by Drew Sera
“Colin,” Arthur said my name and I looked over at him. “Son, calm down and focus.”
He was right. I had to trust that Matt would stay with Anthony and see that he is taken care of. I put my attention back to Sydney and squeezed her hand. The doctor was focusing on checking over her body from head to toe.
“I want to get some X-rays so we can see where we need to start.”
“Can I come with her?” I looked down at our fragile kitten. “I have to come with her.”
I don’t know why I even asked. Hell would have to freeze over and cast me on the spot I stood before I allowed her out of my sight for a second. Alex nodded, and I kept Sydney’s hand in mine and we headed down the hall. As we moved in the opposite direction of the commotion surrounding Anthony, I looked over my shoulder and prayed he’d be okay. Blake and Matt were with him and wouldn’t leave him.
After a lengthy X-Ray and MRI session, two ER techs pushed Sydney’s bed back towards the main section of the ER. They backed her bed up in a small makeshift room and pulled curtains up on the side of her bed, giving her some privacy. I hadn’t let go of Sydney’s hand and sat on the edge of the bed. Her eyes darted all over the place, and I could see her chest rising and falling nervously. She wasn’t talking yet, but I knew that would come eventually. The nurses started some I.Vs and got her hooked up to some machines. They were friendly and trying to be as gentle as possible.
“Sydney, try to relax. Dr. Reese will be over in a moment,” the female tech said with a gentle smile.
The techs left us, and I could only sit and look at her. I couldn’t believe that she was here. She looked scared and so tiny. She had lost weight, but we’d take care of that. We’d take care of everything. Sydney whimpered and reached for me.
“Baby,” I paused hoping when she heard me say the term of endearment that I always call her that she would engage and look up at me. “Sydney, baby. Please, try to look at me.” I rubbed gently on her hand hoping she would remember my touch and know that she was safe.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and then Arthur appeared close to me. He gave me a faint smile and then looked down at Sydney. I wanted to ask him where he had been or where Blake and Matt were and what was going on with Anthony, but nothing came out.
Dr. Reese came back with an iPad type of looking device and smiled at Sydney. I prayed that next to Matt that this was the best doctor for Sydney. I felt like I should warn him or ask him to be careful with her. She was everything.
“Sydney, I’m going to be as gentle as possible. If I do something that hurts or causes you discomfort, I want you to tell me or you can squeeze Colin’s hand. I know you’re scared and hurting. I’m going to help ease the pain,” Reese said to her.
Sydney didn’t answer and her eyes continued to shift around the busy ER. Reese looked over at Arthur and I and then picked up his iPad and poked around. He turned the screen around to face Sydney and show her a screen with cartoon faces, each representing a degree of pain.
“Sydney, point to the face that reflects the amount of pain you’re in.”
Moments later Sydney reached up and touched the one that was next to the worst. I knew Sydney though. If she was admitting that amount of pain, it was probably much worse.
“We’ll go from there. Priority one is to relieve some of that pain.”
Reese spoke to her as he swiftly began checking the I.V.s and some of her cuts. He continued to work on examining her, talking slowly and calmly to her, cleaning wounds and keeping his eye on the monitors. Reese explained to me that normally multiple nurses and techs would be assisting cleaning and tending to wounds, but that given the situation with her having been held captive for weeks, it was in Sydney’s best interest for only one set of hands on her at a time. I was grateful for his insight and care.
“Are you cold, Sydney?” He was looking up at a monitor and then down at her. Sydney only stared at him for a moment before she looked away. The doctor spoke to the nurses and commented that the body temp was at 92 degrees and she was suffering from hypothermia. A nurse came back with a thick blanket along with a warm pack.
Dr. Reese looked over at me and began to explain that it would take Sydney some time to acclimate. I wanted to tell him that I was aware of that but I held my tongue. Arthur stood beside me as we watched the techs and doctor clean her up and tend to her many wounds. Just as Reese explained, only one set of hands was on Sydney at a time and they moved calmly and gently on her body. There was a lot of dried blood on her body, I noticed. Anger ran through my system as I discovered all the visible shit Paul did to her.
I caught glimpse of a horrible looking gash on her side over her tattoo that Dr. Reese said was going to need stitches. Dr. Reese explained this to Sydney, but I don’t think she took any of that in. Sydney had to lie on her side and I held her hands while trying to get her to look at me. Her eyes were focused on nothing in particular and she looked zoned out.
“Baby, the doctor is going to clean out the cut and stitch it up. I’m not going anywhere.”
That didn’t register with her either. Dr. Reese began cleaning it and it didn’t take long before I felt Sydney trying to tug her hands out from mine. She was in pain and trying to get away from the hands that were causing it.
“Sydney, it’s only going to take a few minutes and we’ll be done with it.” Dr. Reese explained and continued to clean.
Sydney continued to squirm and then stopped moving each time Dr. Reese placed his hand on her hip to still her. As soon as he started up the cleaning, she would squirm. He finally looked up at me with sympathetic eyes.
“Do you want to hold her hip so she doesn’t move?”
