While Corday was busy distracting Romano and Susan was having her time with Carter, Abby snuck into Carter’s room and started to refill every syringe she found with saline solution. She knew that this wouldn’t fix their problems right away but she did know that once Carter couldn’t get a fix and Amber was sobered up things would start to change. She realized that the saline might have a placebo effect on Carter which she could deal with but there was no way it would have that kind of effect on Amber. She found every needle, everyone Carter thought he had hidden from her. They were in drawers, behind mirrors, taped under the table just about every place that was small enough to hide one. She barely made it out of there in time and she returned to her spot in the lounge and lit a cigarette forcing herself into another zone like state. She smiled just for a few moments it was all over, now she was just going to have to wait.

The next morning Amber woke up next to Romano, her head was spinning and she was in a cold sweat. She didn’t quite understand why she was feeling this way although she knew that there couldn’t be a good reason for it. Her mind and vision were clear for the first time in months, she was actually able to hear herself think and it scared her a little. She looked over to see Romano laying asleep next to her and everything came flooding back but this time she was in a rational state of mind there was no more drug in her system. She sat there for a moment rocking herself back and fourth before she knew she was going to be sick and she ran into the bathroom and emptied her stomach in the toilet.

On the other end of the house Carter was also in a cold sweat, thinking that Abby was asleep next to him he opened the drawer to the bedside table and pulled out one of the needles that had been tampered with and injected the liquid into his wrist. He almost instantly started to calm down, thinking that the solution in the needle was in fact a small dosage of morphine but he was wrong. Abby’s back was too him but her eyes were opened slightly, she knew what he was doing and she smiled before shutting her eyes again.

Meanwhile Susan, Elizabeth, and Kerry were all asleep in the same room, Susan had opted to take the couch that was across from the bed. Abby had already been up early and had delivered them breakfast, which was now sitting on the table only a few feet away from the couch. Susan was the first to wake up seeing as how the couch wasn’t very comfortable to sleep on. She yawned and stretched a little before her eyes focused on the food that was in front of her, and she couldn’t believe how hungry she was. She was fast asleep when Abby had delivered the food so she didn’t know where it came from but that didn’t stop her from pouring a cup of coffee and biting into one of the muffins that sat in the center of the table. As she ate she picked up the news paper that had been set down there and started to read, trying to keep her mind off of what was really happening, when she noticed Corday bolt upright in bed. She stopped chewing and looked in Elizabeth’s direction before watching her get out of bed and making a mad dash for the bathroom, where sounds of retching followed. Susan continued to eat and a few moments later there was running water and the sound of a toilet flushing.

“What’s for breakfast?” Corday’s voice sounded from behind her, Lewis turned her head to look at her before going back to reading the paper.

“Did you just puke?” Lewis asked her after taking another bite of the muffin she was holding in her hand. She blindly reached for her cup of coffee and took a long drink, the temperature of the coffee was just right and she knew that the food couldn’t have been sitting there for very long.

“Yes…Yes I did.”

“Are you okay?” Susan took a long sip of her coffee before setting it back down on the glass topped table and turning the page to the newspaper she was holding.

“I’m fine, realty just hit me…you know…what I did for Romano yesterday to distract him.” She shuddered slightly and then sat down across from Susan and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Who brought us the food?”

“I don’t know it was here when I woke up.” She replied and then flipped over another page to the news paper as if she was looking for something. Finally her eyes rested on a headline that read “5 County Doctors missing” that was what she was looking for. She started to read it, wondering if anyone had any leads as to where they were but since there was absolutely no foul play involved in getting them there it just looked like they had all picked up and left for better things. She finished the article and sighed wishing that for just once the police would actually do something useful.

“What is it?”

“Just an article on us vanishing…and they used the most out of date picture of me they could find.” She folded the newspaper and handed it over to Corday who skimmed the headline briefly before setting the paper back down on the table. “This plan of Abby’s better work or we are all screwed.”

“Oh, so she talked to you too?” Corday said as she stirred some sugar into her coffee, she brought the cup to her lips slowly and took a sip, smiling slightly at the fact that it was flavored coffee. She looked over the huge arrangement of foods that were set out on the table and decided to have some strawberries and whipped cream, she wanted to take it easy on her stomach.

“Yeah, she’s the only reason why Carter got a blow job from me last night.” Lewis responded and then shuddered before looking over to Corday, “Do you think it’s going to work?”

“Well if it doesn’t I know that Abby is going to get her ass kicked.” Corday muttered and then popped a strawberry into her mouth, “There is no way I’m doing any of that stuff to Romano again willingly.”

