On the way through the heavy brush and wooded path, before reaching the clearing at the lake Jennifer says, "sometimes I wish we had children of our own but I know that with all the trouble that we seam to find I'm glad that it's just the two of us." "I feel the same way, it would be nice to have a daughter that looked just like you, and I know that she would love animals just as much as you do. "I guess she wouldn't have much of a choice with me as her mother, now would she?" "No she wouldn't," he answers.

When they arrive at the clearing by the lake they unload everything from the horses so the horses could graze while they enjoyed themselves. Jennifer laid out the blanket and Jonathan set out the picnic basket in a safe spot so as not too encourage visitors of the four-legged variety.

When Jennifer is done she looks over and sees that Jonathan is almost done as well then says "race you to the lake" Jonathan looks up just in time to see Jennifer slipping her boots off and unbuttoning her pants to slip out of before running naked for the lake. Jonathan grins and starts removing his clothes to join her.

Several hours later after swimming and making wonderful love Jonathan says "I suppose we should head back to the cabin before it gets dark" "yes your right about that but not before I get another kiss from you" Jonathan grins and lowers his head for a kiss that becomes much more very quickly. After making love again they get dressed and start packing things up to head back to the cabin before sunset. Once everything was ready Jonathan slipped his arms around Jennifer for a kiss before helping her to mount and starting back to the cabin.

On the way through the path it became very dark with all the brush and trees. Jonathan began to wish he had brought a flashlight to help light the area. Then their horses started getting skittish and after a few more feet down the dark path, Jonathans' horse reared up frightened, of what was ahead, both Jonathan and Jennifer pull up the horses and try to calm them. Jonathan then gets down off his horse to investigate the area and says, "stay on the horse just in case there's trouble," "and when isn't there trouble, with us." "Ok I'll be careful" As he heads for the brush lining the path.

Very carefully and quietly Jonathan looks around through the trees and brush til he spots what looked like a foot, moving closer he sees that it not only is a foot but also covered in what looks like blood. "Oh god no, how.." Kneeling down, pushing the shrubs away he uncovers the body of a young girl who looks half starved and horribly brutalized, as gently as possible he reaches over to check for a pulse and finds one but it's very faint, he then jumps up to his feet and runs toward the horses to get the blanket and tells Jennifer "stay here I don't want you to see this," "what did you find." "A young girl that needs help badly, I'll be back."

He goes back into the brush and very gently checks for and immobilize any broken bones then wraps the girl in the blanket and very carefully carries her back to the path where Jennifer is waiting with the horses. "Is she alive, will she make it?" "I don't know if she'll make it, but she's just barely alive right now." Then he very gently and carefully gets on his horse with the battered body and they ride as fast as they dare back to the plane at the cabin.

Once Jennifer was settled in the plane Jonathan handed the young girl to Jennifer to hold during the flight, "it's going to be ok soon little one we're taking you to a doctor who will help make you well." As Jonathan radios for an ambulance to be waiting at the airport in San Bernardino, Jennifer then turns her attention back to the girl in her arms feeling that something is different, so Jennifer checks to make sure she is still breathing and has a pulse.

"Darling, how is she doing?" "Ok at the moment, but I don't think she can last much longer without help. Will it be much longer until we get to the airport?" Looking at the instruments and the clock Jonathan replies " it will be another 15 minutes before we land at the airport and the ambulance and paramedics will take over from there." "Ok I'll do what I can to keep her with us until then." Jennifer again turns back to the girl in her arms "come on little one stay with us, your not alone now I've got you and I won't let you go not now not ever if you'll just stay with us."

When they arrive the paramedics and ambulance drivers immediately take the child and start checking for vital signs before starting an IV and loading the girl in the ambulance to start for the hospital. "What hospital are you taking her to?" "Due to the severity of her injuries we'll be taking her to San Bernardino Community Hospital." "Ok, we will come by later to see how she's doing." "Ok but we need to go now!"

Jonathan and Jennifer waited about three hours before they saw a Doctor walking their way. He asked, "Are you the Harts?" "Yes that's us," "I'm Dr. Gulick," I was one of the Doctors that worked on Jane Doe, nurse Jordana said you wanted to know how Jane is doing. So I was chosen to let you know what the prognosis is," "ok, tell us everything you can." "Well we don't expect her to make it through the next few hours let alone live through the night." "Why won't she make it can you tell us?" " Well she doesn't seem to have the will to live, which she needs now more than ever considering her injuries." "What exactly are her injuries?"

