Hi Everyone, Sorry for the delay in getting these previous chapters up had to re-write a couple things in the chapter so that everything fits with what I have planned for the chapters that are coming up, Thanks to my new followers, really is nice to know people still like my FanFic, as always I appreciate the feedback so I have to thank xtr75 for always leaving a Review means a lot to me Anyways thank you all for reading and I hope you like and enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Twenty Seven

"Why what happened?" Taylor instantly asked

"Once I had spoken to Brooke I approached Lexi on the beach, I sat next to her I told her that you were ok and nobody was angry at her, I didn't notice her injuries until she turned her face towards me."

"Injuries? What are you talking about she was fine when she ran off" Taylor asked completely stunned she didn't think for one second that the reason Lexi never came home was because she had been hurt.

"She had a few lacerations to her face as well as some marks to her neck. At this point those are the only injuries that we have knowledge off, once she's been examined at the hospital we will know the full extent of her injuries, then when she is ready we can find out the cause of the injuries and take her statement at the station"

"Lacerations from what? "Taylor asked her heart was beating so fast that she could feel it hitting against her ribcage. When Charlie didn't answer her question she shouted "TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SISTER?" The power in her voice taking both Brooke and Charlie by surprise

After she got the initial shock of Taylors shouted question Brooke went to speak but was cut off by Taylor again loudly asking a question,

"TELL ME?"

"TAYLOR" Brooke shouted back instantly getting Taylors attention, she pulled her little sister gently by the arms towards her placing her right hand on Taylor's left cheek she said "I know your upset and confused and furious along with a hundred other emotions, but you can't speak to people like that you. I taught you better than that Charlie is doing her job she doesn't need you having a go at her when all she's doing is trying to find the right words to explain"

Taylor softly nodded at Brooke then turning towards Charlie walking towards her and hugging her "I'm sorry Charlie I didn't mean to shout at you"

"It's ok Taylor I understand you love your little sister and you want to protect her" Charlie replied hugging Taylor back, when Taylor released the hug and stepped back to stand next to Brooke

"Charlie you were saying?" Brooke ventured

"Yeah, at this present moment we're not entirely sure of that at the moment; she wasn't responded to any of the questions that we asked she just repeated a man's name over and over again."

"Was the man's name Ritchie?" Brooke instantly asked

"Yes, how did you know that?" Charlie asked slightly taken back that Brooke knew that.

"It's my twin brother's name"

"Oh I didn't know you have a twin brother"

"I don't" When Charlie looked at her confusion clear on her face Brooke continued "He died Eight and a half years ago"

"I'm sorry" Charlie paused for a second she didn't know what to say, "Is there any particular reason that she could be calling his name?"

Taylor and Brooke looked at each other both knowing the reason behind why she was calling out for their deceased brother, Brooke slowly took a breath in and explained "When Ritchie was alive him and Alexis were just as close as me and her are whenever she was scared he'd calm her down, to the point where whenever she was really scared she'd start shouting for him until he appeared. She hasn't done it in over six years," There was a few minutes pause before Brooke continued to speak "So whatever has happened its scared her like nothing before"

"Whatever has happened to Alexis I promise that I will find out and make sure that justice is done" Charlie firmly said without a hint of caution or doubt in her voice.

"We know you will" Brooke replied smiling softly at Charlie "I'm going to drive to the hospital now, I'll drop you off first Taylor"

"NO, I wanna come with you" Taylor firmly replied

"Taylor please, I'm thinking about Jojo and Mel someone needs to be there for them." When Taylor looked at her with a shear stubborn look on her face one that resembled her own she pulled her into a hug and continued "I know you wanna see her but you know as well as I do that I'm the only one that can calm her down, plus Jojo and Mel aren't going to be as composed as us which means that they may need a little more help looking after the twins." When Taylor looked up at her again with the look of stubbornness she again continued "Please Tay for me? As soon as I find anything out I'll call you I promise"

Taylors look began to waver when she looked at her older sister and saw that the worry was evident on her face. After a second or two she replied "Ok, but you have to double promise when you find something out you have to tell me straight away"

"I double promise Tay" Brooke slightly smiled as you replied pulling Taylor into a hug "She's going to be fine Tay" Pulling out of the hug Brooke winked at Taylor "Come on lets go"

As Brooke was about to get into her car Charlie called out to her, "If it's better for you I can drop Taylor off so you can go straight to the hospital, I can also tell Joey and Mel it'll be easier for me to explain"

Brooke looked at Taylor for a response when Taylor nodded she looked over to Charlie and replied "That'd be great. Thank You"

"No problem, I'll check in on Alexis in about thirty minutes. I'll call you beforehand to let you know how Jo and Mel take the news" With that Charlie turned to Taylor "You ready."