“I hear that.” Lewis replied and then she finished off her coffee when she noticed that Weaver was awake and sitting on the edge of the bed just staring out of the window. She had been there longer then Corday and Lewis and she was starting to feel like nothing was going to get them out of there. Around her right eye there was a bruise, and the injuries on her side, back, and stomach made it even harder to breathe this morning. She groaned slightly and made her way to the third chair that was at the table and sat down slowly, the other two women looked at her.

“What happened to you?” Susan asked her sounding only slightly concerned not realizing the seriousness of the situation yet. Weaver poured herself a cup of coffee and took a long drink, she didn’t know if she wanted to tell Dr. Lewis and Corday exactly what had happened to her, she was completely humiliated by the whole thing.

“Romano kicked the crap out of me when I told him that he deserved to get his arm chopped off by a helicopter.” She replied, her bottom lip was still swollen so it was a little hard to understand her but her point was made and the other two women looked at each other wondering how long it was going to be before Romano beat the living hell out of them.

Romano woke up to the sound of Amber puking in the bathroom that was located just a few feet from the bed. He groaned and cursed softly because she was being so loud before rolling over and looking at the clock. It was 8:30 in the morning, he sighed and forced himself to sit up and then get out of bed to see what was wrong with Amber. He walked into the bathroom and got down next her where he pulled her hair back gently while she vomited. She was shaking terribly and crying just a little bit which made him think that she had just some how contracted a virus. She finally finished and pushed back from the toilet and rested her head against the cold tile wall. Even though she was shaking her body was burning up, she was scared, no not just scared, she was terrified and she didn’t know why. She finally opened her eyes and turned her head to see who was in the bathroom with her and when she saw Romano she nearly screamed.

“Hey, Hey, Amber it’s just me sweetie you’re sick.” Romano whispered to her as he very gently pushed some hair out of her face. Neither of them knew that the drug he thought he had given her the night before was no more then saline. To him she seemed completely disorientated but he chalked that all up to the fever that she had, or seemed to have. She couldn’t remember how she got there, where she was, or why Romano was calling her sweetie but whatever the reason was she knew it couldn’t be good so she decided to play along with him.

“I’m sick.” She muttered and he helped her to her feet slowly, she walked over to the sink and grabbed her tooth brush and started to brush her teeth. He stood behind her with a look of genuine concern on his face, now she was sure that it was better not to question what was going on.

“I know…I know…” He pushed some of the hair that was in her face behind her ear, “You need some fluids or you’ll get dehydrated I’ll be right back and I’ll tell Carter that you aren’t up for training today.” He nodded at her and then left the bathroom, she rinsed out her mouth wondering what the hell he meant by that but her body ached and when she saw the bed wasn’t far from the bathroom she walked over to it and laid down. She grabbed the remote control from the bedside table and turned the TV on, she did this when she was sick because it usually took her mind off of how bad she was actually feeling.

“We are going on day three of the missing doctors, Susan Lewis and Elizabeth Corday went missing three days ago, another Doctor, Kerry Weaver, went missing four days ago. On top of that there seems to be a pattern with missing county general doctors, for six months Abigail Lockhart and Amber McKay have been missing.” The reporter stated, she was standing in front of the doors to the hospital and Amber could see Carter behind her yelling at people but still nothing was making much sense to her. The report went on to flash pictures of her and her co workers and just as it begun it was over. Amber started to think, she knew she wasn’t really sick with a virus because it felt more like a drug withdrawal then anything. She remembered a few years back when she had shattered her leg in a car accident and how she felt when they finally took her off of the morphine. She changed the channel so she was watching cartoons, she needed something totally stupid to take her mind off of things, she thought it would help her head to stop spinning.

“Here I brought you some orange juice it’s fresh squeezed compliments of Abby.” He set the tray down on her lap in front of her and she looked at the food for a moment.

“Abby’s here?” She whispered before putting her hand to her forehead to rub it softly, he looked at her strange and then nodded, “Where am I again?”

“Carter’s place…” He put his hand to her forehead himself, she was warm but not nearly warm enough to cause her to be delusional. He shrugged it off knowing that viruses caused different people to act different ways and then he sat down next to her. He was being so nice, it was hard for her to believe that this was the man she used to work with.

“Carter’s place…right.” She muttered before taking a sip of her juice, she didn’t want to drink or eat but as a doctor she knew that it was important to get liquids into her system after she had been sick like that. If Abby was there it made her wonder if there was any connection to Susan, Kerry, and Elizabeth, maybe they were there with her too. She didn’t want to sound too suspicious so she phrased her next question carefully, “How are Lewis, Corday, and Weaver doing?”

“Fine, Kerry’s recovering from the injuries I gave her…got that woman has a mouth on her.” Romano replied and then laid back down next to her. Amber almost choked on her drink when she heard that but she knew she had to pretend like everything was normal, even though she didn’t know how normal was supposed to be. She was going to have to play off having a virus for a little bit before she knew exactly what was going on there. “I have to get into work…” He leaned in and kissed her forehead just as gently as he had held her hair back in the bathroom, “Feel better okay?”

