Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

A/N: Okay, so here's the next installment. Warning: Major angst in this one. Poor Henry. I just love torturing that poor guy. Okay, so here you go: the newest chapter.

~UH~UH~UH~

The car remained eerily silent save for the light pitter-patter of rain on the roof of the car and the swish of the windshield wipers. Not one of the three people cooped up inside Dean Bartlett's vehicle had anything to say. When Jasper hadn't the evidence to shoot down Maggie's theory, he clammed up and said nothing else, not even when his father had gotten off the phone and informed them they were going to the hospital. So the ride to the hospital to see Henry was a tense filled, silent one.

The lines of Dean Bartlett's face seemed somehow more pronounced in the past few days and he looked as if he could drop dead right there from stress. He pulled into a miraculously vacant hospital parking spot and sighed. This was it. Maggie was finally going to get to know if she was right… and if the Henry she knew was gone. In her heart, though, she thought she already knew.

"Okay," he said with another sigh. That can't be good. "Well, according to my sister and her husband, Henry is alive." He said that with so little gusto and Maggie assumed it was no consolation to him either. "But the doctors had to pump his stomach. When they did they found high levels of Percocet in his system. Everything suggests that Henry…" He stopped and Maggie willed him to just continue. It would be easier to hear. "…that Henry tried to commit suicide." And Maggie knew she was right. Everything added up. Everything made sense, everything except for why. Why would Henry ever feel that this was his only way out? It just didn't make sense to her. She never thought Henry Griffin would ever in a million years give up.

But the dean continued. "He's resting on suicide watch in the Pysch-ward right now-"

"What, like he's crazy?" Jasper snapped. "Henry is a lot of things but he is not crazy. And people telling him he is and giving him drugs for it is not going to help!"

"Jasper," the dean sighed gently. "Henry has been through a severe traumatic event. I think this may be the best thing for him right now. That way he can't hurt himself again."

Jasper shook his head. "This is bullshit!" he shouted, ignoring the fact he cursed in front of his father. His voice was sharp and loud in the enclosed space and Maggie winced. She saw Jasper's eyes fill with involuntary tears. "It's not fair," he said. "Why does crap like this have to happen to people like Ella and Henry? They didn't do anything to anyone! It's just… it's just wrong," he finished mostly to himself, stumbling his way out of the car and slamming to door on his father.

"I'm sorry, Maggie," the dean said, rubbing his brow. Maggie couldn't be sure, but it looked like he was fighting off a major headache.

"That's okay," she replied softly.

"Maybe you should follow him," he suggested. "I'm just going to stay here for a few minutes."

"Okay," she whispered, opening the car door with a click. "I'm sorry too, Dean Bartlett."

Before Jasper's father had the chance to respond with whatever he was going to say, Maggie closed the door and headed towards Jasper's form, hunched over and walking with no purpose towards the hospital's entrance ignoring the rain.

~UH~UH~UH~

Maggie eventually caught up with Jasper and after they asked the front desk where they could find their friend, strode in silence down the clean, white, bustling hallways of what was the local hospital. They could easily pick out the room Henry resided in as his parents were standing just outside of it, speaking in low murmurs. "Jasper, Maggie," Mr. Griffin said upon seeing the two teenagers approach.

"Uncle Zafe," Jasper said calmly, hiding well that he had just lost his temper at his father. "How is he?"

"Physically he's fine," his uncle answered with a sigh, Maggie understanding the innuendo inside his words.

"Did he tell you why?" she asked quietly.

"He hasn't said a word," Mrs. Griffin answered, if possible, even softer than Maggie had spoken. "Maybe you two will get something out of him because he hasn't told us anything." Her husband wrapped his arms around her shoulders as she struggled to hold back tears.

"We'll see what we can do, Aunt Rosie," Jasper said gently. His aunt nodded and Jasper pushed open the door to Henry's room. They found him sitting on the long window sill with his knees pulled tightly to his chest. His eyes were gazing sadly out of the window as he watched a few raindrops fall from the sky.

"Henry?" Maggie asked softly. "Can we come in?" There was no reaction from the boy. He didn't even turn to look at them.

