Charlotte set her cup in the sink in the tearoom and held the edge of the cupboard. She looked out the window at the dark clouds forming and wondered if it would be too horrible a night to invite Claire over for dinner. After Claire had been attacked by her ex, Charlotte was certain that a little company for a night would not go astray. She could have Zach in bed, then stay up talking with Claire, if that's what she had wanted. Out of nowhere, a big raucous formed out in the ED, and a burst of angry voices erupted. Charlotte reacted quickly and turned towards the door, walking to a fast pace. Out in the ED, a young girl was cornered against the administration desk, Gabby had her arms wrapped tightly around her, and Bart and Frank were pushing an older man out of the doors. Charlotte walked over to Amy and began panicking.
"What the hell's going on?!" Everyone was frozen in place, and once the man had been removed from the ED, everyone resumed their normal tasks, some made an attempt to clean the mess of trolleys that had been thrown in some sort of brawl.
"This girl-" Amy subtly pointed towards the young girl with Gabby, "-her name's Sophie. She came in earlier with cuts and bruises on her face, and Bart thought she had a broken leg. Sophie tried telling us she had just fallen from a balcony..." Amy looked at Charlotte with an unconvinced look.
"She didn't fall?" Charlotte asked, trying not to jump to conclusions. Amy shook her head and crossed her arms.
"This guy comes in... Starts yelling at her, calling her weak, yelling at Bart that Sophie's a liar... Just making a total scene, she backed into the corner over there when he started getting too close, but by then Bart and Frank had a hold of him." Charlotte stared at the young girl. Her face looked a mess.
"You better go back over there, see if you can do anything, Amy. Just keep her calm, let her know she's safe now." Amy nodded, walking off and Charlotte turned to Adam. "Have the police been called?"
"Yeah, just called them. I'm guessing Bart and Frank won't let him out of their site." Charlotte shook her head.
"The only negative about my job is that I have so many sharp implements around me, and yet I can't stab people like that." She muttered, walking off to triage.
Amy approached the young girl. Gabby was helping Sophie back into bed, and once she spotted Amy, she introduced her.
"Sophie, this is Amy. She's a nurse, too, okay." Amy patted Sophie's arm, reaching for a nasal oxygen cannula. "Now, I have to go and complete some paperwork, and-" Gabby tried explaining, but Sophie grabbed her arm in fear.
"No! Don't leave me!" Before Gabby could answer, Amy took action.
"Hey, Sophie. I'm going to stay with you. Okay. I'm staying here, I'm not going anywhere." Sophie snapped her head towards Amy, and released her grip on Gabby. Amy pulled up a chair and sat right beside Sophie's bed.
"Amy? I'll go and do the paperwork." Gabby smiled, walking off.
"Do you wanna talk about what just happened?" Amy suggested. Sophie didn't answer, rather she just stared into a blank space. "I know that it's scary and seems-" Amy began, but Sophie snapped.
"You know, do you?!" Sophie was fuming in fear.
"Well, no." Amy looked in her lap. "So how about you tell me?" Sophie didn't respond for a second time. Out of nowhere, Charlotte came over.
"Hi Sophie. My name's Dr Charlotte Beaumont. Dr. West is dealing with a few things right now, so I'll be taking over from here on in. Amy? Mrs. Mathieson's in cubicle two, she needs a pan." Charlotte smiled a mischievous grin at Amy, who looked so thrilled.
"Thanks, Charlotte." Charlotte responded with a cheeky wink.
"Okay." Charlotte sat on the opposite side of Sophie's bed and took her hand.
"Now Sophie. I know you voluntarily bought yourself here for treatment, so I need to know exactly what happened this morning. See, if you tell me one thing, which may not be entirely true about what happened, and I go by that, I might be missing vital information. That's why it's very important that you tell me the truth about today." Charlotte had her sympathetic face on.
"I told Dr. West! I told Gabrielle!" Sophie wasn't getting angry, she was just afraid they knew her secret.
"Right. You told them you fell from a balcony this morning, yes?" Charlotte half-nodded, and Sophie nodded fiercely back.
"But... That's not the truth... Is It?" Charlotte shuffled a little on the sheets to face her patient better. Sophie sat in silence.
"Sophie, I work here permanently, and you'll be surprised how many young women come through these doors sporting the same sort of injuries. They tell me they fell from high places, or they tripped, or backed into something. But at the end of the day, I've seen these cases so many times, that I know better than that, sweetheart." Sophie looked at her, and Charlotte looked back into her frightened eyes.
"So how about we try all this again?" Sophie looked at her hand, joined with Charlotte's. While she was focused on that, Charlotte gave it a bit of a squeeze. A sign that although as a doctor she had to care, but a sign that also as a person, she chose to care.
