Half an hour later they arrived with two ambulances and three cop teams. They ran towards the cabin and entered it. No one was seen there. Then they went to the cellar and searched in every room but there also was no one. Suddenly Jim noticed a little space in the wall half covered with a carpet. He went to it and saw another door. He told the cops to come with him. They entered the room and got shocked at what they saw.
Aiden was still sitting in the corner while Melinda lay on the bed half naked and badly beaten up. She didn't move. Jim immediately ran to the bed and looked after her. Two cops went away and came back with the paramedics. Two of them carried Melinda out of the cellar while the other two were looking after Aiden. He seemed to be fine. Just a little shocked. Jim carried him out of the cabin. Gabriel was nowhere. He disappeared when he returned and saw the police van.

Jim and Aiden went to the hospital with Melinda. They all drove with the ambulance. Melinda was still unconscious. Jim held her hand while rubbing Aiden's back with the other one. They made it to the hospital within 10 minutes. There they rushed Melinda out of the ambulance and brought her to the emergency room. Jim and Aiden waited outside while Melinda was examined inside. Two officers came over and wanted to ask Aiden about what happened.
"Excuse us but we need to know what happened to you and your mom" one of the officers said to Aiden. He looked up to Jim who nodded.
"Sure. But I want to stay with daddy" he answered.
"Okay, that's no problem" the other officer said while they were sitting down. "So how did Gabriel get you?"
"I was running towards the toy store when suddenly someone grabbed me. I didn't see anything because Gabriel blindfolded me. The next thing I remember is being thrown on the floor of a car, seeing mommy on the backseat. Then the car stopped and I was brought into the cabin. A few minutes later mommy was brought in there, too. We wrote a message to daddy. After that he came back to us and told me to go to the corner and watch what he was doing with mommy…" Aiden stopped.
"What did he do with her?" Jim and the officers asked in unison. Aiden stood up from his seat and sat down on Jim's lap.
"He hit mommy. He took her clothes away. She screamed but he wouldn't stop."
"Was he naked, too?" the officers asked.
"Yes, and he put his pee thing into mommy's."
"OMG. HE RAPED HER? I'M GONNA…"
"Mr. Clancy, you won't do anything. We'll take care of him" one of the officers interrupted him.
"Aiden, did you really have to see all of this?" Jim asked, a tear running down his cheek.
"Yes, he told me to watch him or he'd kill us…" he said, starting to cry.
"Hey… Shhhhhh… It's okay. You did the right thing" Jim calmed him down. "You couldn't have helped her in any way, okay?! We just should have been faster after getting her message… Gosh… I'm gonna go in there now. I want to know how my wife is. I need to see her now!"
"You know that you can't go in there as long as the doctors are examining her!" one of the officers told him.
"Yeah, I know. I should stay with Aiden" Jim responded and turned to his son. "Do you need anything?"
"Yeah."
"What?"
"I want to be with mommy!"
"You can't go to her. We'll look after her when the doctors tell us that it's ok."
"B-b-but… I wa-want to b-b-b-be wi-with her" Aiden sobbed.
"We will. But not now."
"Excuse us, we'll go back to the station now and send you an officer over who will watch that no one but you and the doctors will go into her room" one of the officers said while they were standing up.
"And Aiden, you did great!" the other officer said. Aiden didn't answer.
"Could you please do me a favour?" Jim asked.
"Depends on what it is" the officers said in unison.
"Could you please call my mother and tell her that we're here. I told her to cook but she doesn't need to do it since it seems like we'd spend the whole day here."
"Sure. We'll call her and tell her to come over!"
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome! Bye" then they went. Jim and Aiden were all alone now. Aiden was still crying.
"Hey, what's wrong besides not being with mommy?"
"I'm scared."
"About what?"
"What if he comes back? Mommy was scared of him, too."
"You're safe, Aiden. I'm gonna protect you and your mommy, okay?"
"Okay."
Then a doctor came over to them.
"We need to examine your son" the doctor, whose name was Dr. Heart, said.
"Why?" Jim wanted to know.
"We have to. We are working together with the police and they need to know if he is harmed, too" he explained.
"Oh, sure. Aiden, do you want me to go with you?"
"Yes, please, daddy."
They got up and Jim carried Aiden to a room where he was being examined.
10 minutes later they were done and went back. Right at this moment Faith arrived at the hospital and ran towards them.
"Hey, how are they?" she asked Jim, not noticing that Aiden was on his lap.
"Well, the little one here is fine. He just got examined and seems to be fine" Jim pointed at Aiden.
"Oh, hey honey" she gave her grandson a kiss on his forehead. "And how's Melinda?"
"We don't know. The doctors are still examining her. She's badly beaten up and Aiden told us…" Jim couldn't end his sentence.
"He told you what?"
"That… Gabriel… He raped her…" tears were streaming down his cheeks.
"OMG. Can I help you in any way?"
"No, you can't. I just want to see her. Oh, and sorry that I made you cook, for no one."
"Sure, I understand you. You're worried about your wife. Don't apologize to me. You couldn't have known what happened to them."