"Henry," Jasper called louder, closing the door with a click. "Dude, seriously, the silent treatment? You can do better than that." Still, Henry did not peal his eyes away from the window and the raindrops sliding down the depressed glass. "Henry, my god, are you kidding me? Maggie and I just spent over two and a half days worrying out of our goddamn minds for you, you scare us half to death, and then you just… ignore us? Don't even acknowledge our presence?" he ranted.

"Jasper," Maggie whispered, placing her hand on his shoulder. She could see the tears forming in Henry's eyes and she knew Jasper was hurting him. "Jasper, stop-"

But he easily shrugged her hand off and continued his tirade. "Your mother was crying out in the hallway because her son thought he couldn't live on anymore and he didn't have the decency to even tell her why, why he didn't want to face her, why he thought he needed to die. You know, I may not have any idea what it is you're going and have gone through, but I know what I've gone through. I thought you of all people wouldn't even think about it because of my…" Jasper seemed to stray away from the topic of his mother. "When I thought you had died… I couldn't think. At least not about anything but the pain. You're not indestructible, Henry. You're not invincible, Henry. I never thought Henry Griffin would be a coward. But then again, I never thought my mom wasn't happy enough to keep on living with me, so apparently, I'm just a shitty judge of character." Henry remained silent through Jasper's passionate rant, his mouth thinning into a nearly invisible line. "Damn, say something!" Jasper shouted. "Or is none of this real to you?"

"Of course it's real to me!" Henry suddenly screamed. He was now standing defensively, tears streaming down his cheeks. Maggie nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden change of pitch and voice. "It's always been real to me!" His last statement was so soft that if the room hadn't been ringing with a tense silence, Maggie would have missed it. "You don't understand."

"You're right," Jasper said coldly, his eyes glimmering with frustration, clearly not fazed with Henry's sudden and very loud reaction. "I don't. Please, explain to me how someone like you, who has everything and everyone you have to help you through this and who has had a family member who they lost to something like this could ever have the thought of suicide even cross their mind. Please, help me understand just why you did something like this."

For the first time in her life, Maggie saw Henry Griffin at a loss for what to say to his cousin. He backed up, like he had been hit (which considering what Jasper had said wasn't far away) until he slid down the wall in the corner of the room and buried his face in his hands. "Jasper, stop this," Maggie snapped when it looked like Jasper was going to start yelling again. "Go see Ella," she ordered firmly. "Go see Ella. I will handle this."

Jasper didn't say anything as he angrily flung himself out of the room and let the door slam behind him. Maggie waited to see if anyone would barge in, then slowly made her way over to Henry, curled in the corner shaking in silent tears.

"Henry?" she called gently. "Henry, it's just me. Jasper's gone. Come on, you can always talk to me." Before she knew it, she was kneeling beside and placing a hand gently on his trembling shoulder. His head raised in surprise, like he didn't expect her to be this persistent. His tear-worn, broken brown eyes gazed at her sadly, willing her not to leave. "Henry, please."

"I…" he whispered. "I can't do this, Mags."

"Henry, of course you can," she replied with a small smile. "You're Henry Griffin. You can do anything."

"Not this," he stated. "I can't… I can't live with the guilt."

"What guilt?" she asked calmly. He was actually talking now and she didn't want to blow it by not asking a simple question.

"Everything that happened to that girl," he said, "every single thing that happened, happened because I let it. I didn't do anything to save her, to help her. And I hate myself for it, more every minute." He stopped and clenched his teeth together to try and control himself, then continued before Maggie had a chance to reply. "Every single time I close my eyes I can see them and I can hear her screams echo in my head…" His eyes glazed over as if he were recalling a horrible memory, a memory Maggie was soon to find out, even if she didn't really want to. "I don't even remember how I got the gun," he whispered. "I just remember him coming at me and the gun going off…I…I killed someone Mags," he sobbed."I killed someone and I don't get any form of punishment? How does that make me better than them, more worthy? It… it doesn't. I'm just like them. I'm just like them." He couldn't say anymore. The pain and tears were just too much.

