Author's Note: Not sure if you're all reading this, but I want to give a quick thanks to some wonderful people: BluCrayonsRTasty, Dolenz, Farfisa, JediStarMonkee, Cellomouse, and Justpatches. You know why and I want to thank you all again. Truly, truly wonderful people. Monkee friends make the best friends ever. :D
Chapter 16: Truth and Consequences
Micky had sat in the room with Peter, Sarah, and Davy all waiting for Mike to respond at all. It had been hours, and he hadn't moved. The doctor had said he'd given Mike some medications to help him sleep and so not to expect too much from Mike for a while, but the longer it took for Mike to wake up, the more anxious he got. After about 4 hours, Sarah said she had to use the bathroom so he went with her to help her if she needed it. When they got back, he heard a conversation and stopped for a moment to listen.
"I don't know, Davy," Peter was saying. "I just think should think this through. If we just let Micky take things into his own hands, that would be really bad."
"Peter, she has to pay for what she did," Davy answered. "She drugged him so she could have sex with him and nearly killed him in the process. She shouldn't be able to just get away with that!"
"We don't know that's what really happened," Peter said.
"Oh, come off it, Peter!" Davy exclaimed. "Even you're not this stupid!"
"I just think we should find out for sure before we do anything," Peter said. "And maybe she just needs help. Look at what they went through growing up. Who would be normal after that?"
"Micky is," Davy argued.
"He wasn't," Peter said. "You heard him admit he had problems with drinking. And besides, he has us."
"Not good enough," Davy spat. "She's sick and no amount of mental help can fix her. She did the same thing to Mike that was done to her. No amount of therapy in the world can help her now."
"So you're ok with Micky killing her?" Peter asked softly. Davy hesitated for a moment then spoke.
"Seeing one of my best friends like this and knowing that horrible wretch of a woman essentially raped him, yeah," Davy said. "Who knows how many other people she's done this to and how many more she will. We have to stop her somehow. We have to make her pay for what she did to Mike. And the law can't touch her without Mike and Micky going down and getting hurt worse. We have to deal with this ourselves. If I can, I'll be right there next to Micky when he does it, too. My only concern is for Micky."
"I've never seen him like this," Peter agreed. "Killing someone, no matter how evil they are, and I'm not ready to say she is, can weigh very heavily on someone. I don't know if Micky can handle that."
"That's not what I'm worried about," Davy said. "I'm worried about him getting in trouble with the police. Or his dad finding out or something."
"I know enough about the law to kill someone and get away with it," Micky said opening the door. "Trust me."
"Micky…" Peter started but trailed off when he saw Sarah sit down. He must have decided he didn't want to talk about this stuff in front of her. If only he knew how much Sarah had seen and been a part of. But Micky desperately wanted to shield him from as much as he could.
"It's ok, Peter," Micky said. "I won't tell you anything. You don't have to help me. In fact, none of you are going to. I'm getting Rose's help to find out exactly what's in that bottle, but that's it."
"But-" Davy started.
"No "but"s, Davy," Micky said taking his seat again. "No arguing on this. I can't let you guys get any more involved than you already are. Besides, I'm gonna need you guys to focus on finding evidence against the hospital Sarah was at so we can help all those other people there."
"How do we do that?" Davy asked.
"Best I can guess is just keep an eye on the hospital itself," Micky said. "Try and dig up some dirt on the doctor or the employees and a history of any incidents that happened there. If we can, sneak in and try to find physical evidence. Though if he's operating like my dad was, I doubt there will be much."
"There has to be," Peter said. "We have to help those people. We can't just leave them there."
"No one's disagreeing with you, Peter," Micky said with a heavy sigh. "But unfortunately, the world isn't as fair as that."
"What happens if we can't find anything?" Davy asked.
"We'll deal with that if and when we get there," Micky answered. "For now, we just need to focus on the task. We can talk to Rose and see what she thinks we need to do."
"I can tell you everything I know," Sarah said. "It's not much, I'm afraid. I was pretty drugged out most of the time."
"Whatever you can tell us will help," Micky said pulling her close to him. "You don't have to tell us till you're ready."
"It's fine," Sarah said. "The nurses would give us medicine every day. From what I could tell, they were experimental drugs to help boost fertility."
"They were giving you experimental drugs?" Peter asked. "Isn't that dangerous?"
