I'm back with an update!! Did you miss me??
I'm sorry I'm so slow with updating lately, I've just been really busy :(
Anyways, here you go... ENJOY!!
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Chapter 36 - It's A Weekly Thing
"Heey, did you miss me?" Looking up, Abby shrugged her shoulders as Dr. Kovac re-entered the room. "I don't blame you, I wouldn't either." Smiling at Abby, she put the things on a table, which she placed next to the bed.
"So, wanna start with the arm?" Hesitating a little, Abby nodded while biting her lip. She could just as well get it over with. "Okay." She sat down on the stool, grabbing the cleaning cloth laying on the tray. "This might sting a bit, but..."
"No drugs." She was looking panicked at the syringe on the tray, like it would explode and attack her any second.
"What?" Abby didn't reply, she just continued staring scared at the syringe. "Abby, it hurts a lot to get stitches. Are you sure you don't want any sedatives? It's just a local." Not looking away, she nodded slightly.
"I'm sure." It wasn't much, but she knew Richard sometimes took drugs, and once or twice he'd even given them to her, just 'for fun'.
"Okay." She didn't sound very convinced, and it had taken her a short while to reply. "But if you change your mind, let me know, cause I can always sedate the others." Nodding, Abby looked down as Dr. Kovac started cleaning out the cuts on her arm.
"Do they all need stitches?" Picking up the needle, she shook her head.
"No. Only three of them look bad enough for stitches. The others just need tight bandages." Abby just nodded, staring at her other bruised arm. "Okay, Abby, this is gonna hurt. Are you ready?" Nodding again, she felt Dr. Kovac take a deep breath. "Okay, here we go."
Feeling the sharp needle penetrating her skin, she winced slightly and bit her lip, grabbing a tight grip on the sheet so her knuckles turned white. She knew it would hurt, but she didn't know just how much.
"Are you okay?" Still biting her lip, she nodded as Dr. Kovac continued. Sure, it hurt, a lot, but she was used to pain. "How did you happen to get these anyways? They are placed pretty weird. Usually people don't cut themselves on that side of the arm." Knowing the questions would start coming, she closed her eyes trying to ignore the pain from her arm.
"I didn't want to look at them." For a few seconds they both stayed quiet as Dr. Kovac continued suturing.
"Well that's unique. Usually people cut themselves because they like looking at the scars afterwards." Abby winced as Dr. Kovac tied the last knot on the first cut.
"Well I never wanted them. And it's not like I don't have enough scars as it... is." She tensed up again as Dr. Kovac started on the next wound mid sentence.
Dr. Kovac just gave her a sympathetic smile as she continued with the stitches. She'd seen many people refusing sedation before sutures, but Abby was definitely one of the ones who took it best. The pain might be showing in her face and her body as she tensed up, but besides from that she didn't seem bothered by it at all. It didn't stop her from talking, although her voice did sound more fragile.
"Then why did you make them, Abby?" Still looking away she felt her eyes tear up, not because of the pain, but because they were getting to the difficult part.
"He made me." She felt Dr. Kovac stop for a few seconds before going back to what she was doing.
"Who, Abby? Who made you?" Biting her lip she shook her head, not wanting to talk about it.
"I can't tell you. He'll get mad." It broke her heart to hear how scared Abby sounded, and she really wished she could take away all of her pain.
"No one's gonna hurt you again, Abby. You're safe now." She knew that Abby heard her even though she pretended to ignore her. "Who did this to you, Abby?" Closing her eyes she bit her lip as a single tear slowly made it's way down her cheek. She really didn't want to say anything, but the pressure from the silence forced her to do so.
"My... Step dad." Dr. Kovac didn't reply, and to be honest Abby was grateful about that, secretly enjoying the few minutes it took for her to finish up the wounds on her arm and wrap a bandage around it.
"Done." Wiping away the water from her eyes, she looked at Dr. Kovac for a split second before looking back down at her lap, at her newly bandaged arm. "So what do you say? Knee or back first?" Biting her lip, she looked up at the doctor.
"Knee." Giving Abby a sympathetic smile, she nodded as she carefully moved the blanket to expose Abby's legs, causing her to tense up due to the amount of revealed skin.
"So how did you get this one?" She started cleaning out the wound on her knee, the one which looked like her entire knee had been ripped up.
"I'm... not sure." Picking up the needle, she looked at Abby like she needed her approval. So she nodded, knowing this would probably hurt more than the arm, since it was right by her knee cap. Closing her eyes, she bit her lip as the sharp pain once again shot through her body. "I think it's a combination between stone floors and table corners." Surprised, Dr. Kovac looked up before turning back to the knee.
