Sitting at one of the gurneys, she started just speaking to the little boy that had come in while she’d been upstairs until she realized his cut was much worse than it should have been for a cut from a piece of wire.
“I cut myself like this one time. I had to get twelve stitches in my arm. How many do you think you’re going to need?” He didn’t speak, but he did look at the woman that was with him. Rayne did too. “Do you know if he’s had a tetanus shot or not?”
“I don’t know anything but that he comes yelling at me that he’s cut himself, and I bring him here. His regular doctor don’t seem to be taking anybody today.” She huffed. “This kid ain’t mine, but my boyfriend’s. He’s going to be powerfully pissed off when he finds out I had to bring him in here. If not for the nosey neighbor threatening to call the cops if I didn’t, I’d be at home watching my shows and shit.”
The boy’s entire body stiffened when the woman spoke. Rayne wasn’t sure if it was the threat of his father or the woman, but she was going to make sure he was safe. Her mind was a jumble of things she had to do, and it wasn’t until the curtain came back and Abby stuck her head into the room that she felt like she was going to be all right.
“This is Abby. She’s the clerk that checks on things like that. If you’d not mind telling her his name, she can check the records to see if he’s had all his shots up to date. Also, she’ll need his father’s name and address.” The woman, who hadn’t given her name on the paperwork in front of her, smiled. “I’d like to check it out if you don’t mind. He may well be sicker if he’s not had this shot.”
Rayne was afraid to leave the little boy. Abby seemed to realize that too, asking the woman to come with her. She went with Abby but wasn’t the least bit happy about it. Before she left the room, however, she looked at the little boy and said he’d better not be lying to anyone. She’d know.
As soon as she thought they were far enough away from the cubicle, Rayne smiled at him. Asking his name, he told her that they called him Mistake, and sometimes Shithead.
“Well, I’m sure you have a better name than that, don’t you?” He nodded at her and then looked around before whispering his name. “All right, Louis. Why don’t you tell me how you really hurt your arm. I can’t stitch this closed until I’m sure it’s not going to be infected.”
“I don’t lie.” She said she knew that about him. “Dad tried to cut it off this morning on account of me having a glass of milk when he didn’t say I could. I was really hungry. And I thought he was gone for the day when he come back and slapped me around. Then when Brenda told him I was a little thief and that I needed to be taught a lesson, he said he’d cut off my hand so I’d not be able to steal again. Don’t tell them I told you. Please?”
“I won’t.” She hated that the child was so afraid. “I’m going to call another doctor in to see how many stitches we need to put in. You can trust him, Louis. He’s a good man.”
“I don’t trust nobody, ma’am.” That tugged at her heart so much that she had to look away in order to reach for the little device around her neck that would call anyone that she needed. She had noticed that Wats had his on when he’d been in the office with her.
“You miss us already? I’m still here if you need to have— Something is going on.” She explained to him, not alarming Louis, that she had a patient that needed stitches. She asked him to come to her now, please. “I can do that. I have my father with me. Would it be all right if he were to come with me?”
“Yes. That would be wonderful.” She smiled at Louis. “You’ll like Mr. Wilkerson. He’s a good man too. He’ll have our daughter with him.”
She didn’t have to wait long for not only Wats to join her but also her father-in-law and Cooper. The man with them was one of the officers on the force and seemed to be off duty, as he was dressed in jeans and a shirt. She introduced Louis to them all, not telling him that Cooper was a cop. As soon as she showed them the cut on Louis’s arm, Cooper stepped out, saying he’d return. Brenda returned just as he left them.
“What the fuck are you doing now? Having a tea party? I need him to get his ass home before his daddy shows up. He’s going to be mad enough that I had to waste my time as it is.” She put out her fist and told Louis he’d better have not been a bad boy. “Come on then. I guess you’ll have to deal with it bleeding all the time. Get your ass in gear.”
Before she could get out of the emergency department, three cruisers pulled into the lot with their lights and sirens on. Brenda slapped Louis hard enough to have him falling backward, and she took off running.
“I don’t think she’s going to get too far. Not with her slippers falling off and her pants that tight. Do you suppose she went to a store called ‘I have no clue how to dress when I leave home, and I don’t care’?” The police caught up with Brenda just as she was heading down the street. “You did good, honey. One more abuser off the streets is just what this town needed.”
Louis was taken back to where he’d been before Brenda hit him. After examining him from head to toe, she found several more injuries that varied in the date given to him as well as types. Admitting him so that he could get some proper care, she was making sure he was in a room when the boy’s father showed up to be stitched up too. Apparently, he didn’t care for the police showing up and taking him away from his shows either.
“Mr. Sloan, it seems like you’ve had a busy morning.” He told her to fuck off. “Yes, that’s a good thing to say to someone that is going to put a needle in your arm.”
“You ain’t putting anything in my arm but sewing shit. I ain’t having you drug me all up so you can do shit to me.” She wondered what kind of “shit” he thought she was going to do to him when he growled at her. “You hear me? Just sew me up, and I’ll be on my way. With my kid.”
