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When I came back out to check on the boy, he was fast asleep in my cruiser. Another cop from the force showed up as well as the ambulance that I had ordered. I explained to the female cop that I’d like to follow this case closely since it began with an abandoned child. She says that she will allow me to stay close to the case, but we must follow protocol and a female nurse or officer must be present at all times. I agree to her terms and try to hide the sigh of relief when I realize that one of the EMT’s is a female.
We enter the house and my co-worker goes into evidence collecting mode as I show the EMT’s to the bathroom where she is located. I sit on the toilet and grab my notepad taking down any information that might be pertinent, she notices, and it looks like she cringes a little. The EMT’s start asking questions relevant to their assessment and paperwork. She doesn’t even answer her name for them I don’t know if she is trying to hide who she is or if she can’t even talk at this moment. I finally give them her name Lilly, it’s a beautiful name and I don’t want to believe that someone would want to hurt her.
I hear Chris talking to the female officer in the hallway wanting to know when he can have his home back or if he needs to find a place for him and Luke to sleep tonight. He knows the drill since he’s a cop too. I hear her questioning him to his whereabouts during the day and his voice starts to get elevated. I know he’s about to lose his shit, so I go to the hallway to calm him down. Everyone except for me assumes that it’s his wife in that tub. I correct them that it’s not his wife, I back up his story that she’s out of town for a conference. Still not a good look wife is out of town and mysterious woman is attacked in his house while he’s supposed to be home alone. However, he has a book full of tickets showing where he’s been doing speed checks all day in a particularly bad area for speeders. It temporarily clears him. They inform him that the area they need to collect evidence from is the living areas and the kitchen. It appears that she greeted her attacker and when she locked herself in the bathroom they got frustrated and left. So, he’ll get his home back tonight.
The whole time he keeps telling both myself and the female officer that it’s her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend, she’s been on again off again for years with him. He explains how she showed up early one morning three months ago and they were letting her and Luke stay here until she could get on her feet. I’m furious that he hasn’t told me before now that he’s helping protect someone that could be in danger. We’ve been friends since the academy and even though he went to be a county Mountie and I’m only a local yokel I thought he would have trusted me to help keep an eye on her. Hell, I didn’t even know his wife had a sister, and I was the best man at their wedding two years ago. He tries to explain why he didn’t get me involved in the situation, but we are interrupted by the EMT’s. I don’t want the poor kid to have to see his mom in the hospital and right now my anger is about to boil over at Chris, so he can stay with his nephew and I’ll escort Lilly to the hospital. I tell the EMT’s to wait till I put the boy to bed before we move her.
Once I’ve put the little man in bed I go back to the bathroom where the EMT’s have strapped Lilly to a backboard and are ready to carry her to the gurney. Chris and one EMT climb into the tub and straight lift her up until me and the other EMT can grab the other side and lay her on her back. I know it’s a freaky ride for her I’ve been there during training before. Once she’s on the gurney and loaded into the ambulance I climb in to escort her to the hospital. I know Chris, or his wife will give me a ride when I need It. He’s already sent me a message that his wife is catching the next flight home to be with her sister.
She fades in and out of consciousness the whole ride to the hospital. When we arrive she’s still out of it a bit, but the doctors use the time to do blood work, send her for an MRI and CT scan. When she comes to the doctor almost kicks me out, but he’s polite about it he explains that she’ll be more comfortable with this part of the examination with a female present. So, I tag in my female co-worker until she gets a room for the night. When the doctor comes out I ask about her condition. He explains that they are going to keep her a few days since she apparently suffered a concussion, he also mentions that they had to cast her wrist which had been broken before and recently healed. The doctor lists her other wounds that are mostly minor. Most of it is bruises that will heal in a few days. I force myself to ask the worst of the questions, “Was she raped?” The doctor pauses for a moment before saying “No.” I read into the long pause he’s hiding something.
I push the doctor for a few more minutes before he finally says exasperatedly “She hasn’t been raped today, but I can say with almost eighty percent certainty that she has been forced to have violent sex in the last year or so, multiple times.” His response makes me even angrier that Chris didn’t tell me about her being there or what she’s been through. I go to the room that the doctor told me she would be in. She is alone in the room since everyone’s got their evidence and starting to work on the case. She’s safe in a hospital, for the most part, with security guards walking around constantly, but I didn’t feel like leaving her knowing that he was out there.