Fuck, he was asking me to hold her down. I realized that it was either an unfamiliar hand or me. I’d rather it be me than someone else holding her down. I nodded and sat on the edge of the bed so her thighs were curled up against my butt and lower back, and her stomach and chest were pressed against my thigh. I took hold of both her shaking hands in one of mine and placed my hand on her lower back, pressing her against me.
“That will work. Just need a few minutes.” Dr. Reese announced and went to work.
I bit the inside of my cheek when Sydney’s hands tried pulling away from me and I had to lock them down in my hand so she wouldn’t move. I felt her body try to move, but she realized that she was being held in place she stopped resisting. I felt like I had been hit in the stomach knowing that I was holding her down while she was trying to escape the pain. Despite it being for her own good and health, it didn’t make me feel any better. I told her that she was doing good and that the doctor was almost finished, but it was as though she wasn’t hearing me at all.
The doctor had the wound cleaned, stitched and was rubbing an ointment on it. He covered it with a white pad and taped it in place.
Reese left for a bit while the techs continued to tend to Sydney and when he came back he spoke to the techs about which room. Paul had made a mess of our fragile kitten. There were welts, cuts and bruises and of course, internal damage from the sex. Not to mention she was starving and cold. As I watched the techs clean her wounds I began to really worry about how bad the emotional damage was.
Dr. Reese told Sydney and I that they needed to do a rape kit exam. Sydney had been through one of those already with Matt last October and barely made it through that one. I could see the panic in her eyes and everyone could hear the increase in her heart rate monitor. I promised her that I’d be right beside her and that I wasn’t going anywhere. She let the doctors do what they needed to do and seemed to shut herself down even further. I kept talking to her and told her how much I loved her, and I held her hand through the entire exam. It was finally over and one of the female nurses stayed to help clean her up and get her into a hospital gown.
Matt already requested a room for her and it was ready so we were heading up there. Dr. Reese said he’d go over some things with me when we got up to her room and settled. When I took hold of her hand again she gr
ipped my hand tightly and looked up at me. My baby was in there and was trying to come out.
“You’re doing fine, baby. I’m here and not going anywhere.”
That seemed to sink in with her and she smiled slightly at me. Fuck, I missed her smile so much over the past few weeks. Anthony did too. I needed to find out what was going on with him.
We made it up to Sydney’s room and another nurse quickly came in and spoke to Dr. Reese. Reese explained to the nurse that this was the young woman Matt called in about. Matt seemed to do his best to make sure Sydney got gentle hands to help her since he couldn’t.
We helped situate Sydney in the bed and Matt walked in wearing a different shirt than he had on in the ER. Was that because of all Anthony’s blood? Blake walked in behind him also with a different shirt on. Both of them looked stressed and bothered. Where the fuck was Anthony? My heart started pounding fast and suddenly I got dizzy. I won’t rest until Paul was locked away...or worse.
I made eye contact with Matt, but he quickly looked away. He came over and stood by me as Reese went over some X-Rays and that sort of thing. My mind was everywhere but I tried paying close attention. Soon, Reese started looking mostly at Matt as he went down the list of injuries and medications he was going to start her on. I sat on the edge of the bed and stroked Sydney’s hair and tried to calm her shaking. I heard fragments of words or phrases like hypothermia, trauma, sexual assault, rapid heart rate, not pregnant and it went on.
Matt walked out into the hall with Reese and left Sydney and I alone with Blake and Arthur. Sydney was looking around the room and then she’d look up at me with tired and unsure eyes. I knew she was looking for Anthony. If something unrecoverable happens to Anthony, I’d personally rip all of the organs from Paul’s body. I was already going to see to it that he never saw the outside of a cell again. I couldn’t even say Anthony’s name right now to her. I didn’t know what was going on with him and what to say.
The doctor had given her something to ease the pain, which made her drowsy. The sleeping agent was setting in and soon she fell asleep.
Arthur said he was going to go out in the hall and call Gina and Gloria and let them know that Sydney was in a room now. Suddenly I found it almost impossible to open my mouth. I was afraid to ask about Anthony.
Blake stood on the other side of Sydney’s bed across from me and was looking at her wounds and kept shaking his head in disbelief. He was quiet and looked out of it, which worried me. Soon, Matt came back in and when I saw him I felt a mix of emotions. I wanted to know how Anthony was, but I was also afraid to ask. I just about lost it when he pulled two chairs over and told me to sit. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. Why the fuck did he want me to sit? Sitting meant something bad and I refused to hear something that wasn’t good.
“I’ll stand.”
I stared in Matt’s eyes and knew by the look on his face that I didn’t want to hear what he was going to say. I stood firm on my spot with arms folded across my chest and shook my head at him. When I saw tears gather in his eyes, I had to look away. I focused on Sydney’s neck. Anthony and I collared her. I exhaled the air I had been holding in and faintly heard Matt’s voice.
“Anthony…” Matt’s voice dropped and I quickly turned to face him.
I continued to shake my head at him as if it would change whatever Matt was going to tell me.
Blake pulled a chair over and sat next to Matt as I started to sit down. I felt like I was close to passing out. Matt leaned forward and made eye contact with me. His eyes were red and for the first time since all of this started with Paul, I saw uncertainty and sadness in Matt’s eyes.
“It’s not good, Col.”
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Other Books by Drew Sera:
Fragile
Belonging
Us
Lost
