Upon arriving at the hospital, Jean hurried Lucien along, nudging him to get information about Jack. And it ended up coming from an unexpected source.
"Doc! Mrs. Blake!"
They turned to see Charlie waving them over from the doorway to a hospital room. Jean immediately felt her anxiety level double. "Oh no, not again," she murmured in disappointment.
Lucien couldn't help being unsurprised by police involvement in Jack's appearance in Ballarat. It seemed to be what happened whenever he came to town. Lucien tried to hope for the best, however, for Jean's sake. He gave her arm a comforting squeeze as they went to speak to Charlie. "Is Jack here?" he asked, hoping Charlie could give them some good news.
"Yeah, he's in here. Unconscious right now. But the doctors have told me he'll be fine. I must have just missed you. I tried to call the house but you weren't there," Charlie explained.
"Charlie, what's happened to him?" Jean asked, terrified as to what the answer might be.
"He was dumped on the edge of town out of the back of a truck. We had a witness call the ambo for him when she noticed the bleeding. She's at the station with the boss. Obviously he's the victim of a crime, so I'm here to wait for him to wake up. How did you know he was here?"
Lucien explained, "Apparently he was able to make a phone call and he phoned Christopher, who called the house and asked us to see to him. I don't think Jack knows our number offhand."
"He doesn't want me here," Jean translated bitterly.
"I can't imagine how anyone wouldn't want you around for any reason," Charlie told her quite sincerely. "But since you are here, you may as well go in and see him. I'll wait out here."
Jean squared her shoulders with determination before going inside. Lucien was going to let her go in alone, but she held onto his hand and took him in with her. They went into the room to find Jack Beazley lying in bed, badly beaten. Jean gasped at the sight of his bruised and swollen face. His arm was in a sling and his shoulder was heavily bandaged.
Lucien put a comforting arm around his wife. She was standing so rigidly. Her lips were pressed together in an attempt to keep the tears in her eyes from falling.
They stood that way, unmoving, for several minutes. Lucien waited to follow Jean's lead, and she couldn't seem to get herself to do much of anything. Finally, Jack began to stir. Jean's maternal instinct took over and she rushed to his side.
"Jack?" Her voice was kind and quiet, but it cracked with emotion.
His eyes blinked open, as much as they could with the swelling. "Mum? Mum, what are you doing here? Where am I?" he asked, his voice hoarse and frightened.
"You're in Ballarat Hospital. You were shot and found on the edge of town. The ambulance brought you in. You called Christopher, you remember? He told us you were here."
Jack's mind started to piece things together. He remembered talking to Christopher…vaguely. Like it was something from a dream. And he'd told…us? "Us, who?"
Lucien stepped forward. "Christopher called me, Jack. He didn't want your mother to worry. But I think we both know she'd want to be here."
A strange smile took hold of Jack's face. A combination of satisfaction and sarcasm. "Ah, yes, the good doctor. I should have known."
Jean didn't like that tone from him at all. "Jack…" she warned.
"I didn't get a wedding invitation," he complained accusingly.
"I haven't heard from you in almost two years! I wouldn't know anything if Christopher didn't tell me," she fired back.
Lucien could see this was going in a poor direction. "Look, why don't we fight about this later, hmm? Jack, as soon as the hospital releases you, you'll come stay with us while you recover. As you've cleverly pointed out, I am a doctor. Between us, your mother and I can take fine care of you until you're ready to leave and never be heard from again, alright?"
Jack knew it was no use to protest at this juncture. He just nodded weakly.
"Right. I'm going to bring Sergeant Davis in. He's got some questions about what happened to you. And I think for your medical wellbeing, we should all hear the answers." With that, Lucien went to fetch Charlie.
"Nice to see you again, Mr. Beazley," Charlie greeted.
"Here to arrest me again, are you?"
Charlie smirked. "Not yet. Maybe you'd like to tell us how you got shot?"
"I was shot. Isn't that enough?" Jack replied defiantly.
"Do you know who shot you?" Charlie asked, ignoring Jack's attitude.
"Yes."
"Who shot you?" Jean asked, interjecting through his sass.
Jack shut his mouth and suddenly became very interested in starting at the curtains on the window on the far side of his room. They all watched him, waiting for an answer that never came.
Lucien regarded the young man very carefully. He was being obstinate, yes, but that roughness was masking a deep fear lurking just below the surface. And even though Lucien knew he could get in a lot of trouble for it, he followed his instinct and asked, "Charlie, could you take Jean home, please?"
True to form, Mrs. Blake protested, "What!? That's my son lying there, you can't make me leave!"
