silence they rode the rest of the way to the post, passing the guard station and reaching the hospital a few minutes later. Holder looked over at Taylor, who seemed to be dozing, and for the first time noticed the rusty wetness on her jeans. Despite their antagonistic relationship, he was sickened at what the blood must mean.
“Go to the ER entrance!” he told the driver.
“Kate,” he said quietly.
She finally opened her eyes, staring straight ahead. She hadn’t been asleep, only managing the pain. When she moved her head in his direction, Holder was shocked. Why hadn’t he noticed it before, he asked himself? He knew what pain did to a person, and now he saw it written clearly in her eyes. He was truly worried for her; worried for her life.
“Sit still, Kate. I’ll get help.”
Holder jumped out of the car and hurried through the ER doors, returning with nurses, orderlies, and a gurney. They helped Kate out of the car and onto the gurney and wheeled her into the ER. Holder followed.
Chapter Three
Kate lay on the ER bed feeling them remove her jeans and watching them look at the wounds in what she used to think of as her private parts. They certainly were not private any more, she thought bitterly. A female nurse was very gently cleaning away the blood between her legs while a male doctor assessed the damage. The thought of a man looking at her raised bile into her throat.
“How long have you been bleeding like this?” Dr. David Austin asked. A tall, blond man in his late twenties, he was serving his residency at this Army hospital. Later he planned to open a family practice in his home town, Wichita. He hadn’t ever seen a woman in this condition here before, and he probably hoped he’d never see one in Wichita, either.
“I don’t know,” Kate answered. “I couldn’t keep track of time.” She tried to think of a plausible answer. “Maybe three days? Two days?”
Austin didn’t understand. Nobody had told him where she’d been or how she’d been injured. In any case, with these injuries, if it had really been two or three days, she must have lost a lot of blood.
“There’s a baby,” she said softly, embarrassed.
The doctor did a double take. “You’re pregnant?” he asked in disbelief.
She nodded, unwilling to talk about it.
Austin shook his head. This case was getting more complicated by the minute.
“Anything else you need to tell me?” he asked curtly, trying to hide his uncertainty.
Kate detected his tone and took it for annoyance.
“There are cuts,” she said defiantly, pointing to a place slightly below her breasts. “My back is hurt, too.”
In their rush to treat her lower body injuries, they had not yet removed her t-shirt. Now the nurse cut it away to reveal two angry wounds forming the letter H near her breasts that oozed with infection. Next the nurse lifted her up, and she and Austin studied Kate’s back. Their eyes met, both shocked. It was a mess, very red with deep welts crisscrossing over her shoulder blades. While the nurse held her up, Austin did a preliminary treatment on the welts; then the nurse lowered her down as gently as possible. They turned to the other wounds.
As he was working, Austin studied the woman’s face. Her eyes were closed, her brow was furrowed in pain, and she was clearly struggling to control her breathing. The sight brought him up cold.
“What’s your name?” he asked sympathetically.
“Kate Taylor,” she said firmly. “Dr. Kate Taylor.”
“Can I call you Kate?”
She didn’t like strangers using her first name. However, she reminded herself with a purse of her lips, given what he was looking at, this man was hardly a stranger anymore.
“Yes,” she finally acquiesced. “What’s your name?”
“Dr. Austin.”
Kate didn’t ask if she could call HIM by his first name, too tired for her normal sarcasm.
“Kate, can you tell me what happened? It will help us determine how to treat you and the baby.”
The last thing Kate wanted to do was to relate to this man the details of the abuse the other men had put her through. She didn’t want to talk to him about the baby, either. But she knew she had to try.
“I…,” she started, pushing herself. “They…. I was in a Stasi prison…. They….” No, I can’t do it; I won’t do it, she told herself. She could feel tears stinging her eyes, and her lips were trembling. She didn’t want to cry, and she especially didn’t want HIM, a man, to see her cry. For all that she knew he wasn’t one of THEM, she simply couldn’t help herself.
The nurse was watching Kate intently. Catching the young doctor’s eye, she shook her head and indicated to him that she wanted to talk, out of Kate’s hearing. Austin reluctantly moved toward the door. Kate was infinitely relieved.
“What, Janice?” Austin said, displeasure written on his face.
Captain Janice Landauer bristled. He was DOCTOR Austin, but she was JANICE, even though she was older and far more experienced than him.
“Dr. Austin, let me talk to her. It’s clear she’s been abused, raped, who knows what else, by men. She doesn’t want to talk to another man about it.”
“But I’m her doctor, not one of the….”
The nurse held up her hand to stop him. “I KNOW that. She knows it, too. But believe me, Dr. Austin. I’ve seen it before. She doesn’t want to talk to ANY man about it right now.” After pausing to let her words sink in, she went on: “Let me talk to her first.”
Austin hesitated, then agreed and walked out of the room.
Janice watched him go. She shook her head and returned to Kate’s bedside.
“Hello, Kate. I’m Janice, Captain Janice Landauer. I’m so very sorry for all you’ve been through. We’re going to take good care of you,” she began reassuringly.
Kate didn’t say anything.
Janice went on: “Dr. Austin asked you what happened, and I know you didn’t want to tell him. I understand completely. Men did this to you, and then another man…. Well, sometimes it’s just too hard, isn’t it?”
Touched by the understanding in her voice, Kate opened her eyes to look into the woman’s face. She was probably Kate’s own age, tall, slender, with blond hair that was pulled back and pinned at her neck. Even in her uniform she was very attractive. But her eyes! Her eyes were the most beautiful, gentle, warm brown eyes Kate had ever seen. They enveloped her, inviting her to a different place where pain and fear receded and quiet calm reigned. In that place Kate could allow herself to relax, to let her guard down.
“It hurts so much,” Kate said in a small voice.
Janice nodded. “Yes. They did terrible things to you, Kate.”
“Oh, my God, I…. They…,” she stopped. She couldn’t even tell this woman about it.
“Look, Kate, you don’t have to tell anyone the details. Don’t ever let them push you to do anything you don’t want to do,” Janice said fiercely.
“What…what do you need to know? To take care of me…me and the baby, I mean?” Kate asked timidly, not knowing if she could do it but willing to try.
“Why don’t you just tell me what you can? Let’s start there.”
“First, can I…? Can I have something for the pain?” Tears were coming now. It was so good to be able to cry without worrying who might hear.
“I know it hurts. But it’s hard. There’s the baby to