Taylor looked from Charlie to Brooke who winked at her and nodded softly at her with that reassuring movement from her sister she turned back to Charlie and replied "As I'll ever be yeah" She then followed Charlie to her car looking back every few steps to make sure Brooke was ok, climbing into her car she couldn't get Alexis out of her mind wondering how she was and how bad the injuries to her were. She'd been told not to blame herself for Alexis running away but deep down she couldn't help it especially now that Alexis had been hospitalized with injuries that she didn't know anything about she didn't know how bad they were or if they were life threatening, as worried as she was she knew that she had to be strong for everyone else in the family. As Charlie pulled up the house Taylor felt her stomach turn and turn at the thought of having to explain everything to Mel and Joey. Once Charlie had turned the engine of the car off she looked over at Taylor who simply sighed and opened the car door stepping out and towards the house, Charlie didn't interrupt her she knew from experience that when giving bad news the easiest thing to do is get it over with quickly. Taylor opened the door using her house keys as she opened the door she saw Joey stand up from where she was seating and immediately move towards her and Charlie the worry evident on her face;

As she walked into the front room the first person she saw was Joey, who instantly walked up to her softly asking, "What happened? Where's Lexi & Brooke?"

As Taylor looked at Joey seeing the fear in her face grow having not seen Brooke or Alexis come through the door after Taylor and Charlie, her own fear seemed to paralyse her, not matter how hard she tried she couldn't formulate the words that she needed to explain what had happened, as she tried and tried to force the words out her mouth the tears began to tumble from her eyes down her cheeks onto her top. As hard as she tried to stop them she just couldn't the only image in her head was Alexis laying covered in blood on the beach and no matter what anyone said she couldn't stop blaming herself.

Joey stood looking at Taylor she couldn't work out what was going on but she knew that it wasn't good she had very rarely seen Taylor cry not even when she was sick, she didn't really know what to do so she did what she knew Brooke would do in this situation she moved forwards wiping Taylors tears away and pulling her into a hug, Taylor wrapped her arms softly around Joey's waist. After a few minutes Joey pulled back slightly looking down at Taylor softly asking, "What's wrong Tay?"

Taylor looked at Joey trying and failing again to form the words, she went to open her mouth to speak when she heard Mel say from behind Joey "Its ok Tay, you don't have to say anything. I'll tell Joey" Taylor broke out of the hug she was in with Joey and quickly moved towards Mel throwing her arms around Mel's waist and hugging her tightly, looking up slightly confused as to how Mel actually knew, seeing her look Mel answered stating " I called Brooke to check in and made her tell me what was going on. I didn't think it was fair on you to have to tell everyone and neither did Brooke" Taylor tightened her hug with Mel burying her head in Mel's shoulder the tears flowing down her cheeks even more this time they were tears of relief at not having to force the words out of her mouth. She felt Mel place her hand on her chin and pull her face gently up as their eyes meet Mel softly said "Can you go and pack a few things for Lexi they need her to stay overnight for observation" More tears fell down Taylors cheeks it had to be bad if the hospital were keeping Alexis in overnight, as if reading her thoughts Mel explained "Lexi is fine just a few bruises and cuts except that she's more worried about you. I'll make a deal with you if you can pack her stuff for me I'll let you come to the hospital with me and see for yourself" Taylor instantly realised the hug and began running for the stairs before she could get there she stopped in her tracks running back to Mel gently hugging her and saying "Thank You, I love you Mel" Mel responded by squeezing Taylor a little saying "I love you too Tay" As Taylor realised the hug and walked up the stairs to Lexi's bedroom.

Charlie Joey and Mel all remained silent until she had heard the bedroom door shut upstairs, Joey looked at Mel and softly asked "Is Lexi really ok?"

Mel looked at Joey taking a deep breath in and replied "Yeah, I did sugar coat it a tiny bit but she will be in the hospital for a few days. They want to run some tests on her to make sure there's no lasting damage to her physically. She's got a concussion, marks to the face neck and arms, and a few minor bruises to her abdomen the doctors don't think that there's any internal bleeding but their doing a scan now."

"Do you know what happened?" Joey asked looking at Charlie

"We're not sure at the moment it looks like a mugging but we couldn't really talk to Alexis at the time she was in a panic calling for Ritchie, nobody could get anywhere near her except me and even then it was a struggle to convince her to get in the ambulance"

"Hang on, she was calling for Ritchie?" Joey responded thinking she had probably heard Charlie wrong

"Yeah"

"That's not a good sign" Joey said looking at Mel who nodded agreeing with her

"Why's it not a good sign?" Charlie asked she knew about Ritchie being dead and that for Alexis to call his name she must have been really scared but she was slightly confused as to why this was not a good sign.

