Hey guys! Another chapter. Sorry this one isn't as long as the other ones, but it sets things up for my next few chapters. Please stay with this story. The next few chapters will be normal, Henry and Stella will go back to school,(education is important people, even for geniuses). But there will be a grand finale right at the end of this story. So please stay with me. Anyway thank you so so much, please review and enjoy:)

chapter 42: go out with me?

I walked through the apartment door. It had been the first time in days. The hospital kept Henry in over night, due to his concussion, and me in for another day. Henry and I both needed stitches on the cuts in our arms, and medical tape for the cut on our face. Henry had two broken ribs, a broken nose( which had to be set) and an extremely bruised leg, along with his other injuries. He had also been put on a drip, to try to flush out the toxins in his blood and he was very dehydrated. I, however, had a concussion, my back was bruised again, along with my leg, a few broken fingers and my arm had to be reset. The team didn't quite know what happened to us in the van on the way back, but they had a brief idea. During my stay in the hospital, dad had spoken to me. He told me everything about Mum, including how she was killed. It was shocking, but it eased up my conscience knowing that I hadn't given her the poison directly. I still felt bad though, I should have realized that she was one of the paramedics from that night. Even though she was wearing a short ginger wig, I should have recognized her other features. Dad had also planned for me to get counselling. I wasn't overjoyed by this, but I knew that he had the best intentions.

"Sit down. I'll get you dinner. What do you want?" Dad offered. I wasn't hungry. I hated even being in the apartment. I didn't feel the slightest bit safe.

"I'm good with anything really." I replied. The hospital had drugged me up, so I was feeling slightly nauseous.

"How about Chinese?" Dad asked. I just nodded to please him. Dad went off to order it, whilst I lay back on the sofa. I wasn't aching that much due to the amount of painkillers the hospital gave me. I decided to check my phone. I was shocked to see that I had five new messages. I was even more shocked when I read them. Each one was from the group, saying that they hoped I got better soon and they were sorry about the car accident. I hadn't been at school all of this week and there was no chance I was going in tomorrow. Monday maybe, but not tomorrow. Still, I was confused. Why did they think I'd been in a car accident? I decided the best thing to do was to ring Henry for answers.

"What's wrong?" He asked after one ring.

"Nothing. Why does the group think I've been in a car accident?" I asked.

"Oh, I knew there was something I forgot to tell you." Henry said casually.

"You don't say." I replied.

"We couldn't exactly tell them we'd been kidnapped by a psychopath. So Hotch thought it would best that we came up with a cover story. Apparently, we were with Morgan driving back from picking me up from school, when another car collided with us, causing us to serve off the road and go into a tree. We were unconscious for two days and sustained many injuries." Henry recited.

"Stupid tree, I told Morgan to look out for it." I joked.

"If you ask me it was the other cars fault." Henry replied. This made me smile a little. It had been the first time I'd smiled in a while.

"How are you anyway?" I asked, I hadn't seen him since he left the hospital.

"I'm on top of the world." Henry replied, deadly serious.

"Well that's good to hear."

"How are you?" He asked.

"Fine." I replied to quickly.

"Stel, I'm not on top of the world and you're not fine." Henry said blankly.

"I know." I sighed.

"So do you want to talk?" Henry asked.

"Another time." I said quickly, dad had come back in.

"Stella-"

"Sorry Henry, I've got to go." I said hanging up. I felt bad and I wanted to talk to him, but not with dad around.

"Is everything okay?" He asked.

"Fine." I said with a false smile. I always seemed to be fine.

"You're not and you might not be for a while, but you will be." Dad said, kissing my forehead. He hopped off the sofa and put a DVD in the player.

"What are we watching?" I asked.

"Tangled." Dad replied. I gave him a small smile.

"You know me so well." I said. I snuggled under the blanket. I struggled to stay awake I was so tired. I must have nodded off at some point, because I woke up to the phone ringing. Not bothering to open my eyes I just listened.

"Henry she's fine, she just fell asleep."
"How are you anyway?"
"Well if you need to talk, you know where I am."
"Yeah. Okay. Bye." Dad finished. Trust Henry to ring. To tired to ask about the whole conversation. I feel asleep again. I was surprised to be greeted to a warm, deep sleep. I even managed to get lost in a few pleasant dreams.

