Chapter Two
I stand at the nurses station, staring directly into Bay 2, watching Johnny sit with his little sister. His hair ruffled and messy, skin pale from fright and face plastered with concern and love for the helpless teen in the bed. She picks up Brooklyn's file and walks over to Bay 2. She starts to check her temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and minor injures that she sustained but Johnny interrupted her.
"Stop." He says, in a voice as cold as ice. Even colder than Jac's could ever be. He looks her straight in the eyes, his eyes portraying hours of tears, hurt and confusion. Not just about her though. About his sister.
"I need to check her over, Johnny, you of all..." She starts, but Johnny cuts her off.
"I know what needs to be done Jac but your doing it in the wrong order. Doing her blood pressure first might increase her temperature slightly due to the strain and pressure on the arm. It goes temperature, pressure, beat and minor injures." He says in such a mechanical way that it sounded like he was being forced to say this.
"Oh... Thanks." Is all she could say, and then gets back to getting on with what he suggested she do. After doing all the minor tests on her and cleaning up her cuts and bruises, Jac turns on her heel and goes to leave, but he calls her back.
"Jac. Wait." He says. Maybe. Just maybe he's forgiven her. Or wants to talk about it. Maybe. Just maybe, "Will she be okay?" He asks. Her pride and hopes drop like a ton of bricks. I suppose it was never going to happen. Not after what she did to him. To herself. To them.
"Figure it out for yourself, Maconie. She's seriously injured and all we have are suspicions of how badly, but until she wakes up, we can't do anything. We just have to wait and hope." She turns to leave again, but he calls her back again. She turns on her heel, facing him. She expects more questions about the fragile teen, but she was surprised.
"Thank you." He says.
"Excuse me?" She questions, wondering whether her ears were failing her.
"Thank you. Your looking after Brooklyn brilliantly. I couldn't wish for a better doctor to place her life in their hands." He says, great fully. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. A small smile produced on her face, and her cheeks felt stiff from not doing so in a long time. Without Johnny, there was not really anything to smile about.
"Don't mention it." She turns to leave, but Mr. Hansen strides onto the ward, his lanky figure heading in their direction.
"Ah, Miss. Naylor, Mr. Maconie, we're waiting for you." He says, the lines of stress and age ceasing on his pale face.
"Who's we?" Johnny asks.
"The team that will be discussing the appropriate care that is appropriate for Brooklyn and how to proceed." He says, turning on his heels and striding off the ward, herself and Johnny close behind him. As the enter the meeting room, Jac's eyes do a quick sweep of the room, to see who's present. From AAU, Michael, Chrissie and Sasha. From Keller, Malik, Chantell and Ric. From Dawin, herself, Johnny, Morine, Elliott, Tara and Ollie. And Serena, Shaun, his wife and Henrik joined them. She sat down, next to Elliott and Tara, making herself as far away as possible from Shaun. She was not going there again.
"Right. Miss. Naylor, can you give us a quick run through of the patient?" Mr. Hansen asked.
"Well, we have a 14 year old female, Brooklyn Maconie, who was found in the back alley down town. She had hardly any clothes on and had multiple cuts and bruises and trauma's to her whole body. She is a suspected victim of abuse and rape. She was revived once on the arrival of the ambulance and once in the ambulance. So far her heart beats very weak, her temperature still rather low for what it should be, and her pressure too is quite low. She has major trauma's to the head and the chest. Suspected bleed in her brain and in her heart. On arrival, we discovered what is most likely a few broken ribs. Personally, I would wait for her to wake up, and see how badly concussed she is, run a full body CT scan, MRI, X-ray, full set of bloods and a tox-screen." She states.
"I agree with Miss. Naylor. It seems like the sensible thing to do considering the patience age and current position. Last thing we would want to do is to go against what she wants." Ric agrees, and the heads of Elliott, Chrissie, Michael, Ollie, Shaun and Serena nod in agreement.
"I think that's the sensible thing to do. Taking into account she has just been raped and beaten up, she will need to feel like she is in control and she needs to be able to trust us. It may have its risks, but it's better for the patience overall welfare." Serena pitches in.
"Well, I think we should go for idmediate CT, MRI, tox-screen and X-Ray scans and once they are back, get Johnny to sign the consent form and go into theatre straight away. Its better for the patience health." Mo states. Sasha, Milik, Chan tell, Johnny, Tara and Shauns wifes head nodds.
"That does..." Tara starts, but is cut off by Michael.
"Look, this is a fragile 14 year old girl, who has just been through hell and back. She does not trust anyone, let alone complete strangers like us. You do not want to put her in an uncomftable position which could damage her mental and emotional well-fare even more. We need to play the waiting game if we want this kids trust. And trust me, we need it." Michael interupts, stating the obvious. Malik stands up to object, but Hansen waves him to sit back down.
"Well, both very valid points, but as this is Miss. Nalor's patience, she makes the final call, and you will all stick by that. We need you all on board with this case. So we will go with Miss. Naylors plan for now, and I will want regular updates on this case. This could generate good press for the hospital. Don't mess this up. Good day." Hansen says, standing up and striding out the room leaving the whole team speechless.