"Jo?" Mel said looking at Joey almost asking if she wanted to explain or if she wanted her to explain

Joey nodded her head towards Mel signifying that she would explain. "Ritchie died almost Nine years ago, I'm sure Brooke mentioned that Lexi and Ritchie were close but I don't think you could know how much? When Lexi was younger Brooke wasn't like she is now Ritchie had always been the one that looked after everyone else, Lexi absolutely loved him they would spend every minute of the day together she even slept in the same room as him most of the time, he was the only one that seemed to be able to get through to her when she would have a meltdown, He taught her that whenever something really bad happened or if things got really really scary for her and she felt like she wanted to run away or like she was going to have a meltdown all she had to do was call his name and he would come and find her and take all the bad things away." Joey paused for a second feeling her emotions overwhelming her slightly as she spoke about Ritchie "When he died she couldn't understand it at first after a while she stopped calling his name and called Brooke's instead, there's only been a few times since that she's been that scared to called out for him one of them was when she found out Brooke had been attacked and the other was when Maxine was nearly killed by her ex." Joey finished tears breaming in her eyes, she looked to Mel her eyes almost asking Mel to finish of explaining her point to Charlie.

"What we're trying to explain is that it would have to be something massively scary to make her want someone who she knows isn't there and can't come back, it would have to be something that made her scared for her life" Mel finished off she could see that Joey's eyes were starting to fill up with tears thinking about what Lexi was going through. "When I spoke to Brooke she said that the police think that she might have been sexually assaulted but Lexi is too scared to let anyone but Brooke anywhere near her." Taking a deep breath in Mel continued "I'm gonna take Taylor to the hospital but Brooke asked me to make sure that she eats first"

"I can do that then I can get her a taxi to the hospital when she's done, We both know that as much as she'll say she's fine Brooke needs someone there I think it'll be easier for her if it's you" When Mel raised her eyebrows somewhat questioning why Joey would think that "Brooke always has to be the strong one, the only person she lets her emotions out with one hundred percent of the time is you. Especially since Frankee and I started dating I think she thinks I'll tell Frankee if she tells me something I never would but you know Brooke she never wants to be seen as weak by anyone but with you it doesn't seem to bother her"

"It's probably just because she doesn't want to burden you with the court case coming up plus she knows I won't stop nagging until she tells me what's wrong" Both Mel and Joey softly giggled, after a second or two Mel moved towards the door grabbing her keys of the side table and looking back at Joey she softly spoke stating "Just a heads up, you need to warn Frankee not to come anywhere near the hospital Brooke is fuming about her not picking Alexis up if Brooke sees her then I don't know what she will do to her, I'm not telling you cause I care what happens to Frankee I'm telling you because you shouldn't have to be caught in the middle of Brooke and Frankee when everything kicks off because it will kick off You know Brooke as well as I do and you know she won't let this drop" Mel said completing what she wanted to say as she opened the door she heard Joey say 'Thank You' she smiled softly at Joey "No Problem, when Taylor comes down tell her not to panic and that I'll see her in thirty minutes, But she HAS to eat something" With that Mel exited the house she walked towards the Black BMW that was parked in the driveway unlocking the car she climbed in drivers side of the car as she placed the key in the ignition she felt her emotions overwhelm her, tears began streaming down her face she knew the fear and pain that came from being sexually assaulted and she didn't know how Alexis would be able to handle it, she barely made it through her experience and it was easier for her to process things than it was for Alexis. Mel took a deep breath in she knew that there wasn't any time for her to let her emotions out it was time for her to be the strong one for Brooke and especially for Taylor.

Mel reversed the car out of the driveway and drove in the direction of the hospital. About twenty minutes later Mel pulled into the car park of the hospital after a few minutes of driving around she found a space to park the car, parking then getting out of the car locking it and walking to the hospital entrance. Finding her way to the section of the hospital that Brooke had told her to go to she slowly walked down the hall looking out for Brooke. After looking in around for a few minutes she found Brooke sitting outside one of the rooms as she approached her Brooke looked up seeing Mel she stood up and waiting for Mel to get to her as soon as she was close enough Mel opened her arms for Brooke who happily engulfed Mel in a hug.

In The Next Chapter

*Brooke's POF of the Last Hour

*Frankee resurfaces

*Taylor visits Alexis

*Charlie and Joey talk about their relationship