I quietly eased myself into the chair for visitors and sat there at first taking in the bruises that were visible. I could almost make out the man’s hand that had wrapped around her neck more than one time. I could picture the anger in his actions. He hadn’t come to see her with making up in mind. He’d come to put her in her place in his mind, or put her in the ground. Before I knew what I was doing I had stood up, moved over closer to her bedside and was gently stroking her good hand with my thumb. I made promises that I knew I couldn’t keep and then I kissed her forehead.
I couldn’t deny the feeling I had suddenly been over come with in the last twelve hours. When I kissed her forehead, I felt like she was meant to be my woman. I sat back down and texted my watch commander letting him know what had come of the abandoned kid that wound up taking up most of my shift today. He had texted me back and let me know he had someone else filling my shifts for the rest of the week, but I had to be back at work by Monday.
With work taken care of I texted Chris to check up on Luke, and try to figure out what all they knew about this relationship with the ex-boyfriend, without revealing what I had found out from the doctor. I also want to know why Chris and Kathy had chosen to keep them there. Why had Chris chosen to keep all of this from me, his best friend. Chris had explained, as best as one could through sleep deprived texts, that her ex-boyfriend was a cop and she was liable not to trust us. She had taken weeks before she had even slept in her own room away from Luke. She hadn’t told Chris what all her boyfriend had done to her, she had eluded to some of it when she talked to Kathy. I texted him back having calmed down a bit more that her ex-boyfriend was a sick fuck. I told Chris that if she wasn’t going to file charges this time, I would. I only received a “yup” text followed by a text that said, “when did you start making decisions for her?”
I said, “When I took care of her son for most of the afternoon keeping him from being put into the system, I was protecting her since I knew something was up seeing as I had watched her for almost three months and knew she was in some kind of trouble when she didn’t pick up her son.” Yes, I ranted at my best friend, but it made me feel better about what I was feeling. I was protecting her, like I felt I needed to do.
Night faded into day the medication the doctor had prescribed kept Lilly knocked out and she barely even noticed that I was in the room. I listened to her cry in her sleep at night and it tore at my heart. Her dreams were filled with the torture he’d put her through for who knew how long. A few days later Chris and Kathy came to visit; they’d brought Luke with them, but wanted me to take the boy with me to get some rest. I gladly accepted the challenge of trying to get a few winks and watching an active four-year old. I took him back to my house which he was astonished to see all the space I had.
Luke had brought a bag, surely packed by Kathy, of quiet time toys. I set the house alarm and then an alarm on my phone just a couple of hours of sleep would be enough for me to recuperate from the two days I’d been awake. I put a movie on in my bedroom for Luke to watch as I took a nap. I didn’t want the boy out of my reach at all. He dumped out a few Legos and started watching the movie while building some form of contraption. I changed into my house pants and a tee shirt and climbed in bed. Little to my surprise I fell asleep even with the tv going and Luke talking about the movie to me.
I woke a few hours later to the sound of my alarm on my phone going off. As I opened my eyes I looked around the room and Luke wasn’t anywhere to be found. I jumped out of my bed and as I was reaching the door that lead into my non-childproof kitchen when I heard a noise. A toilet flush and then the little man walked out of the bathroom, his eyes were red, and he held his head down. I knew that look all too well he’d been in the bathroom crying over missing his mom. I texted Chris and we decided he needed to see his mom, so he could cope with his mom in the hospital, later that day. Chris and I had also decided that since her ex-boyfriend had found her at his place they would be safer at my place.
When I went back to the hospital with Luke in tow we brought with us their favorite pizza ham and pineapple, and mine and Chris’ favorite meat lovers. Luke sat on the bed next to his mom and chowed down on the pizza while describing my house to her. Chris and Kathy knew how I afforded the house which was more of a mansion on five beautiful acres of land. I could see the happiness in his eyes as he went on and on about the house. How he’d manage to explore it all while I was asleep was beyond me. He finally worked up the nerve to ask his mom who hurt her. We had only told him that she’d been hurt by an intruder, not a complete lie. He looked at her and without as many words as an adult would say he asked her, “Jeff?”
She nodded in response to his question and now I at least had a name to call the asshole. Luke went home with Kathy and Chris while I stayed at the hospital. It was only after visiting hours that she finally looked at me and asked, “Aren’t you going to go?”
I chuckled deeply and said back in a reply, “Nope.”
The next day she was discharged, and I helped her into my truck and drove her home. By the time I’d got her to my place and she’d realized I wasn’t taking her to Chris’ and Kathy’s place I watched as defeat washed over her, she didn’t fight our decision on living arrangements, but I could see she was disappointed. Kathy even helped Luke move into my place, which he was super excited about.