Sean's POV

"I fucking miss her already," Gabe pouted as he played with Luke's hair.

"I want my sugar," Luke commiserated.

"Hey, why don't we go to Crescent? She always said it helps her feel closer to Winston, well, maybe it will help us feel closer to her?" I suggested.

"I'm coming too," Marc said, grabbing his coat. The others declined to join, and Nate, Kota, and Axel were about to get on a private jet headed to Houston just in case our sweetheart needed us.

We had the car drop us off and headed to our private lounge. I watched as Marc took in the entire bar. He pointed to the VIP bar area where Marissa usually sat, "See that area? That's the same bar that Winston and I worked when we introduced them."

"That's where sugar usually sits and watches scenes. She sits in that far booth with the high back," Luke said with a wistful look. We sat watching in silence until we heard a knock at the door. I got up and opened the door to see a very panicked Rose.

"Rose, are you okay?" I asked her.

"Doc, thank gods you're here, please come quick, it's an emergency," she said then turned, not even waiting for me to answer. I took out after her with the guys following after me. As we approached Marissa's private room, my heart clenched. Why was she bringing us here?

I froze when I saw Justin cradling her in his arms. "Sean, what the fuck is going on," Gabe yelled coming up behind me, then drawing in a shocked breath, "Spitfire?"

She looked toward us and cried out, "Daddy, I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me, I'm so sorry," she babbled as she pulled at her hair and dug at her skin. We both ran towards her as she flung herself into Gabe's arms and continued to ramble. "I told him no. I asked him not to touch my princess parts. I didn't mean to be a bad girl, Daddy. I'm sorry Seany, I didn't want Jack Jack to give me babies, please make it stop hurting."

Gabe and I both exchanged looks of horror as the realization of what she was meaning began to settle in. "Marc, call Axel and have him get back to town now with Kota and Nate. Tell them to meet us at the hospital. Luke, call Owen and have the others meet us as well"

"Shh, baby, it's okay," Gabe whispered as he stroked her hair, "Seany and I are going to take you to the hospital now, spitfire. We won't leave you alone, I promise." She mumbled and continued to cry, but didn't pull away when he picked her up, cradling her against his chest.

We brought her to the back entrance where Erica and Dr. Torres were waiting for us. Erica gasped when she saw the bruises on her face and chest. "Oh the poor child," she murmured.

"I don't have time to fully explain, but in a few moments, all the guys will be here, Erica. She's with all of us. They don't know what has happened. We...we need a rape kit." I told her. She drew in a sharp breath and nodded, then left to prep the room. I turned to Dr. Torres, "I can't do this, not...not to her, please."

He put his hand on my shoulder, "Do you want to be in the room?"

"Seany," Marissa looked at me, her fingers digging into my shirt.

"I need to be. She's in little space right now and wouldn't understand if I left her alone," I explained.

"How about you get on the bed and hold her while I do the exam? You can talk her through it. Gabe, why don't you come in as well," Dr. Torres suggested. I climbed on the bed and Gabe put her in my arms. We heard a commotion in the hall and looked up to see Luke and Marc talking to the others. Erica pulled the curtain.

"Little bug, this is my doctor friend. He's going to check your princess parts, okay?"

She shook, "No, no, no, please don't touch," she whimpered.

"Baby, we know you're scared, but the doctor needs to make sure you don't have any owies down there," Gabe told her, stroking her hand. She started to thrash and panic.

"Get Kota," I told him. He ran to the door and Kota came in with Gabe following him.

He cast an apologetic glance at his mother then addressed Marissa harshly, "Kitten, stop now!" She froze, her lip trembling, and looked up at him. He placed a hand against her cheek and stroked gently, "I need my pet to be brave right now. Keep your eyes on me." I nodded to the doctor and he began the evaluation. She whimpered as he scraped her cervix and took samples but didn't look away from Kota once.

"All finished," Dr. Torres said quietly. "I'll need to do a blood panel and we need to get photographs for the police. Nurse Lee can stay in the room to witness if you would prefer to take the photos yourselves. I'll send in the camera."

"Thank you, James," I told him.

"I'm sorry this has happened to your family, Sean, but I will do my best to help," he said as he left to retrieve the camera.

"Mother, I'd like to introduce you to our girlfriend, Marissa Ryland," Kota said to his mom. "She's in little space right now, so I apologize for my behavior earlier."

Erica stepped forward and gave her a smile, "It's nice to meet you, Marissa."

Marissa sniffled, "I'm sorry I was a bad kitty, Kota. I tried to make Jack-Jack stop."

Kota dropped to his knees next to the bed and grabbed her hands, "You were not a bad kitten, baby. You didn't do anything wrong. You were strong and got away baby. I'm so proud of you," tears streamed down his face as he spoke.

