"Good morning darling!" Marianne brightly smiled down at him as she entered the small room carrying a tray laden with food. "Are we hungry this morning?"

Nick shook his head and gestured that he couldn't sit up.

Marianne untied his arms and rubbed them for him. She helped Nick to sit up and caught him as he nearly fell back again. Placing pillows behind his back, she propped him up and pulled a blanket over him. Nick gestured for a drink and she placed a small cup of juice to his lips.

"What did you give me?" Nick asked in a gravelly whisper.

"Just something to keep you down, so I could do what I needed to do, what needed to be done."

"I feel horrible." he mumbled.

"Open." She held a forkful of pancakes up to his mouth and patiently waited as he chewed and swallowed before giving him another bite. "Good boy."

Although he didn't want to, Nick allowed her to continue feeding him, he didn't think he had the strength to even hold the fork in his own hands. Once he was finished she gathered up the dishes and started piling them on the tray again.

"What needed to be done?" Nick asked her quietly.

"Why Nick, you know. You chose the hard way. Maybe next time you will want to stay awake for the occasion, it sure would be more fun for me." She sighed wistfully and finished cleaning up from breakfast.

"You didn't." Nick refused to believe she would have taken advantage of him like that. "Anyway, I was unconscious, you couldn't have." he challenged her.

"I'm sorry love." Marianne sat beside him and held his face in her hands. "Unconscious or not, you were very receptive to the idea."

Nick shuddered at the thought of his body betraying him in such a way.

"And you know," Marianne said thoughtfully, more to herself than to Nick. "You CAN stay awake for it, because there is nothing wrong with us being together now. It's completely legal."

"What?" Nick tried to yell out, but his voice wasn't strong enough yet. "I've been unconscious! How...?"

"I told you I had everything worked out, Nick darling. We ARE married now. Husband and wife." She smiled contentedly and picked up his left hand to show him the ring now decorating his finger. "We'll have to have a real ceremony when you are up to it, though. The pictures from this one won't be too nice." Marianne pouted and kissed his hand before setting it in his lap again.

"No...no...no..." Nick shook his head and struggled to free himself from the bed.

Marianne laughed and stood up, securing one of Nick's wrists to the bedpost again. She finally took the breakfast dishes away, leaving the room still laughing. She reentered the bedroom and tossed a piece of paper at Nick. "Read it Nick. It's our marriage license. We are married."

Nick picked the license up in his free hand and scanned it. It looked legal to him. He didn't know much about things like this, but it looked official. It was stamped and signed, he was surprised to note, by himself, Marianne and the minister. Nick took a shuddering breath and dropped the paper to the blanket spread over him. How was he going to escape? Was she going to follow through on her threats once she was finally pregnant with his child? Nick took another deep breath as he recalled the threats in her letters. She couldn't. He had to make her happy, no matter what it took.

"Believe me now Nick? Do you believe your wife?" She rubbed her stomach as she watched him reading the license. "We could be on our way to being parents you know, I've taken every opportunity to make love to you, to create our baby. Maybe there is a little one in here right now."

Nick gulped and tried to smile for her benefit. Every opportunity? He'd only been out for a day, she couldn't have done it too many times with him. Hopefully the odds were in his favor.

"So, what's our wedding date? I should remember it, you know." Nick laughed nervously. "How long have we been married, Marianne?"

"Look at the certificate. We've been man and wife for almost two weeks. It's been such bliss!" She gazed adoringly at him, stripping the blanket off his body as she began to crawl on top of him.

Two weeks? Nick felt nauseous and leaned over the edge of the bed, just in time to get violently ill.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Don't you remember anything?"

Brian pounded the wall in frustration as Carlos shook his head sadly.

"I'm sorry Brian." Carlos wrote quickly in his notebook. A breathing tube in his throat prevented him from talking to the four men gathered around his bed.

"Where could she have taken him? The FBI guys said she was just a little thing. What did she do to Nick? He wouldn't have just gone with her!" Howie protested.

"Did she hurt him, Carlos? Did you see if she hurt him? Before she shot you and Eddie?" Kevin sat beside his friend and looked earnestly at him.

Carlos picked up his pad and wrote. "No, Nick was fine when I went down. But she had the gun."

Kevin nodded sadly as he read the scribbled note. "Yeah, she had the gun."

They all sat silently until a cell phone ringing broke the silence.

"Hey man, you're not supposed to have that in here!" Brian snapped at Howie.

Howie waved his hand, gesturing for the guys to be quiet. He listened for a few moments and then hung up the phone with a smile. "They have a lead! Someone thinks they saw him!"

The group cheered and hugged each other, hoping their little brother was on the way to being rescued.