Hello!

And…I don't have anything to say.

ON TO CHAPTER FIVE!

Eleanor wobbled slightly under the tray of hot soup that she was carrying. There were five heavy bowls on it, and she stumbled slightly on the stairs, but managed to catch herself.

"You okay, Ellie?" Brittany called from the bedroom.

"I'm fine," Eleanor huffed, slightly out of breath. "The tray is just kind of heavy…"

"Oh! I'll come help you with it, Ellie!" Theodore chirped.

Eleanor scowled as she got to the top of the stairs. "Theodore Seville, you stay right where you are!" she snapped, stumbling slightly again and regaining her balance. "You know perfectly well that I can handle this tray all by myself. You're just looking for an excuse to get up, and the doctor specifically said to stay in bed."

She heard Theodore "humph" as she called him out, and she couldn't resist smiling slightly as she came into the room with the soup. She handed a bowl each to Simon, Alvin, Brittany, and Theodore, each one stretched out on their own bed and each one looking exceptionally bored. Eleanor grabbed the last bowl and clambered into her own bed.

"Thanks, Ellie," Theodore called down to her, smiling as he prodded the chicken noodle soup. Everyone else thanked her, and she smiled in return.

"So, how are we going to find Jeanette?" Alvin asked once they had all gotten situated.

"Well, we haven't got any way of finding her," Brittany said glumly as she stirred the tomato soup. (Eleanor had gotten each chipmunk their favorite.) "We don't know where Adam took her, and we don't have any way of following them."

"As much as I hate to admit it, Brittany's right," Alvin said sadly, poking his beef stew before spooning some of it up.

"We don't have any way of finding Jeanette, and who KNOWS what they're doing to her?" Simon cried in frustration.

"We know exactly what they're doing to her, don't we?" Brittany snapped back, taking a small bite out of a slice of tomato. "He's going to turn her back into Callie and make her his minion."

The others fully expected Simon to get dejected and miserable, but to their astonishment, he said briskly, "Oh, that isn't going to be a problem," as he picked up his spoon and slurped up his vegetable soup. Carrots and peas bobbed to the surface next to the small chunks of meat.

"What do you mean?" Eleanor frowned as she ate some chicken noodle soup—she and Theodore had the same favorite.

"Remember the cure I injected in her last time to get her to change back?" Simon asked them.

They all nodded.

"That was also filled with a special substance that will protect her immune system from changing or getting affected at all. It's enhanced her white blood cells to fight off the venom that gets into her system, so if she gets another spider bite, nothing is going to happen."

They all breathed a sigh of relief.

"I didn't know that!" Brittany exclaimed. Relief flooded through her, and she slurped up her next spoonful of soup with her good hand with much more enthusiasm. Her appetite was beginning to come back to her.

"That's one more thing that we don't need to worry about," Alvin agreed, gnawing on a piece of beef.

"That doesn't change much, though," Simon told them realistically. "We don't know where she is, and we don't know how to find her." He sighed as he took another spoonful of the soup.

He slumped back on his pillow…and his hand hit his cell phone.

He frowned slightly and pulled it out from under the covers. It was then that he noticed that it was blinking.

He unlocked it and typed in his password and he looked at the notification.

Jeanette15 has moved out of approximate fifty-mile target, it read. Locate?

Simon let out a gasp.

"GUYS!" he yelled, causing Alvin to jump and Brittany to nearly spill tomato soup down her front.

"Watch it!" she growled. "Tomato soup stains badly!"

"But I know how to find Jeanette!" he cried.

"WHAT?" everyone chorused, instantly pushing their soup to the side and sitting bolt upright.

Simon held up his phone as he punched in a few keys. "I have a GPS on her!" he said excitedly. "The app is programmed in my phone. It's just a really tiny chip, and I installed it in her glasses when she was sleeping. The phone can locate her, anywhere she is! We can find her! We can save her!"

He triumphantly held up the phone and it showed coordinates.

"Ellie, go get a piece of paper and a pencil!" Brittany cried suddenly.

"Why?" Eleanor frowned.

"Just hurry!"

Eleanor jumped off of her bed and scampered from the room, coming back with a piece of paper and a pencil.

"Write down the address and the coordinates, hurry!" Brittany said urgently.

