don’t know, but we’ll know how bad it is once we get this done, and I’ll be more than happy to see that rat hat thrown in the brig,” the first woman answered.
“She’s so young. How could someone do this? And what was he doing marrying a child? She’s fifteen for goodness sake!”
“How could her parents let this happen?”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ve got her now. She’ll be all right. Let’s move her on three.”
For the longest time, all Cally could hear was the loud humming. This room was darker, and when the bright light wasn’t on her face, she tried to open her eyes. Her left eye was swollen shut, but she could see the shapes forming from the other eye. The room seemed to be big, but it felt so small and the bed was so hard and cold, it made her hurt all over.
Almost as fast, the room was completely dark, and then the lights came on. She could see the machine near her feet, and the bed was moving. Then she heard a woman say, “She’s waking up.”
A face came over her, and it was a little blurry as the woman tried to reassure her. “You’re safe now. No one will hurt you again.”
The other voice said, “We have to move you. This will hurt a little.”
She felt the hard bed disappear, and with it, the pain; and then almost as fast, the hard bed was there again, and she winced with the sharp pains that ran from her back through to every other part of her.
She tried to focus on the ceiling as they went down the hall. The women were both quiet. And then she was in a room with a lot of machines. Almost as fast, she heard Dakota question, “How is she?”
The woman said curtly, “A doctor will be in soon to let you know.”
She felt Dakota sit on the bed on her right side. She worked on focusing on him. It took a while, but she could see him and she smiled. As long as he was here, she was safe, but when he left again… She felt the tears as much as she felt the pain of him leaving.
Dakota was very worried. “Something’s wrong.”
The woman was there, checking things. “Everything looks fine.”
“She’s crying. She has to be in pain,” he insisted.
The woman looked down at her. “She’s been given enough painkillers. The doctor doesn’t want her sedated until we know the extent of her injuries.”
She reached for Dakota, and he caught her hand in his, and she squeezed to let him know she was all right. “It’s okay,” she managed in a weak pathetic voice.
“It’s not okay. This should never have happened. If I would have been there more…” He was blaming himself for this.
“Shhh, it’s okay, you didn’t know,” she managed hoarsely.
“I should have. The signs were there. I just didn’t look hard enough.” His eyes said that he had figured it out. “How many times has this happened?”
She couldn’t let him beat himself up over this. “It doesn’t matter. I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. You’re in the hospital with broken bones, a concussion, and heaven only knows what else. This isn’t fine, this isn’t okay, this is way past okay. Cally, why didn’t you talk to me? Why did you lie?” he begged.
She closed her eyes to find some way to explain it, but she couldn’t. She had lied over and over and over, but it wasn’t to hurt him; it was to protect him. She wanted him to be happy, and he wouldn’t have been if he would have known the truth.
“Private Hunter, your wife is in serious condition. Her left fibula and tibia have been fractured. Her left ulna and radius have spiral fractures. The left clavicle has a hairline fracture. She has fractures on three ribs. There’s some minor internal bleeding. But she doesn’t have a spinal injury, and other than the concussion, her cranial scan was good. She was lucky this time.”
Dakota turned, and she saw his mouth drop. “What is this?”
“While she was very lucky this time, we can’t ignore everything we found,” the doctor said sternly.
Dakota looked down at her, pleading, “What did you find?”
“She has a skull fracture that is about a month old. Four of her ribs are showing remodeling that is less than three weeks old, and her right humerus was fractured a month ago. It’s clear this isn’t the first time she’s been severely beaten.”
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