Author's Note: Thanks to BluCrayons, not only for being my beta, but for helping me with info on knee injuries! Hope you enjoy what I've got here! Reviews make me very, very happy, so if you like it, please review it! Boost my self-esteem a smidge!
Chapter 32: Mending and Trusting
"Peter, come with me," Rose said quickly getting up and walking to the bathroom. Peter nodded and followed her in with a worried glance at Micky and Sarah. Sarah had immediately kissed Micky after embracing him in her arms. She looked as upset as Peter felt.
"Is he going to be ok?" Peter asked nervously inside the bathroom. Rose had quickly started checking a bag with first aid supplies inside it. Peter could tell she was trying hard to keep herself under control, but she came off as frantic.
"Yes," Rose answered. "I need your help. Can you help me?"
"Absolutely," Peter answered without hesitation. "I'll do whatever you want me to do."
"Ok, I need you to be strong," Rose said. "I know you're scared, but I need you to be really strong. I am going to work on taking care of Mick with Sarah, but it's going to hurt him. Antiseptic burns. So what I need you to do is hold his hand and make sure he breathes normally. If he holds his breath or starts breathing abnormally, he could go into shock and pass out. And that would be bad. So just make sure he breathes normally. Can you do that?"
"Absolutely," Peter nodded again. Rose grabbed the bag and rushed out of the bathroom towards Micky. Sarah was in tears, tearing at the ropes binding Micky's hands, but she appeared to be struggling.
"I'm trying to get these off," Sarah sobbed. "But they're too tight...I can't...I can't…"
"Sarah, it's ok," Micky said sounding pained.
"It's alright," Rose said squeezing Sarah's shoulders comfortingly after putting the first aid bag on the bed. "Peter can do it. I need you to help me. Here's the antiseptic and some gauze." Rose dug in the bag and pulled out the supplies needed before handing them to Sarah. She quickly wiped her eyes and nodded, accepting the items. Peter moved to untie Micky while the girls started working on him.
"What can I do?" Davy asked.
"Just stay sitting," Rose said. "You need your rest. You need to heal too."
"But I wanna help," Davy argued.
"I know, but we've got this, Davy," Peter assured him still struggling with the bond around Micky's wrist. "She's right. Just relax. We'll take care of him."
"I know," Davy said sitting back down on the bed reluctantly. Peter felt bad knowing Davy just wanted to help, but he also needed to relax. He was ill as well. Peter finally got the first hand untied and moved to the next. His stomach churned a little when he saw the rope burns around his friends wrist, but knew he had to stay strong and focused for Micky, so he moved to undo the other bonds. The ropes around his other hand and feet went easier once he had gotten the hang of how they were knotted and once he'd freed Micky, Rose looked at him asking if he was ready or not. Peter nodded and grabbed Micky's hand tightly in his.
"Ok, Micky, this is gonna hurt," Rose said as she opened a tube of burn cream. "But I need you to hold still. Can you do that for me?"
"Of course," Micky said still sounding pained. Peter watched as Sarah poured the antiseptic over Micky's cuts. As Rose predicted, he gasped in pain and actually held his breath.
"Micky, you gotta breathe," Peter said as Micky squeezed his hand tightly. Micky didn't listen to him, though, and started gritting his teeth as Rose put the burn cream on his burns.
"Micky, sweetie, listen to him," Sarah said. "I know it hurts, but if you don't breathe, you're gonna black out."
"I'm fine," Micky lied through gritted teeth. Peter gripped Micky's hand tighter and tried doing what they did with pregnant women: breathing with them.
"Like this, Micky," Peter said taking a deep breath before letting it out. "Breathe." Finally Micky started to breathe normally, although his body jerked whenever Rose or Sarah touched him.
"How is he?" Mike asked.
"He's not as bad as you think," Rose answered.
"Really?" Mike asked in disbelief.
"She likes to start off slow," Sarah grumbled.
"She burned him!" Davy exclaimed. "She branded him like a bloody piece of meat! How is that starting off slow!?"
"You don't want to know," Rose sighed.
"I think we're all gonna find out, so you might as well tell us," Mike said sounding equally as surprised as Davy. Peter had to admit, he wasn't sure things could get worse for Micky either. He looked at Mickys chest and abdomen and wanted to throw up. The cuts didn't appear that deep and Sarah had gotten the bleeding stopped by now, but the burns were already blistering and his breathing was ragged showing the amount of pain he was feeling.
"Maybe later," Rose said, obviously not wanting to talk about it. Peter assumed they had already been through these kinds of tortures and Rose was trying to focus on helping Micky rather than remember her own pain.
