Band-Aid on a Gunshot Wound: Chapter 11:
Sedation:
"I ought to tell you this before the nurses do." I pipe up as I watch her finish off her lunch, set before her on a tray. She said she usually hates hospital food, which didn't surprise me considering it was Carla, but she still wolfed it down all the same. "You had a nightmare, whilst you were um... Still unconscious.
"...How is that possible." She puts her fork down and looks at me.
"Well it was the first time you woke up..." I sigh, reluctant on telling her this. "They'd already monitored your heart rate increase and then you started to... Talk again, gradually getting louder and you got very distressed."
"I don't remember." She frowns, rubbing her eyes.
"Well you wouldn't, I don't think you were fully with it sweetheart." I smile at her. "They sedated you so you'd stop screaming."
"It makes me sound like I'm in a mental hospital." She mutters, picking up a broccoli stalk and dropping it back down on to her plate again disinterestedly.
"Uh... There's something else you should know too." I gulp. "And this you won't thank me for..."
"What?" She asks slowly, turning her head hesitantly.
"...I had to tell Aidan and Kate." I explain and her face falls.
Eighteen Hours Previous
"So come on then..." Aidan looks concerned as he sits down opposite me, handing Kate a coffee who was next to him and setting mine down on the table in front of us. "What's going on?"
"Well... It's more a matter of what went on." I pause, studying their confused expressions. "Uh... You may or may not know about Frank Foster..."
"Frank Foster?" Kate frowns.
"...Rings a bell." Aidan looks distant, rubbing his hand over his stubble in thought.
"I don't know whether word would have got out... But Michelle knew and therefore may have told her parents... Who may have told you." I explain.
"So... Who is he?" Kate leans forward slightly.
"He's her ex fiancé." I inform them.
"Which one?" Aidan cracks a joke despite the fact that it wasn't the time, which receives a light slap off his sister.
"Well put it this way; he wasn't the one who slept with prostitutes or the one who almost burnt her alive in the factory, after killing your cousin." I respond bluntly and he looks at me shiftily. "In 2011 they got engaged, but on the night before their marriage Carla broke it off."
"Why?" Kate asks, inquisitively.
"Because she realised she didn't love him..." I trail off. "You must've heard about Peter Barlow."
"Ah yeah... We know all about him." Aidan drones.
"The one who got her pregnant then slept with the babysitter?" Kate's eyes widen.
"Yes... Well she was in love with him at the time." I sigh. "She didn't think it was fair on Frank to go ahead with the wedding."
"So he took it badly..." Aidan guesses, clearly already aware something went on now.
"Did he hit her?" Kate assumes and I shake my head.
"...He uh..." I stammer.
"Raped her." Aidan finishes my sentence quietly. "...No I remember Helen telling me something now..."
"He what?" Kate gasps, looking at Aidan in shock.
"It was... Possibly the worst point in her life." My words feel empty as I release them. "He took everything from her... Made her feel so vulnerable, so lost... Then he didn't stop at that; he made her out to be a liar in court, exposed her affair with Peter and then conned her out of her business."
"Underworld?" Kate frowns. "But... She still has the business..."
"She wouldn't have." I tell her. "If he hadn't been murdered that night... And then she got put in the frame for the crime."
"Well who was it?" Kate questions.
"His mother." I conclude and her eyes widen. "...Look I don't know all the details, you're best talking to Chelle about it... Although I wouldn't because I wasn't supposed to tell you."
"Hold on." Aidan shakes his head in confusion. "I don't understand... What does any of this have to do with what's going on?"
"Trust me that's the question we're trying to answer." A lump forms in my throat. "She's started having these flashbacks of it all... It's getting even more intense... It started with nightmares and flinching but now... Well now it's leading to this..."
"So that's why she screamed." Kate is lost in thought. "Before she fell down the stairs."
"That's what I'm thinking." I respond and she nods slowly.
"...So what are you gonna do?" Aidan asks. "Get her some help surely."
"I'm trying to do that yes, but it's difficult with her." I bite my lip. "I suppose the best thing we can all do is support her and look out for her..."
"Are you mad at me?" I manage to say after a long silence.
"No." She shakes her head. "You had to do it... I don't blame you."
"Are you sure?" I stifle a slight laugh and she nods, reaching for my hand but noticing the bruise on her arm in the process.
"Oh my God..." She gasps, her other hand flying to cover it up.
"What?" I frown, it was the same place she had removed my hand from in her nightmare.
"It's... That..." She points, trying to get her words out. "It's there."
"You bruised it when you fell." I reassure her.
"No. It's the same as when..." She trails off. "...As when he raped me."
