The van screeched to a halt outside the emergency entrance of the local hospital. Simon lifted Melanie out of the van and rushed her toward the building with the group following quickly behind. She groaned and wriggled in his grip as she regained consciousness, but he held tight until he got her inside.
Doctors and nurses immediately sprung to action, pulling a stretcher toward Simon so he could set Melanie down. He anxiously requested Penny or Sandra's presence as he attempted to get Melanie on the stretcher, holding her tightly as she kicked at the stretcher to keep from being set on it.
Not wanting to cause a scene, the hospital staff guided Simon and the musicians to one of the private emergency rooms. Simon continued to hold Melanie in his arms, struggling as she continued to kick her legs out and tried to push out of his grip. As soon as they got into the room and closed the door, he carefully set her on her feet and let her go. She pushed him away and attempted to step back, but her legs gave out.
"We're not going to be able to get her to lay down," Lucy warned one of the nurses as Simon caught Melanie to keep her from falling. She informed the nurse of Melanie's condition, watching as the frantic girl pushed away from Simon and tucked herself into a corner of the room.
"If she's refusing treatment, we can't force it on her," the nurse replied apologetically. "We'll have to wait until she's calm enough to consent or if she loses consciousness."
"It's all right, Mary," said Sandra to the nurse as she raced into the room with Victoria, who had filled her in on Melanie's condition. "She's a bit of an exception." She greeted Simon and the group of musicians, looking sympathetically at Melanie as she cowered in the corner. She knelt in front of her, watching as she shrunk away, sobbing and trying to back herself further into the corner.
"She's going to be a handful," Simon warned tiredly as he wiped the sweat from his palms onto his trousers. "She was able to give myself, a police officer, and three bodyguards a run for our money the other day. I honestly don't know how she's still going."
"You poor thing," Sandra breathed sympathetically as she sat on the floor in front of Melanie in an attempt to appear less threatening. "I heard you were going to be in court today. That must have been absolutely awful, seeing those horrible men again after we all promised they couldn't come near you." She continued to speak in a soothing voice, taking a visual assessment of Melanie as she did so.
"Is she speaking yet?" she asked as Lucy sat on the floor next to her. Lucy shook her head.
"She was until a few days ago," Simon sighed tiredly, looking regretfully at Sandra. "We seem to have gone back to square one now, though." Sandra nodded and struggled to get Melanie's temperature and blood pressure while the girl pulled away and protested. Once she had the results, Sandra turned to Mary, who had been standing at the door, and she requested a cooling blanket to get Melanie's fever down.
"We're just going to get you cooled down a bit, sweetheart," Sandra explained as Mary returned with the blanket. "We'll try to wait until you're ready before we do anything else, but you need to understand that what you're feeling right now is really dangerous and we're not going to let you get worse, ok?"
Melanie kept her head tucked into her knees, shrugging away from Sandra and pushing the blanket away as it was draped over her shoulders. Sandra sat back and sighed, thinking for a minute before motioning for AJ to join her.
"Please, don't force anything on her," Emma begged as she watched AJ pull Melanie away from the wall and tuck himself in behind her while she protested and cried. He straddled her and wrapped the cooling blanket over her shoulders, then wrapped his arms around her waist to keep the blanket on her as he calmly assured her she was going to be all right. She fought against him and clawed at his arms, her screams alternating between panicked and desperate to frustrated and defeated.
"We're just going to hold you for a bit," Sandra instructed calmly. "We want to keep you from hurting yourself." AJ nodded, holding Melanie firmly around the waist as she continued to kick and squirm to get away from him. The group waited in silence as Melanie slowly began to wear herself out. She clutched AJ's arms tightly, still trying to pull them away as she panted tiredly.
Sandra collected a wet cloth from the cupboard and kneeled by AJ's side to keep from getting kicked by Melanie. She gently dabbed the cloth along Melanie's cheeks, neck, and forehead, attempting to keep her from overheating. Melanie protested and tried to pull her face away, but her movements were limited as her body began to shut down. Her eyes widened as she looked up at Mary, who had wheeled an IV drip next to her, and she shook her head urgently.
"She doesn't want it and we're scaring her," Emma cried, attempting to step in to get everyone to leave Melanie alone, but Simon pulled her back. She tried to push him away, but he held her tightly and quietly explained the necessity of Melanie's treatment. "She's going to think we're just like Otis." she sobbed.
"You've done this before," Sandra explained, looking from Emma to Melanie as she took the IV Mary was offering to her. "It's not going to hurt. We need to give you a little something to get you hydrated and feeling better." She pulled Melanie's left arm toward herself, eliciting a panicked cry from the girl. Sandra allowed Melanie to pull away and looked at her sadly while trying to explain the repercussions of her condition, but Melanie wouldn't listen. She eyed Sandra worriedly and tried to shrink away as Sandra unwrapped the needle from its packaging.
"Please, don't," she begged tearfully, fighting against her unwilling muscles to get out of AJ's grip once more. Sandra looked at her regretfully, shocked to hear Melanie speak for the first time.
"Melanie, with your fever as high as it is, I'm really concerned you're to the point now where we have to worry about seizures or a coma," Sandra explained honestly. "There's a very real possibility that you could die from this if we don't step in." Melanie looked at her intensely, seeming to consider what she was saying before nodding defiantly. Sandra froze and looked at Melanie with shock, her expression mirroring everyone else's. An uncomfortable silence washed over the room as Melanie held Sandra's gaze, suddenly emotionless.
"You're trying to kill yourself?" Lucy asked calmly. Melanie shrugged, ducking her head as she fought to keep from crying. "Why do you want to kill yourself, sweetheart?"