Charlie, too, didn't like this idea. "Doc, I'm here under orders. I can't just leave."
But Lucien put his foot down, speaking in a tone far more commanding than he ever felt. "Jean, we wanted to check on Jack, and here he is and he's going to be fine. There's nothing more you can do for him right now. And Charlie, I know your shift is up soon, and I'd bet that Chief Superintendent Carlyle won't object to me, the police surgeon, having a look at the victim here. And then, after that, we'll have a little chat, eh?" That last remark was directed to Jack.
Seeing that this may be the best course of action, Charlie and Jean both left, leaving Lucien and Jack alone.
"Now then, are you going to tell me what happened, or are you going to make me figure it out for myself?" Lucien asked, adopting a much more pleasant demeanor.
"You're so clever, let's see it," Jack challenged.
The doctor's eyes scrutinized every part of the young man. "You weren't in a fight. You were tied up and beaten. You've got rope burns on your wrists and no defensive wounds on your hands. And sometime after, you were shot. Either you got caught by someone who wasn't supposed to get you, or you did something to get yourself punished. Either way, you've been involved in something on the far side of legality, and now that you've been abandoned by whoever had that control over you and are now essentially in police custody, you're terrified at the prospect of retribution. Now, I'm hoping you can supply the details, but am I right on the big picture?"
"Doc, you can't tell the police. And you can't tell my mother," Jack begged.
"I'm afraid I can't promise either of those things. But if you let me help you, Jack, I swear we can make it alright. Will you please tell me what you've been up to?"
Jack paused for a beat, trying to find an alternative avenue. He found none. "I don't know how much Christopher knows or how much he's told you, but I've barely been able to hold down a job since I left here. I've got the criminal record, of course, but then I had a baby on the way and then no baby on the way. Nothing seemed to matter. I worked in shops that would hire me, or in the fields during planting and harvesting season. But then I found something that seemed like a good fit for me."
"And what was that?" Lucien asked dubiously.
He hesitated, but knew it was useless to falter. "There's a brothel in Beaufort, outside of Ballarat jurisdiction. Anyway, there's this woman, Kath, who runs the place. She hired me to be a sort of gatekeeper at night, making sure that the customers don't rough up the girls or each other. And in between, I look after her children. She's got five. Dennis, Peter, Vickie, Victor, and baby Lex. They all welcomed me into the family, in their way. And for about six months, it's been really good."
"So what brought you here?"
Jack scowled. "Kath's got this bloke around. I think he's Lex's father, but there's no way to know. Norm's his name. I dunno his last name. I don't really know any of their last names. And I don't think they know mine. Don't ask a lot of questions, see. But anyway, I was sitting with baby Lex and little Vickie, she's five. The other boys were playing outside." Jack closed his eyes trying to remember it clearly. "Vickie and Lex were both napping and I was reading a book. And there was a commotion outside the door. I saw Norm drag a man down the hall. I heard Kath's voice yelling. I wasn't going to do anything but then Vickie woke up and ran down toward everything so I went after her. And I grabbed her just as she opened the door to see Kath shoot the man in the head. The baby started to cry in the other room from the noise and I was going to go see to him. But Kath told Norm to get me and leave the baby to cry, and she yelled at Vickie to go to her brothers. Kath kicked the dead man out of the chair onto the floor and Norm tied me up and knocked me senseless. I woke up in the back of a truck. He stopped it, untied me, pushed me out, and then shot me before driving away. And I don't really remember anything after that until Mum came in."
Lucien's mind was spinning with all the information Jack had just told him. He was right to not talk to the police. Not yet, at least. After all, Ballarat police didn't have jurisdiction there. "Jack, you've done nothing wrong."
"I know I haven't. But I still got shot." His eyes went wide all of a sudden at the realization. "And they've got my things. All of them. Every penny to my name, all my books and things."
"Don't worry about that, Jack. All of that can be replaced."
"No, Doc, if they have my things, and they find out I'm still alive, they'll come after me and they'll come after you and Mum. In the book I was reading, I have a picture from your wedding that Christopher sent me. I've been using it as a bookmark. They'll know and they'll come after us."
A cold grip of fear took hold of Lucien's heart. "Right. I'm going to make sure you have police protection here. I'll have to explain some of this, but just enough to keep you safe. And don't worry about your mother and me. I'll die before anything happens to them, Jack, I swear it."
"Them?"
Lucien cursed the slip of his tongue. He explained awkwardly, "Yes, didn't you notice? She's pregnant. We're going to have a baby."
Jack's entire countenance went gravely serious. "Doc, you go to her right now. And take care of her and yourself. Don't you dare give her another dead husband and another child to raise alone."
