AN: No new warnings on this one. Mindy is actually a really fun and easy character to write, so when I had the time to write this weekend, this chapter happened very quickly. Enjoy!

There wasn't much in life that Mindy was willing to skip school for, but getting a call from Audrey that Drake and Josh had been found and were in the hospital? That was as good a reason as any. It wasn't as if she couldn't afford to miss school. She was the best of the best for a reason, and a single day's absence wasn't going to change that, especially since the number two was Josh, who also wasn't in school. Everyone else was leagues behind them, so Mindy didn't have anything to worry about in that regard.

She'd gotten the call from Audrey as she was getting ready for school, about to walk out the door. Without a word to her parents on the change of location, she sped off down the street, and turned left instead of right, towards the hospital. Mindy gripped the steering wheel a little bit more than she needed to, but it was the only way she was going to get her stress out while driving. Audrey hadn't given her any details, saying that it would be easier to explain in person. So Mindy knew absolutely nothing. Knowing nothing wasn't exactly something that Mindy was accustomed to. Mindy always knew things, knew everything. And yet this time, she was going in completely blind. The only thing she could figure was that both Drake and Josh were alive, because otherwise, Audrey wouldn't have been able to contact her so quickly.

After a halfhearted attempt at a decent parking job, Mindy was practically power walking into the hospital, the poor traction of her Vans almost causing her to slip in her haste to get to her boyfriend. Luckily, Audrey had told her exactly which room to go to, so Mindy didn't have to take the time to stop at the desk and ask where to go.

As Mindy walked off the elevator in the pediatric ward, she nearly stumbled in surprise at seeing two San Diego County deputies standing at the end of the hallway, one at each side of the doorway to the last room. And, of course, that was the door to Drake and Josh's room.

"Can I go in there and see my boyfriend?" she hesitantly asked the deputies as she approached them.

"One second," the young female deputy said. She peaked her head through the door. "Audrey? There's a girlfriend here to see the boys. Is that okay with you?" Another second later, the deputies stepped aside to allow Mindy to enter the room.

The hospital room was mostly dark, with only a lamp on in the corner to provide light. Despite that, Mindy could clearly see her boyfriend and his brother. Josh was on the bed closest to the door, asleep. She saw his left hand in a brace and some gauze peeking out from under the hospital gown by his neck and shoulder. Drake was asleep in the other bed, but she didn't see any obvious signs of what was wrong with him. As much as she longed to go straight to Josh and kiss him awake and tell him how glad she was that he was okay and that she loved him, she knew waking him was a bad idea. So, instead, she met Audrey in the middle of the room, while Walter and Megan offered her forced smiles from the couch.

"What's going on?" she quietly asked. She knew neither of the boys were particularly light sleepers, but it still felt wrong to risk it. "What happened?" She looked between Audrey and Walter, but neither of them were answering. Finally, Walter gave Megan a pat on the knee.

"Let's go find some water," he said. "Give them a chance to talk."

The fact that Megan nodded and immediately did as her step-dad directed was a big hint that whatever had happened, it was serious.

Walter looked longingly at Josh as he and Megan left the room, leaving Audrey to lead Mindy to the couch, where the two of them sat down. Mindy looked over again at the boys, who were still fast asleep, facing each other.

"What happened?" she asked again.

"I'm not really sure how much to say," Audrey admitted with a shrug. There were tears in her eyes. "Drake and Josh were kidnapped by the San Diego Snatcher." Mindy's eyes went wide and her stomach dropped. Her mind instantly went back to what she'd overheard in the bathroom the day before at the cafe, but she forced those thoughts away. Just because they'd been kidnapped by him didn't mean they were hurt badly. The man was a serial killer after all, and the brothers were both clearly still alive. "They escaped," Audrey continued. "But Josh was stabbed, in the shoulder, and Drake-." Audrey shook her head as a few tears leaked out. With the light of the lamp much closer, Mindy could tell that Audrey had been crying a lot. "It's not for me to say what happened to Drake."

Mindy forced herself to just nod. She didn't need Audrey to tell her what had happened to Drake. It was clear enough what had happened without the verbal confirmation. Drake had been sexually assaulted. He'd been raped, just as the girls in the bathroom had said he would be.

"Why are there deputies outside?" Mindy finally asked, impressed that there was only minimal shaking in her voice.