“Yeah…I’ll get some more sleep.” She replied hoping that sleep would help her remember what had happened and most importantly why she had been drugged to the point of having withdrawal. She watched him get up and grab some clothes and go into the bathroom, when he came out he was dressed for work and she forced a weak smile at him.

“If you need anything you can call Abby on the house line.” He motioned to the phone that was by the bed then he smiled at her and left. She forced herself to wait twenty minutes before calling Abby, she was watching the clock waiting for each minute to tick by, she knew she was going to have to wait until she was sure that Romano had left. She knew Carter was at the hospital because she saw him in the background of the live news report.

“Abby?” She whispered after picking up the phone and dialing the in house line, luckily Abby was the only other person in the house who had access to the phones.

“Amber? Is that you?”

“Yeah…it’s me alright…do me a favor and get your sweet ass up here and tell me what the HELL is going on!” Amber growled into the phone before slamming it back down onto the receiver. Her head started to pound again, almost unbearably and she curled up into a fetal position and put the cold pillow over her head for a moment trying to make it subside. Soon Abby entered the room holding two aspirin in her hand for Amber to take. It wouldn’t make her feel completely better but it would stop the terrible headache she was experiencing.

“Amber?” Abby asked after she stepped into the room and shut the door behind her, “Are you awake?” Amber groaned and moved the pillow from her head and looked over to Abby, squinting her eyes because they weren’t yet adjusted to the light. Abby held out the pain killers to Amber, who hesitated but then grabbed them and downed them with a swig of OJ.

“What the hell is going on here? Where are the other? And why the FUCK was I sleeping with Romano?” Amber snapped at Abby. The poor woman was so happy to see Amber acting like her normal self that she felt tears prick at her eyes and she sat down on the bed by Amber and pulled her into a hug, Amber recognized that she was upset and hugged her back tightly.

“Okay, for six months Romano has had you on some mind altering drug and he has some how convinced Carter to use us all as sex slaves but getting him addicted to painkillers again and becoming his provider.” Abby said after she pulled away from the hug, Amber’s jaw dropped slightly and then she started to laugh a little bit thinking that this all just had to be a very bad dream.

“Let’s try this again and this time…tell me the truth.”

“That is the truth AMBER…” Abby growled she had gone through all of this trouble to sober Amber up and now she didn’t even believed her, “The drug he gave you probably caused you to forget most of what has happened but if you don’t believe me I have surveillance film of everything they did to you.” Amber shook her head and started to laugh again when she saw the completely serious look on Abby’s face, that’s when she shut her mouth. Abby put her head in her hands for a moment and then took in a deep breath before pushing her hair back into a pony tail.

“I want to see those videos.” Amber whispered, her mouth was now dry and it was getting harder for her to breathe but she didn’t think she could believe what Abby had just told her with out seeing these videos and what was even worse was she didn’t want to know what happened. She told herself it would be better to know, so she could start to cope, and some how con her way out of this situation and help the others out too. “Abby why did it take so long for you to…well…do whatever you did to get me sober?”

“For the longest time it was only you and me, and since Romano had you under some kind of spell you would have kicked my ass if I would have tried anything. I decided that I was going to need another person here to distract the both of them while I switched the meds. Romano wouldn’t go anywhere with out you and Carter is so doped up on drugs most of the time he wouldn’t notice if I snuck into his room and replaced all of the needles. I’m sorry it took so long but I couldn’t risk being beat to death by a fifth degree black belt who obeyed every command given to her.” Abby explained and then she started to cry, she put her hands to her face and her body just trembled with sobs. Amber felt so bad about this whole situation, even though she knew that it was basically all out of her control up until now but she wished that she could have been stronger, that she could have fought them instead scaring Abby half to death.

“Well it’s me now…I’m here…and the next ass I’m kicking ain’t going to be yours.” Amber said to her, she put an arm around Abby’s shaking form and pulled her into another hug, “I’ll get them for this I promise you.”

“No…” She pulled away just slightly to look in Amber’s eyes, “Not Carter none of this is his fault…promise me you won’t hurt Carter.”

“Look…you said you replaced the needles with Saline right?” Amber asked and Abby nodded slightly as she wiped the tears away from her face, “Well Carter is at county getting more drugs…so your plan may have worked on me but it certainly isn’t going to stop him. Before anything else…and I mean anything…we are going to have to get Carter sobered up otherwise we are screwed because he’s obviously willing to do almost anything to get a fix.”

“Okay but how are we going to do that?” Abby sighed as she started to give up any possible hope of getting out of there alive. Amber looked at her for a moment, and as her head started to clear she came up with a plan. She leaned in and started to whisper into Abby’s ear, and for the first time in months Abby began to smile.