Eleanor did so as fast as she could.

"Why did I just write those down?" Eleanor asked when she was done.

"Something might happen to the GPS in Jeanette's glasses," Brittany explained. "Her glasses might get broken, or they might even discover the chip and destroy it. If that happens, we won't have the coordinates or the address anymore, and we won't remember where to find her. This way, we've got it on paper in case something happens to it."

"Good thinking, Britt," Simon said, typing furiously into the keypad. "I'm going to save the location onto my phone, too, just in case."

Everyone felt much more cheerful and lighthearted as they dug back into their soup. They knew where they were going now. They had a plan. The situation didn't look as hopeless as it had before.

"All right, so when are we going?" Simon asked briskly after he'd finished his vegetable soup.

Eleanor put her spoon aside. She hadn't finished with hers yet, but it could wait. She hopped out of her bed and put her hands on her hips. "After you four heal!" she snapped.

"ELEANOR!" everyone chorused.

"We are getting nowhere in this expedition if you haven't completely healed, all four of you," she said firmly. "You got very beat up, and it's going to take a while to recover. That's just the way it is. Do you want to get kidnapped, too? Then who's going to save Jeanette?"

Everyone grumbled incomprehensibly to themselves. They saw the logic in her explanation, but they didn't want to see the logic.

"Oh, stop your whining," Eleanor snapped. "I don't like it, either, but we're not getting anywhere if you guys aren't feeling better. Now everyone, finish your soup, PLEASE!"

Everyone, still mumbling to themselves, finished their soup.

"THANK you!" she huffed, glaring at them all. "You know, I am TRYING to look after you all and help you heal, but it's a bit hard when you're all being so difficult!"

At this, the chipmunks and Brittany all felt ashamed, even Alvin.

"We're sorry, Ellie," Theodore told her quietly.

"You're doing a great job caring for us, Ellie, and we really appreciate it," Britt told her.

Eleanor couldn't help but smile as she went around the room and stacked the now-empty bowls back up on the tray. She hurried out of the room.

Simon was typing things into his phone. He was thinking and theorizing, planning and making arrangements in his head for everything that had to be done.

He pulled out the GPS app again to check exactly where she was.

He frowned and blinked.

That can't be right, he thought.

But it was.

He frowned. "Guys?" he called.

They all looked up.

"He's got Jeanette on…" Simon cleared his throat and tried again. "He's got Jeanette on an island."

They all froze for a minute, and then Brittany flopped backwards onto her pillow.

"Great," she snarled. "That's just dandy. Because we totally haven't had enough of islands in the past."

"It's not the same one that we were shipwrecked on," Simon told her, frowning and squinting at it.

"Of course not," Alvin said, playing on his DS game. "The volcano on that one erupted, right? The whole thing is covered in lava and ash and rocks."

They all shivered at that statement.

"Actually," Simon continued, "this one must be a lot smaller than the other one, or Adam's got her in some underwater lair, because it's not even on the map."

"I'm sure there's an island there," Brittany said quickly before everyone could start offering ridiculous theories.

"But…look at all these rocks around here!" Simon cried. "We can't bring a steamship. It won't work."

"So we bring a sailing ship," Theodore said calmly. "That would be small enough."

"A sailing ship?" Brittany freaked. "Do they even USE those anymore? Those ships are practically ancient! And do you know how long it takes for them to get from place to place?"

"Look," Simon snapped, holding the phone up. "Theo's right, they do still have those…and I'm sure we can find one somewhere that will work for us. As for the distance thing…we live in Massachusetts, right?"

They all nodded.

"We're right on the coast, aren't we?"

They all nodded again.

He pointed to the small light indicating where Jeanette was. "That is just off the coast of Massachusetts."

They all frowned.

"It will still take almost three weeks to get there," Eleanor chimed in from the doorway where she had been listening.

"That's perfect!" Brittany cried.

"It is?" Simon frowned, who didn't like the idea of having to wait that long.

"Look," Brittany said excitedly. "It's going to take three weeks for us to heal, right? And another three for us to get there. That's over a month, Eleanor. We don't have that much time."