"The man who did this to them, he's still out there," Audrey said. "The police don't necessarily believe that he's going to come after the boys, but they're providing extra security, just in case."

Mindy nodded, then looked back over at the boys. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Audrey yawning.

"How long have you guys been here?" she asked.

"Oh, hours," Audrey replied. She shrugged like she really didn't know. Audrey looked at her wrist, but she wasn't wearing a watch. "We got the call really early in the morning."
"Do you guys want to go home and get some rest?" she asked. "I can stay here with them."

"I don't want to leave them." There were more tears in Audrey's voice.

"Mrs. Parker-Nichols, you're exhausted. You need breakfast at the very least," Mindy insisted. She wasn't a touchy person, but she took Audrey's hands into her own. "You're not going to be any help to your sons if you can't even stay awake. Let me help take over for a while. They're not gonna be alone, I promise."

Audrey was quiet for a minute, clearly in a debate with herself. Mindy let her wrestle with it. She wasn't sure if she would be able to leave if she were in Audrey's shoes, but logic dictated that leaving and getting some rest, at least getting some food, was the right move, whether she or Audrey liked it or not.

"You're right, you're right," Audrey admitted.

"I always am," Mindy replied, forcing her trademark condescending smirk that Drake hated and Josh loved.

Audrey smiled back, then got up and made her way between the boys' beds. She gently rested a hand on each of their arms and looked between them.

"I'll be back soon, I promise," she said. "I love you both so much." Another few seconds went by, and Audrey didn't move any closer towards the door. Mindy picked up one of the chairs and brought it between the boys, right behind Audrey.

"I'm gonna be right here," Mindy repeated. "With both of them."

Finally, Audrey let out a long breath and nodded, and moved around the chair and out the door without another word. Mindy then moved the chair so that she could sit at Josh's bedside. She would do whatever she had to to take care of Drake too, but Josh was her boyfriend after all.

Mindy sat down and gazed at Josh's lax face. He didn't look like he was in any pain, but he had an IV in and was likely on pain meds if he'd been stabbed in the shoulder. That was probably what the gauze sticking out by his neck was from. As for the brace around his left hand, Mindy wasn't entirely sure what the injury was. She would have to wait until Josh woke up, although she also wasn't sure if asking Josh about anything that happened was the right call. This was a new situation for Mindy, and she didn't know yet how to navigate it.

Mindy reached forward and gently, softly ran her fingers through Josh's hair. It was dirty and greasy, but Mindy didn't care. She loved his hair. She loved every part of him. She loved him, and she'd never told him that. She'd almost never gotten the chance.

"I love you," she whispered, so softly, so lightly, that the words had barely left her mouth before they were snatched away by the low hum of the air conditioning and the steady beeps of all the medical equipment. Mindy let out a long breath. She'd never spoken those words aloud before, not to a romantic partner. She knew in her mind that she loved Josh, but this was her first time actually saying it aloud, no matter how quietly.

But Josh made no response. He slept on, the heavy sleeper that he was. Mindy loved and hated that. On the one hand, him being a heavy sleeper meant he wouldn't wake up as much for trivial things, disrupting his REM cycle and losing out on the valuable rest that can only be achieved through it. But on the other hand, it made him more vulnerable to the world around him, a world that sometimes wished to do him harm. It also made it harder for him to wake himself up from a bad dream. Even now, though he looked at peace, Josh could've been battling untold monsters in his mind, and Mindy would've been none the wiser. His expressions never betrayed him while he slept, unlike Drake.

Drake wasn't exactly a light sleeper either - he'd always managed to sleep through class just fine - but he would wake up much more easily than Josh would, and anyone watching him sleep could tell if he was dreaming or not, and if he were, what sort of dream it was.

Drake and Josh had mostly kept quiet about their misadventure in Hollywood not six months earlier, but Josh had told Mindy of course, and even confided in her that Drake wasn't handling it as well as he wanted everyone to think he was. It was for that reason only that one day, while Drake slept on in class, and Mindy had noticed he seemed to be getting into a nightmare - if the furrow to his brow, softest of whimpers, and way he was cringing in on himself were any indication - she kicked him in the leg to wake him up without a word. He'd snapped awake and looked around frantically for a second before letting out a deep breath and falling right back into that arrogant, obnoxious persona he held on to. Mindy had rolled her eyes, but didn't otherwise say anything to him in class that day, for Josh's sake, if nothing else.