"I can't just sit here and watch that again," Davy muttered angrily as Rose moved to carefully pull Micky's pants down just enough to get a better angle at the deeper burn on his pelvis. Peter flinched at the sight of it and had to look away. He couldn't imagine how much pain that must have caused, but he was glad the wound wasn't any farther south.
"I don't think we have much of a choice, Davy," Mike said. "There's no way out."
"But they won't hurt Micky for a while if…" Davy trailed off.
"If we tell them where my daughter is?" Rose demanded angrily.
"Yes," Davy said.
"Davy, we can't do that," Mike said before anyone else could say anything. "We aren't doing that. So just forget it."
"No, of course not!" Davy defended. "I didn't mean that! I just meant...what if we make it seem like we are?"
"Lie to them?" Rose asked. "Yeah, cause that's much better. You've seen what they did just trying to get information from him; can you imagine if he lies to them?"
"But they aren't going to know we're lying to them," Davy countered. "If we make it seem like we're giving them what they want, they'll leave to go look for her and we can make our escape then. There'll be a lot less people to fight through."
"And how will we get through that door?" Rose asked.
"Well, I don't know," Davy admitted, "but we can work that out. We just need to stall for time. Let Mike's leg heal and Micky's stomach. And we can't let them hurt Micky again."
"If it doesn't work, they won't hold back," Rose said. "It'll be a whole hell of a lot worse if they find out we lied to them."
"It actually might work," Micky said. "It's worth a shot, anyway."
"Worth a shot?" Sarah balked. "How can you say that? You know what she'll do to you!"
"Yeah, but they're gonna hurt me either way," Micky said.
"But she won't be starting slow, Micky," Rose said. "She'll tear into you."
"What's she gonna do, kill me?" Micky laughed.
"You think this is funny?" Sarah exclaimed slapping Micky's arm. "This isn't a fucking joke, Micky!"
"I know that," Micky said. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean that. And that hurt, by the way. I think that it might work, though. I'm serious when I say it's worth a shot. Mike, back me up?"
"It could work," Mike agreed. "But it could also backfire. We have to do it very, very carefully."
"Alright," Rose said. "But it has to be done right. And that means it can't be done right away, for one thing."
"What do you mean?" Davy asked.
"These people are masters of torture," Rose said. "In order for it to be believable, we can't cave right away. They'll know something's up if we cave too easily. They have the benefit of Heather observing you for a month. She knows how close you all are and they know how difficult it's going to be to get any of us to break. So we have to make it seem like that."
"So we have to watch Micky go through hell some more?" Davy asked. "I don't like that."
"Like it or not, she's right," Mike said. "They'll know somethings up if we cave too soon."
"How long?" Peter asked.
"I don't know," Rose said. "It'll be hard to gauge. It depends on what they do to him."
"And what if they don't just focus on me?" Micky asked looking over at Mike. Peter's voice caught in his throat as he realized what Micky was saying. Heather's comment as she left was directed right at Mike. She'd already drugged him and raped him once, what else was she going to do to him?
"We'll deal with that if and when it happens," Mike said waving it off. "But my guess is they'll focus on you first."
"I agree," Rose said. "The other thing is that it can't be one of us who "breaks". It's gotta be one of you two." Peter realized she was looking between him and Davy and suddenly felt uncomfortable. He didn't like the idea of lying to anyone and he wasn't sure he could be that convincing anyway. He knew where Hope was. What if he slipped and accidentally told the truth?
"Why's it gotta be one of us?" Peter asked.
"Because the bond between you and Micky is weaker than the rest of us," Rose said. "Micky, Sarah and I grew up together. Mike and Micky literally saved each other's lives. They'll know that if any of us is gonna break first, it'll be you two."
"That's not fair," Davy said. "We love Micky just as much as you do."
"That's not what she meant," Micky said. "What she meant was that it's perceived that way. They don't know about everything we've been through. And neither of you has gone through anything like this before. In their eyes, you two are weaker. But that doesn't mean you are."
"I'm sorry, Davy," Rose said. "Micky's right; I didn't mean for it to come off that way. I know you love him just as much as I do."
"We know," Peter said for Davy. "It's ok. We're just all on edge."
"I think it should be Davy," Mike said. "Davy's the most hot-tempered. He'd be the most likely to crack. Not saying you will."
"I get it," Davy sighed. "I just don't like having to wait. I don't want them to hurt Micky anymore."
"None of us do," Mike said. "But at least this way, it gives me more time to recover, too."