"I think the question should be what wasn't done to her but I'll tell you she has a punctured lung, a ruptured spleen, most of her ribs are broken, her left leg has been broken and torn ligaments as though someone tried to tear it off, there's possibly some nerve damage to her knee as well, her left hand at one time had been badly broken and burned, she also has a cut from her temple to jaw line, her face is badly swollen and bruised, her jaw is broken, and there is not one inch on her back or backside that is not either scared, cut, or badly infected, and there's a good indication that she was raped, and that's just some of the injuries she sustained."

While he was listing the injuries Jennifer closed her eyes to prevent the tears that were coming to the surface. Once Jennifer felt she was under control enough she said, "I would like to see her when she's out of surgery." "Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm sure, when I held her on the plane I felt as if we had connected and maybe if she knows that I'm still close by she'll try to live." " Ok then well give it a try once we have her settled in ICU."

Three hours later Jennifer followed Dr. Gulick to the ICU ward. As they walked in the ward nurse stopped them, then Dr. Gulick said, "It's ok nurse Trevor we'll only be a few minutes." Jennifer walked up to the bed that Jane was in, and watched the machines record her heartbeat, and temperature, and then saw the breathing apparatus that was helping her to breath. Then she looked at Jane and saw that her face was swollen and bruised in the places that were not covered by bandages, tears clouded Jennifer's eyes so she had to wipe them away, then she reached out and took Jane's hand into her own and said "Jane I'm here now and you're going to be ok soon just stay with us please."

A few minutes later Jennifer turned and asked Dr. Gulick "What can we do to help her?" "We've found that sometimes just talking to a trauma patient helps even reading if you run out of things to say just as long as the patient knows that their not alone." Answered Dr. Gulick. As he was talking the nurse noticed that Jane's heartbeat was failing and went into action calling all the medical staff needed stat. Then asked Jennifer to move out of the way while they worked at trying to save Jane's life.

After about 15 minutes everyone but Dr Gulick stopped and was ready to call the time of death, but Dr. Gulick did not want to give up, the other Doctors had to pull him away and tell him it was over she was gone. Then the Drs. left to fill out and sign the death certificate, and the nurses were to prepare Jane for the morgue and an autopsy.

After they left Jennifer walked up to the nurse and asked "may I have a few minutes with Jane before you do that?" "Of course I'll just be out in the hall if you need anything" "thank you" Jennifer then walked to the bed and sat down and took Jane's cold hand in hers and said, "Jane, why do I still feel so drawn to you? Do you not want to go, are you waiting to see if you can trust someone to help you? I think you want to trust me that's why I feel you close by. If you need me to stay and lend you my strength and will to live then you have it, just come back, we'll do whatever is needed to help you, I promise."

A while later the nurse came to say "it's time to go we need to finish up here before sending her body downstairs, "Wait, nurse Trevor her skin feels warm and I think she's breathing would you check for vital signs before getting her ready to send down to the morgue?" So nurse Allyn to satisfy Jennifer's doubts checked for a heartbeat and then checked her temperature, and left to get the Dr. to verify what she heard.

When Dr. Gulick came in with nurse Trevor on his heels he said, "well Mrs. Hart are you trying to will her to come back from the dead." Just then Jane's vital signs started to drop again and Jennifer who was holding her hand felt the change, so Jennifer immediately motioned for Dr. Gulick to be silent, and asked "nurse Allyn have you found the Doctor yet? If not then is there a woman Doctor who could take over Jane's care?" Dr. Gulick wondered what Jennifer was trying to tell them but stopped talking anyway before coming over to check for vital signs.

He then left to get Dr. Yeager and fill her in on Jane's health on the way to ICU. So after about a half hour, Dr. Gulick comes back with Dr. Yeager and the Doctor goes to Jane to check her vital signs and finds that she is holding her own but also sees Jennifer is holding Jane's hand. Then turns on the monitors and says "Mrs. Hart will you let go of her hand and move away for a few minutes I want to see something."

"Ok, but I'll be here when needed." Jennifer then removes her hand from Jane's and moves three steps back, everyone watches the monitors closely for any changes within a few seconds the monitors start going off and without asking the Dr. Jennifer moves in and takes Jane's hand "it's ok Jane I'm here now stay with me and everything will be ok, that's it little one keep fighting, stay with us I'm right here as I promised ok."

While Jennifer is concentrating on Jane the Dr. is watching the monitors slowly quiet and record a steady rhythm. "It seems you're just what the Dr. ordered for this patient Mrs. Hart." "I think it was just because I happen to be there at the right time Dr."