Maggie was stunned for a few moments. She had heard nothing of Henry's ordeal, nothing that had happened to him or Ella or what they had experienced, not even who had really taken them. She didn't even know the man's name. The FBI had said nothing, confessed nothing, and she wasn't even sure Henry knew who they were. Now, he was pouring his heart out to her, confessed he had taken a life and how much it hurt him to do so.

It took everything Maggie had not to break down with him. Instead, she took a breath and started to speak words of comfort. "Henry, I have a hard time believing you did nothing. Look at you. You're covered in bruises." The boy didn't look up, tears of shame still running down his face. "Henry," she continued softly, yet assuring, "there's a difference between not doing anything and not being able to do anything. If you had just sat back and watched her get hurt, you wouldn't have gotten these," she ran her fingers across the bruises on his arms, "or these," this time she touched his neck, "or this" she gestured to the cut on his forehead, "or any of the other cuts and bruises I saw last night. Those men didn't want you Henry and I have a hard time believing they would hurt you if you didn't try to save her, okay?" Henry nodded briefly and continued to wipe away the steady flow of tears streaming down his cheeks. "What's more than that, I know you Henry. And I know for a fact that you are not the type of person to do nothing." It was true. In fact, it was harder for Maggie and Jasper to convince Henry to do nothing than to force him to do something. So the thought of Henry just sitting around waiting for something to happen? That just didn't ring true at all.

"I also know that you are not the type of person to hurt someone else unless it was completely necessary. You are not like those men." She stressed this, wanting to make sure he knew that she didn't think him a murderer. "They kidnapped two children and tortured them for revenge and for fun. I have no doubt in my mind that if you hadn't pulled the trigger, he would have killed you both. You killed him in self defense. That does not make you a murderer, and you have to believe that. So you are not like them." Maggie struggled with this. She didn't know how or why Henry thought he would even be considered in the same sentence or category as those psychos, but somehow he did. "And as far as your 'punishment', Henry, you were kept in basically a dungeon for two days and tortured. Don't you think that's punishment enough?"

Maggie couldn't help but allow the tears she had been holding back flow now as Henry collapsed into her arms, clung tightly to her sweater, and cried into her shoulder. She rubbed his back and mumbled, "Everything's going to be all right. It's going to be fine. Don't worry. It'll all work out."

"I really hope you're right, Mags," she heard him whisper and she couldn't help but think Me too… "How mad are they?" he asked. "My parents?"

"They're not mad, Henry," Maggie said. "They're confused and worried. All right? I think you just need to talk to them. But they won't be angry with you."

He pulled away from her embrace. "Will you go and get them?" he asked, brushing the moisture still lingering on his cheeks.

"Of course," she said. "And don't worry; I'll explain everything to Jasper."

For the first time since they had rescued Henry, he genuinely smiled. It was small, but it was there. "Thanks Maggie."

"Anytime," she replied with a tiny, reassuring smile.

~UH~UH~UH~

Jasper stormed angrily out of Henry hospital room, thankfully unhindered by his aunt and uncle who were mysteriously nowhere to be found. He tore through the hospital, taking the stairs up or down or he didn't even know. Jasper had no idea where he was going, he just knew he had to get away or get somewhere or… The boy couldn't even finish a complete thought. He sped through the white hallways miraculously not hitting or running into anyone. No one tried to stop him.

Finally, Jasper reached a familiar sight: the door to Ella's hospital room. Apparently his subconscious was telling him he needed to inform Ella of the recent conspired events. "I hate my subconscious," he growled under his breath. But he didn't push open the door. In fact, his hand slowly fell until it was at his side again, neglecting the door knob. Instead he felt his anger slowly vanishing and realized to the full extent what he had actually done. He had yelled mercilessly at his cousin, his own flesh and blood because of the fury he had harbored so many years at himself.

Jasper had been through this before with his mother. He had to suffer through the sting of abandonment before and he had to suffer through the thoughts of guilt and grief. There were so many signs with Henry, he just should have known. Henry had been through a horrible trauma, he was having nightmares, and he couldn't even talk about what happened, so Jasper should have been able to stop it before Henry actually… did something like this. In that moment, Jasper realized he wasn't mad at Henry because he felt so lost, he was mad at himself because he couldn't have prevented it from happening, because he didn't make enough of an effort to try and help his cousin, just like he didn't try to help his mother.

