Disclaimer: Don't own them, never will. Just borrowing them for my own entertainment, and making absolutely no profit doing it. Frankie, Becky (glad you're back) and Jules (I love your stories) and all other reviewers, thanks! I'm just now getting to the beginning point of the story I want to tell, so I hope you stick with me to the end.
Too Young
Chapter Five
The Exam
Nathan helped Kristen shift the sleeping boy to a sitting position, and then he watched as she carefully removed the sling. He held Lucas in place while Kristen slipped the teen's shirt over his head, taking care not to disturb the bandage on his arm. The tape had peeled away from his skin and his forearm was red where he'd scratched it.
"I'll change the bandage when we are done."
Kristen motioned Nathan to lay Lucas down again, close to the right side of the bed. Together, they coordinated their movements and smoothly turned him onto his stomach. Kristen adjusted his injured arm so it was not under his body, and then turned up the lights. They got their first good look at his back. Nathan shut his eyes, shocked speechless. The image of Lucas' back stayed with him, though. It was burned into his brain. Dimly, he could hear Kristen's involuntary gasp. "Oh, dear Lord….how much pain he has endured…"
Nathan opened his eyes. His hands were shaking, so he clenched his fists. He wanted to hit something. Needed to hit something—or someone. He had two thoughts warring in his brain. He wanted to find and kill Lawrence Wolenczak—slowly. He wanted to never see Lawrence Wolenczak, for fear of what he'd do to him if the man, the monster, was ever in the same room with him. Kristen's voice cut through his thoughts.
"Nathan, I need to get the calipers out of the cabinet—Nathan…" She continued gently. "..Are you all right?"
"No…no.. I'm not." His voice was rough with emotion; she watched a tear trail down his face. He brushed it away. His eyes were locked on Lucas' bare skin.
Scars overlapped his back. Some were faint lines, flat on the dermis and as wide as his thumb. Other scars were raised above the smooth surface of the boy's skin. They were as thin as a pencil, and darker in color. These raised scars must be the ones that Jonathan and Katie had seen.
Kristen had returned with her supplies. She took a deep breath and handed Nathan Lucas' chart; it was turned to a blank page. "Please record for me." She had succeeded in pushing her emotions down for now. She needed to be professional and not make any mistakes. Quite likely, the evidence they were gathering today would be used in a future court case. She hoped that Lucas would forgive them this breech of his privacy.
"Nathan, write down the measurements as I give them to you. I will add medical opinions later. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
He watched her count the wider scars, triple-checked to make sure she was accurate, and then she measured each one in length and width. "Twenty-seven scars, varying from 3 to 3.5 centimeters in width." She then followed the same procedure with the raised scar tissue. "Thirty-two raised scars, all with a width of 1 centimeter, and a height of 0.2 centimeters. All scars have different lengths, but the consistency of width suggests that the same instrument was used to inflict all the tears in his skin and muscle."
She looked up at Nathan, and he could see the sorrow in her eyes. "Nathan, I believe that all of these were caused by the same thing, probably an electrical cord or a whip."
He swallowed noisily, pushing bile down, clearing his throat. "Then…why the difference in size?"
Her eyes were sad. "It looks to me as if the flatter scars come from an incident when Lucas was much younger, possibly six to seven years ago. He would have been smaller when the damage was done, and as he grew.."
"The scars would spread and stretch." Nathan felt very ill.
"Yes, you notice that the raised scars overlap in some places the fainter, flat scars, so they must have come from a more recent….event, probably less than a year ago."
"So, Gator may have seen the outward evidence of this more recent beating, the blood on Lucas' shirt he noticed when he brought him aboard? The..the..how many?" He looked down at the chart. "The thirty-two…" As he spoke, he ran his finger along one raised scar. Lucas' skin twitched at the sensation. Nathan's face had lost most of its color. "How..how did he walk around and function? I remember that first week—that debacle with Marilyn Stark—he was in the thick of that."
"Nathan," Kristen said patiently, "He has probably had a lot of practice hiding his pain."