Eleanor started to say something, but Alvin cut her off. "I get what Brittany's saying!" he cried. "We get the ship now and heal ON THE SHIP! If we stay in our beds, or cabins or whatever they're called, and rest and heal and do everything you tell us to, then by the time we get to where Jeanette's being held, we'll BE healed, and we'll only delay her rescue by the original three weeks that we'd planned."

They were all silent as they digested this plan.

"All right, listen." Eleanor's hands were on her hips. Then she let out a sigh and glared at all of them. "Do you PROMISE to not get out of your beds in your cabins?"

"Yes," they all chorused, sensing a "yes" coming soon.

"Do you PROMISE to not move at all and rest and heal?"

"Yes!"

"Do you PROMISE to drink every bit of medicine that I give you, swallow every pill, no matter how disgusting-tasting it is, and NOT COMPLAIN?"

The "yes" was a bit more unenthusiastic that time, but it was there.

Eleanor sighed and dropped her hands in defeat. "Fine, fine. We'll do that."

They all cheered.

Jeanette sighed glumly as she stared at nothing.

She had been here for so long and nothing was getting better. In fact, things were getting worse.

She flopped back onto her queen-sized, plushy, soft, purple canopy bed and stared at the top, feeling more miserable than she had when they had crammed her in a cat carrier. She looked down at the soft purple dress she was wearing and felt more uncomfortable than she had in her torn, dirty, ripped jean jacket. She looked around at the beautiful, shimmering walls crammed with all her favorite books, and she was more bored than when she had had absolutely nothing.

He was giving her all these luxuries, but she didn't care. Because Adam seemed to have decided that, if he couldn't have Callie, Jeanette was just as good.

She hadn't done anything to him. WITH him. She didn't kiss him, she didn't hug him, she didn't touch him. She did her best to stay away from him. She didn't want to be within a five-foot radius.

However, just because she didn't touch him and hug him and go within five feet of him, it didn't mean that he didn't touch her and hug her and go near her.

Maddening. Because she knew exactly what he was doing.

She had overheard him talking the other night. She would have figured out as much, though, even if she hadn't overheard it…

"Nothing? NOTHING?!"

Jeanette cringed and instinctively shoved herself backward so that she was huddled up in the corner of the cage. She had only been here a few days, but she automatically knew when to back up. Adam flying at her with his fury was a hundred times worse than all of his scientists flying at her with needles…

"Nothing, sir," the strange voice said. Jeanette was still quite unable to figure out who it was. "We've done test after test, and we haven't come up with anything."

"Really?" Adam's voice dripped acid and sarcasm. "You've done every single test, and there isn't ANYTHING."

"Not every test, sir," the voice said somewhat hesitantly, "but any other tests might damage the specimen."

"I've been damaged already," Jeanette muttered under her breath, looking at the tears and rips in her clothing, the bruises, scrapes, and scratches that adorned every inch of her body. "And I am NOT a specimen!"

She made sure to mutter it VERY quietly, though. Sound carried in the caves that they were in. That's why she could hear everything. That's why she could hear them when they had their next conversation—

"I need Callie back!" Adam snarled. "Do you GET THAT? Do whatever you have to do!"

Jeanette felt a chill run down her spine at those words. Shivering, she scooted back even farther into the corner. I've got to get out of here before he kills me, or blinds me, or cripples me, or…

"Sir, a chipmunk is too small for that type of test to be performed on," the voice said regretfully. "If the specimen is damaged beyond repair, you will never get Miss Callie back."

Adam was silent for a while, and he finally began talking in a lower voice.

Jeanette regretted it, but she had to uncurl from her ball and crawl closer to the front of her cage. She had to listen and see what he was planning. Her life may depend on it…

"…fine," Adam was murmuring. "I won't, then…but I have to get Callie back. I have to." Then he seemed to think of something. "But I'm going to need to see what Simon put in that needle he injected Callie with."

He put the cure in it, you idiot, Jeanette thought. That's why I turned back into myself.

"If the scientists can figure that out, they may be able to change Jeanette so that we can get Callie back," Adam was mumbling. "But how do we get to the…"

There was a long silence as Adam thought to himself for a while.

Then he brightened. "I've got it," he whispered to himself. "I'll make Jeanette be my girlfriend for a while instead." He grinned to himself.

Jeanette recoiled.