Jasper made this terrible realization and decided to open the door anyway. Someone needed to know what he had done. And Ella needed to know about what Henry had done, so she seemed the logical choice and he was standing right there. So he raised his hand again, sniffed back the tears of shame he felt burning his eyes, and turned the knob, hoping with all his heart that Ella remained asleep.

~UH~UH~UH~

"So go ahead; yell at me," Henry mumbled sliding into a chair very near Ella's bedside. "I deserve it."

It had been two days since Henry had been admitted, three since they had been rescued, and he had finally been released upon passing the psychological evaluation the Pysch-ward had to give him to be sure he wouldn't hurt himself again. His parents had vowed to stay in town for the next three weeks to be absolutely positive that he was going to make a full recovery, and he didn't mind in the slightest. Since his soul-bearing-secret session with Maggie, he felt much better and he welcomed help from the outside. But Ella, being with him during that hell of an experience, deserved her chance to berate him for his stupidity, and he knew just how foolish it was. The only thing that hadn't been resolved: Jasper still hadn't spoken to him since the day he… well, for two days.

"I'm not going to yell at you Henry," she mumbled softly. "Because you've already been yelled at by everyone and I think you get the point: your parents, your uncle, Maggie, Jasper." Henry cringed at the name, the shouting match echoing painfully in his mind. "But I am going to say something. I'm not going to pretend to know how you feel, because I don't. I only know how I feel. But the truth is Henry, I'm the only one on the planet that even has a remote idea of what you're going through and if you ever need that you can come to me, no questions. I trust you and I hope you can trust me." Henry's gazed lifted from the glittering white tiled floor, into her glittering green eyes.

"I trust you," he said softly, meaning those three extremely important words.

"Okay," she said with a small smile. "There's something else, before you get up. I want to talk to you about Jasper." Henry sighed and hung his head, exposing the eight finger marks on the back of his neck. "I know you really don't, but there's something you need to understand: he isn't mad at you Henry. He's mad at himself."

"What?" Henry asked, snapping his head up. "Why would he ever-"

All she did was hold up a hand, but she silenced him at once. "He'd been through this before with his mom, and he thinks that he should have known, that he should have seen the signs, when in reality that's completely irrational. He wishes he could go back and somehow help you more so you wouldn't make this decision. Though I think you and I both know you would have done this no matter what. Anyway, he's felt this sting of the person he loves would rather die than continue living with him and that hurts him more than anything else you could have said or done. I think you need to talk to him. But don't try and explain any of this. It won't go over well."

"So what do I say to him?" Henry asked feebly. "I mean, I nearly did the thing that I fear the most. What do I tell him?"

"Tell him you love him," she said simply. "And that you never meant to make him feel abandoned and there was nothing he did to push you to do what you did." Henry sat in awe. Here he was, weak and feeble, not knowing what to say to his cousin, not knowing how to go through something like this, breaking down at any little thought that brought back memories he didn't want to ever remember. But the girl who sat across from him, still in a hospital bed, hadn't even flinched, hadn't made one move to tear up or show any pain. Normally, Henry was the rock, but he quivered underneath her strength. She didn't even bat an eye when she heard what he had done, shown no emotion. But if Henry was being honest with himself, that is exactly what he needed, someone to just tell him like it is and not compromise him with emotion or frailty.

"Thanks, Ella," he said, gently squeezing her hand.

"You're welcome, Henry," she replied with a small smile, a smile Henry couldn't help but notice didn't reach her eyes.

~UH~UH~UH~

A/N: All righty then. I told you I'd get one more up before the end of winter break. Though I just want to warn you, I only have like two chapters left if I always do the length I do them at. Sorry guys. But they are gonna be awesome chapters! Though it really isn't gonna happen for at least a week. I have a theater project I need to get a jump on because if I don't I'm gonna want to kill myself. Not really, though it will suck, let me tell you. Okay, I'm done talking now. Here you go.