Warnings: severe trauma caused by domestic abuse
Chapter 6
James sat slumped in a chair in the hallway. The chair was next to a door. There were two people inside the room the door led to. A still unconscious Rose Stone, and a weeping Jackie Tyler. He shouldn't be here. He wasn't even her doctor, this time. He had been far too compromised by her condition and had been forced to assign the senior resident to see to her care. He was supposed to leave an hour ago, when his shift at A&E ended. But he was not going to leave until he had spoken to Rose's mother.
Rose had arrived in an ambulance in the early morning. She had been found in the elevator by another resident of the building, returning home from a late night out. Her husband had brutalized her, then he'd tossed her out like trash. Looking down at her on the gurney had been worse than seeing Romana there. This time he had had an idea that this was coming. He hadn't known for sure, but he'd known it was a possibility. He'd been useless as a physician while she'd been in surgery. He had spent the last hour of his shift searching through any records in her name until he'd found a number for her mother. He'd only told her over the phone that Rose had been admitted for injuries resulting from an assault. He didn't know if she'd known that Rose was pregnant, but he didn't want to tell her over the phone that she'd lost the baby. He also didn't know if she knew about Jimmy's treatment of her daughter, though Rose's protectiveness of her mother led him to believe that she did not know. He was going to make sure that she knew who had done this.
He stood quickly when Jackie Tyler came out of the door. She looked stricken. "Hello, Ms. Tyler. I'm Dr. Noble. I've treated your daughter in A&E several times previously, and I wondered if I could speak to you."
"You're the one who called. What's happened to my Rose, doctor? Where's Jimmy? Why isn't he here?"
He took a deep breath. She didn't know about the abuse. "This is going to be shocking to you, I'm afraid. Mr. Stone did not accompany her, and I have not called him. He is the one responsible for her condition." Rose's mother gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, but he continued. "Six months ago he broke her arm, and two days ago he dislocated her shoulder." She was sobbing now and he fought to maintain his professional demeanor. "She told me when I saw her for the shoulder that she was pregnant. She's going to wake up, probably very soon, now, and she's going to survive this." He tried to rid his voice of his own anguish, but he failed. "But she's lost the baby." He had begun to recognize what he was feeling towards her. That voice in his head, the one he hadn't heard in years, had begun shouting, "This! This is the thing!" He finally knew what it was to be consumed by thoughts of another person, but she belonged to someone else. And the one she belonged to was systematically destroying what he should have held dear.
"How far along?" Rose's mother's voice was choked.
He thought he might be sick, remembered anguish blending with the present in a nauseating whirl of emotion. "Ten weeks."
"I'll kill him!" she hissed, eyes flashing.
"Ms. Tyler, I completely understand the sentiment. But I think it's more important to get her away from him than to worry about retaliation right now."
"Of course she can't go back! What kind of mother do you take me for?"
This would be the tricky part. "I know you don't know me. But it's my understanding from my conversations with Rose that Mr. Stone owns the house you live in. She has expressed her fears of putting you on the street and she has told me you've nowhere else to go. Either of you. I believe that's what kept her there." He was desperate to convince her. "I have offered, and I am offering again to hide the two of you. He has no way of knowing who I am. It's only by random chance that I've treated her repeatedly."
"Why would you do that?" She was still crying, but there was a serious look on her face and he began to hope he might have convinced her.
"I… I care about her." He looked towards the door to the room before looking back at Jackie Tyler. "Next time he might kill her. Please, help me save her."
Everything hurt. She couldn't remember ever hurting so much, all over. She fought to call up some memory of what had happened. There was a flash of Jimmy's face, contorted in rage, and then memory slammed into her. She opened her eyes and looked around frantically. Her mum's very worried face appeared. "Rose! Oh, thank god, you're awake. I've been so worried." She was in hospital.
"Mum?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Shhh, love, it's okay. I'll let the doctor know you're awake, now."
"Wait." Jackie turned back and the sorrow in her eyes answered her question before she asked. "The baby?"
Tears began tracking down Jackie's face and she shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry, love. I'll be right back, and we'll talk, yeah?"
Rose closed her eyes as her mother left the room. She felt hollow, and the pain she had felt on regaining consciousness had receded to background noise. Tears began seeping past her closed lids. Jimmy had beaten her, and he'd killed their child. A large part of her wished he'd killed her as well. It was her fault. She'd been naïve and stupid. She'd wanted to protect her mum and she'd wanted to believe he would be happy about the baby. Instead, the baby was dead and her mum knew the truth. They would have to run. Mum would never let her go back, and they certainly couldn't stay in the house Mum lived in. She was working herself up to a state of panic and self-loathing when her mother returned. Dr. Noble was close behind her and he looked nearly as upset as her mum. Rose tried to shove the panic down as they crossed back to her bedside together.
"I wish you would have told me, Rose. I'm your mother. You don't have to protect me. It's me that should be protecting you."
"I'm sorry. I'm so stupid." She turned away from them and closed her eyes again.
"No. Rose, please. It's not your fault." Dr. Noble was speaking now, but she couldn't look at him. He'd tried to warn her, but she hadn't listened and now her baby was dead.
"What are we going to do, Mum? Your house, and oh, god Mum, Howard! If we run… Jimmy knows about Howard. If he comes looking for us, he'll go to Howard first. Oh, I am so stupid, and now Howard's in danger, too!"
