“Okay, come along with me,” he said, glancing up as he handed a folder to me.

I glanced down at the big tan folder. It had my name and ID number written across it. It looked odd, Carter, Nickolas Gene, 360825246.

They led me to a windowless room, two chairs and a table was situated in it. The humming of the florescent lights made it sound like one of those interrogation rooms you see on police movies and stuff. As I sat down in a chair, a young woman with striking blue eyes and long dark hair entered the room. She was dressed in tan khakis and a dark blue shirt with the word Fulton embroidered on the left side of the shirt in white lettering. An identification tag had her picture on it and the name Mandy.

“Please, you can take those stupid handcuffs and chains off of him, I’m sure he will behave,” Mandy said as she sat down in front of me.

She slid the folder away from me and opened it up, taking the papers out and placing them in front of her.

“Hi Nick, my name is Mandy, I’m one of the counselors here at Fulton,” she smiled.

I had a big lump in my throat and I knew if I opened my mouth to speak I would either start crying or nothing would come out. I kept quiet.

“Okay, looks like you’ve been recovering nicely from the accident you had in that plane crash, that’s good. You have no other medical history besides that, right?” Mandy spoke aloud to me as she read through the chart. “Oh, wait, you’re on meds for seizures? Okay, we’ll make sure you get those like you should,” she looked up and smiled.

There was something about her that made me feel at ease. For the first time in weeks, I found myself smiling. It wasn’t much but it was more than I had been doing.

“Okay, looks like these people can come and see you, that’s good, we encourage family and friends,” Mandy remarked as she continued to look through the papers.

“He’s not to have any contact,” the man that brought me here remarked.

Mandy shot her head up and gave the man a not-so-pleasant stare. “Why are you still here? He’s my patient and he’s in my care, go, your job is done now.”

I smiled again, I liked Mandy’s style...... a lot.

I barely noticed Agnes march past AJ. My whole focus was the television. They showed Nick running through the plate glass again and I flinched.

“That’s what I felt.” I said softly.

“What?”

I turned my eyes to AJ. He still looked stunned by Agnes’ confession. His gaze flickered from me to the television.

“A thousand needles stabbing my body all at once. It scared the hell outta me. Until now, I didn’t know what happened. It was him jumping through the window though.” I murmured. Her last words sunk in. “Where’s Brian? Oh god, AJ, you can’t let her hurt him.”

“I’m not letting her near him. Lizz who was that woman? She was involved in the kidnapping?” AJ pressed.

I nodded. “That was Terri’s mother. Remember, Terri is the one who sent the Enquirer pictures of Nick and I in here. She, her mom, dad, brother and boyfriend kidnapped us. They...they...” I stopped, my voice choking up. I shut my eyes, but that made it worse. Images of that basement, the cages, Kyung’s trance, Marcus carrying an unconscious Brian after he collapsed in the heat, Nick having a seizure, them whipping him when I tried to escape. Then the plane crash and when I first realized Nick had amnesia. How my heart sank when he thought I was the kidnapper. How he blamed me. And he was right. It was my fault. And now all this...I didn’t even realize I was crying until AJ put a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey, shhhhh, don’t cry. It’s going to be okay.” He soothed.

“What happened AJ? Why is Nick in jail? Where’s Kyung? Where’s Brian?” I whispered.

He looked pained. I know he was afraid of my reaction and hell, I was afraid of what I was going to hear. I rested my hand on his arm. “Please, AJ, I need to know.”

There was a knock at the door and both Nick and Mandy looked to see who it was. One of the employees opened the door partway.

“Carter, you have a visitor.”

Mandy looked at Nick and he shrugged. “Well I am going to go make a few phone calls and I will be back alright?”

Nick nodded, wondering who his visitor was when he wasn’t supposed to have contact with anyone.

His question was answered when a scruffy man walked in and sat down. He didn’t speak, but waited for the orderly and Mandy to leave. The door was shut behind them and it was only Nick and the scruffy guy in the small room. He was wearing dirty jeans and a blue shirt that indicated that he worked at a car repair shop. There was dirt and grease underneath his fingernails. Nick stared at him, trying to figure out who he was. The man didn’t make him feel very comfortable. The stranger seemed to take notice of that and was amused by it.

“Trying to figure out who I am?” The man smirked. “Trying to trying to work through all those holes in your head to place me? Well, don’t worry, you won’t. You have never seen me and you are going to forget my face as soon as I leave here. I am only delivering a message for my sister. I guess it sucks to be sitting in this nuthouse and being on trial when you have no idea what you did.”

Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What the hell was going on?! He wanted to jump up and shout at this person to leave, but he felt frozen to the chair. The man continued.

“You’re on trial for the assault of two women, huh? You don’t believe you did this right?” When Nick didn’t respond, the man barked, “I asked you a question!”

Nick’s eyes widened and he shook his head slowly.

“Well I don’t give a shit about this Lizz person, but you messed up my niece. Don’t think you are getting away with it.” The man snapped.

Nick’s mind reeled. His memory was trying to come back and he vaguely remembered the scene that had transpired in the snow before they were rescued. He remembered Terri dragging Lizz over in front of him and yelling like a crazed lunatic at the top of her lungs.

“ Here's your truth, Carter. Seven months ago you tried to kill yourself. Lizz here tried to stop you by saying she was going to drink some medicine that would kill her. Well she was too late. She didn't quite do the job because you still took the pills. You both ended up in the hospital. You both almost died. My niece would have made a shitload of money off of both of you selling information to the National Enquirer, but you and your stupid friends had to ruin that!"

"Then I was told she started beating the crap outta that Lizz girl."

Nick’s jaw dropped. He didn’t assault Lizz! It was Terri. He didn’t really remember Lizz, but he knew he wouldn’t attack her.

The man narrowed his eyes. “I just have a little advice for you, Carter. It would be in your friends’ better interest to not fight these charges. See, my sis is pretty upset about her daughter and you still need to pay. Both Brian and Lizz are in the hospital and from what I have heard, they are having a pretty rough time. Brian has pneumonia and as you know, he was shot. Not to mention the complications of missing whatever the hell meds he takes. And Lizz hasn’t been able to even get off the morphine yet. You should see her. Ha! Oh, I heard her body might be rejecting her kidneys now too. The best part is that has to be sedated every time she wakes up. I guess she is having a hard time dealing with this.”

“How the hell do you know all that?!” Nick demanded hoarsely. He hadn’t expected to hear any of this.

“Don’t ask questions Carter. Just know that if you are declared innocent, then you will make things a lot more complicated for your friends. Weigh your options carefully boy. And if I hear that you have told anyone of this conversation, either Lizz or Brian won’t be leaving the hospital.” The man smiled sadistically at Nick and let himself out.

Nick’s heart was pounding and the tiny room seemed to get smaller. He knew that Mandy would be back so he tried to get a handle on his emotions, but he couldn’t get past that man’s words. He felt like he was about to unravel.