Rayne thought she was a little too excited about putting stitches in his arm and head without giving him anything for the pain first. Not giving him anything to numb the pain of her stitching him up was going to be quite painful, she thought. Taking several deep breaths, she let them out slowly before she opened her kit up and began to work. First, his arms, which needed four places stitched up, then his head. He’d already refused X-rays.
“Your little boy was pretty cut up.” The man jerked from her needle when she pushed it through the skin. “You have to sit still, or this is going to take a lot longer than necessary.”
“It hurts.” She asked him if he wanted her to numb it. “Sure. I guess so. Not a lot, though. I want to have all my facilities when I leave here.”
She thought that correcting him would be stupid. “As I was saying, your son, he was hurt pretty badly. He’ll need to take better care that he doesn’t climb trees in the future. Brenda might not be there to make sure he’s not hurt more seriously.” He laughed as the medication flowed through his veins. “Is that better?”
“Oh yeah.” He laid this head back on the chair he was in. “Brenda hates him. Me too, but since his mom ran off a few years ago, I had to take care of him. Don’t know what I’d have done if Brenda didn’t care for him while I nap. He’s a noisy little fuck.”
“Why do you keep him if you hate him? I mean, there are all kinds of services that will make sure he gets to a good place.” He told her how he got himself a check each month for him. “Oh. I guess I didn’t think about that.”
He opened one eye and looked at her. “You ain’t going to tell me to get a job? Most people think it’s easy being lazy. It ain’t. I have to be thinking up new ways all the time to get myself out of doing shit.” She asked him if he had ever worked. “Long time ago. But I got fired when I was caught napping on the job. Tell me this—how come they expect you to be at work at eight in the damned morning, and they don’t let you take a couple of little snoozes along the day? I just couldn’t do it.”
Saying nothing, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. Cooper had told her to let
him do the talking, and he might say something that would get his ass into trouble. The police were recording them, using the camera system that was in every cubicle of the emergency department. More police were at the house now, examining the blood and other items around the place. He also told her that the place looked like it was a dumping ground. Not hoarding, he told her, but just trash piled up all over the place.
“I did have me a sweet deal once. This guy gave me a hundred bucks for stealing shit off cars that were just sitting around. It was easy money until he got his ass caught.” Rayne asked him if that was something he considered hard work. “Nah. I mean, I guess it is hard work, but it was fun ripping people off.”
“I see. I’m going to work on the other cut now. How are you holding up?” He said he was fine but could use a little more juice.” Calling for a nurse, she received a little more numbing medication and put it in his arm. “Better?”
“Yeah, that’s the shit right there.” She wondered if he was ever going to talk about the boy. That’s what she wanted to get him on, abuse. “Where is that dumbass anyway? Brenda said she’d have him at the house before I woke up.”
“He’s been X-rayed for some broken ribs and some other injuries he must have gotten from falling.” Sloan laughed. “Why do you find it funny that he is hurting?”
“The kid knows better than to say a word about how he gets himself beat up. I tell you, he’s a lot more fun to knock around now that he’s older.” She stared at him. “Come on. You have to know he’s no more fallen out of a tree than I’m a good person. He’s a little thief that gets into the shit I pay for. I was going to teach him a lesson about that, but the neighbor came over and started screaming at me about the noise and shit.”
“What did you do to him?” He seemed almost proud of the fact that he’d tried to cut his arm off. Sloan went into great detail about how he’d had Brenda hold Louis down while he used a butcher knife to try to cut his hand off. “Why would you not just give him a glass of milk? I mean, he’s a growing boy and needs it.”
“He ain’t gonna be around much longer if he don’t behave himself and stay out of shit that don’t belong to him.” Sloan laughed a little as she bent her head over her task. Letting him see her fury right now would not help Louis. “You sure are easy to talk to. I mean, I’d not say shit if we were being recorded or something. There are laws about that shit.”
“About what shit? Recording you? I don’t know if you saw them or not, but there are signs all over this place that tells you that you’re being recorded.” He shook his head and told her that was just signs they put up for people to think on it. “You believe that?”
“Sure. Them things are expensive, and I know that this hospital ain’t got the money like the big ones do. I mean, just look at what you got on. It says doctor on it. We both know that ain’t something that is going to happen. Women are nurses. Men are doctors.” He laughed again. She’d forgotten that she’d put on her new lab coat when she’d left the offices upstairs. “I got me one of them recording things at the house. When I’m in the mood, I sometimes replay some of the shit that I did during the day. That’s how I know Mistake was into my milk. It was right there for everyone to see.”
She heard a scuffle on the other side of the curtain, and then the curtain was pushed back. Cooper was standing there with a big smile on his face and his gun pointed at Sloan. He asked her if she wouldn’t mind backing away from the man.
“Mr. Albert Sloan, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Louis Sloan.”
Rayne backed out of the room as Sloan’s rights were read to him. Wats was right here with AJ, and he handed her the baby while he held her in his arms.
“You did a good job in there. I would have murdered him when he told me that he was lazy.” She told him she’d been terrified that he’d not admit to what he’d done to the little boy. “I’ve gone up to check on Louis. He’s in a room now, and they have him hooked up to an IV to help with his malnutrition. AJ was entertaining him while I was there. He’s going into the system unless we take him with us. What do you think?”