He didn't need to hear that. Didn't want to know that—imagine it. To imagine this boy as a younger child, hurting and alone. And a father, a father, causing it. "Still, how did we—how did I not notice it? I can't.."
"You can not blame yourself. If anyone is to blame…I should have followed up on his medical file immediately."
"Kristen, no…"
She shook his hand off her arm. She didn't want his comfort. She was responsible for Lucas' medical care, and she had neglected him. He had suffered needlessly for months; she did not believe for one moment that these nightmares were unusual. The poor child probably had screaming horrors for dreams most nights. Her daughter, Cynthia, had experienced 'night terrors' when she was six. Those dreams launched her screaming into her mother's bed. Lucas' 'night terrors' were real, had a face, were painful memories that surfaced in his sleep. She shook her head more violently.
"No, Nathan—I will finish this, but I do not excuse myself."
She slipped past him and picked up the digital camera. She steadied her hands and snapped several shots from different angles, recording the scar tissue.
Nathan said quietly, "Will you need
to x-ray him?"
"Yes. Help me move him to the table." She spread a heated blanket on the x-ray
table, and motioned Nathan to transfer Lucas to the warmed surface. Nathan carefully rolled Lucas onto his back
and picked him up. He did not stir, his
body lax in Nathan's arms as he carried him to Kristen.
Kristen positioned Lucas gently, asking for Nathan's assistance when she had to shift the boy for a new x-ray.
"It will take a few minutes for the film to develop. You can move him back to the bed. He will be more comfortable there."
Nathan moved him and waited.
He had covered Lucas with the blanket and now sat, his hand resting on Lucas' leg. His heart was heavy. He felt so old right now, so unprepared to deal with this, to look into this boy's sky blue eyes and question him about—this. How could he help him? In all his years, he had never been in a situation like this. He decided that as soon as it was a reasonable hour, he would call Admiral…no, he corrected himself…Acting-Secretary General Noyce. Bill might have an idea of how to get Lucas away from his father, to ensure that this never happened again.
Across the room, Kristen attached the x-rays to the reader. As she reached over to turn on the back light, Nathan came over and stood next to her. "I know what we are looking for, but what will it look like?"
She had turned on the light. Her voice wavered for the first time since they began. "It looks like this…and this…and this—oh lord, so many." Kristen's finger was moving rapidly from one healed break to another. Nathan quickly lost count, and just stared, picking them out for himself now that he knew what he was looking at.
Kristen gripped the counter ledge. "Please get his chart. I need to dictate this to you."
She waited for him to return. He motioned for her to begin. "Spiral fracture, skull. Evidence of two other skull fractures. Mandible and maxilla fractures. Multiple rib fractures—God—I count sixteen. His radius and ulna, both arms, broken twice, and a third nasty compound fracture of his right arm…funny..that looks to be in the same place as his stitches, but I did not notice a scar there….multiple breaks of his phalanges. Oh Lord…this thumb joint has been practically crushed." Her voice was soft and steady again, but Nathan could see the tears running unchecked down her face. She rubbed at them in an irritated manner. "Pelvis looks O.K., as do his vertebra. I guess he was not trying to cripple him. Three fractures of the left femur, two on right…I…I didn't expect it to be this bad, Nathan. Right patella has been pinned surgically. God above..who would do this medical work and not report it? This should have been discovered and stopped long ago." She looked over to Lucas and said tenderly, "..oh my poor boy, suffering…this" She met Nathan's eyes. He registered the fact that her eyes were haunted now, red and watering still. Concerned, he led her to a chair. "You need a break. Let's sit down and…"
"No. I need to finish this. Did you get all that down?"
"All the fractures, yes. I left out your editorializing."
She gave him a wisp of a smile. "I'm done with these." She tore the x-rays from their clips and stuffed them hurriedly in the marked envelope as if they were contaminated. "I will file them for…later. I need to examine the stitches and change his bandage. I want to check that area carefully anyway. There should be a scar from that compound fracture shown on his x-rays. I didn't notice it earlier."