I woke up to the smell of coffee. I opened my eyes to find myself in the exact same position on the sofa. Light coming through the blinds, told me that it was morning. Dad walked in holding a cup of coffee.

"Is that for me?" I asked, still sleepy.

"Morning Sleeping Beauty, and no it's not. But seeing as you didn't eat anything last night, I will make a once in a life time exception, and give you my beloved coffee." Dad smiled.

"Why thank-you." I said, grabbing it before he changed his mind. Dad never shared his coffee.

"You're welcome." Dad said, sitting down next to me.

"What are we doing today?" I asked.

"Well, I think you should spend today and the weekend recovering. You've only been at school two weeks, and you've already missed a week. I just want you to have the best start, so maybe you should rest up so you're good for Monday. Also, I don't want you getting to far behind on your school work." Dad advised. He was right, I needed to get back to school.

"Are you planning on going into the BAU today?" I asked casually.

"Yes, but not before we talk." Dad replied, equally casually.

"What about?" I tried to ask cluelessly.

"Don't act dum Stella. You know what I'm talking about. I'm not leaving here until you tell me what you told Henry." Dad said stubbornly. I knew we could be here all day and I couldn't be bothered to argue, so I told him. I told him everything I'd told Henry. When I finished I looked up at Dad. Well I tried, but he brought me into a bone-crushing hug. I couldn't help but wince a little.

"Sorry." Dad said easing up. "Why didn't you tell me this before. Stella I hate it that you're feeling this way. From now on please promise that you'll talk to me. You can't just keep things like this inside of you. It's not healthy. I know it's tough though Stella. I miss your mother too and not a day goes by where I don't think about her. It's okay to mourn over her and miss her and don't think for a minute that you can't. But your Mum wouldn't want you to feel like this. She'd tell you that life isn't fair and sometimes you need to get on with things." Dad smiled slightly. He was right, that's exactly what Mum would have said.

"I know." I agreed. I adjusted my position slightly as it was growing uncomfortable. I must have knocked something on the floor, but the sound caused me to jump out of my skin. I looked around frantically, trying to find the source of the sound.

"Stella, you just knocked a book off the sofa. Are you okay? You practically jumped off the sofa." Dad asked. I couldn't answer, I was trying to focus on calming myself down.

"Please answer me truthfully, what exactly happened in the van?" Dad asked gently. I wanted to tell him, but it was difficult. I didn't know that well myself what happened.

"I don't know. Henry and I were led out of the room. They blindfolded us though. When they took off the blindfolds we were in the back of the van. The man was there. He looked pretty pissed. There wasn't that much light, so we couldn't see that well. But the next thing I knew, Henry was on the floor. He started to beat him. He kicked him in the head and the ribs. I tried to stop him, but he hit me. Henry tried to get up and help but he kicked him in the leg. He must have known that I feel through the roof, because he uh, he stomped on my arm. I knew he'd re-broken it because I heard it snap. He also kicked my back and my leg. Henry tried to get up and stop him, but he punched him in the nose. Again, we heard that crack. Henry couldn't really do much, he was in so much pain. I thought he was done, but he stomped on my fingers to finish off. He just left us lying there. Eventually we pulled up to the BAU and we were made to get up." I re-told. I was shaking the whole way through. All I could think of was the pain we were in. I was blinking heavily when I looked up. My eyesight was for some reason blurry.

"No-one should ever have to go what you and Henry have been through. I promise you that we will find this woman. Now, if you want I can stay at home." Dad said gently.

"It's fine. You need to get to the BAU." I replied. Drying my face on the blanket. Deep down I didn't want to be left alone.

"No, I'd rather not leave you alone. I'm calling Hotch." Dad stated. I didn't turn this down. Dad went off to ring Hotch. I checked my phone again. I had three messages from Henry asking if I was alright. That reminded me about the conversation he had with Dad yesterday.

"Dad, what did Henry want when he rang yesterday?" I asked when he re-emerged into the room.

"He was checking up on you of course." Dad replied.

"No apart from that." I said slightly impatient.