“That’s a silly question. Of course, we’ll take him home with us when he’s ready.” Wats kissed her on the forehead, and she laid her head on his chest again. “He’s so afraid, Wats. Do you think he’ll trust us someday?”
“Yes. If for no other reason than we’ve not hurt AJ. He was checking her for marks when I was in the room with him. He was trying his best to be slick about it, but Louis did strip her down faster than my dad did when he looked her over.” She laughed. “Brenda has been arrested, and now that Albert is going to jail, the police will go into the house and find whatever they can to keep the two of them in jail. Finding out about the recording devices was brilliant. I think Cooper nearly wet himself when he confessed to recording his beatings of the little guy.”
“I just want to go up and check on Louis and make sure he gets a good dinner, then I’m going to take a nap. I don’t want to leave him here, but I also am dragging right now and need a nap.” He told her he’d stay with Louis tonight. “Thank you so much. As much as I’d like to stay too, I’m exhausted. Stress will do that for you.”
“I can stay.” She’d forgotten that Wesley was there with Wats. “In fact, I’d love to do it for you. Wats told me you might be taking him home to live with you too, and I think as his future grandpa, I should make sure I get to know him. Don’t you think?”
She kissed him on the cheek and told him she loved him. Wesley just blushed and told her that he dearly loved her as well. As he walked away, rubbing his cheek where she’d kissed him, Rayne suggested that they order the two of them pizza so they could share it over getting to know each other. He told her he’d take care of it.
After putting AJ in her car seat, she got into the car too. Closing her eyes, she thought she was the luckiest person in the world—a home, husband—soon to be anyway—as well as children. There wasn’t much else she could wish for.
~*~
Charlie decided she was going to keep the condo for a while anyway. It was close enough to the hospital that she could walk should she want. It was paid for, and the furniture wasn’t that bad. While her mom had had an eclectic taste in furniture, it would suit her.
Going through the mail that had piled up while she was gone, Charlie found her mother’s death certificate, as well as some things that she could take care of right away. Wats had been nice enough to only keep the mail for her and toss out all the flyers that her mom had gotten. Today she was going to go to the bank and see what was there that needed her attention.
Her mother’s bank account had been frozen when she was shot. Going there this morning, she was going to be able to get into the account and open up one for herself to use to take care of unpaid bills, as well as anything else that hadn’t been cared for before her mother was killed.
Leaning back on the couch she’d removed the plastic from when she arrived last night, she thought about her mom. Mom was a good person. Everyone that Charlie had spoken to since her mom’s death had only good things to say about her. Even people that had been before her in court said she’d been fair and had worked around things so as not to hurt their families when it was unnecessary.
Charlie knew her mom had taken to heart one of the men she had sentenced. She made it so he only spent time in the cell at night after his sitter came for his three children. As he was working too, she told him so long as he didn’t miss a day of work, she’d work with him. There was no reason for the man to lose his job over a few parking tickets that he’d not had the money to pay. She was generous like that to a lot of people, Charlie had come to understand.
Getting up to see what sort of foodstuff she was going to have to toss, she found a note from Abby Wilkerson. In it, she told her how the house had been gone over, and anything that was perishable had been either donated or tossed out. She had also made sure Charlie had a fe
w staples to use until she was able to fill the cupboards again. The Wilkersons were nice people too. She’d come to depend on them over the last several weeks.
While her eggs cooked on the stove, she thought about her being a physician. While she didn’t think she’d learned anything in her classes that was on the test, she was able, from having read a great deal, to get the right answers when the situations were spelled out for her. A doctor. Her mom would have been so very proud of her. She would also have gotten a big kick out the way it had happened.
When the phone rang in the living room, Charlie didn’t bother going to answer it. She’d not given her mom’s number out, so whoever it was, they wanted her mom, not her. Her cell phone rang just as the phone stopped ringing in the other room. She smiled when Wats’s face appeared.
“I tried to call the house phone. Silly of me to think you’d answer it. Anyway. I’d like to invite you over to have dinner with my new little family.” He told her how he and Rayne had adopted a little girl and that they were working to keep a six year old little boy too. “We’re growing by leaps and bounds here. Also, I wanted to talk to you about what you’re going to do about working. Now that you’ve finished school, I need a partner. Rayne is going to stay on at the hospital. She might be better off there than working with me. I don’t know that we’d get too much done anyway.”
“How will this work if I say yes to working with you? I know little to nothing about partnerships.” He said his dad was an attorney, and if she wanted to ask legal questions, he could answer them. “Isn’t one of your brothers an attorney too? North, I think.”
“Yes. He’s working with his dad and uncles. They are all taking a lot of pro-bono cases and enjoying the work. North is working with the city too. Did I tell you his dad is running for mayor? He’s getting a lot of things done around town already. I think he’ll be a shoo-in for the job when the voting comes up.” She told him her mom had mentioned it. “Yeah, he had to apply to run, and she helped him with the paperwork. She might have fast-tracked it a bit for him. She was a wonderful woman, Charlie. I hope you know everyone is sad to see her gone.”
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