So when Mindy heard that whimper again, with the new context of what had just been done to him, she didn't feel annoyance at him, but heartbreak, and even a touch of anger. With a final look at her boyfriend, Mindy turned her chair to face Drake, who looked much like he had that one day in class, but somehow smaller, and more vulnerable. It was probably the hospital gown. But this time, Mindy didn't think kicking him awake was the right move.

"Drake," she called out, a little louder than she and Audrey had been speaking. Josh wouldn't wake for normal conversation for sure. Carefully, she reached out to rest her hand on his arm. "Drake," she repeated.

The moment her hand made contact with his forearm, Drake shot awake, eyes wide and looking at her in fear as he heavily flinched back, breathing heavily.

"It's okay, it's just me," she assured him. "Although I know I'm not a sight you want to see." Mindy forced a smirk she didn't feel in an effort to re-establish their normal dynamic, but Drake didn't even attempt the weakest of insults, or even stick his tongue out at her or any other childish move he normally did. Instead, he just looked over at Josh, finally relaxing at the sight of his brother. He still didn't say anything.

"Your parents and Megan went to go grab some breakfast," she explained. "I promised your mom I would stay with you guys until they got back." Drake still didn't say anything. He kept his gaze focused on Josh. "He's okay, he's just asleep, like you should be. Rest is important to heal."

Finally, Drake's eyes snapped over to hers, but only for a moment. He dropped his gaze to his hands, fidgeting with a string on the blanket.

"What did they tell you?" he asked. There was a note of bitterness in Drake's voice that Mindy had never heard from him before. His voice sounded hoarse too, like how your voice sounds after you've been screaming too much at a concert - except, Mindy knew Drake hadn't been to a concert.

"Not a lot," she answered honestly. "You guys were taken by the San Diego Snatcher, but you escaped, and Josh was stabbed. They didn't tell me anything else." Mindy left out what she had figured out on her own. If Drake wanted to volunteer that information, that was fine, but Mindy wasn't going to make him acknowledge it.

"So they didn't tell you I was raped?" Drake bitterly asked, scowling down at the blanket as he snapped the loose string off it.

"No, they didn't." Mindy paused. "But I knew."

Drake scoffed brokenly.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked.

"No, I just figured it out. I am smart, you know. Smarter than anyone else you've ever met. And probably ever will." Mindy figured if her own arrogance and bravado didn't draw out the same from Drake, nothing would.

It didn't.

"Yeah, I guess so," he softly said, dropping the blanket and letting his head fall listlessly back over to face Josh.

Mindy sighed. She didn't think that she could ever possibly miss the annoying, cocky, lazy, obnoxious in every way Drake Parker, but for the first time in a very long while, Mindy had been proven wrong. She would've done anything to take away the hurt and pain in his eyes and replace it with the self-assuredness she was used to from him.

"Josh is fine though, and that's all that matters," Drake said, his voice a little stronger. He continued before Mindy could say anything. "Well, he's not actually fine, but he will be. His shoulder and thumb will heal. James didn't touch him. Not like he touched me at least. We got away before he got the chance to."

Mindy didn't even know what to say. She'd never exactly had an emotional conversation with Drake, and this was even beyond what any normal emotional conversation would entail.

"What happened to his thumb?" she asked, then cursed herself. Was that really the best she could come with after what he'd said?

"He dislocated it," Drake answered. "He did it to slip his cuffs and try to get to me when James was- was doing what he did to me. But he couldn't get out of the cage so it didn't even matter." Drake shook his head and pulled his knees up to his chest, then curled up on his side, still facing Josh and Mindy.

Mindy's stomach dropped. Cuffs? A cage? Aside from the obvious, what sort of horrors had the boys been subjected to? She probably didn't even want to know.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, and she actually meant it. The only other time she'd apologized to Drake and meant it was when she apologized for trying to get him suspended near the end of tenth grade. She didn't like admitting it, but her stint in the mental rehabilitation clinic had been genuinely good for her. She'd spent so much time her entire life so focused on academic intelligence, that she'd neglected emotional intelligence, specifically her own emotional regulation. But she was good now - for the most part. "That's awful. You didn't deserve what he did to you." No one deserved that, not even someone she disliked as much as Drake.

