Chapter 37

At the hudson's donna was just on her way upstairs when the doorbell rang and when she opened the door it was like her heart stopped beating for a second;"What are you doing here?"

"Hello,donna."smiled regioneld;"Aren't you going to invite me in?"

"No,I'm not!"answered she angry;"Go away and leave us alone!"

"Is that any way to talk to your father?"asked he;"I came all this way just to see my family."

"Go away!"yelled donna furious;"Just leave us alone!"

"What's all the yelling about?"asked her husband worried as he came into the hallway and became also furious when he saw regioneld on their doorstep;"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm not here to see you,stableboy!"answered regioneld;"I came to see my daughters and my granddaughters."

"Nobody wants to see you downhere,so go away or I will make you go away!"warned he regioneld and got infront of his wife;"If you're smart then you will take the first place out of here!"

"Is that a threat?"asked his father-in-law laughing;Is that suppose to scare or something,stableboy?"

"No,that's a promise!"answered Michael while he pushed regioneld of his doorstep and slammed the door shut behind him;"Stay away if you know what's good for you!"

"This is all your fault!"said his wife in tears;"Because of you he's in town now,Michael!"

"He will be gone soon enough,honey!"started he slowly and pulled donna into his arms;"I won't let him hurt you or our daughters."

Nicole was waiting in shane's livingroom for him to come home after he'd gone to the policestation for a while when she finally heard the frontdoor opening up,shane?"

"Yes,it's me."answered he and walked into the livingroom;"Have you been waiting for me here all night long?"

"No,I didn't get here untill an hour ago."said his girlfriend worried when she saw the sad look in his eyes;"Are you okay?"

"Not really."started shane softly and sat down next to her;"I went to the crime-scene at tops and there's blood everywhere,nicole."

"Is there anything that could you lead you to who's behind this,shane?"asked she;"Anything at all?"

"Maybe."said he;"Adam took a shot at one of the robbers that shot m.j. and since we found blood on the place where the robber had been standing we think that adam's bullet did hit him and that's hurt now."

"Then there must be a lead at the hospital or something because if he was wounded then they must have taken him to see a doctor at the e.r."answered Nicole surprised;"This might just be the break that you guys were waiting for."

"I doubt if they brought him to the hospital since a doctor there would call the police right away as soon as he saw the gunshot-wound,nicole,but we're going to check all the local doctors in town that sometimes do things for people that can't go to the hospital."

"That is good news,isn't it?"asked she confused when shane didn't seem happy;"Why are you still so down when you might have a lead?"

"If we had been able to catch these guys then this wouldn't have happened!"answered shane tired;"That is why it's so important that we catch them now before something like this happens again!"

At mary's place jake was cleaning up some tables when three men came in and the oldest one walked up to him;"Is ben around?"

"Who wants to know?"asked jake a bit suspicious;"What do you want with him?"

"That's none of your damn business!"answered the youngest one and grabbed jake's shirt;"Tell us where that son of a bitch is!"

"Hey,get your hands off me!"warned jake him angry as he pushed him away;"what kind of nutcase are you?"

"Calm down,George!"said the oldest son and turned towards jake again;"Look,we don't want any trouble,mister,we just want to know where ben is because we have some unfinished business with him."

"What are you doing here?"asked ben irritated as he came out of the kitchen and saw the three men standing by jake;"Get out of here!"

"Not untill you tell us where Emily is!"answered the oldest one;"Where is she,ben?"

"How should I know?"started he surprised;"Isn't she at home?"

"No,she ran off this morning!"said the third man angry and grabbed ben's shirt;"Tell us where our little sister is or else…!"

"Let go off him!"warned jake the man as he pushed him away;"If you guys came here looking for a fight then go somewhere else!"

"We didn't come here for a fight!"answered the oldest man calm and looked at the man who'd grabbed ben;"Go and wait outside,frank!"

"But…"started he surprised;"He must know where she is,ed,this is all his fault!"

"Go outside with George and wait for me there!"began Edward again as he looked at the two men;"Go now!"

"Did Emily really run away?"asked ben worried after frank had left with George;"Why?"

"Why do you think?"said the older man annoyed;"Because she thinks that she really loves you and that she can't live without you,ben!"

"But she isn't here,Edward,she really isn't!"answered he;"I haven't seen or heard from her either."

"If you do hear from my sister or if she were to show up here then call us right away!"started the man slowly;"We will be in Chicago for about a week or so."

"What was that all about?"asked jake surprised after Edward had left too;"Who's Emily and who were those men?"

"Emily was a girl that I was seeing for about 18 months or so untill the end of last month when her family found out and put a stop to it."said his cousin;"Those guys are her brothers and it must be really serious if they came all the way downhere."

The next day marlee was about to saddle up her horse when she saw vicky's car pulling up in the driveway and she walked up to her sister,who was just getting out of the car;"Goodmorning,Vicky,what are you doing here this early?"

"Probaly the same thing as you are."laughed her sister;"How was your date lastnight?"

"It was great,vicky."smiled marlee as they both went inside the stable;"Ryan is a real gentleman."

"So,is he a good kisser?"asked she teasing;"Or did it go further then that?"

"Ofcourse not!"answered her sister annoyed;"Not on a first date!"

"Hey,relax!"laughed Vicky;"I was just teasing you,marlee."

"Everything was perfect lastnight and I haven't had such a good time in I don't know how long."said she;Ryan was really nice and he didn't try to push me into anything that I wasn't ready for."