"Why on earth would you do that?" the accented chipmunk asked, raising his eyebrow. "I thought you were Callie's boyfriend…"

"I am," Adam snapped. "I'm not really going to be Jeanette's boyfriend, idiot. I'm going to pretend that…"

"She'll never go along with it, though," the accented chipmunk interjected. "She's not in love with you; she's in love with Simon. She'll never pretend along with your schemes."

"I'll force her to, then," Adam said with a shrug. "We don't really have to be dating. He just as to think that we are." He laughed. "It will be my revenge on Simon. He'll get a taste of the pain I've been going through…the hardships I've endured…when he thinks that his precious Jeanette hasn't been as loyal to him as he thought If she doesn't love him as much as he thought."

Jeanette's eyes widened. No, she thought furiously to herself. I won't go along with it. I won't!

"And Simon?"

"I won't kill him, of course. I need him. And after he's helped me, then I'll find some way to deal with him."

"Why don't you let the spider bite him again?" the accented chipmunk suggested. "Then Simone will be here, and Simon will be gone forever."

"Brilliant," Adam hissed, grinning.

Jeanette shivered in her cage furiously. They didn't know that she had heard every word of their conversation.

I won't go along with it, she promised herself. I won't. No matter what he does, I won't.

And she hadn't. He had threatened her with the worst thing that he could—Simon's life.

The cage door was yanked open.

Jeanette knew it would. She had been waiting for it ever since she had overheard his conversation.

A servant chipmunk was standing there, her hands folded.

"You'll have to come with me, Miss Jeanette," the servant said politely.

She scooted backwards into the corner, her eyes wide and frightened.

"I am not going to hurt you," the servant soothed. "I promise, Miss Jeanette. I won't harm you in the least."

Jeanette managed to find her voice.

"You might not," she said in a faint voice. "Adam might be a different story."

"Adam is out today," the servant said, her tone still polite, but a hint of steel entering it. "He won't harm you."

Jeanette was slightly alarmed. The servant referred to everyone else as Sir or Miss, but she just said "Adam" when referring to him. Jeanette got the feeling that the servant didn't like Adam very much.

Jeanette didn't move, staying curled in a ball in the corner.

"Miss Jeanette," the servant said gently. "I'm not going to hurt you, but if you won't come with me, other guards will come and force you to come with them…in a less pleasant manner for you."

Jeanette stayed where she was for another moment, and then sighed and scooted forward, crawling cautiously out of the cage.

"Come with me, then," the servant said, bowing slightly to her and taking off down the hall.

She tried to see where she was, and managed to figure out that she was in a very complicated series of caves. There were so many twists and turns, however, that she was hopelessly lost and didn't know where she was or how to get back.

Then they came into a very large, spacious cave. It was dry and warm. The walls were sparkling with gems, and Jeanette couldn't help but let out a gasp.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" the servant asked with a small smile on her face.

Jeanette slowly walked farther into the room, twirling around in a circle with her arms outstretched to see everything.

"It's gorgeous," she whispered finally.

"I know," the servant whispered back.

The two chipettes stood there in reverenced silence for a moment.

"Let's get you cleaned up," the servant said gently at last.

Jeanette frowned and looked at her reflection in a mirror propped against the wall. Her fur was dirty and bedraggled, and her hair was sticking up everywhere. Her clothes were dirty and full of rips and tears.

She made a slight face. She looked hideous.

There was an underground spring that ran through the other cave, which was to be used as Jeanette's bathroom. Jeanette took a hot bath, feeling fabulous, and washed herself until she was clean. She reached for her old clothes to clean them off, but the servant was already there with a towel. Once Jeanette had dried off, the servant gave her a smooth, silky, strapless purple dress. Jeanette tugged it on, and the servant wove Jeanette's chocolate brown hair into a pretty braid.

Jeanette felt much better when they were done—certainly cleaner—but she was curious.

"What brought all this on?" she asked quietly as she stepped back into the other room with the servant.

"How should I know?" the servant responded quietly. "I am but a lowly servant." Jeanette thought she heard a slight note of bitterness in the servant's voice, but she had seen the shift of sympathy in the servant's eyes and knew that the servant knew the truth.

"Ah, you've managed to do something right, for once," a disdainful voice said from behind them. They turned to see Adam sneering at the servant girl.

