Micah's comment annoyed Buck, but he got over it... he was trying to quit anyway...

"Mhmm..." He sounded skeptical, "I don't suppose you have any idea as to why the other suspects attacked yourself and the others at the park today..."

Micah pressed his lips tight. My dad and his goons were coming after me for stealing form him. I went to say wiht my cousin, Ian." He shook his head and bit his lip. "Someone found us out but I didn't know and was at the park with friends. Still, I was starting to grow more afraid that he would come. So, I had one of them send his wife and baby home. Next thing I knew, we were all being chased. How are they? Where are they? What happened to them? Please tell me, officer!"

"I'll tell you what I can IF you coaperate. Do you know where the theives are hiding? And just who is your dad?" Buck stared him straight in the eye...now things were getting interesting...

Micah fidgeted. "My dad is Frank (same last name as Ian's, of course. Frank is Ian's uncle). The goons should be locked up by now. They are in Ditto Town and I saw police arrest some of them. Though, one of them is a guy named Alec (forgot his last name) and he's nowhere to be found. Please tell my how my cousin and our friends are. I've given all I know."

Buck sighed. He didn't want to tell the boy, he still didn't trust him completely, but he did promise...

"Two are in the hospital, one was torn up pretty bad, and the other is getting checked out after...well she said something about a well..., another boy is still missing...we're doing our best to track him down. Everyone else is alright and accounted for. You know boy," he changed the subject, "your still in a lot of trouble...theft is a serious crime, especially in large scale operations like this."

*****

Kahlynn coughed again. The doctor told her she'd be all right, but they wanted to check her out just in case. He looked concerned when she started coughing again

"Can you get an X-ray of her chest," he asked a nearby nurse. He felt her ankle, she whinced... "Get one of her right ankle too..."

Oh it was going to be a long day, but at least she was better of than Justin, Micah, and Ian. God, please be with them, she prayed in her head.

Micah buried his face in his hands. "Fine. Just take me. Shave my head, put me in a jail suit and lock me up somewhere. I deserve it." He winced, as he remembered the painful scream he heard form the van. It was a male. By now he was sure it wasn't Ian and too low pitched to be Peter. It was Justin! What did they do to him? He was Ian's friend! He didn't deserve it. How was Kahlynn? He didn't belong on the streets. He was a terror.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter used the phone in the room, hands shaking as he called his aunt and uncle. His aunt picked up. Tears in his eyes, he whimpered, "Some theives scapled Justin. He's in the hospital. And he was stabbed in the chest. Please come as quick as you can." He put the phone down and cried harder this time. He prayed for Justin's wounds to heal and for him to survive and for his hair to grow back. Still, he couldn't let anyone in the hospital see him cry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mrs. Thomas' hand shook, as her nephew told her the news in tears. Tears welled up in her eyes as well. She knew Susan had cancer, but now her youngest son, who was still the baby boy in her eyes, was scalped and stabbed? She turned to her husband. "We have to go to the hospital. To see Justin." She cried into her husband's shoulder. She could not lose two of her children.

Buck lokked at him gravely. "You ain't goin' to jail, you're to young for that, but you certainly could end up in juvie-that's for the judge to decide...not me. You'll have to be kept there til the trial, however. Come on kid..."

Most of the drive to juvie was quiet. But he could help it, there was something about the boy he liked...he almost felt sorry for him. But the law was the law, and it had to be upheld.

When they got there, Buck handed him over to the staff... "Follow normal procedures," he said as he left.

Micah was given a uniform, and promptly taken to the barber's to get his hair shaved.
"You know," said the barber as he started the razor, "you deserve a lot more than this, you little theif."

*****

Beeep Oh how Kahlynn hated X-rays. She's had way too many. She could feel her ankle hurting now. The adrenaline must have kept it from hurting before. Maybe she was in worse shape than she thought... She watched the doctor leave to go read the X-rays.

Micah stroked his own hair in the front, knowit it was going to be gone soon. Still running away for such a long time had taken it's toll on his hair anyway and his hair was full of stubborn tangles and needed a fresh start. Still, he knew he did not look good shaved-whether it was a crew cut, a buzz cut or bald. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be allowed to grow it back. But, he had put people in danger and Kahlynn was probably hurt because of him. One person was injured, but he didn't know who. Who was missing? Tears trickled down his cheeks. at the sound of the razor, he heard the barber's taunts. He cried harder, the second his hair started to fall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mrs. Thomas saw her baby girl crying with Maralyn and with her niece. She stroked Miley's long hair, causing Miley to jump.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miley soon noticed it was her mom, who also had tears in her eyes. "Sorry didn't know it was you."
She put her face in her mom's chest, embraced in her mom's arms. "My brother...we were trying to help some kid named Micah, who was a theif and trying to leave that lifestyle escape from his theiving dad and his goons, and they found us. Justin" She wiped her nose and shook her head. "Had the stupidest idea that Peter and him distract the theives and I was attacked. Then, Nate, you remeber him? A friend of Peter's. He rescued me then Justin told Peter to take me to Ian's. When we were there, we didn't know what was happenign to anyone. We called Ian, but one of them got his phone....then we tried calling Justin. I guess he must have been taken by then. They stabbed him in the chest and they scalped him. His beautiful hair, mama. It's gone. ANd if the doctors aren't quick enough...he might..." She couldn't bear to say the last part and burst into tears.