"They had to have someone to test the stuff on," Sarah answered. Micky's stomach turned over at the thought of some sick doctor using her as a guinea pig. "They also gave us drugs that made it so we didn't really fight back when they raped us. If you snuck in, you might be able to find those drugs, but I doubt it you'd be to prove what they were. He was experimenting with them. When he felt like we were ready, the nurses would bring us to his office, put us on his exam table and strap us on so we couldn't fight back. Sometimes he would actually examine us, but most of the time he would rape us and then let the nurses rape us. He documented everything, so if you can find those notes, that would be more proof. The only problem is, he keeps them locked up in his office. It'll be hard to get in there."
"We need anything we find to hold up in court," Micky said. "So we need to find evidence for Rose to get a search warrant so she can find all this. Otherwise whatever we get from inside won't do us any good." They sat for the next few hours sometimes in silence, but other times talking about what they were going to do about the hospital. Only a few times did they talk about Mike. None of them could bear talking too much about what had happened to their friend. Micky didn't want Peter and Davy to really get involved in this any further than absolutely had to. A few times during the night, they took Mike for some tests, but never told any of the boys the results.
Mike didn't wake up until early the next morning. He groaned a little and his eyes fluttered open and closed a few times before staying open. Davy rushed out to get the doctor and let him know Mike was waking up. Mike opened his eyes and looked around a little. Peter stood on one side of the bed and held Mike's hand tightly in his as he woke up.
"Take it easy, Mike," Micky said softly wiping the hair out of Mike's eyes.
"What happened?" Mike asked.
"You had a seizure," Micky answered. "Davy took you to the hospital."
"What do you mean?" Mike asked. Micky didn't exactly want to tell him about his suspicions just yet; he'd wait until Mike was feeling better and they were all at home so as not to upset him while he needed to be recovering. Not to mention he didn't have proof. He was saved further explanation by the doctor coming in to check on Mike. Davy stood next to Peter and Micky backed away to let the doctor do his job, asking Mike questions, testing his reactions, and getting his vital information.
"Can someone explain what's going on?" Mike asked when the doctor had finished.
"You had a seizure, Mr. Nesmith," the doctor said.
"That's what Micky said, but why?" Mike asked.
"We don't really know for sure," the doctor answered. "We ran a blood test and unfortunately found nothing to indicate why this happened. Have you ever had a seizure before?"
"No," Mike answered.
"Do you remember what happened before you had your seizure?" the doctor asked.
"Not really," Mike answered. "I remembered um...talking to Micky and taking a shower. Next thing I know I'm here."
"It's possible you may have fallen and hit your head in the shower," the doctor said. "But it's also possible that there may be an underlying issue we haven't seen yet. None of our tests have shown any signs of trauma or disease. I am not sure what caused this. I would like to keep you here for a while longer and-"
"No," Mike said. "I want to go home. I'm fine."
"Mr. Nesmith, this is pretty serious," the doctor urged. "You need to let us try and figure this out."
"I'm fine," Mike said. "If I have another seizure, I'll come back, but until then, I need to go home. I have things to take care of. And I'd rather just rest at home."
"Mike, are you insane!?" Peter exclaimed. "You need to stay here so they can figure out what happened!"
"Peter, I'm fine," Mike said. "I probably just slipped and fell like the doctor said. It's nothing to worry about."
"Mike, I think you should listen to the doctor and stay here," Davy said.
"Guys, back off," Mike said gruffly. "I'm fine! I want to go home!" They tried for the next hour to convince Mike to stay in the hospital, but he wouldn't listen. He was only growing more and more agitated by the minute until he finally ripped the IV out of his arm and started getting up. They tried to get him to lie back down, but it was no use. Once Mike's mind was set on something, no one could change it. So instead of fighting it, the boys decided to help him so he wouldn't hurt himself worse.
Mike signed the discharge papers assuring the doctor that he'd check in with another doctor for a follow-up in a week, though Micky doubted he'd do that. They'd have to keep pushing Mike throughout the week to go. When they got home, Mike started trying to clean things up a little, but kept rubbing his head as though he were in pain.
A few hours after they got home, Rose called to let Micky know that the reports had come back on the bottle Micky had given her. They couldn't tell what had been in that bottle, but could only say some of the chemicals could cause someone to lose consciousness and even kill in certain concentrations. Micky wasn't going to get his proof, but had to tell Mike anyway. He deserved to know. Micky asked Rose to try and track Heather down and she agreed saying she'd be by later that night with information on Heather and the psychiatric hospital.