Suddenly the door of the emergency room opened and the doctors came out. Jim immediately stood up with Aiden in his arms. He nearly had fallen asleep of exhaustion but now he was completely awake again.
"How is she?" Jim asked the doctors.
"Well, when we started examining her she hit us like she was scared of us. We had to give her a strong sedative to calm her down. Then we started the examination. Besides of all the bruises she has a sprained arm, wrist and waist and two broken ribs. The kidnapper didn't leave out one thing at her. We found some bad bruises on her thigh. It seems like she was raped what would also explain her way of acting before" Dr. Martin explained.
"How is she now?" Jim wanted to know.
"The sedative made her sleep. She won't wake up until tomorrow. The bruises and stuff will go away with no impact but I can't tell you how big the mental impact of being kidnapped and raped will be. We need to wait until she wakes up."
"Can we go to her?" Aiden asked.
"Actually I don't know if it is such a good idea but I think you can go to her for some minutes."
"I want to stay with her, please" she started to cry again.
"You know what? I'm gonna get you a bed and you can sleep in your mom's room. If that's okay with your dad. Because then he'd to stay here, too."
"It's fine with me. I wanted to stay with my wife anyway."
"Okay, the nurse will show you her room" Dr. Martin said and went away.
Jim turned around and saw Faith talking to someone. He let Aiden down and walked over to her.
"Jim, this is Officer Stanley. He's here to take care of Melinda" Faith introduced Jim to the guy she was talking to before.
"Okay. Hello, I'm Jim Clancy, her husband and that's Aiden, our son" he pointed at Aiden.
"Hello, I'm Oscar Stanley. Just call me Os. All my friends are calling me like this."
"Okay, Os, just call me Jim." They shook hands. "Erm, mom, we're gonna spend the night here. You can go to our house if you want."
"What? Aiden is staying here, too? Do you think that's a good idea?"
"He wants to. It was his idea and I think we should let him. He had a hard day."
"Yeah, okay, I understand. So I'm gonna go back home now but I'll be back in the morning… Ohhh… I totally forgot to ask how Melinda is?!"
"It's okay mom. Let's say as the case may be…"
"That doesn't sound good. I'm gonna go now. Bye. Bye, Aiden" she leaned down and gave him a kiss on his cheek.
"Bye, granny."
Then the nurse came and brought Jim, Aiden and Os to Melinda's room. For the second time this day he was shocked about what he saw. Melinda was lying on the hospital bed. Her body was covered with tubes which were observing her vital signs.
"Why?" was all that Jim managed to ask.
"It's just for us to be sure that she's okay" the nurse told him.
"Okay." The nurse left.
"Daddy?" Aiden asked.
"Is she…?" Aiden sobbed so hard that he couldn't end his sentence.
"No, she's alive. If she was dead she'd told us or she'd have showed up as a ghost. Do you see her anywhere?"
"No, I don't see her…"
They walked towards the bed and Jim sat down on a chair next to it. Aiden sat down on his lap. Both just watched Melinda in her bed. She looked tiny, pale and vulnerable. They stared at her for what seemed like hours. A nurse came in with a bed for Aiden.
"I'm sorry, but we just can give you one bed because we need the other ones" she said.
"It's okay. We'll manage. Thank you" Jim said.
Then the nurse left. Because it was getting late Aiden went to bed while Jim was holding Melinda's hand. After some more hours he fell asleep, too.

I have i „big" surprise in store for you guys… Stay tuned and COMMENT!!! ;)