Mr. Thomas was certainly worried. He couldn't lose his son, he just couldn't. He noticed Peter all by himself... "Excuse me for a moment," he said to his wife. He then walked up to Peter, "Are you alright?"

*

Buck pulled in to the hospital's parking lot. He figured most of the victims would be there. Justin wasn't ready to be interviewed yet, but his freinds and family were...and Kahlynn was likely either ready, or would be soon. He was hoping they would be able to tell him something that would help him find Ian, and the rest of the theives. He'd give anything to stop this band of theives for good. He smothered and threw away his cigar (he really had to quit) before entering the building...

*

Finally the doctor returned. "I have good news and bad news," he said.
"What is it?" Kahlynn asked.
"The good news is your ankle's not broken, only sprained. The bad news is, you've got water in your lungs... and your gonna have to stay here for a few days, until we can get it cleared up."
Great, now she really was gonna have trouble paying the rent this month...but she quickly forgot that when she thought of the others... she had hoped that they were ok.

"Ahhhh, good question," Alec said. He swerved to take a look at the park path, but Micah was already gone and the police were swarming in like hyperactive, blue-and-white bumblebees. Like big, speedy ant-men. Like big, speedy, collector hummingbirds. Vicious, capturing, speedy hummin--no, the bumblebee analogy was fine.

"Oh, Ian, I picked something up for you on the way." Alec flipped open the car's console and produced a folder. "New, um, identity. All yours." He tossed it back into Ian's lap. "I also have one for Micah, problem is, I have no idea where he is."

------------------

Johnny tore the key out of the ignition and jumped out into the hospital parking lot. It wasn't an old building, but there were some crumbling bricks near the edges and the concrete walkway was becoming rough and discolored.

Susan waited and waited for Johnny. Why did it feel like eternity? Why did it seem he would never come? Or would he? A nurse had staid with her to keep her calm, and she looked at the young woman. "My brother is coming to see me. When he comes.....let him in."

"Alright Miss Susan. I'll tell the doctor. But he won't be able to see you for too long" she warned, and left for a minute

******

Maralyn noticed everyone there. And all of their minds were upon one man....Justin. They were all worried about his life. If he would live or die. She prayed, every minute that he would survive. She knew how much Sarah meant to her and Justin, and it would be terrible to see her daughter grow up without the Father she knew she needed. Especially having been touched by Weydon, oh, so recently, she had seen, even more, the need for a child to have their father. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she leaned against the nurses desk a hand over her mouth. How was he? Would no one tell her? The nurses hadn't known when she had arrived...and still the horrible suspense went on.

Then, from around the corner a stretcher was wheeled, a man laid upon it. She gasped, and rushed forward. As she approached she saw whom she had feared she would see. "Justin!" she cried, refraining from touching him.

((OOC: Hummy.....Alec handed Ian his 'new identity' uh....what is that? )))

Mrs. Thomas decided to take Miley home. Her daughter was a wreck and didn't need to see what had become of Justin the second he came out. Still, the image made her upset, which is why she sheilded her daughter's face into her long hair.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Miley got home, she looked at all the pictures of her lively, vibrant brother and started to cry into hysterics.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter sobbed into his uncle's chest. "Justin...I saw him...he looked so...." He turned at the sound of his cousin being wheleld out for surgery. He ran to Justin, only to be stopped by some musclar looking doctor. "Justin! No! Somebody work on him, quick!"

"This is the first time I've ever been here," Logan said answering Rosamunde's question. "Stace told me the food's good here, though."

-------

"Your Dad's a lawyer?" Emmy said in surprise. "That's a coincidence, so is my Mom. Do you know what firm he works for?"

Buck noticed Justin's family in the waiting area. And he approached them. He did not want to interupt, but this had to be done, another life was at stake.
"Excuse me," he asked, "I'm Cheif Smith..." (at this point he showed them his badge.) We believe another boy had been kidnapped during todays events at the park, and I'd like to ask you all some questions. "Did any of you see a suspicious looking vehicle leave the area just as the police arrived?"

***

Kahlynn rested alone in the room now... She felt sick to her stomach, not sick as in flu type sick, but sick as in that aweful pain you get when you know something is horribly wrong. She could here nurses and doctors bustling outside her door now...and she new exactly why, poor Justin must be in need of help and fast, and Micah was probably at Juvie now...she worried about him too, she hoped he could handle himself. And Ian! in the hands of who knows who. All of this thought just made her stomach burn in fury... This was almost like that time she had learned of the car crash that killed her parents. She was too young to understand that situation then, but she knew the horror of this situation now... if only she could help them... But she felt helpless.

Peter thought for a minute, wishing he could be elft alone to follow his cousin. "There was this big, white van. It had a lot of people in it. I think that is where the goons came out of!"