Dr. Yeager then introduced herself saying " Hi I'm Dr. Kathryn Yeager and I will be the attending physician from now on, and hopefully we can coax Jane into staying with us awhile until she decides it's ok to rejoin the living." They all smile then and nurse Allyn asks, "Shall we call her Janelle since it looks like she's going to live?" Jennifer thought about it "It sounds like a nice name but why Janelle isn't it the same as Jane?" "Yes, basically but with style and for what she has been through Jane is too blah." "You're right there so Janelle it is."

Just then Jonathan arrives to find out what is keeping Jennifer and he is told by Dr. Gulick "You can't go in there Mr. Hart." "I've come to reclaim my wife." "I'm sorry Mr. Hart but your wife needs to stay where she is if you need to speak with her you'll have to do it on the phone." As he picks up the phone and dials the extension number then hands it to Jonathan.

Nurse Allyn answers and is told that Mr. Hart wishes to speak with his wife, so the nurse holds the phone out to Jennifer and says, "It's for you." So Jennifer accepts the phone and says "Hello?"

"Jennifer darling are you ready to go home?"

"Oh hi darling, no I need to stay with Janelle for a while, oh we have decided to call her Janelle, we thought it would be better and maybe she will come out of the coma a little sooner."

"Why can't I come into the room to talk to you?"

"I think she's afraid of men, when she hears a man talking her vital signs start to drop."

"Why do you need to stay darling?"

"She's kind of attached herself to me and I promised her I would stay and help her any way I can, also when I try to leave her vital signs start to drop again. Oh darling can you bring me some clean clothes in the morning."

"Sure darling, I love you bye."

"I love you to darling see you in the morning bye."

Jennifer hands the phone back to the nurse to place back in the cradle and returns her attention back to Janelle. Throughout the day and night Jennifer watches over Janelle and helps the nurses with cleaning and re-bandaging her wounds fighting back her tears the hole time.

The nurse holds the phone out to Jennifer "It's for you Mrs. Hart". As Jennifer takes the phone "Thank you. Hi darling."

"Hi beautiful," How did you know it was me?"

"You're the only one I know that would have to talk to me on the phone right now".

"How is she doing today?"

" She's doing better but she still needs me to stay for awhile yet."

"I missed holding you in my arms last night darling."

"I missed that to darling. Will you come by again tomorrow we'll find out then how things are coming and if I can go home or if I need to stay longer."

“I love you to bye see ya tomorrow morning.” As Jennifer sends a kiss to Jonathan and hangs up the phone.

The next morning Dr. Yeager comes in and says, “Ok Jennifer lets check how Janelle’s doing. Let go of her hand and move away.” So Jennifer moves back and they watch the monitors to see if Shayna’s vital signs will hold steady. Several minutes go by before the monitors start beeping letting everyone know that Janelle is not strong enough yet.

So Jennifer quickly moves back into place and takes hold of Janelle’s hand, and says “It’s ok I’m here I won’t leave you til we know you will be ok and then I will only leave for a short time to take care of business and a goodnight sleep at home.”

When the monitors for Janelle settles down again, Jennifer then picks up the phone to call Jonathan. “Jonathan darling don’t bother coming today Janelle’s not doing to well yet so I’ll be here awhile longer.”

“How much longer do you know?”

“No I don’t know how long before she will be strong enough, if I was to make a guess by looking at her I would say it might take a week or longer.”

“Ok, I love you darling.”

“I love you to, oh god Jonathan the cuts and scars covering her back I helped the nurses clean and bandage her wounds, my god how can anyone do this to another let alone a child.”

“She’s not a child, child she’s got to be about 14 or 15 years old, and I was hoping you wouldn’t see that. Are you going to be ok?”

“True but she was a child when the beatings started as old as some of the scars are. Yes Jonathan I’ll be ok but my heart really goes out to her and I want to do everything I can to help.”

“I love you, and I’ll call you when things change. Bye darling see you soon.”

Another three days go by before Jennifer and Dr. Yeager find that Janelle is strong enough to hold on without help but still remains in the coma. So Jennifer calls Jonathan and says, “guess what darling I can come home now that Janelle’s out of danger.

“Ok darling I’m on my way now see you soon.”

I’ll be waiting in the lobby for you darling bye.”

Then Jennifer puts the phone back in the cradle and turns back to Janelle to say “I’ll come to visit and see how you’re doing every day I promise. I also want you to know that I love you and want you to get well.” Then Jennifer bends down to kiss Janelle on the cheek before leaving.