"I'm happy for you,marlee,I really am."started her sister slowly as she became more serious;"I ran into Michael on my way into the gate and he seemed pretty distracted or something,so what's up with him?"

"It seems that regioneld showed up at the house lastnight and that it really freaked donna out."answered she softly;"She's really worried that regioneld is gonna to mess everything up again."

"I wouldn't worry that much if I were here because once he gets it through that thick skull of his that nobody wants him downhere regioneld will go away again."said her Vicky;"He wouldn't dare to make trouble again."

"Let's hope so,because I have never seen Michael and donna like this before."began her sister still worried;"Who knows what either of them would do to stop regioneld from hurting our family again."

At the hospital mary was sitting next to vince's bed when Jamie came in;"Goodmorning,guys."

"Goodmorning."said vince looking up;"So,when can I go home?"

"Maybe in a day or two."answered the young doctor;"That depends on the testresults,vince."

"That's great."smiled he and turned towards mary,but was surprised when she didn't react to the news at all;"Isn't that good news,mary?"

"What is?"asked mary confused as she looked up;"I'm sorry,vince,I was just somewhere else with my mind."

"I will talk to you guys later on."said Jamie quickly as he walked away again;"Maybe you can try to go for a walk again later on,vince."

"Sure,Jamie,thanks."answered he and looked at mary;"What's going on with you,mary,eversince yesterday you've been really distracted and quiet."

"Nothing is going on."said she lying;"I'm just a bit tired,so maybe I'm coming down with something."

"Are you sure that there is nothing wrong?"asked vince not convinced;"I want to know if there is something wrong with you?"

"There is nothing wrong with me!"answered mary softly;"Let's just focus on getting you home again,vince."

Mac was about to leave for the office when Amanda came down the stairs;"I thought that you'd already had left for the hospital,Amanda."

"No,I didn't."answered she;"I thought that you'd left already too."

"How long are you going to keep this up?"asked mac tired;"You can try to avoid us as much as you like,but that isn't going to change the fact that your mother is dying!"

"I don't want to hear it!"said his daughter quickly and tried to walk past her father;"I have to go to the hospital,dad."

"You're the one who wanted to know the truth!"started he slowly;"Your mother is dying and it isn't going to go away by pretending that this isn't happening."

"How was I suppose to know that you two were keeping something like that from me?"asked Amanda angry;"Do you expect me to be happy about the fact that mom told me this secret?"

"Maybe you will be more carefull with what you wish for next time,Amanda."answered her mother as she came into the hallway;"You insisted that you'd be told the truth even though I begged you to leave it alone and finally I did,so this was your own choice and you can't blame us for not being happy about what you heard."

"But I just don't want you to die,mom!"said she with tears in her eyes;"I just can't believe that this is happening!"

"Do you think that this is what I want,Amanda,do you think that I want to have this tumor in my brain and that I want to die?"asked Rachel tired;"I don't want to die,honey,but there's nothing that I can do to change that and it's something that I will have no other choice then to accept."

"Who else knows?"started her daughter softly as she pulled herself together when she realized that she wasn't being fair towards her parents;"Am I the only one that you have told?"

"Yes,you are,honey,your mother didn't want to tell any of you yet."answered mac as he put his arms around his daughter;"We will just have to make the best of the time that we have left."

At mary's place Kathleen had just opened up for business together with her brother and her cousin when aaron walked in;"Hi,guys."

"Hi,aaron."said Kathleen as she turned around;"How was your flight?"

"It was fine."answered he;"How is m.j. doing,Kathleen,is she still unconscious and where's justin?"

"Justin is with my babysitter right now,together with my son,and m.j. isn't awaked yet,but the doctor said that she's gonna be fine."started she hesitating;"But he's worried about something else."

"What is he worried about then?"asked aaron surprised;"Is there something wrong with her that you haven't told me about yet?"

"That's something that we wanted to ask you."began ben slowly;"What happened in new York,aaron,why is m.j. on heavy painkillers?"

"The doctor found a high amount of painkillers in m.j.'s blood,just like he did when he examined her after she passed out when she was in the 24h store when it got robbed."explained his sister quickly when she saw the confused look in aaron's eyes;"He also said that he found two scar-wounds and two operation-scars,aaron,so we're all curious about what happened to my sister."

"I told m.j. to tell you guys about what had happened in new York,but she was so dead-set against it and wanted to wait."answered he;"On april the 5th of this year we were walking home when we got caught up in a drive-by shooting and m.j. got shot in her head as well as in her stomach."

"What happened then?"asked jake shocked;"That sounds really serious."

"After many hours of surgery they were finally able to remove all the bullets and patch her up,but m.j. had gone into a coma and she stayed in a coma for about twenty days or so."said aaron;"After that she stayed in the hospital for another two months where she had physical therapy to help her use everything normal again and when she got out all she had to do for a while longer was use a cain to help her with walking,but the doctors said that it would only be temporary."

"So that would mean that she probably got heavy painkillers after the surgery."said Kathleen;"But why is she still taking them now,aaron,is she still in that much pain?"

"I don't know,Kathleen,I knew she still had headache sometimes,but I didn't know that she was still in so much pain."said he softly;"I had no idea that she was still taking so many painkillers or that her doctor was still subscribing those to her."

"Maybe we should tell Jamie about this right away."suggested ben;"He will have to know about this."

"That's a good idea,ben,I will take aaron to the hospital."answered his sister as she turned towards aaron;"Don't worry if she doesn't wake up yet,because Jamie said that it's not that strange after a headtrauma."