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“Dani come on baby, you have to eat,” Luke pleaded as she stared at the wall.
“It won’t do you any good if you’re sick when the girls get home,” Joan added.
“Come on honey, please. I’ll go pick up anything you want from anywhere in the city,” Tyler said when she continued to say nothing.
“Damn it Dani, you can’t do this to me again,” Luke stated with frustration before he pulled it back in. “I’m sorry baby. I promised to protect you all and I failed but we’re going to get them back. I will get them back to you.”
Dani heard them but she didn’t care. She wished she could go back to the feeling she had last year on her birthday that tiredness when she couldn’t even get up the strength to kill herself because it was better than this emptiness. She couldn’t cry, couldn’t yell, couldn’t breathe, but yet she felt nothing. It was all blank and she didn’t fight it.
“Luke let’s give her some space,” Wren said ushering them out into the hallway.
“She still won’t eat?” Arielle asked seeing their faces.
“She won’t do anything,” Angela answered. “It’s like she’s not inside her anymore.”
“Mr. Nolan, I’m Bridget Wilson, Dani’s therapist. I wanted to stop by and see how she was doing.”
“I don’t even know how to answer that, she just lays there. She won’t talk to us, won’t look at us, my wife’s not in that bed and it’s my fault. I should have made sure they were safe.”
“Mr. Nolan,” Bridget said pulling his attention back to her. “I can guarantee that right now she’s not blaming you; she’s blaming herself.”
“None of this is her fault.”
“That’s not the way she sees it; she brought Chance into your lives and by relation Felix. So, anything bad that’s happened because of that she puts on herself.”
“So, what do we do?” Luke asked.
“Whatever we can. Let me talk to her, see if there isn’t something that we can use to pull her out.”
Luke nodded hoping it’d work but when she came back out an hour later, they knew it hadn’t. He and the others went back into the room and kept their watch over her. He dozed off and on pulling himself out of his rest with every odd sound, but she refused to do anything except lay there.
The others went to get some breakfast and coffee for him, but he wouldn’t budge. He wasn’t leaving her. He was worried she’d try something and hurt herself. She may not have ever attempted to kill herself before but this…losing the girls was killing him and he knew it was worse for her.
“Dani, baby, please,” he said moving over to see her face. “Please talk to me, don’t do this to us.”
She didn’t blink or even seem to see or hear him and he lowered his head to the bed beside her praying for strength. She was in a catatonic state that he couldn’t do a damn thing to stop, and it killed him, especially mixed with the girls missing.
“Dani?” he heard from the door, and he looked up to find a young man in the doorway. “Dan-Dan…”
Luke started to stand wanting to question who the hell he was, but he stopped when Dani moved.
Dani slowly rolled over, and her eyes blurred when she saw him. “Dean?”
“What?” Luke said as the man hurried into the room and pulled her into his arms.
“Ah honey, I’m so sorry, shh…it’ll be okay…”
Something inside her broke and the tears fell. She shook her head pushing him away as the anger and resentment she felt boiled over.
“How can you say that? My babies are missing and it’s all your fault,yours!” she yelled at him then smacked his chest for good measure.
“Dani…honey,” Dean said reaching out to smooth a hand down her hair. “I know.”
“No, you don’t, you have no idea what you’ve done to me Dean! If it weren’t for you, I’d never have been here. I wouldn’t have met or been forced to marry Luke. Wouldn’t have taken the fall for you and been miserable for the last fouryears,” she said accenting each comment with another fist to his chest. “I’d never have been forced to lie, to millions of people, each and every single day. I wouldn’t have fallen for a man who would hate me when he learned the truth and I wouldn’t have had the only thing that’s ever been completely mine ripped away from me. You caused this Dean. You and Mona and your selfishness, and I’m the one who’s been hurt over and over and over, and I hate you. I hate you…hate you…” she cried falling completely apart.
Dean wrapped his arms around her tighter and held on knowing he’d messed up more than he’d ever thought. “Shh…Dan-Dan, I promise I’ll make it better. I’ll make it all better honey. You and me against the world, remember?”
Luke stared at them as his mind raced trying to figure out what this was. All he knew was Dani was still lying to him and it gutted him.