"This morning you wake up. What happens?" Charlotte spoke in a gentle voice.
"It was fine this morning. It was about eleven."
"Okay." Charlotte nodded. "So come eleven o'clock, what are you doing?"
"Well I was in the lounge room. I found Adam's phone. He left it there."
"Okay, so who is Adam? Is he... your boyfriend?" Sophie nodded. "Mm-Hmm. So you see his phone?"
"Yeah, and I was just curious, he's been going out at all hours, just, like, late at night. When he thinks I'm sleeping, he sneaks off through our window. So... I opened his phone. I know I shouldn't have, I just wanted to make sure!"
"It's okay, Sophie, you don't need to apologise to me. It's okay. What did you find?"
"What I knew, but hoped wasn't happening. Some texts from this girl, to meet him, just telling him that he was everything she needed. That's all I needed to see." Sophie began crying and Charlotte reached right across the bed, across her patient's trembling body to retrieve a box of tissues on the stand beside the bed. Sophie took a few and continued.
"Then he came home. Red-handed he caught me. Started yelling at me for going through his personal belongings... And... Things happened."
Charlotte nodded, her eyes looking straight through Sophie's, into her terrified soul.
"What sort of things, Sophie? Did he touch you anywhere you didn't want him to, sweetheart?" Sophie shook her head.
"He grabbed me by the throat and pinned me against the wall, yelling right in my face, and then he just started hitting me. After a while he dropped me, and stood on my leg as he walked away." Sophie was a crying mess at this stage. Charlotte idled herself further up the bed and pulled her patient into a tight hug against her chest, holding her hand against the young girl's face for support, her other hand wrapped around Sophie's back, stroking her fingers along her lower back in gentle comforting.
"Okay, Sophie. I believe the police are outside now talking to Adam. Would you like to press charges?" Sophie looked up at Charlotte.
"He'll find another way to get to me, Dr. Beaumont. He will!" Charlotte pulled out of the embrace to speak clearer.
"Sophie, do you understand that when you press charges, you can apply for an AVO, an apprehended violence order. That means he can't come within a certain distance of you, and he can have no contact with you. You'll be safe, Sophie." Sophie shrugged.
"I'll think about it... My leg really hurts. And I think my gash is starting to bleed again..."
"Yeah, we'll have a look at your injuries. Anything else hurting that you didn't tell Dr. West or Gabby?" Sophie shook her head, her eyes darting away from Charlotte's, who sighed.
"Sophie. I know that look, too. You can tell me, sweetheart, the more injuries you tell us, the better the chance you have of charging Adam."
"But he didn't do this one..." Charlotte jumped off the edge of the bed, and turned to look at the patient's leg. It was swollen and inflamed. A clear foot print drawn with purple and grey bruises was visible. While examining the injury, Charlotte continued.
"What do you mean, sweetheart?" Sophie held out her arm and slowly pulled up a sleeve. Charlotte was still focused on the leg, and then something caught her eye. Rows of dark red strikes lined the inside of Sophie's wrist. Charlotte, still leaning down over the leg, looked up at Sophie.
"Sophie, sweetheart. What's that?" She sighed. She knew too well what it was, but still asked.
"I just haven't been happy in our relationship. They're infected I think, they hurt." Sophie looked down at them in shamed.
"I'll take a look, darl. Just give me a moment." Charlotte poked and prodded around the injury. "Well, it's not broken, just bruised. It's going to be tender for a week or so, and it's going to look real nasty in the next two weeks, maybe three. You might just want to keep it concealed to avoid questions, it's obvious what's struck you here." Charlotte pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and walked over to Sophie's arm. They weren't the deepest self-injuries that Charlotte had seen, but they were deep enough to have to be treated.
"Okay, my dear. These are definitely infected. I can tell already by the inflammation and redness. We'll get these treated for you. Have you seen anybody about the complications in your relationship?" Charlotte began swabbing the area clean.
"No. I'm fine." Sophie had no idea what's he was saying, and Charlotte abruptly stopped. She placed down the swabs and leaned right down to Sophie's eye level.
"Sweetheart, you are being abused, physically and emotionally, you have just discovered you are being cheated on, and you deal with it by self-injurious behaviour. I'm sorry, but you are not fine, ad you know it, sweetheart." Charlotte smiled in a way to say she knew she was right and continued swabbing.
"I don't know how, who to see?" Sophie spoke up in courage. Charlotte smiled again in encouragement.
"I can organise someone, they can see you this afternoon. Just leave it to me." Sophie watched patiently as Charlotte applied some sort of spray to the area and began writing out a script for some antibiotics.