"Mike sit down," Micky said about another hour later after Peter and Davy had once again tried to get Mike to take it easy. Micky really didn't want to do this now, but he couldn't stand watching Mike move around the house after just being discharged from the hospital and Micky couldn't really hold the truth in anymore.
"Micky, I'm fine," Mike said.
"We need to talk," Micky answered. Davy and Peter exchanged a worried glance with each other, but sat down in support of Micky anyway.
"Micky, I thought you weren't going to say anything until we had proof?" Sarah asked.
"Well, we aren't getting it," Micky sighed sitting down next to her.
"What are you talking about?" Mike asked.
"Sit down," Micky said. Mike sighed and finally sat down waiting for Micky to explain. Micky took a deep breath before starting. "This isn't going to be something you want to hear, but I think we need to tell you anyway. We think Heather drugged you and that's why you had that seizure."
"What?" Mike asked. "Drugged me?"
"She slipped something into the whiskey you were drinking so you'd sleep with her," Micky said.
"Really?" Mike scoffed. "But yet you don't have proof?"
"We tried to find some," Micky explained. "We snuck into her hotel room while we were gone and found a bottle. I tried to have Rose test it-"
"You did what!?" Mike exclaimed jumping up. "You broke into her hotel room!? What the hell were you thinking!?"
"I was trying to figure out what had happened, Mike," Micky answered trying desperately to keep his cool.
"What happened was I got drunk!" Mike yelled. "I had too much to drink and slipped in the shower! She didn't drug me! She wouldn't! And what's this 'we' shit? Did all of you lose your minds and go along with this?"
"Mike, you should hear him out," Davy said trying to help. Peter just looked upset; as though he were about to start crying any minute.
"No way," Mike answered. "Micky, what you did was uncalled for. It's my life, and I'll thank you to stay the hell out of it!" Before any of them could answer, Mike stormed off and slammed the door to the upstairs bedroom.
"That went well," Sarah sighed. "Maybe you should have just left things alone, Micky. I mean, she's gone back to LA, right? She can't hurt him anymore."
"She's playing something," Micky said. "And I need to figure out what that is and put a stop to it before she kills him."
"He just asked us to leave him alone," Peter said.
"He didn't really ask us," Davy pointed out. "But it doesn't matter to me. I trust Micky here. I know you're still trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I won't. What did Rose find?"
"Not much," Micky answered. "Just that the chemicals used could knock someone out and even kill them."
"It's at least proof she's up to no good," Davy said looking at Peter as though he were also trying to convince him.
"I know you guys are so quick to jump on the evil Heather thing, but what if that was meant for her," Peter said. "What if someone were trying to kill her?"
"It was in her underwear drawer," Micky said. "You don't poison someone, then leave the bottle in their underwear drawer."
"I'm just saying we don't have all the facts," Peter said.
"Sometimes I think you're too naive for your own good, Peter," Davy muttered and stood up to take a walk outside to calm down. Micky sighed, knowing Davy didn't mean what he'd said, but he did know they were all getting frustrated. Peter didn't respond; he just sat there looking hurt and stunned.
"You know he's just upset, Peter," Micky said.
"I know," Peter answered forcing a smile. "I'm ok." They all spent the rest of the day in relative silence; no one really knew what to say to the other. Mike stayed in the room on the second floor all day, which Micky admitted he was happy with since it meant Mike wasn't straining himself around the house. But he was worried about how Mike was handling things.
At nightfall, Rose came over just as she had promised. Micky opened the door to let her in and she rushed by him, her face pale and full of worry. Mike had come out of the room to see who was at the door and Davy and Peter had been silently sitting in the living room reading a magazine or book. Sarah and MIcky had been watching TV.
"What's the matter?" Micky asked closing the door behind her.
"I tried tracking down Heather," she started. "And I found her address and her parole officer. She was supposed to meet with him this morning."
"You're tracking down my ex?" Mike asked angrily.
"I asked her to," Micky answered. "What do you mean she was supposed to?"
"She never got there," Rose answered. "I checked with her neighbors and they said they haven't seen her for a week. So I checked with hotel management. They said she never checked out so I went to the hotel myself. One of the other guests said they saw a dark van pull up early this morning and two men got out. They knocked on the door and when she answered, they grabbed her and pulled her into the van."
"She was kidnapped!?" Mike exclaimed.
"That's how it appears," Rose answered.
"Kinda blows your whole theory out of the water, doesn't it, Micky?" Mike snapped then turned to Rose. "You have to find her."
"Trust me, we're looking everywhere," Rose said. "So is her parole officer. We'll find her."