She stood a bit taller, but responded in a calm tone, "Yes, Adam. I have brought Miss Jeanette to her new room."

Jeanette folded her arms and glared at Adam. "Don't talk to her that way," she told him icily.

"Why should you care?" Adam shot back. "She's just a servant."

"That may be," Jeanette snapped, "but she's the only one in this joint who's bothered to be nice to me, you included."

Adam seemed to be trying to regain self-control for a moment before he put a smile on his face and stepped forward. "Jeanette, you misunderstand me. I didn't bring you here to be uncomfortable. I want you to be happier."

"Why?" Jeanette was still suspicious.

"Because…well, I do rather like you, Jeanette."

Jeanette snorted. "You love Callie. You don't give a crap about me." She felt surprised on the inside. Was this really her saying these words?

"Yes, I do care about you," Adam insisted, but she noted his careful word choice. He cared about her only because his Callie would be lost forever if he destroyed her. "And I want you to care about me, too."

Jeanette was deathly afraid of Adam. She had been since her kidnapping. But at these words, something inside her snapped, and her fear was pushed to the side as her rage was brought to the surface.

"YOU DO NOT!" she screamed at him, her paws clenched into fists. "You don't love me! You never have! I can see what you're doing. It's clear! You don't care about me. You care about Callie. You're trying to lead Simon to believe that I care about you. Admit it! I can see what you're doing here. No one has to tell me! But I don't care about you. You mean nothing to me! You meant everything to Callie, but YOU MEAN NOTHING TO ME!"

She took a step back, her chest heaving. Adam was speechless, staring at her. It was the most she'd said since she got here.

He couldn't speak. He was at a loss for words as he scrambled to regain his bearings.

His wordless astonishment just fueled Jeanette's anger.

"And your plan is NOT going to work!" she yelled, taking a step forward until she was right up in his face. "Because I do not care about you, and I refuse to pretend that I do! I love SIMON! Do you get that, Adam? I LOVE HIM!"

She shoved Adam in the chest, hard, and he stumbled back a few steps.

All the anger rushed out of her when she saw that, replaced only by a horrible, aching, crippling sadness. She stumbled backwards and collapsed on the bed.

"I love him," she whispered. "And you took him away from me."

"I can see that you love him," Adam whispered from the doorway, and she looked up to see him positively trembling with rage. "But I don't care about that. Soon he will have no one to love. I will get my Callie back if it's the last thing I do. Simon took HER away from ME. I will get my revenge on him. So you will pretend to care about me. Or I will kill him."

Jeanette shivered, remembering those words that he had spoken. She had forced herself to remember the earlier conversation that she had heard them having…

Jeanette almost fell backwards, her head reeling.

NO.

Not Simon…

Adam could see the horror in her eyes, but she managed to drive it away. Think, she told herself sternly. Remember the conversation that you heard earlier. Adam won't kill Simon. Adam needs Simon. He won't kill him. Think.

And Jeanette did think. It was what she had always been best at.

She looked up at Adam, and she began to get angry again. She stood up and stepped toward him, ignoring the warnings that were sparking from his eyes.

"You know what? I think you're bluffing."

He blinked in surprise.

"I don't know what," she continued, even though she did know, "but there is something telling me that you won't kill him. I think…I think that you NEED him, Adam."

Adam blinked and swallowed hard. Jeanette could see the nervousness in his eyes, and she had to make sure she played it exactly right. She had to reveal certain parts of what she knew, but she had to make it look like she was figuring it out and she hadn't overheard it.

"And listen to me, Adam. Listen up right now."

Adam blinked at her forceful tone.

"You are acting as though this was all his fault. You're acting like a spoiled brat. You're standing there, whining like a two-year-old, 'He started it, he started it!' Well, you know what? YOU started it. You took ME away from HIM. Maybe you didn't, but Zoe did. And when you learned the truth, you didn't care, and you went along with it anyway! There was always a piece of me inside Callie, Adam. There was a piece of me still in there, but I was trapped. I barely existed. Whatever energy was left was spent by me trying to get out, pleading and begging to be freed. And Simon freed me, and it was the most wonderful thing I've ever experienced to be back in control of myself.