"I didn't realize you were awake. Stel, I don't think I have a right to tell you. It's between Henry and me." Dad said softly.

"Please Dad, he keeps bugging me, asking if I'm alright. But I want to know if he's alright." I practically begged.

"He's like you Stel, he might not be fine at the moment, but he will be. He still hasn't told anyone what was bothering him so much." Dad replied.

"It's between Henry and me." I mimicked. Causing dad to mock scowl. "Besides, he'll tell you when he wants to tell you."

"I know. Anyway, can I get you anything. Painkillers, food, ice, a drink, anything you want?" Dad asked. This was tempting. I didn't feel as nauseous as I did before.

"Can I have some painkillers first, and some food." I replied.

"Sure, anything in particular?" Dad asked.

"Any foods good." I replied. Dad smiled walking towards the kitchen. I decided to call Henry. I felt bad that I hung up on him yesterday.

"Are you okay?" Henry said, yet again after one ring.

"I'm-"

"Please don't say fine."He interrupted.

"I'm better." I answered truthfully.

"Well that is good to hear." Henry replied happily.

"What about you, how are you? And don't say you're on top of the world." I asked. Henry was constantly asking about me.

"I'm, I uh, I would rather not talk about what happened." Henry stammered.

"Henry, please talk to someone. Me, your mum, your dad, anyone. I told my dad what happened in the van, and it made me feel so much better. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted." I told him. Dad was right when he told me it wasn't healthy to keep things bottled up.

"You what! Stella, I'm not comfortable with him knowing that." Henry replied, slightly angry. I had no idea why.

"Why Henry? He wanted me to tell him, so I did." I replied. I didn't understand why he was acting like this.

"What did he say?" He asked. His voice was shaking.

"He said that no one should have gone through what we did." I replied.

"So he wasn't angry?" Henry asked. I was completely lost at this point. Dad happened to walk in at this point, holding painkillers, a glass of water and my heated up Chinese from last night.

"I'm sorry but you've lost me." I replied.

"He wasn't angry that I didn't do more to stop you from getting hurt."Henry sounded so childlike, it was cute.

"I don't know let me ask him." I said deadly serious.

"Stella, no, please don't."Henry pleaded.

"Dad are you angry at Henry?" I asked, placing the phone near him. It was slightly cruel but Henry needed to get in his head, how ridiculous he was being.

"What! Give me the phone." Dad said, rolling his eyes. I didn't argue with him. With pleasure I passed the phone over. After dad gave Henry a lecture, about how he was not mad at him. He passed the phone back to me.

"Did you get that?" I asked.

"Yes." Henry replied stubbornly.

"Good. Now are you feeling any better?" I asked.

"A little." Henry sighed. We both weren't going to feel fully better in a while, but it was an improvement.

"I know." I sighed. Henry seemed to understand what I was talking about as he didn't question this remark.

"What are you doing anyway?" Henry asked, trying to change the subject.

"Eating left over Chinese food, what about you?"

"In my room."

"You're not home alone are you?" I asked concerned.

"No, Dads home. He's decided to stay." Henry said, I could tell he was smiling.

"I'm happy for you."

"Stella."

"Yes."

"Will you go out with me?" Henry asked. I was completely confused at this point.

"Henry, I think the drugs from the hospital haven't worn off yet." I told him.

"He's delusional." I whispered to Dad.

"He's always delusional." Dad tried to mouth back.

"I can hear you! And I what I meant was, I've never actually asked you out on a date." Henry explained. It was true. So much had gone on lately that we didn't really have the time.

"Uh, as nice as that is, there is someone after us." I tried to say discretely. I didn't want Dad catching onto our conversation.

"Don't worry, leave it to me. Just don't plan anything for this Friday." Henry said confidently.

"Okay, then." I replied, still slightly confused.

"I'll see you on Monday, or hopefully before then. I've got to go though Stella. I love you. Bye." Henry said quickly, before he hung up. I just lay on the sofa, extremely confused.

"What was that about?" Dad asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea. Man, that boy has mood swings. Its hard to keep up." I said. Dad laughed a little.

"So how about we watch Harry Potter?" Dad asked.

"I've trained you well."