Chapter 11
The hospital decides to keep Jensen for a couple of more weeks to make sure he is physically and emotionally ready to be released. It's been several days since Jensen's outburst and Jared has another day off. He's just finished washing the lunch dishes when his cell rings. He answers and is met with the voice of a panicked Chad.
"Dude! You have to get your ass up here now!"
Jared stops in his tracks and replies.
"Chad? What's going on? What happened?"
"Well, for one, that dipshit new doctor decided to allow Jensen visitors and escorted both Christian and Steve into the room!"
Jared frowns for a moment trying to see the problem.
"Yeah? And? He's known Chris and Steve for years. They never hit him that I know of."
"Jared, you dumbass! You probably didn't realize it because you and I have been the main ones seeing Jensen, but apparently, the Jensen from three years ago was scared to death of other men because of Tom's beatings! That includes Chris and Steve. Doctor Dipshit practically burst into his room and announced Christian and Steve being there and Jensen totally flipped out!"
Jared curses and makes a mad dash for his shoes and keys while Chad continues.
"He's been freaking out for the last thirty minutes asking for you. He won't even let me near him! We had to kick Chris and Steve out, which, by the way was damn hard. I was afraid we were going to have to call in security to force them out. The dumbass doctor is sitting in Jeff's office right now awaiting disciplinary action. We have a few of the other female nurses and Dr. McNiven is here to try to calm him down."
Jared finally gets his shoes on and is out the door and in his car in record time.
"Who the hell gave him authorization to allow visitors?! I already told Chris that we weren't letting anyone see him yet because we didn't know how he'd react. Hell, he's still getting used to you coming into the room with me."
"I know, Jay. That's why Dr. McNiven was paged. We were hoping that she'd be able to calm him down so we wouldn't have to call you in. He won't even let her near him. I'm telling you, man, you gotta get here. Like, now!"
"I know! I'm on my way."
Jared's nearly halfway to the hospital already and so far, has been lucky to not run into any cops. He thinks over what Chad has just said and frowns again.
"Wait, who did you page?"
"Dr. McNiven. Remember? She's the one Jeff had transferred over a while back because of her experience with abuse cases. Jamie or something? Starts with a 'J'."
Suddenly it hits Jared.
"Julie. Julie McNiven. Jeff had her come over last year when we had that little girl who wouldn't talk to anybody. Remember? Her mother had passed away and the father couldn't cope or something."
"Yeah, well regardless, she's not having any luck getting through to him. She thinks he's suffering post-traumatic stress or something. He's cowering in the corner and flips when anybody gets too close to him. Are you almost here?"
"Yeah. I'm about five minutes out, ten tops."
They hang up so that Jared can focus on not crashing in his rush to get to Jensen.
When Jared finally gets there, he is ushered up to Jensen's room. He enters slowly so as to not startle the abused man. He starts speaking quietly.
"Jensen? Hey, it's Jared. It's okay, nobody's going to hurt you. Can I sit down next to you?"
He barely has the chance to squat near the other man when suddenly, his arms are full of a sobbing and frantic man.
"Jay! Please, don't let them in here! Don't let them hurt me, please!"
Jared struggles to keep his balance since Jensen had practically slammed into him. He quickly kneels onto his knees to keep them from toppling over. Jensen starts whimpering as Jared wraps his arms around him and starts shushing him. Jensen is getting as close as he possibly can so Jared pulls Jensen into his lap.
"Hey, ssh, it's okay. I'm not going to let anybody hurt you. You're safe here."
Jensen just clings tighter as he replies.
"No, I'm not! That huge guy came in...and...and Chris and Steve were there but they won't help! They shouldn't have been in here! You said nobody else was supposed to be in here!"
Jared starts rubbing his back.
"Calm down, Jensen, it's alright now. That doctor is still new and he had no excuse for allowing visitors when you're not ready."
"I'm not! I'm not ready! Please don't let anyone in here! I don't want to hurt anymore!"
"Easy, Jensen. As long as I'm around, nobody's going to hurt you ever again."
They sit quietly for a few minutes as Jensen slowly comprehends that Jared is truly there. Once Jensen has finally calmed down enough he is able to pull back just enough to look Jared in the eye.
"You promise?"
Jared nods and kisses his forehead.
"Yeah, I promise. I swear, Jensen, nobody's ever going to be able to hurt you again. They'll have to go through me first."
Jensen grins slightly before leaning back into Jared.
"Yeah, and you're pretty huge. You're like a Sasquatch."
Jared chuckles and squeezes Jensen tighter.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that."
They sit there quietly for a few more minutes as Jared motions that it's okay for everybody else to leave. A woman in a white coat stays behind. She has deep red hair and a pale complexion. She clears her throat and speaks quietly while she kneels on the floor as well.
"So, you're the amazing Dr. Padalecki I keep hearing about."
By this time, Jensen is nearly dozing in Jared's lap so he replies in a quiet voice as well.
"Yeah, though I wouldn't say amazing."
She snorts and gives him a knowing grin.
"Trust me. I've worked with abuse victims for years. I don't know what you did or how you did it, but he trusts you. More than anybody else it looks like."
Jared shrugs his shoulders.
"Yeah, well, I knew him before all of this. When he woke back up...it was just easy to open up to him. I didn't expect him to trust me the way he does, though."
"Well, whatever you're doing, it's working. I'm Julie McNiven, by the way. It's nice to finally meet you."
"Likewise. Jared Padalecki, though you know that by now."
He blushes slightly before continuing the conversation.
"So, how did you come to specializing in abuse cases?"
"I did it for my older brother, Misha. You see, our mother remarried a few times, had children with a couple of them. Her last husband was great with me and our brothers but for some reason he singled out Misha. He was both verbally and physically abusive. I was too little to stand up for him and mother was usually too drunk to worry about it. I had an inheritance from my father who had passed away when I was little. Once I was old enough to collect it, I left with Misha. I went to school to become a doctor and here I am."
"Oh my god, that's terrible that you had to go through that! How is he now? Is he okay?"
She sighs and looks down for a moment before answering.
"I guess that depends on your definition of 'okay'. Compared to the average person walking down the street, no. But compared to where he started, he is doing wonderfully. Unfortunately, he was left with a fear of leaving the house in addition to meeting new people. I try to get him out of the house at least once a month. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. No matter what kind of day he's having though, I'm just thankful I got him out of there before it got any worse. I can't even imagine what it would be like to lose him forever."
They sit quietly for several more minutes just listening to Jensen's deep breathing. Eventually, she helps Jared get Jensen back into the bed and get him resettled for the night. Jared sits in a chair beside the bed and thinks about how he got to this point with Jensen. He thinks about how just changing one thing that night might have changed everything there had been between the two. They may have hit it off and been in a much better place by now. Jensen shouldn't have had to deal with everything he went through. Jared makes a silent promise that he will do anything in his power to make it up to the other man.