"And now you want revenge because he took back what was his? Because I am his, Adam. I've always been his. And he's mine. And you took me away from him AGAIN. You've separated us, and it's killing me. I'm sure that it's killing him, too. We can't be apart like this. It hurts so much to be away from him, and YOU are DOING THAT ON PURPOSE!"

She was screaming again.

"And I love him! I love him with all my heart, and I will never love you, Adam. I won't pretend that I do. I WON'T!"

Adam stared at her for a long, long time. And he finally left the room.

And it was only then that Jeanette's anger dissolved and she allowed the crushing weight of grief to settle over her. Her legs trembled and gave out, and she collapsed on the bed once again. She buried her face in her pillow and sobbed.

Jeanette sighed again and rolled over. She traced lines and patterns in the scores of jewels adorning the cave's ceiling.

Finally, she caved in and went over to pick up a book.

Just then, the door opened, and the timid female servant who had so kindly helped her the day before entered the room.

Jeanette quickly sat back down, pretending like she had been sitting on the bed the entire time.

"Miss Jeanette, you must eat."

Jeanette didn't even look over at the little servant girl. She realized, with a pang, that the girl was just the same age as Eleanor.

Eleanor…

Another wave of sadness and loneliness crashed over Jeanette, and she barely had the energy to resurface enough to answer the girl.

"I'm not hungry."

"Please, eat. I know that you must be hungry."

Jeanette still didn't move.

"Come. Please?"

Jeanette barely bothered to shake her head.

"Miss Jeanette, you have to eat. You have to keep yourself in good condition for Mr. Simon."

Jeanette froze. Such talk was absolutely off limits. The servant girl knew this.

She plowed on anyway.

"Miss Jeanette, it's time you stopped being so sad. If everything you've said about Mr. Simon is true, then I'm positive that he must be on his way to rescue you. When he gets here to save you, then you have to be ready for him."

Jeanette frowned slightly. What the girl was saying was actually making sense.

"Do you really think so?" she asked in barely more than a whisper.

"That doesn't matter," the girl told Jeanette gently. "Do you really think so?"

Jeanette thought of Simon, and it made her smile.

"Yes," she said, her voice a bit stronger. "I do."

"That should be enough for both of us, then, shouldn't it, Miss Jeanette? If he rescued you from Adam once, I'm certain that he can do it again."

Jeanette pondered this for a moment. She had seen everything that had happened last time through Callie's eyes. She remembered Simon's astonished face as he stared down at Callie on the bed. He remembered how he had faced off against Zoe on the street, actually attacking her to prevent her from taking Callie back again.

She thought about how he had whispered her name, searching inside Callie's eyes for any hint of the chipette that he loved. She remembered how she had saved him, and how he had kissed her when she was back to normal. She remembered how Adam had started to take her, and how Simon had stepped between them, putting himself in front of Jeanette, blocking her from harm's way. How he had leapt at Adam, fighting him off. How they had squared off in the living room. How he had cradled Jeanette close to him so protectively when she was hurt. How he had squared off with Adam in the street. How he hadn't moved from her hospital bed for the entire month she was in the coma. She thought of how he had saved her from the bullies, and how desperate and panicked he had been when Adam took her again. Memory after memory flipped through her brain at lightening speed.

The servant was right, Jeanette realized.

How will he be able to find you, though? A small voice was speaking from the back of her brain.

Well…

No! It's SIMON! Of course he'll find me. He'll fine a way. Actually…you know what? I bet he's coming! I can feel it. I think that he's on his way right now. He is! He's on his way, and he's coming to save me!

And the servant is right—I do have to keep myself safe and healthy. For him.

Jeanette sat up and reached for her breakfast tray. She began to eat.

The servant smiled a wide smile and began to fold some clothes.

"What's your name?" Jeanette asked after chewing and swallowing.

The servant flushed. "I…I don't think that's my place, miss…"

"I don't care," Jeanette said firmly. "Adam might be old-fashioned enough to have slaves, but I'm not. You're not my servant. You're my friend, and you're my helper. That's all. And friends know each other's names. I'm tired of referring to you as 'Adam's servant girl.'"

The servant blushed again. "I'm Monique," she whispered.

"Monique," Jeanette repeated. "That's a beautiful name."

Monique smiled shyly.