After about fifteen minutes and countless escape attempts by Maureen (whom Roger had to constantly pick up and carry back over to us) later, we finally made it to the front desk in the hospital. Roger had finally realized that if he just continued carrying Maureen that she couldn't run away. He's really perceptive. Anyway, when we got to the desk, a very bored looking woman glared at us as though we were unworthy of taking up her time. I resented that. Maureen thought that it was proof that we shouldn't have dragged her there in the first place. Needless to say, the rest of us weren't going to let her off that easily. Eventually, a young doctor and extraordinarily ordinary looking doctor led us to a curtained off area, a sort of makeshift room, if you will. We explained to the doctor, as we had to the rude secretary at the desk, that she had been raped. The doctor's behavior wasn't much better, and he wouldn't stop ogling her. He looked like he was in need of getting laid, which I felt as though I could diagnose, given that I seemed to be an expert in the area of sex deprivation lately…ever since Maureen had dumped me.
The doctor made the rest of us leave the area so that he could examine Maureen, and his demeanor made me feel very uneasy, almost regretting having made her come here, praying that this yuppie scum wouldn't do anything obscene to Maureen. She couldn't handle anything else going wrong for her, and this sex-starved crazed doctor looked like he was willing to do just about anything…okay well, I suppose that it's possible that I have an active imagination and worry entirely too much.
The next thing I knew, before I even had time to process what was going on, a very distraught and sobbing Maureen flew past me and hid in an alcove. Then my attention became absorbed in Roger essentially kicking the sleazy doctor's ass, with a bunch of commotion, people running every which way trying to figure out what was going on, Collins trying to pry Roger off of the doctor half-heartedly since he was equally as outraged as Roger had been. Mimi was pleading with Roger to let go of the doctor, not wanting him to get arrested, telling him that the doctor was not worth the effort. In the midst of all the madness, I went to find Maureen, who was no longer in the little alcove that I had seen her scurry off to before. I searched in every room in the corridor that I was in, thinking that she couldn't have gone very far since not much time had elapsed, and given her weakened condition, she couldn't move very quickly on her own. As I was coming to the end of the corridor and wondering where I should go next, I stopped dead in my tracks. Benny. What the fuck could he possibly be doing here? As I pondered his potential reasons for being at the hospital, and was trying to think of what to say to him when he inevitably saw me, as I had decided that was the direction that I wanted to head in, I became aware of very faint yet familiar crying emanating from the supply closet off to my left. I backtracked a little bit to where the door was, and very gently pushed it open, revealing Maureen, hiding amongst various shelves of scrubs, curled up tightly in a ball, her body shaking. I approached her softly, not wanting to scare her. I gently knelt down beside her, and whispered to her.
"Maureen…shh…Maureen, it's okay. It's just me, Mark. Hey…it's okay. You're going to be okay." She had raised her eyes to me when I had first uttered her name, her eyes full of pain and fear of a degree more intense than any I had never before witnessed in my life, and it scared me. I had gently wrapped my arms around her, holding her lightly, lovingly, not wanting her to be frightened by me or to feel uncomfortable. She slowly adjusted to my embrace…snuggling in towards me more closely, wrapping her arms tightly around me as though I were somehow her life preserver, the only thing to keep her from drowning in a sea of shame, an ocean of despair. I pulled her a little closer, tightening my grip on her as she clutched me desperately, and a felt a few warm tears trickle down my cheeks, sliding into her hair, which I had buried my face in. "I won't let go until you want me to. I'm here, Maureen, I will never leave you or hurt you…I love you…" Her body continued to convulse more violently, and she spoke very softly, her voice cracking and filled with emotion,
"Mark…I don't deserve you. I hurt you so badly…I did a terrible thing…I'm sorry…how can you love me? I deserved…"
"Shh…sweetie. You did not deserve this. Nobody deserves to be raped."
"No, Mark…you don't understand…"
End note: Bum bum bum...suspense! But what happens next? Review this chapter and tune in next time... :)