can't tell yet." the doctor sighed. "It was a very bad attack by those dogs."
"All over his arms and face." Ariadne said and tried not start crying again.
The relief at seeing her baby alive was so wonderful, she could easily forgive the railroad track stitches on his face and arms.
"Let's worry about the scars later." Arthur said darkly. "We have our son back. Doctor, is there any indication he was... well... abused in any way."
"There is no evidence of any sexual assault." the doctor said calmly. "However his shoes were missing. When the nurse asked him about it, he just said that 'they' took them."
"The woman who found him, she must live close to the people who took him." Ariadne reasoned.
"When we found out who he really was, that he was a kidnapped child, police began to search the neighborhood. Nothing has turned up, not the child's shoes or any clues as to where he was being held." the doctor said.
"Maybe they just let him go." Sadie offered.
"Eames just texted me. The money still hasn't moved." Arthur told them.
"So, we don't know who took our son?" Ariadne asked and had to fight the urge not to cry again.
"Ma'am?" the doctor said soothingly. "You have your son back. A little banged up, but he's back. He may remember what happened to him, he may not. But let's be grateful that he's alive and going home soon."
~ "The woman who found him." Mommy was saying when she thought Daniel was sleeping. "We need to do something for her."
"Like?" Papa said.
"I don't know. A reward or something. She chased the dogs away. Who knows what might have happened if she hadn't."
"Do you really think whoever took him just let him go?" papa asked in a whisper.
"I don't care." mommy whispered and Daniel felt her lips on his cheek. A cheek that was still numb from the pain medication.
"He's safe and home now. That's all that matters." she said and the little boy fell back asleep with his parent's keeping watch over him.