"So, did you and Luka do anything exciting this weekend?" Even though this small talk was pretty weird and out of the blue, it was better than the awkward silence or talking about herself.
"Not really. We took a walk and ate ice cream." She winced as Dr. Kovac tightened one of the stitches on her knee.
"Sorry." She gave Abby a small, apologizing smile. "So what kind of ice cream do you like? My favorite is that Ben and Jerry thing." Abby just shrugged her shoulders, trying not to let the pain affect her too much.
"Okay then." She could sense that Abby wasn't too much into the small talk, probably because of the pain, so she tried getting done a bit faster, hurrying up with tying the last knot. "So now we just need your back." Biting her lip, Abby nodded, not returning Dr. Kovac's smile. "So if I lower the bed back down, do you think you can turn onto your side?" Again, Abby just nodded as she put the blanked back on top of her leg.
It only took a few seconds before she felt the bed getting lowered, so trying to ignore the pain from her stomach, the one from the incision from the surgery, she turned around.
Even though she didn't like it, she didn't object as Dr. Kovac carefully removed the blanket from her upper body. But as soon as she felt her gown being loosened, she tensed up extremely, grabbing a tight hold on the sheet.
"It's okay, Abby, relax. I'm not gonna hurt you." When she didn't move, Dr. Kovac took a deep breath. "I have to open it get to the wounds on your back. I'm just trying to help you." It didn't really help, so she just proceeded in opening the gown, and getting a good look of her back for the first time, she couldn't blame Abby for acting the way she did.
She carefully moved the gown all the way down over Abby's shoulders, so that her entire back was exposed. "Okay, ehm..." Grabbing a new cloth she started cleaning out the multiple wounds, hating what she saw more and more. Her skinny back looked more like a cutting board or a punching bag than anything else. Not only because of the new cuts, cause there wasn't that many of them, but because of the scars.
"I guess I'll start with the one below your neck. Are you ready." When Abby slightly nodded, she picked up the needle. "Okay, here goes." She absolutely hated seeing the pain she was inflicting on this girl, a girl who had obviously been subjected to so much pain in her so far short life. She carefully dug the needle through the pale skin, feeling Abby wincing. "This is going to take quite a lot of stitches, these... 4 lined wounds." She wasn't really sure what they were, but they sure looked painful.
"Fork wounds." Her voice was very weak and barely audible, but Dr. Kovac still heard her. "It's from a fork." She felt her heart practically stop beating. How could anyone be heartless enough to do something like that?
"Abby, how long has he been doing this to you?" Abby tensed up and it took her quite a while to reply.
"A while." They might have found out her 'secret', but she wasn't going to let them know every little detail. She winced again as the needle once again got pushed through her skin.
"Okay." She was trained in handling these kinds of cases, but somehow she had absolutely no idea what to say to Abby. "You've got quite a lot of scars here. How often does he do this to you? Hurt you?" Somehow she was scared of the answer, but at the same time she knew that the chance of Abby replying was very slim.
"That depends..." Once again she had to stop due to the pain from the needle. "On how you define 'hurt'." Staying quiet for a few seconds, Dr. Kovac took a deep breath.
"Like this?" She wasn't even sure herself how to define it, the different 'levels' of hurting.
"You mean beating me unconscious?" She waited a little, but didn't get a reply. "A couple of times a month." Her voice sounded distant, like she was trying to keep out all emotions. Dr. Kovac was truly surprised that she answered, but also happy that she'd gotten through to her.
"Then what about all of these wounds and burns, Abby?" She bit her lip as a result of both the pain and the question. She so didn't want to answer, but couldn't see a way out either.
"Now or in the beginning?" It was getting harder to talk. The exhaustion added to the continuous pain was getting to her, and although it still hurt like crazy, her body was getting used to the pain and was no longer responding to it as much.
"Now." Closing her eyes she tightened her grip on the sheet.
"Every week." Abby could even feel Dr. Kovac tense up at that. "And hurting me without torturing me, multiple times a week." Feeling Dr. Kovac stop, she knew she'd shocked her. Not only because of context of what she said, but because of her honesty.
"Okay, ehm... I'm done with this one now. Wanna take a break before we do the last ones?" It was just as much for her own sake as for Abby. She didn't know why, but somehow this was creeping her out, probably because she knew the 'victim' personally.
"I just want it over with." Hearing the pleading tone in her voice, Dr. Kovac nodded, even though Abby couldn't see it.
"Okay. I'll take the one by your waist." She carefully touched the spot to let Abby know exactly where she meant, and when she didn't respond, she took a deep breath and started suturing. It seemed like they were both tired out by all the questions, so Dr. Kovac finished suturing up the last wounds in silence.