Author's Note: Thanks to my beta, BluCrayons. Happy birthday, darling! Hope you have a great day!

Chapter 35: Sickness

Micky didn't think he was going to sleep very well, and he was right. His dreams were filled with the thoughts that plagued him during the day: what had or will happen to his friends. Images of Sarah and Rose being held down and raped floated through his mind. He could see the pain on their faces, but there wasn't anything he could do to help them. He could see Shirley and Cole ripping their clothes off.

They were replaced by images of Mike. His best friend pinned against a wall by his mother as she ran her hands all over him. He again wanted to pull his mother away from his friend, but wasn't able to do anything. He was forced to stand there and watch. Other images of his other friends started blurring together. Davy and Peter lying dead, bloody and battered. And his sister disappearing into the darkness with Mike's baby.

Micky woke up the next morning with a start and quickly realized he was alone in his bed. He sat up and looked around. Davy, Peter, Mike and Rose were all sleeping soundly in their beds, but he didn't see Sarah. He finally heard a gagging noise coming from the bathroom and realized that Sarah must be in the bathroom throwing up again. He climbed out of bed and walked toward the bathroom, opening the door slowly so as not to startle her. She was hunched over the toilet throwing up.

"Sarah," Micky said softly kneeling down next to her. "What's going on? Are you ok?"

"It's fine, Micky," Sarah said waving him off. But Micky didn't leave; he sat by her side and rubbed her back comfortingly. When she put her face back in the toilet, Micky moved a little closer to pull her hair back away from her face.

"It's obviously not fine," Micky said when she'd stopped throwing up. He handed her a piece of toilet paper to wipe off her face a little. "Sarah, please talk to me."

"I…" she started looking away from him a little. "I'm pregnant."

"What?" Micky asked, startled. "Are you sure?"

"I've been throwing up for a week solid," Sarah said answered. "I'm moody, I have to pee a lot more than normal and my breasts hurt. I've been pregnant four other times. I know what the symptoms are by now."

"Oh," Micky said adding everything up in his head and realizing she was right. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you," Sarah said. "You have enough on your plate to deal with."

"You didn't think I would figure it out sooner or later?" Micky asked.

"Well, actually, no," Sarah said. "I didn't think it would matter after a while."

"Why?" Micky asked confused.

"I've been pregnant four times before," Sarah sighed. "The first three didn't make it past the first few months and the fourth was still born. I just can't have kids. My body isn't able to handle it."

"You don't know that," Micky said. "You weren't exactly under ideal conditions before."

"Oh, and I am now?" she snapped. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap."

"I know," Micky said pulling her close to him.

"I just...I've been here before," Sarah said nearly crying now. "I wasn't able to keep the babies alive then. Why should now be any different?"

"Because you have me," Micky answered. "I can take care of you."

"I had your uncle taking care of me before," Sarah argued. "Giving us food and medications. If I couldn't keep them alive then…"

"Sarah, stop," Micky said. "It's not your fault those babies died. They were abusing and raping you. They were hurting you. Your will was broken; you didn't even want to live. There's more to being pregnant than just taking medications and eating. And it has nothing to do with anything you did wrong and everything to do with what they did to you. It's a wonder anyone ever had any living children here. Who knows, maybe they damaged your uterus when they raped you. Caused some internal bleeding or something that killed the baby. I doubt they were exactly gentle about it."

"You really think that's what happened?" Sarah asked looking up at him hopefully.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Micky answered taking her face gently in her hands and smiling at her. "I've seen it happen. My mom said it happened to my sister. They were too forceful and caused internal bleeding that killed the baby. It's also possible you contracted quite a few infections. I'm gonna make sure nothing like that happens to you this time. I promise you I won't let them touch you."

"Micky…" Sarah started to argue again.

"No," Micky said. "Don't argue. I'm not going to let them touch you no matter what. I'm gonna take care of you. I love you."

"I love you, too," Sarah smiled letting herself fall back into his arms. They just sat there for a while, Micky rubbing her back gently to try and comfort her. He wasn't exactly sure how he felt about this news yet, but he didn't really have much of an option. He couldn't imagine how hard it must feel to have lost four babies and now be faced with a fifth. He had to comfort her as much as he could. It had to be unbearable for her.

"You feeling better?" Micky asked a while later.

"Yeah," Sarah answered.

"Why don't we go back outside then," Micky said. "They're gonna bring us some food soon, and you really need to eat."

"If I can keep it down," Sarah laughed a little.

"Try to," Micky said helping Sarah up. "You need to eat."

"I'll try," Sarah said as they walked out of the bathroom.

"Are you ok?" Peter asked as they walked out. Everyone had woken up while they were in the bathroom and were now watching them with extreme worry. "I know you said you didn't want to ask for cold medicine, but you've been throwing up for a week now, maybe it'd be best to get help."

"No, Peter," Micky said. "It's fine."

"But, she's really sick," Davy said. "Throwing up for a week isn't normal."

"I'm not sick," Sarah said. Micky wasn't sure she was going to tell the others, but she seemed to be feeling a little better after holding onto Micky. So he was a little surprised when she sighed and told them the truth. "I'm pregnant."

"What?" Mike asked glancing at Rose. Micky had assumed Rose knew, too, based on the symptoms, but she was the only one.

"You're pregnant?" Peter said.

"I'm sorry," Davy muttered.

"Why are you sorry?" Sarah asked.

"They got you pregnant," Davy answered.

"They didn't get her pregnant, Davy," Micky said realizing that Davy thought she'd been impregnated by Cole when he raped her. Davy was still obviously feeling very guilty about not having been able to do anything to stop it. "Symptoms of pregnancy don't show up until the fourth week at the earliest. Even then, it's usually week 5 or 6 that the symptoms appear."