She had Nathan sit Lucas up again, and they put his shirt back on, gingerly drawing his injured arm through the rolled sleeve. Kristen peeled the rest of the tape away; again, Lucas did not move.
"How much sedative did you give him?" Nathan wondered at the boy's stillness. He was a bit worried at the boy's lack of reaction.
"Enough." Kristen said shortly.
"O.K., Doctor. I'll stop practicing medicine without a license." That got a slightly larger smile, and Nathan congratulated himself for achieving his goal to relax her a bit.
"This wound is graining nicely. I do not see any redness now, except these scratches he made in his dream." She blew out a breath. She was searching around the stitches. "I don't see any scarring here." She looked closer now, her nose almost touching Lucas' skin. "What…what is this? Nathan, can you see this? Wait.. this will be better. Close your eyes and give me your hand."
Nathan gave her a puzzled look, but complied. She checked to see that his eyes were closed and took his wrist in both her hands. "I am going to lift your arm and move it, so that just your fingertips are touching Lucas' arm. As I do so, describe what you are feeling."
Eyes tightly closed, Nathan felt her move his arm, and then he felt his fingertips sliding over the surface of the teen's arm. "It feels smooth. I can feel some hair…wait..wait, that felt like a bump." She stopped his hand, lifted it and began running his fingers a different direction. "Smooth..smooth..wait. There's a ridge here."
"Open your eyes, Nathan." She directed him to lean close to Lucas' arm.
"Do you see it? You felt it…I can see it now that I know it is there, but I did not notice it before." She watched him silently.
Nathan looked intently at the boy's skin. He could see where the stitches were, of course. But above and slightly to the right—wasn't that a line? He ran his fingers over it experimentally. Yes. That is what he had felt. He turned to Kristen, puzzled.
"It is a plastic surgery scar, Nathan." She looked ill. "I think he may have more of them in other places, too. I have never noticed a scar on his right knee, and he would have one from that surgery. Someone has done their best to hide the evidence of these injuries."
"You mean his father." Nathan spat out the title as if it had a bad taste.
"It looks that way. But we still need Lucas' confirmation. Beside his abuser, he is the only witness as to what caused all of this…damage." Her arm gestured toward the side table holding the chart, x-rays, and camera. "We have recorded the aftermath, but we need his account as well."
She turned away from Nathan and taped a gauze pad over Lucas' stitches, then unrolled his sleeve and pulled the blanket back over him. She shut off the light illuminating the bed.
"It is two a.m. We need to rest too. I will sit here with him for a while. I'll page you if there is any change. Try to get some sleep."
"What about you?"
"I will sleep in this bed next to his. If he stirs, I will hear him." She touched Nathan's face. "Thank you for your help." He hugged her, held her for a few moments, and then he left for his cabin.
Minutes later, in his bed, he prayed that in the morning, his course of action would be clear. He prayed that Kristen would forgive herself and let go of the guilt she was carrying. Most of all, he prayed for a troubled boy to open up and let them help him. Please, God. Give him a peaceful night's sleep, good dreams. Please God. His mind was filled with what he had just seen, but his weariness won out, his eyes closed, and he slept.
The insistent buzzing infuriated him. He swatted at the noise, and then sat up abruptly when his PAL fell to the floor. He picked it up and answered.
"Captain Bridger here"
"Captain, I have a call for you."
He recognized Lt. O'Neill's voice, but his tone was cold…icy. "Yes, Lieutenant."
"Captain..I have Secretary General Noyce on the vidlink.."
"Well, transfer it, Lieutenant." He knew he sounded testy, but he was still so tired, and Tim should know to put Bill directly through.
"Captain…He is with Dr. Wolenczak"
Nathan closed his eyes. "Thank you, Tim. Give me five minutes, then transfer it."
"Very good sir." Tim severed the link.
Nathan looked up. "You've got a good sense of humor, big guy, answering that prayer this way."
To be continued