"Rose Marion Tyler! That's enough. It is not your fault that man is a lousy excuse for a human being. Now listen, love. I've been talking to Dr. Noble." Rose decided to chance looking at her mum and found her looking at Dr. Noble with respect and… affection? What? "We are going to stay with him. And you are going to file for a divorce the instant I can find the money for a lawyer. Don't worry about Howard. I'll call him, and we'll make sure he's safe, too. Maybe we can sell some jewelry to pay for the divorce. That'd serve the bastard right, yeah? Use the baubles he bought to divorce his arse."
"Mum, it's all at the flat. I think he'd notice if I showed up and cleared out my jewelry box don't you?"
"Well, I don't care what it takes, sweetheart! You're done! Don't tell me you're thinking of going back, now."
Dr. Noble cleared his throat and spoke then. "I agree with your mother. I'll do whatever it takes to see you free of him. I'll pay for the divorce myself if that's what it takes."
Rose knew her surprised expression matched her mum's. "Why?"
He held her eyes as he answered. "Because I care about you. Because you might be the strongest person I've ever met and no one should go through what you've been through. Because money means next to nothing to me and your freedom means a great deal. Please. Let me help you."
That strong emotion she had seen before was back in his eyes. She had never had such intensity directed at her before him. She spoke before she knew she had decided. "Okay." She saw relief on his face as well as her mother's when she tore her gaze from his eyes.
She heard him heave a sigh before he responded. "They wanted to keep you again overnight, but they'll let you go today, if I take you with me. You're stable and I can monitor your condition myself, at home. I'll get that started, and I'll let you know when you're ready to be released." He turned to leave the room, but her mum stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"Thank you, Dr. Noble," her mum whispered.
The doctor offered her a tight smile. "You don't have to thank me, Ms. Tyler. I'll be back as soon as I can." Then he was gone and Rose was alone with Jackie.
He was torn between vast relief that she'd agreed to let him help her this time, and overwhelming grief for her loss. He tried to order his thoughts while he went through the process of arranging to have her released to his care. He had already told the resident that she was his friend when he had placed her in the man's care. While he waited for her discharge to be processed, he called Dr. Smith's answering service and left a message asking to arrange a few days of emergency leave to attend to a personal issue. Then he called Donna and explained that Rose and her mother had accepted his offer of shelter. She agreed to go by his house and make sure the two extra bedrooms were prepared for his guests. She would also wait there and help him get them settled. Then he took a moment to examine his emotions before returning to the two women.
Jack had asked him the other night how much he cared about her. His answer that he didn't know was only partial truth. He cared a great deal about her and Jack's question had forced him to acknowledge it, if only to himself. Then Jackie had spoken of her divorce as if it were a foregone conclusion and his heart had started pounding. 'I'll do whatever it takes to see you free of him.' The words had come without thought and he had been unable to even consider retracting them. She'd asked why and there had been so many answers. But the one that had been on the tip of his tongue had been one he couldn't give her. Because I think I'm falling in love with you and I can't let him hurt you again. He could not say that to her. She was married and her husband had treated her as a possession. Had brutalized and traumatized her. She was in no condition to accept his advances. So he had given her as much truth as he thought she could handle.
The relief he felt that he would be taking her home with him was immense. He would no longer have to walk around with that insidious worry for her welfare, wondering when the monster she lived with would end her. She would be, at the very least, a semi-permanent fixture in his life. He would not trap her, as she had been, or force his affections on her. If nothing else, he could be her friend. Maybe that would be all. But maybe, someday, she would be ready for more. The hope that thought spawned, like every other emotion he could associate with her, was unlike anything he had felt before. That was the exact moment he knew the truth of his heart. He knew he would do anything, anything at all, to keep her in his life. He would be anything she needed him to be.
He pulled into his driveway and went to pull the wheelchair he had borrowed from the hospital out of the boot. She would only need it for a few days, until he was convinced she wouldn't begin hemorrhaging again, then he would return it. Probably at the same time he returned to duty. He and Jackie were helping Rose into the wheelchair when Donna emerged from his front door and hurried over to join them. She was already speaking before she reached them. "Oh, thank goodness. I am so glad you decided to come. James has been so worried about you all this time. Oh my god!" She stopped and looked at Rose's battered face in shock.
"Donna, this is Rose Stone and her mother Jackie Tyler. Rose, Jackie, this is my sister, Donna."
"No." He looked down at Rose in surprise. "I'm through being Rose Stone. I'm going back to Tyler as soon as I can. It's lovely to meet you, Donna. I'm Rose Tyler."
Then Jackie spoke and he looked up to see pride on her face. "That's absolutely right, sweetheart. Nice to meet you, Donna. I can't thank you and Dr. Noble enough for what you're doing for my Rose."
"Is that plonker making you call him 'Dr. Noble'? You arrogant prat! They can't live in your home and call you that!" Donna had leveled a fierce glare at him.
"I realize that, Donna! We just got here." He rolled his eyes at his sister before turning to the two women he had committed himself to protecting. He suddenly felt nervous and shy. It was a foreign sensation. "I'm sorry. I meant to introduce myself properly, and I've just… Well, as my lovely and opinionated sister pointed out, it would be absurd for you to address me professionally now. I want you to be at home here. I'm James."
He thought Jackie winked at him before his attention centered on Rose as she held out her hand to him. He took her smaller hand in his. "Thank you, so much, for everything. Thank you, James." There was still devastation in her eyes, but her hand in his felt brilliant, and a wave of pleasure rolled down his spine when she said his name for the first time.
