Chapter 61

                                    

                                          
Jennifer floated in the darkness. Everything was so warm and calm, she wanted to stay there forever. No more pain, no more cold, no more hurt. Yeah, everything felt good, this is where she wanted to stay. 
"Doc," a deep voice pierced the darkness. 
"She's alive." That voice, she knew that voice. Where did she know it from? It didn't sound right though, he sounded so...sad, but why? Her brain was so mixed up it was starting to hurt. No, she wanted to stay in the calm, warm feeling but now the darkness was starting to hurt. She didn't like this, she wanted the numbness and warmth back. "She's got a long way to recover, a very long road." 
"That's fine, she has us," some other man said. "We'll help her every single fucking step of the way." 
"Exactly," another voice stated. "She's our wife. We swore ourselves to her when she became ours. Our vows fucking say so. In good times and dark, through sickness and health. Time to prove ourselves in the sickness part. That fucking simple." 
"It's not though," the man she thought might be Doc. "Her wounds aren't simply physical. Did you hear what she said to Owen?"
"No," multiple voices said. 
"She looked into my eyes and said 'not real,'" A deep voice said. His voice was louder than the others in the dark. It was as if he was somehow close to her in the dark but when she tried to look it was too dark to see anything in front of her. "She didn't think I was real. With the pictures everywhere and the Lanstor twins, she firmly believes that we are no longer her husbands. That means we will also have to prove ourselves to her, explain the images, and rebuild her trust in us as well as the PTSD and emotional trauma she will have to overcome and heal from. She already had trauma to begin with but now we will have to start completely over again with her." 
"Fine with us," someone said. "It will be worth it. She is our wife now and forever." 
"Let's just focus on what we can for now," someone else said. "We can't work on the emotional part while she is sleeping. What are her injuries, Doc? I mean besides the bruises that we can clearly see." 
"Yeah, why the fuck was she bleeding out her mouth?" another voice asked. 
"Her lung was punctured," the doctor answered. "Upon review from her X-rays and other tests, it was punctured when her father kicked it. It wasn't from me or Kota giving her CPR after her drowning. We already know she is clearly malnourished and the bruises are from being struck. The wounds on the back of her legs are from sitting in her own wastes. Some of the bruises fit with the straps that were on the chair in that room." 
"Are you saying she was strapped to that chair and had to relieve herself and sit in it?" Someone asked with fury. "She couldn't even go to the fucking bathroom?" 
"It doesn't look like it," The doctor had sadness in his voice. "I'm worried about her infections, especially since we don't have an accurate health record. You need to prepare yourselves with the fact that I may be here a while treating and caring for her." 
"You mean we will, Dr. Green," the voice she thought belonged to Owen said. "We will be here with you and our wife however long it takes before we can bring her home." 
"Is she going to want to come home with us?" Another deep voice asked. "You said she doesn't believe we are real and with those images of us and whatever crap they tried to get her to believe in, what are the chances that she is going to want to come home with us in the first place? If she doesn't think we are her husbands anymore and whatever crap those assholes got her believing, there's a high possibility that she will refuse us." 
"Then we will just have to do whatever it takes to prove her mind wrong," Owen replied back. "We vowed for better or worse, in dark times and good, in sickness and health. We weren't going to break our vows then and we aren't going to now. We will stick by our wife's side no matter what. We vowed for eternity and we mean it." 
"Agreed."   
"Now we just have to get her feeling safe enough to wake up," the doctor spoke gently. "Her mind has caused her to fall into an almost coma state in order to protect herself. It could be hours, days, even weeks before she wakes up." 
"Doesn't matter," a voice replied, "we're not leaving her fucking side. You got a shower in your office and a couple of us can leave to run errands or swap out our laundry, but at least two of us will always be here for when she wakes. We'll figure it out and she won't be alone for a second. No matter how long it takes for her to come back to us." 
This is certainly a weird dream, she thought as she fell back into the warm darkness where the pain went away and she felt nothing once more.