A/N:

Hey everyone and aliens above, I updated Wednesday because someone asked for me to if you guys didn't know, so here is another chapter. So does anyone know or guess who the tormentor is?

Love,

Multicrazybabygirl

Returning to Him

Chapter twenty-four

Carter

A few days have passed since Rosemary broke down about Charlotte's being missing, and Rosemary came in crying today. She scared Clara into think Charlotte would never come back to be her mommy again. So know I am holding my six year old daughter in my arms as she cried on my shoulder. I walked into the kitchen and sat Clara on the counter as my cell phone went off.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Son, we found her," my father said.

"What? Where? When?" I questioned.

Clara looked at me with fresh tears forming. I think she thought her mother was dead, but she wasn't. They had found her mother, but I don't know if she is dead or alive. I kissed Clara's forehead before my father told me she was found by Shane's restaurant, but Shane had an alibi because he was with Luna all morning at a doctor's appointment. Besides I would never think of Shane as someone who would hurt his wife's sister, so I doubt that. Then, my father said the words that I have been waiting a week to hear. Charlotte was alive, but barely. Oh, god, I felt like I was about to have a heart attack once my father hung up the phone.

"Rosemary," I yelled.

She came running down the stairs and looked at me. "What is it, Carter?"

"They found her," I said, grinning. "She is alive."

Rosemary broke into a smile. "Are you serious?"

I nodded. "But she was beaten. I think her tormenter thought she was dead, when he through her out. I don't know if the baby is alive or not yet."

"Daddy, what's happening?" Clara asked.

"Mommy is coming home, baby," I told her, which made her smile.

That was when Rosemary started pushing me out the door with Clara in her arms. I drove because Rosemary was too shook up to drive and Clara had the biggest smile in the world on her lips. I pulled into the hospital driveway and I was greeted by my father and Gregory, who looked sort of happy himself. Gregory took Clara and I to see Charlotte who had not yet woken up from the pain her tormentor put her through.

When I first saw Charlotte years before, she was one of the most beautiful girls in the world. Now, she is broken. Blue and black bruises covered her face and her hands were cut. She looked so helpless and I wish I would have been there to help her against the tormentor. Clara wrapped her tiny hand around Charlotte's before Gregory left us alone with her.

"Mommy woke up," Clara said. "Mommy, I love you. Woke up."

Charlotte didn't wake up.

"Daddy loves you, too, Mommy," Clara continued to wake her up. "Daddy loves you and he loves me and the baby. Don't you daddy?"

I grinned at her. "Yes. Charlotte, I love you. I want you to come back to us. Be strong, please, honey, for me. Mostly for Clara, but for me too." I walked over to Charlotte and kissed her lips. For once, Clara didn't say 'yucky' or 'you have cooties', which I was thankful for. "Clara, I'll be right back."

She nodded and I walked out of the room. I was going to find a doctor to tell me if our baby was still alive or not. I didn't want to give my daughter false hopes that her little sibling is alive, when it isn't. I want him or her to be alive, but what can I do just hope that it is alive, when it isn't. I want to be the one to tell Charlotte our baby didn't make it through all of this, but it would be nice if it did. Hopefully, it did survive because I wasn't there, when Clara was born since I didn't even know she existed until two months ago. I ran into Charlotte's doctor on the way out of the room, which actually really good.

"Do you know Miss Hale?" she asked.

I mentally laughed. "Yes, I am her boyfriend and the father of her children. I came out looking for her doctor."

"Dr. Swan," she held her hand out. "Your girlfriend's doctor. So what do you need?"

"Um…is her and my baby… did it survive?" I asked.

She looked at me before down at the charts in her hands. "Well, I was about to come in there for an ultrasound." I nodded. "You can stay when I do the ultrasound."

"Thank you," I said before she opened the door to Charlotte's room to reveal my daughter telling her mother the bedtime story Charlotte usually tells her.

"Who are you?" Dr. Swan sunk down to Clara's level.

"Clarabelle Hale," Clara replied in the sweetest way, "and that is my mommy," she pointed to Charlotte, "and that is my daddy." She pointed to me.

"Well, Clarabelle, you get to see what your little brother or sister looks likes," the doctor told her.

"Really?" She turned to me.

"Yes, Clara," I answered.

She grinned as a nurse wheeled in the ultrasound machine. I walked to the Charlotte's side and wrapped my own hand around it like Clara had earlier, while Clara sat on the chair beside me. The doctor got Charlotte prepared for the ultrasound and I felt Charlotte's hand squeeze just a tad, when the light blue gel was smeared onto her belly. At least, she could feel that. Then, the doctor started the ultrasound and a little pea looking thing popped up on the screen. A faint beating sound was heard, but it wasn't that loud.

"That is the baby," Dr. Swan said as she pointed to the pea on the screen. "It looks well and healthy. She looks to be seven weeks pregnant." She grinned at me before adding, "And it's alive."

"That is a baby?" Clara asked. "How does it get to be as big as me?"

"It grows Clara," I said.

"Oh."

So now I know the baby is alive. I have to take care of Clara, while worrying if my girlfriend's and child's life will live because of that bastard who did this to them. I hope she makes. Hopefully, she'll be home by the end of the week if she ever wakes up. Please let her wake up. Please let her wake up, god. Please.