Drake just shrugged. He offered her a sad smile, like he appreciated what she was saying, but he didn't quite agree.

"You didn't deserve it," Mindy reiterated, her brows furrowing as she got more passionate about what she was saying. "You know that, right?"

This time, Drake looked at her for maybe half a second, and remained silent as his eyes filled with tears. He immediately started wiping them away, his own brow furrowing in frustration as his emotions betrayed him.

"You didn't deserve it, Drake. No matter what that piece of shit told you, you didn't deserve it, okay?"

"I don't know," Drake answered with a self-deprecating grin. "I've been thinking about it, and maybe I did deserve it. Maybe it's just karma, or whatever, because of all the girls I date. Maybe I deserve to be punished, that's what my da-," he cut himself off and looked away. He didn't continue. Mindy wasn't sure exactly what he'd been about to say, but if her theory was correct, a lot more things would make sense about Drake.

"Hey, no," she said. "Look at me, Drake, I'm serious." Slowly, Drake's brown eyes looked up into her own. She had to force back her own tears at the sight of the pain in his eyes. Mindy had never seen that in Drake before, maybe not in anyone. "What he did to you is nothing like what you do with all your girlfriends. Of all the girls you've dated, have any of them ever wanted a long term relationship with you?" She only waited a second, since they both knew the answer was no. "They all know what they're getting into isn't anything serious, and they're okay with that. You're both getting what you want out of it. I might not be into that kind of thing, but that's just one of the many reasons why I'm with Josh. It's not like you're going around breaking hearts left and right without caring about their feelings or leading anyone on intentionally. You're not going around spreading STDs or getting girls pregnant. You haven't done anything. And even if you did any or all of those things, it still wouldn't mean that you deserved to have this done to you. You didn't deserve it at all, Drake. I'm telling you that as the smartest person you know. You didn't deserve it."

Drake was quiet for a moment, then finally nodded.

"Yeah, you're probably right," he quietly answered.

"I'm always right. When are you gonna figure that out?" Mindy forced a smirk, but it turned into a genuine smile when she saw Drake grin. It was the first time she'd seen him smile since he woke up.

"Why are you trying to make me feel better?" Drake asked. Normally, a question like that would've sounded rude, but Drake sounded genuinely confused about it. Now of course, confusing Drake wasn't a hard thing to do, but still.

"You know, Drake, I do care about you," she said, although it pained her to say it, and she was sure that Drake could tell. "You know that, right? No matter how much we might hate each other, I still care about you. You're the most important person in Josh's world, more important than me." Mindy shrugged and gave a sardonic grin. "I might not like that, but it is what it is. So if I love Josh, and I do very much, then I have to care about you too. Because if I don't care about you, then one day Josh is gonna have to pick between you and me, and I'm never gonna win. I've accepted that. So if I don't wanna lose him, then I need to make sure that he never has to pick, and that means that I have to care about you. So that's what I'm doing. I'm choosing to care about you, whether you like it or not."

"You really love him? Like, you're in love with him?" Drake clarified.

Mindy turned to look fondly over at her sleeping boyfriend. She would do anything for him. There was no one in the world that she wanted to be with more than him. She wanted a future with him, a house, some kids, a dog or a cat, the whole nine yards. Mindy wanted everything with him, even though everything included Drake. To have Josh for the rest of her life meant, by default, that she would also have Drake for the rest of her life. And Mindy didn't mind. No matter how much she disliked Drake, even though she was going to force herself to care about him, she would hang out with Drake every single day if it meant that she and Josh were together. She would do anything for Josh. She loved him.

"Yeah," she softly answered, a smile on her face. "I really am." And she couldn't wait to tell him that when he woke up.

"Then I guess I could try to care about you too," Drake said, although he didn't look super convinced.

"Oh, really?" she challenged. "So you're gonna try not to call me ridiculous things or pretend to vomit when I walk by or say 'ew' and cringe every time I sit next to you?"

"Maybe not every time anymore," he replied, a smile once again on his face. "I do have a reputation to uphold after all." Drake chuckled, then his smile fell. His whole face fell. "I don't think I'm gonna be able to uphold it, actually," he quietly continued. "Not this time. Before, no matter what, I could still do it, but now? I don't know. I think maybe the straw finally broke the horse's back, or whatever." He shrugged and shook his head.