"Not his way," Melanie choked, hugging her arms tightly against her body. Sandra looked at Lucy with awe as they let the information sink in.
"Not Otis's way?" Lucy confirmed finally. "You want it to be on your terms?" Melanie choked back a sob and arched her back away from AJ, desperately wanting everyone to leave her alone. "Melanie, Otis isn't going to kill you."
"That's what they said!" Melanie sobbed angrily. "They still did it!" Everyone held on to her words, not fully understanding what she was talking about. She took a few deep breaths before looking up and making eye contact with everyone in the room. "I hate you," she muttered. Emma's face instantly fell and she pushed Simon away from her.
"Emma," Simon warned, not wanting her to get upset over Melanie's outburst, but was too late.
"I told you!" she sobbed, turning away from everyone and running to the door. She was immediately enveloped in Victoria's arms and guided out of the room.
"That's all right," said Lucy to Melanie. "You have every right to be angry with us right now. There's nothing wrong with that." Melanie pulled her legs up and buried her face into her knees, keeping her arms tight against her chest as she cried.
"Melanie, did you think we were giving you to Otis so he could kill you?" Geri gasped, watching in horror as Melanie nodded, still keeping her head down to avoid looking at her. "Darling, no!" Geri added quickly. "We don't want him anywhere near you."
"You were going to watch," Melanie whimpered accusingly, glaring up at Geri.
"Holy shit," she gasped. "I'm so sorry, Melanie. That's not what I meant. We were watching you in the courtroom, that's all."
Melanie's eyes began to slide closed and her gaze dropped to the floor in a blank stare, the exertion of her fight against them having taken a toll on her. Her body slowly began falling forward and her arms relaxed and lowered away from her chest. Her breathing was becoming laboured and she didn't seem to be paying attention to anyone around her. AJ pulled her back against him and tried to get her attention as she began to lose consciousness.
Sandra quickly pulled Melanie's arm toward her, poking around for a vein with her finger before wiping the skin with antiseptic. Melanie groaned and attempted to pull her arm away, but Geri quickly knelt next to Sandra and held Melanie's elbow and wrist to keep her arm still while Lucy held Melanie's right arm out of the way to keep her from stopping Sandra from inserting the IV.
"No!" Melanie pleaded weakly as she struggled to fight back one last time. She shook her head despondently, unable to fight anymore but still not willing to give in. Her fear escalated once again as she watched Sandra positioning the needle against her skin. She breathed in panicked gasps and tried to pull away.
"I'm not putting you to sleep," Sandra assured her, meeting Melanie's eye. "You're not going to see things, you're not going to feel sick, Otis is not coming to get you, and you're absolutely not going to die. This is just to replace the fluids you've lost."
Melanie tried to push herself back up with her legs, but she had no strength left. She panted and scanned the room, desperately looking for some way to get herself out of her situation. Her head fell back against AJ's shoulder and she panted as she tried to keep from passing out. She struggled to sit back up and shook her head, glancing up at the IV drip helplessly.
"Nice and quick. Just a tiny, little sting here," Sandra explained as she slid the needle and the tube into Melanie's vein, removed the needle, and taped the tube to Melanie's skin. "See, that wasn't so bad."
"I don't want to die," Melanie sobbed into her knees.
"We're not going to let you die," Sandra assured her sympathetically. "That's why we're giving you the fluids. You're going to start feeling so much better soon." Melanie shook her head, sobbing harder as she tried to pull her arms away from Geri and Lucy. Both women let go, allowing Melanie to hug her knees while still watching her closely to make sure she wasn't going to pull the IV out.
They all sat in silence watching as Melanie slowly began to regain some colour and gain more strength, She curled herself into a protective ball, not wanting to acknowledge anyone in the room with her.
After a while, Melanie looked up at the IV drip and around at the room with confusion, lifting her hand to look at the IV. Lucy quickly took Melanie's right hand, not wanting her to have a chance to pull the tube out. Melanie looked tiredly at Lucy before dropping her head and letting her left hand fall to her side.
"Are you starting to feel better?" Geri asked, pressing the back of her hand against Melanie's cheeks and forehead. Melanie shrugged.
"Don't see them," she replied quietly, not meeting her eye.
"Who?" Geri asked curiously. Melanie looked intensely at Geri, then sighed and dropped her gaze. Geri watched Melanie closely, wracking her brain for some context to her statement. "The red shadows?" Geri asked finally. Melanie nodded.
Geri's shoulders drooped and she looked at the IV port in Melanie's hand. "Sandra told you we weren't going to do that to you," she sighed sadly, feeling defeated and horrible for what they had unknowingly just put her through.
"Red shadows?" Mel inquired, looking at Geri questioningly.
"From the drugs Otis used to give Melanie," Geri responded tiredly.
They all sat in silence, all coming to the same realization as Geri. No matter how much they tried to convince Melanie they weren't going to hurt her, she still believed they had negative intentions.
"Surely after all this time we've proven you can trust us?" Geri queried. Melanie looked up at her, closely examining Geri's expression and body language. She shrugged, her chin wobbling as she dropped her gaze.
"I don't know," Melanie whimpered tiredly.
"That's a difficult thing to ask," Lucy stated, looking at Melanie seriously. "You can take as long as you need to make that decision. It's going to take time and experiences like this for you to fully make up your mind about that."
Melanie looked at Lucy questioningly, the internal struggle she was going through evident on her face. She inhaled deeply and stared fearfully at the tube protruding from her arm.
"Please, take it out," she begged, looking desperately at Sandra.
"Soon, sweetheart," Sandra responded softly. "We'll give it an hour just to get you feeling better, all right?" Melanie dropped her head and cried, still cringing against AJ's touch as he squeezed her tightly from behind.