The sisters walked through the forest in silence, their arms around each other’s waists.  There was no need to talk, to fill the air with mindless chatter.  Being with each other was enough.  That was the beauty of the sisterly relationship.  So it didn’t matter that it seemed as if they had been walking forever yet had not reached the edge of the clearing.  The trees that marked the far edge between clearing and forest seemed to always remain just a bit farther away while the trees behind them seemed to move closer, almost as if the clearing was traveling with the women.  Erin didn’t mind though; she wanted more time with Sarah.<br/><br/>A faint rustling from behind them made Sarah stop walking and turn to see what was making the noise.  Something blue darted through the brush behind them made her pull Erin to a stop.  Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense of what she had seen.  “Run!  You have to go, Erin.”  Her hand slipped from Erin’s side to the small of her back to give her a little shove.  “It’s pirates,” she hissed.  “Go on!  You can’t let them catch you!”<br/><br/>Panic clawed its way up Erin’s throat as she stumbled forward a step or two.  She whirled around only to find two pirates dressed in faded blue garments grabbing at her sister.  But not hurting her.  They were only restraining her, keeping her from getting to Erin.  A sob stuck in her throat as she backed up, her feet tangling with each other.  Just as she was about to crash to the ground, a pair of arms encircled her, squeezing her arms by her side.  Foul breath washed against her cheek causing her to shudder.  Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a white eyepatch.  Not this one, not Hooke’s second-in-command.  The man was not that much taller than she was, short and squat yet there was a strength in his arms.  With a grunt, he lifted her off her feet.<br/><br/>Erin thrashed and kicked as she struggled to break free from his hold.  One booted foot connected with Samuel’s shin and he cursed in her ear but maintained his grip on her.  Her eyes were wide with fright as she struggled to break free, frantic as she looked towards her sister.  Why wasn’t Sarah trying to help her?  Why was her sister standing there passively with only one pirate holding her arm?  The sight of her sister standing there watching pulled the fight right out of her.  The second blue-clad pirate that had initially helped restrain Sarah appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her ankles, holding her legs out so she could not kick.  Exhausted and confused, she stopped all real attempts at struggling free, only attempting to pull her feet free once or twice.<br/><br/>Time moved strangely or maybe she lost her grip on consciousness but the next thing of which she was aware was her hands and feet bound to the sides of a makeshift stretcher.  She didn’t know how long they’d been walking but the trees were growing farther apart and the smell of salt air tickled her nose.  There was only one place they could be taking her - Hooke’s ships.  “Please don’t do this, please don’t take me to those ships,” she begged but her tearful pleas fell on deaf ears.  The blue-clad pirates continued to carry her towards the ship.  Samuel was nowhere to be seen.  Perhaps he had gone on ahead.<br/><br/>Soon enough the men were carrying her down the dock and then up the gangplank onto the biggest grandest ship in Hooke’s fleet.  It was a handsome ship, much like its Captain.  The dark wood gleamed with a fresh coat of polish in the sun.  The white sails were tied down to the spars but even in that position, it was easy to see that they were spotless, just as Hooke demanded.  Samuel was standing near a large white tube that appeared just big enough to hold a person.  Wordlessly, he gestured to her stretcher bearers to bring her to the horizontal device.  Erin strained and pulled at the bindings holding her wrists still but the ropes were too tight.  Despair began to wash over the small brunette.  Sarah had abandoned her, Chris was nowhere to be found.  She was alone and completely at their mercy.<br/><br/>“Don’t worry, Erin.  This won’t hurt,” said the pirate with that white eye patch.  His words were simple but his tone was insincere.<br/><br/>The other two laid her down on the large table in front of the tube and shoved her roughly inside until only her feet were showing.  It was a small confined space, one designed to encourage claustrophobia to claim its inhabitant.  Erin struggled to control her breathing, to keep the panic at bay.<i>Breathe in, breathe out, Erin,</i>she told herself repeatedly.  If Hooke truly wanted her dead, Samuel wouldn’t have bothered to bring her back to the ship.  He would have slit her throat back in the forest.<br/><br/>All fell quiet.  Her ears strained to catch the faintest sound, anything to signal that someone was there but the world was quiet.  