"So since she's been sick for a week already," Peter said with a sigh of relief doing the math in his head.

"She's about a month and a half pregnant," Mike finished also showing signs of relief. "So she was pregnant before all this."

"And it's yours?" Davy asked for clarification.

"Of course," Sarah answered. "But I don't know if it'll even live. I've been pregnant before and lost all of them."

"Yeah, well, there were different circumstances then," Micky said hugging her again. "We already discussed this. They hurt you and they aren't gonna hurt you this time. I promise."

"We all promise," Peter said.

"And no one says anything to them, either," Micky said.

"Not something you have to tell us, Mick," Mike said.

"We can't hide this forever," Sarah said holding her stomach.

"No, but hopefully we'll be out of here within a few months," Micky said placing his hand gently over hers. "By then you'll probably only just be showing and we can hide it easily with baggy clothes."

"You sure that'll work?" Davy asked. "If they wanna kill Hope, they'll probably kill Sarah, too if they find out."

"Probably," Micky agreed. "Which is why we have to do everything possible to keep Claire from knowing."

"I don't know about that so much," Rose mumbled.

"What?" Micky asked confused.

"I agree we shouldn't tell her, but not for the reasons you're thinking," Rose said standing up and beginning to pace. She did that when she was trying to figure something out. It was as if moving around helped her brain function better. "I don't think they want to kill Hope so much because she's your child, but more because she's mine."

"Why does that make a difference?" Davy asked.

"I think they want to kill Hope because she's the only threat to Heather's kid," Rose said.

"How so?" Mike asked. "Neither you nor Micky are Chucky's kids so neither of you has any claim to the throne, so to speak."

"Actually, I do," Rose answered. "I'm adopted. So I'm legally his daughter."

"But Micky's dad raised him," Peter said. "That makes him an heir, doesn't it?"

"Not legitimately," Rose said. "Because he's not legitimately his son."

"I've never seen my birth certificate," Micky said. "It's possible he isn't even listed as my father. If I even have a birth certificate. So I have no idea who my father is."

"I wonder who he is," Peter mumbled allowed.

"Could be anyone," Micky said. "She slept with about half the men in California."

"Oh," Peter said blushing a little.

"So the only people that can lay claim to the throne is you and Hope," Davy said. "And since you won't take it, they want to kill Hope so she can't?"

"It makes sense," Rose said.

"Either way, we can't let her find out," Micky said.

"Agreed," Rose said.

"I have a question," Davy said. "If you don't have a birth certificate, how did you get your driver's license?"

"Paid a very sleazy, high powered attorney," Micky answered. "I think he said something about how he filed my papers saying I was an abandoned child who grew up homeless on the streets or something. Said he'd looked for my parents, but failed, so the courts granted me with a new identity. New birth certificate and everything. Though the spots where the parents names were blank. Not sure how legal everything he did was, but it seemed to work."

"It was," Rose said. "I checked into it a few years ago just to make sure."

"Thanks," Micky smiled. They stopped talking when they heard the locks opening on the door. Micky held Sarah close to him instinctively, even though he was pretty sure that it was just breakfast. However, instead of Shirley or Cole bringing a tray of food, it was Claire, Wayne and Heather walking in. Micky's stomach dropped and pulled Sarah even closer to him. He hadn't seen any of them for two weeks and he didn't see her bag of "toys", but he did see Wayne and Heather each holding a long metallic rod with prongs on the end of it. Micky wasn't sure what they were, but it reminded him of a cattle prod his father had used on him when he was a boy.

"Good morning, boys and girls," Claire smiled. Micky's stomach dropped when she looked over at Peter and Davy hungrily.

"What is it, Claire?" Micky asked trying to pull her attention towards him.

"Relax, Micky," Claire said. "I won't touch you just yet. You're still healing."

"Don't you dare touch them," Micky said noticing she hadn't taken her eyes off them.

"You really aren't in a position to be telling us what to do, Micky," Heather sneered as Cole and Shirley came in with two chairs and set them down in the middle of the room.

"You two," Wayne said. "Blondie and shorty. Have a seat."

"And if we refuse?" Davy snapped.

"Like she said, you aren't in much of a position to fight against us," Claire said. Heather walked over to Mike and smiled before touching the end of the cattle prod against Mike's chest. Mike yelped in pain and his entire body convulsed for a few seconds. Micky heard the sickening clicking of electricity that confirmed these rods were cattle prods and Mike had just been electrocuted.

"Mike!" Davy and Peter exclaimed. Rose, who had been standing off to the side, launched herself at Heather, only to get smacked in the face with the prod. She collapsed to the ground and held her cheek where the rod had hit her. Micky wanted to get up and defend Mike, too, but Sarah pushed him back down reminding him that trying to help Mike would be fruitless and only end in misery and pain for both of them

"Bad flower!" Heather laughed seeing a little bit of blood on Rose's cheek. "Calm down and behave. That was just a demonstration."

"Leave him alone," Davy said. Micky's voice was lost in his throat as he saw Mike lying on the bed, his face contorted in pain. They must have raised the voltage a little from when Micky had felt the pain before. It usually took a few pokes from the prod for Micky to look that weak and pained.

"Do what you're told and we will," Wayne barked. "Now sit."

"Fine," Peter said, his eyes welling up with tears.

"What do you want with them?" Micky asked.

"Not much," Claire smiled sickeningly as Peter and Davy reluctantly sat in the chairs. "We're just gonna play a little game."