scenes from my dream

Chapter 9 - Zebra

Frank POV
"Rose" - I whisper under my breath. But I take a deep breath and calm myself...this isn't what I need to worry about right now. I finish up her exam and treatment of her back. And then ask to do an extra check of the back of head and neck...some fingerprint marks on her neck and a few healed lumps (I make a note to get some type of scan) and help her lie back down. "Honey, I'm finished with the exam. . Are you ready for this to be over so you can sleep? Do you want to ask me any more questions right now?"She shakes her head, no."I think you'd be more comfortable in a bed; would it be Ok if I ask Antonio in to help transfer you to the bed next door? Hannah and/or Molly can sleep in there with you because we have extra beds.""ok""Antonio, can you come in?" As he walks in I, I start unhooking her from the monitors excluding the IV and I explain, "Can you help get her into the next room into the 1st bed;Hannah and I will follow with the equipment and get her set back up so she'd get some more sleep.""Not a problem. Are you ready?" "just a sec, Antonio...I forgot something. Honey, if you were going to forget, would you prefer remembering being moved to the other room, would that make it less scary?" Beat..."I don't want to remember the other stuff, but I don't want to be in a strange bed again...it's scary. ""Ok...Zebra...""Zebra" - her eyes look around in confusion for a bit..."Honey, Antonio is going to move you to the next room, so you can get a good nights sleep.  I've finished the exam and treated your wounds.  Some bandages will need to be replaced regularly and wounds treated again and you'll need some antibiotics as you have obvious signs of an infection. I can start them and you might feel a bit icky...if you do, let us know and if it's pretty mild, Hannah and Molly can get you some ginger ale. Else, I can give you some medicine for it. So remember to let us know and we'll take care of you.   This medicine might also make you a bit sleepy, but considering how late it is, I don't think it will make you too extra sleepy; in any case, we'll try to make sure you get a good rest tomorrow. Hannah or Molly will be in the room with you; so if they snore, throw a pillow at them...but then tell them to throw it back...cause you need it to sleep...just no pillow fights"A giggle...which i don't think we would have gotten if she remembered the treatment. I'm so glad I decided to take the medical hypnosis electives. But i wish i could forget what I saw, but at least she doesn't have to remember. I wish it was safe to block the memories of her abuse, but it's not, but at least I can make the treatment easier to endure. "Are you ready for Antonio to pick you up?" She nods and Antonio picks her up and carefully carries her to the next room to our best bed...it's the most advanced one we have, Hannah follows closely with the IV as I bring over the monitors and set them up. As the reassuring rhythmic beep fills the room, I go back and get the vial of the wide spectrum antibiotics ...I decide to start with the dose recommended for a child because I don't believe she's 100 lbs...I check to make sure I've got it right and then go over to her IV. "Ok Honey...this is the medicine I mentioned, it's just going to go right here and you won't feel a thing. "We step a little bit away to the opposite door of the small ward and I speak quietly. "Hannah, you're exhausted. Let's bring Molly in here...and she can have first shift while you get some sleep. " Hannah calls Molly who comes right over "She might be afraid of the dark, so ask her before turning off any lights; the emergency light might be sufficient for her...if not, you two can sleep with a blanket over your head. Try to sleep in shifts, and make sure the IV cord doesn't get twisted and there's no blood, use a flashlight to check, if you see any blood. In 2-3 hours, she'll need her fluids changed, so Molly you can call me for that. During the day, Bryce can help out with that, but not during the night, it's too disorientating for her to see another man. I'm going to sleep in the exam room, but don't tell her unless she asks because having a man in the next room might make it too uncomfortable for her. If she feels skittish and looks at the doors, ask her if she'd like to lock the doors. The brothers and you are the only ones with the Master Keys, so it's fine to lock it.""Antonio, I hate to make you the runner, but can you go down to the kitchen and get a few cans of ginger ale, and some crackers. And leave a note for them to make sure we have bananas, rice, applesauce and toast ready to go at moments notice in the morning and for the next couple days. also yogurt...fruit flavors are probably best. And make sure you specify just plain white toast at first. I want her to eat every couple hours and if she's nauseated toast might help. Hannah do you have the ingredients for anything you might want to make; if not text them to the kitchen in the morning and any recipes. I'll leave it in your capable hands, but you may wish to go back to recipes from when your daughter was pregnant, they might help." Hannah nods and Antonio and I kiss her on the cheeks and say goodbye and walk out to the exam room.Antonio POV"Before you leave Antonio, we're going to need a pregnancy test run...; she shows recent signs of rape. I believe she's menstruating, but we need to verify - it was pretty damaged. It might be less traumatizing using the blood we've already drawn instead of a normal urine screening - i'm not sure if we have enough blood for that with the tests we need to do...including for STDs. But we can collect the urine when she's in the hypnotic state if she'd think it's too scary. In this box, are samples likely from multiple men, they can be run against the men downstairs just to make sure we didn't miss any. "I can hear them let the vicious side he normally represses out in his tone of voice "I'm assuming all of them raped her. I've been telling Dino to stop smoking ...perhaps his cigar cutter can be of use to Emilio. You three can discuss it tomorrow. Because while those men will never be walking out of here, I don't want them entering hell intact..or too quickly. As for the woman, as much as I would like to have them afflict everything they did on her, I can't bring myself to allow it. But her fingers can fit in the cigar cutter. Those fingers hurt that child and who knows how many other children.  Just tell Emilio we want as many names as possible before they enter Hell"He takes a breath and goes back to his doctor mode "If there are unknown samples, we can run against the men we capture when we take down that brothel. They'll get the slowest death. Also, we need to assume that every woman in there was a victim of human trafficking like our girl. You or Dino should contact that rescue organization we donate to. We can use our resources to help find their families and pay for their treatment, but they need care beyond what i can provide on that scale. " I think and reply "there's not a branch in our city likely because no one thinks it will happen here, but I think we should start one and several shelters...I'll talk to Teresa about what needs to be done. What about our girl? Does she go with the rest?"He takes a breath and says..."For now, no. I don't feel right doing that. Her situation is unique, but if you could ask Teresa to let us use one of the therapists and set up a place for them to talk that's under our control." beat..."and ask for one for me too" I look at him and nod. I don't know what he saw, and I don't want to. "I'll do that. Get some rest" I pat my brother on the shoulder and leave to go get that ginger ale and crackers.