Just as she had managed to calm her frazzled nerves enough that she wasn’t on the verge of tears, something banged once on the metal that encased her.  Just one good thunk.  A cry of surprised fear was her natural response.  Thunks and bangs began to come more frequently yet with no real discernible rhythm.  Inside her metal prison, Erin could do nothing but cry, the tears rolling freely down her cheeks.<br/><br/>The sky grew gloomy and gray as a steady rain began to fall on NeverLand.<br/><br/><hr class="bbc-hr"/><br/>Sarah glanced up as the door to Erin’s room opened.  Two orderlies were there, dressed in faded blue scrubs.  She gave her sister’s hand a comforting squeeze as one eyebrow lifted in question.<br/><br/>“Hi, we were told she’s supposed to be taken for a scan,” said the first man, a tall skinny man with a bad bowl cut and a prominent Adam’s apple bobbing as he spoke.  His colleague just offered a small smile before glancing over his shoulder to see if the nurse was coming.  They would need her help to prepare Erin to be moved.<br/><br/>She nodded at the men before turning back to the comatose woman.  “You have to go, Erin.”  An updated scan would provide them with information about what was going on inside her brain.  Hopefully.  Sarah hoped the scan would reveal something for Chris’s sake.  That small bit of hope the change in the EEG had brought had changed his whole demeanor and it would be hard to see him crushed again.<br/><br/>The nurse, a small Hispanic woman, was extremely efficient as she disconnected monitors and turned off alarms.  The IV bag of electrolyte solution was disconnected for the time being while the various tubs and leads attached to her body were either loosely taped to her limbs or coiled and rested on her lap.  The orderlies and the nurse transferred Erin from her hospital bed onto the gurney that would transport her to the imaging lab.<br/><br/>Without speaking, because honestly, it wasn’t like their patient was going to respond, the men wheeled her down the hall toward Sam and his machines.  He was standing by the MRI machine when his patient arrived.  Without saying a word, he simply nodded at the two men.  They were specially trained to transport and move patients while he was not.<br/><br/>“Don’t worry, Erin. This won’t hurt a bit.  It’ll just be loud.”  It was habit to reassure his patients that what they were going to experience wasn’t going to be painful.  It would just be uncomfortable.  At least he didn’t have to worry about Chris’s girlfriend freaking out from claustrophobia.  He patted her leg gently before heading to the console that controlled the machine.  A few presses of a few buttons and she was sliding into the long white metal tube.<br/><br/>The first thunk of the magnets beginning to whirl was random, seemingly out of nowhere.  As the machine began to warm up, the loud sounds began to pick up in speed.  The first images of her brain began to load slowly on his computer screen.  As far as he could tell, nothing had changed since the initial scan from right after the accident.  Sam scrubbed one hand over his face.  How the hell was he going to tell Chris that his girlfriend was basically a vegetable?  Goddamn EEG blip giving the man hope.<br/><br/>Not wanting the neurologist to give him any grief about not conducting all possible tests, he waited until the magnet was done this cycle before heading out to Erin.  The contrast would allow him to identify any active parts of the brain.  He injected the dye into her IV and waited a moment to make sure she wasn’t going to break out in hives.  Once he was certain she wasn’t going to add anaphylactic shock to her list of ailments, he headed back to the console to start the magnet again.<br/><br/>Images began to appear slowly on the screen once more, this time with certain areas lit up in color.  The brain hemorrhage seemed to be healing or at least not getting better.  Sam blinked once at the screen.  It almost looked as if...no, it couldn’t be.  No way.  For a moment, it seemed that the auditory cortex in her temporal lobe, one of the areas that processed sound, was shaded a hair brighter, indicating activity in that portion of her brain.  He pressed his fingers into his eyes as if he could reset his vision.  When he opened them again, more images had appeared on the screen.  What the fuck was happening here?  Was she having a fear response?  Now it looked like her amygdala looked a touch brighter.  It had to be his eyes; he had been staring at this screen for hours.  Sam reached out and adjusted the contrast on the screen, making the images darker before staring at the pictures of Erin’s brain.  He was right.  It was just his tired eyes.<br/><br/>He leaned forward to rest his elbows on the console and his face in his hands.  How the hell could he face Chris and tell him his girl was basically a vegetable?  Some days he really hated his job.