Through Pain We Survive

Chapter 38

*** TRIGGER WARNING- drugging mentions***

Opening her eyes, Gwen saw AJ walking to her.

"Hi Baby."

AJ leaned over her and kissed her. "Hi. I dropped Nate off at home."

"Okay. How was he?"

"He was okay. I can tell he feels bad for everything."

"It wasn't even his fault. It was her."

"I know. But he feels the guilt for all this happening to you when he could have prevented it."

Gwen sighed. "We need to show him it wasn't his fault, show him we trust him."

"We'll figure something out."

Gwen looked a bit guilty for a moment.

"What is it?"

"I talked to Becca. I told her that they broke up. I'm not expecting her to run to him immediately, but I felt she should know since she's been affected by Sara as well."

"Okay. Nate mentioned he needed to talk to her anyway, so he probably called her when he got home."

"Yeah."

Dr. Mahdi knocked on the door and entered. "How are you feeling, Gwen?"

"Tired. Drained. But I guess that's to be expected, right?"

"Yes. The medication is working it's way through your system, expelling the extra zinc from your body. Since we caught it early enough, and it was mild, you will make a full recovery. We will keep you here for possibly three more hours just to make sure everything is flushed out and you are back to a normal level. We will be drawing blood every hour to monitor it. If you have any questions, feel free to give the nurse a buzz."

"Thank you Dr. Mahdi," Gwen said.

After she left, Gwen sighed. "Fun. I get to be a pincushion."

"Way to put a positive spin on it, Honey." AJ chuckled at her dry humor.

"Gotta do something to keep a light heart about all this stuff." Gwen let out a shaky breath. "Honestly, all this scares me. I'm not going to trust anyone else giving me food for a while. Except you, of course. But I won't want to eat out or have anything delivered for fear something will have happened to it." She looked up at AJ. "I'm sorry Baby. I just—"

AJ took her hands in his. "I get it. It's okay. We'll get through this, Honey. Together."

He kissed her on the forehead.

Laying on her bed, Sara sniffled. She screwed up. She hadn't been trying to hurt Gwen. She just wanted to impress Damien. Damien. This is all his fault. Sara thought to their conversation after Nate left.

Sara didn't know what to do. Nate, she knew, was ticked off. She screwed up.

Fumbling for her phone, she sent a text to Damien. "Come home. Now." She put her phone down and sat down on the couch, her head in her hands.

Damien came inside from the back door a few minutes later. "Tough day?"

"Nate and I— we're— he— I—" she broke down crying.

"Aww, were you falling for him? He was nothing but trouble."

"He broke up with me because I slipped up." Tears were streaming down her cheeks. "I told him what she was drugged with before he told me."

"You did what?! How could you be so stupid! You could have blown our cover! Is that worth it to you?"

Sara thought a moment. Is it worth keeping up with this façade? "I— I don't know. Nate doesn't deserve this treatment. None of them do."

"Do you realize what you did? With you outing us, I have to take matters into my own hands!"

"What—what are you going to do?"

"Are you developing a conscious? Who cares what happens to them. We deserve to be on top!"

"But drugging them? Hurting them? Why would we need to do that? It should be the best group will be on top!"

"Never you mind. I'll call you later." Damien left Sara alone.

Sara sat up. She had to make this right. She called Nate, but it rang then went to voicemail. Of course he won't speak to me right now. I've just betrayed him. Sara looked at her phone. I can't get ahold of anyone. I need to talk to Nate. To warn him. She got out of bed and got ready.

Dr. Mahdi came in to Gwen's room a few hours later. "Hello. Are we about ready to get out of here?"

"Yes, thank goodness."

"Okay. I have the paperwork here, all you have to do is sign, I'll get you copies, and we can get you released."

"Great. Thank you."

After signing the papers, Gwen handed them back to Dr. Mahdi. "Thank you so much Dr. Mahdi. We appreciate all you've done."

"My pleasure you two."

Gwen got out of bed with AJ's assistance. She was still a little wobbly from the medications, but she was feeling better.

They gathered up their things and sat back down.

Gwen's phone rang again. Jumping and fearfully looking to AJ, Gwen's breath hitched.

AJ looked at her phone. "It's Becca, Honey. It's okay."

Gwen took a deep breath and answered the phone on speaker. "Hello."

"Hey, Gwen, have y'all heard from Nate? I know AJ took him home, and I've been trying to call him sporadically since we got off the phone, but he's not answering. I have a bad feeling."

Gwen looked to AJ. "He should be home. Maybe he's in the shower? I don't know." Gwen was starting to feel panicky.

AJ chimed in. "He could also just have his headphones on. He did say earlier he was going to be editing, maybe he just didn't hear his phone."

"Maybe that's it." Becca sighed. "I don't like leaving things between him and me on such shaky ground. I don't like us fighting."

"I know. I get it," Gwen said sympathetically. "You guys will talk and work this out."

Becca sighed. "I still can't shake this bad feeling. Like something happened to him."

"We are getting ready to leave here. If you want, I can call you when we leave here and you can meet us at the house?"

"Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Thanks for not ignoring my weird feeling."

Gwen didn't want to say, but since Becca said Nate didn't answer his phone, she'd had a bad feeling too. "No problem." Someone knocked at her door. "Oh, the nurse is here with my papers. I'll call you back."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye!" Gwen hung up and sighed. Trying to shake this bad feeling she had, she smiled at the nurse who had walked to her bedside.

After signing some more papers and getting the instructions for care after they went home, she was released.

She called Becca and told her they were leaving, and to meet them at the house.

AJ had not talked the entire time after being released until they were in the car driving home.

"Baby, what are you thinking? You've been awfully quiet."

"Honestly, I've had a bad feeling since Becca called that last time as well. Something isn't sitting right. Sara would normally fight for what she wants. With her not fighting, it scares me."

"Yeah, I feel the same. I know Becca's instincts are usually right."

"Like someone else I know." AJ gave Gwen a sly smile. "Seriously, you have some incredible intuition."

Gwen smiled at him. He took her hand and kissed it.

Pulling into the driveway, Gwen took a deep breath. "Home sweet home."

They got out of the car. Looking around, AJ didn't notice anything out of place. But he had a weird feeling things were about to get worse before they got better.