"Camel."

"Huh?"

"It's the straw that broke the camel's back, not the horse's back."

"Oh, whatever," Drake sneered, but the hint of a smile came back at Mindy's gentle teasing.

Mindy grinned in full. She wasn't sure exactly what to do to help Drake, no matter how much she wanted to. She was going to have to do some research on the subject and cross reference it with what she already knew about him, and possibly seek out other sources, if Josh would be willing to divulge what he knew, and find the best answer as to how to help him based on those data points. She could solve anything, including how to help Drake get past this. But for the time being, gentle teasing seemed to be the way to go, the way to hold onto their initial dynamic in a way, but change it enough that it wasn't just slipping back into old patterns of hating each other.

A groan from the side stole her attention. Josh was waking up. Mindy beamed as she turned towards him.

"Josh," she said, unable to keep the smile off her face. The moment his beautiful blue eyes opened, it took all of her willpower to keep from kissing him. Josh looked at her, but didn't react until he saw Drake, awake, next to her. Josh breathed a sigh of relief, a small smile gracing his handsome face. It was only then that he turned back to her.

"Mindy," he breathed out. "It's so good to see you."

"You too," she answered. She began leaning forward, then, the moment that Josh did the same, she leaned in faster, and kissed him. It wasn't the steamiest or most passionate kiss they'd ever shared, but it was still her favorite of them all so far, because it was the first kiss they'd shared since she knew she loved him. And she needed to tell him, even though Drake was still in the room. She pulled her lips away, just a breath between them. "I love you," she said like a prayer.

Mindy felt Josh go rigid beneath her. He wasn't moving at all. Was he even breathing? Mindy pulled back more, smile falling as Josh didn't say anything in return. He seemed frozen in shock, his eyes wide.

"Uh, I, uh-."

"It's okay," Mindy interrupted his stammering, despite the way her heart broke just a little bit. "You don't have to say anything."

"No- yeah- it's just- it's been a lot these past couple of days, and I- I don't-."

"It's okay," she interrupted again, once again feeling a smile tug on her lips at how cute it was when Josh got flustered. "I know you've been through a lot, but after what happened, I just couldn't go another second without saying it. If things had gone differently, I might not have ever had the chance, so I needed to say it. I promise it's okay if you're not there yet, or you don't know what to say, or what. You don't have to say anything right now. I'm just happy you're alive." And despite the little break in her heart that Josh hadn't immediately said he loved her back, Mindy found that she truly didn't mind. Josh really had been through a lot. It wasn't exactly fair to ask him to decide right then and there whether or not he loved her too if it wasn't something that he'd ever thought of before.

"You're the best," Josh finally said. It wasn't 'I love you too' but Mindy would take what she could get for now.

"I know," she said in reply. She grabbed onto the chair and turned it so that she could sit between the boys and see both of them, then sat down.

"You guys done?" Drake asked, sounding just as annoyed as he always was when she and Josh were having a moment.

"We are for now, but if you're gonna have an attitude about it, then maybe Josh and I will just make out for a while instead."

"Please don't," Drake cringed.

Mindy chuckled, but Josh took in a sharp breath at Drake's words, before clearly forcing himself to relax.

"Are you guys hungry?" she asked, changing the topic. "I could order some food to be brought up here for you."

Drake shrugged, but Josh nodded.

"We should eat," Josh said. He turned to Drake. "You need to eat. Food is essential to the body, and we haven't had nearly enough of it the past few days."

Drake just shrugged again, and began picking at another loose thread on the blanket.

"Drake, if you don't eat something, I'll tell Josh all about our little heart to heart," Mindy threatened. Finally, Drake grinned.

"Fine, I'll eat something," he said.

"That's a good boy," Mindy replied. She stood up and grabbed the menu that was on the table between the beds. Hospital food wasn't going to be very good, but she would give the boys their options.

"Wait, what heart to heart?" Josh asked, looking between them.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Drake muttered.

"None of your business, Nichols," Mindy added. She smirked at her boyfriend's pout and went back to the menu. No matter how much had changed, Mindy took comfort in the fact that some things stayed the same.