"I'll give you some sort of sign when I think they'll believe it," Rose said as she finished putting all the bandages on Micky. "How about I give you a signal. Like if I started twirling my hair or something."
"I guess," Davy said. "Where should I say you left her?"
"We dropped her on the steps of a church in Cherry Hill, New Jersey," Micky offered trying to hide the pain as he lay back down. "Middle class part of town. They'll probably believe that."
"Ok," Davy answered. "I think I can remember that."
"Alright, Micky, are you ok?" Rose asked.
"I'll be fine," Micky answered.
"Rest," Rose ordered him. "That means sleep."
"I'm aware of what it means," Micky laughed. "Thank you, though."
"You can't heal if you don't get any sleep," Rose said looking at him maternally. Micky nodded and closed his eyes. Sarah curled up next to him carefully, but still holding him tightly. Rose walked over to Mike and motioned that Peter should follow. "How's the leg, Mike?"
"It's fine," Mike answered. "A little sore, but fine."
"We should work out the muscles," Rose said unwrapping his leg carefully. "Mike, lay down on the bed. Peter, hold his leg up for me?"
"Sure," Peter answered sitting down next to Mike so he could hold Mike's leg as Mike lied down. Rose sat at the end of the bed under Mike's leg letting it rest in her lap as she rolled up his pants to see the knee. Peter noticed the knee definitely looked bruised and swollen, but otherwise looked ok. He expected to see the kneecap in the wrong place, but it appeared Sarah had been able to set it back into place.
"Peter, hold his thigh up so I can bend the knee," Rose instructed. Peter nodded and took Mike's thigh and held it up for her. Rose carefully flexed Mike's leg causing him to hiss in pain a little and Peter saw the kneecap slide out of place a bit. Peter bit his bottom lip with worry.
"Is that supposed to do that?" Peter asked.
"It does a little," Rose said straightening his leg a little again which caused the kneecap to slide back into place. "If something's torn that's supposed to keep it in place, a little sliding is to be expected. But you have to keep the muscles moving so they don't essentially forget how to work."
"You'd think the healing process wouldn't be so painful," Peter said.
"Peter, most of the time stuff like this is done in the hospital," Mike said with a slight chuckle. "They give you medication to manage the pain. It's ok, though, good buddy. I can handle it."
"How long will it take him to heal?" Peter asked hopefully as Rose flexed his leg again.
"Depends on the extent of the damage," Rose answered. "But this doesn't look that bad and the movement actually feels pretty good."
"Have you treated that kind of injury before?" Davy asked. Peter almost thought he heard a hint of cynicism in Davy's tone, but wasn't sure.
"Yes," Rose answered absently continuing to flex Mike's leg slowly and steadily. "Dislocations are a very common injury with them."
"Davy, you trust me, right?" Micky said suddenly.
"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" Mike asked.
"I will," Micky answered. "Davy, do you trust me?"
"Of course I do," Davy answered. "Why are you even asking me that?"
"I understand you're wary," Micky said. "Heather burned us all. But you have to remember, I distrusted her from the beginning. But I trust Rose and Sarah. I know you're scared, but if you trust me, you can trust them. I promise."
"I didn't say I didn't trust them," Davy said defensively.
"You didn't have to," Micky said. "It's all over your face and in your voice. I trust Rose and Sarah with my life. I trust them with yours."
"I get that after what happened with Heather, you're scared to trust anyone again," Rose said motioning for Peter to set Mike's leg down on the bed. "But I promise you that you can trust me. Both of you. It won't really offend me if you decide you don't want to trust me; I completely understand why you wouldn't be able to. But I want you to know that I would never do anything to cause more pain to either Micky or Mike. Nor would I do anything to cause pain to either of you. I know it doesn't seem that way since doing this hurt Mike, but I promise it will help his healing."
"I trust you," Peter said firmly. He understood why Davy would be wary, but he felt in his heart that he really could trust Rose. There was something about the way she looked at Mike that told him she cared for him. It was a look Heather never once gave Mike.
"Thank you, Peter," Rose said. "But like I said, I'd be fine if you didn't. I'm going to massage the knee and this might hurt a little bit, Mike, but it'll help relax the muscles." Rose began massaging the area around the kneecap and Mike squeezed his eyes shut in pain, but Peter could tell he was trying not to let everyone else know how much it really hurt. Davy didn't really say anything. He just kind of looked at his hands locked together. Peter could tell he was still wary. He wanted to trust them, but was scared to. And Peter understood. He just hoped that soon Davy would see the same thing about Rose that Peter did.