Dr. Torres knocked at the door and gave Erica the camera. "I can take the pictures if the three of you want to help her get undressed. We will be as quick as we can, Marissa." I helped her stand up as the camera started clicking. When I opened the coat fully, I wanted to vomit. Her back was mangled from cane strikes. Huge bruises were forming near her kidneys - we'd need to do some ultrasounds to check for internal bleeding soon. Once we'd finished with the pictures, Erica brought some clothes and told Gabe he could take her into the shower. Kota went in with them while I stepped out to bring the others up to date.

They all looked up as I entered the waiting area. Their tear-stained eyes let me know Luke and Marc had at least partially filled them in. "Do we know what happened?" Owen asked, his voice low.

I shook my head, "We're still trying to piece it together, but it appears that Jackson raped her. Dr. Torres did the rape kit and took samples, while Erica took photographs. The police should be here soon to try and get a statement, but she's in little space, so I'm not sure what she can tell them." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Rose came to get me at the club and we found her in her room. Justin had discovered her on his room sweeps, but he had no idea how long she'd been there. We couldn't find her phone or purse."

"Her phone is still shut off," Victor added. "I've set the program to backtrack the moment it activates."

"I'm going to pull all the footage from her office. Maybe I can at least get an idea of Jackson's whereabouts," Corey said through clenched teeth.

"How is she?" Luke asked, "There was so much blood." He was visibly shaking in Victor's arms.

"I need to run more tests. It looks like he caned her rather violently. She has some deep cuts and bruises. I want to check for internal bleeding and we need to run a blood-tox panel. I'm going to get her moved to a private room with security. I know we all want to see her, but I think it should be a couple at a time to keep from overwhelming her. She keeps saying she's a bad girl and it's her fault." Several of them grumbled about my decision but agreed. At about that time the officers arrived and I went through all the details again.

****

I sat looking at her lab results, listening to the steady beeping of her heart monitor. The tox panel had shown the fertility and date-rape drugs. Some of her levels were elevated and would need monitoring, but should be fine once all the drugs are out of her system. Luckily, she didn't have internal bleeding. The bastard had managed to miss her vital organs in his beating. She hadn't been able to tell the officers much while still in little space and had retreated into herself after they left. Even when she was awake, she barely spoke or ate. I felt a vibration in my pocket, and opened my phone to read the text from Axel - Officers en route, meet in the conference room, Corey has tapes - video and audio.

I notified Erica of where I was going and asked her to stay with Marissa. We'd made a point to not leave her alone just in case she dropped and tried to harm herself again. We soon realized that most of the scratches she had were self-inflicted. When I stepped into the conference room, I saw everyone already there, along with the two officers from the day we brought her to the hospital. "Officers Thomas and Kline, thank you for coming," Owen said, shaking their hands, "Our associate Mr. Henshaw runs the security for Ms. Ryland's law firm and was able to pull the tapes from her office on November 2nd. He asked that we wait to view the tapes until you were present to ensure chain of custody."

"Um, well before we start, we think you should be made aware of some things we have discovered," Officer Thomas said nervously. "Gentlemen, it appears that Ms. Ryland is legally married to Mr. Jackson Porter, the same man you claim assaulted her. According to their marriage license, they were married on that very day. This could just be a case of some rough sex gone wrong, and since she isn't able to confirm or deny this matter, we aren't sure if we can move forward with any charges." He placed a marriage license on the table and the room exploded in curses and yelling.

"Shut up!" Corey yelled and the room froze. "Officers, I think once you see the tapes you will realize there is very much a case to prosecute." They nodded and he played the tapes.

When the recording stopped, no one spoke. The deafening silence was only broken when Luke ran to a trashcan and vomited. Corey pushed the tapes to the officers along with another set of tapes. "The second set is from September 3rd. One is evidence of an attempted assault on Ms. Ryland, the other is a conversation with Mr. Porter, Ms. Phelps aka Ms. Archer, and Dalton Ryland. They actively describe the plan to drug, rape, and imprison Ms. Ryland. This was not a crime of opportunity. As this evidence indicates, they've been planning this for several months including going so far as to have surgery performed on her without her knowledge in May to remove her birth control device." I sucked in my breath - fuck, the blood levels.

"Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to run another test." I ran from the room with Owen chasing after me.

"Sean, what the fuck was that all about?" he demanded. I leaned against the wall, gasping for air as panic began to overtake me. "Sean, Sean, talk to me, you're scaring me."

I held up a hand, trying to catch my breath. "I need to run another test. I don't want to say until I'm sure," I said, then grabbed my phone out to text Dr. Torres.

Author's Notes: ...