Chapter fifteen
That afternoon- September 12th 2012
Jo's head was a mess and it was spinning. Everything and everybody around her began to move faster, and faster and faster, but yet she stayed completely still and unable to move.
Jo bends down and picks her her mobile phone, which she had dropped mere moments before.
"Dr Stadler, are you still there?" The voice asks.
"What do you mean he's out?" Jo questions.
"Paul's lawyer applied for, and received a good behaviour bond. There are certain rules that Paul has to follow. He's not allowed within 20 feet of the hospital, of your home and of you or your daughter. One violation will send him right back to prison. We will be watching him closely," she's informed by Constable Liam Woods.
Jo takes a deep breath in and out in an attempt to compose herself, "And he's filled for joint custody of the baby?" Jo asks.
"We have an ADA who specialises in family court cases. She will assist you with your case against Paul. I'm going to set a meeting up for you at 3pm today. Is that okay with you?" Liam asks.
"Yes, that's fine," Jo replies without hesitation.
"I will text you the address," Liam says.
"Thank you," Jo replies.
"And Jo, remember that you're not alone in this. You'll have our protection and we are doing everything that we can. Our ADA has filled a motion to dismiss the good behaviour bond, but the court date isn't for 2 days. I know I've asked you this a dozen times before, but you are surrounded by people who can support you, right?" Liam asks.
"I... I have my friends," Jo replies.
"Okay, good. I'll keep you informed," Liam replies. Jo hangs up the phone and continues to stand in the same spot as she continues to watch the hospital move around her.
It was a further ten minutes before the thought of moving even crossed Jo's mind, and as it did Dr Stevens walks over to her, "are you okay Stadler?" She asks.
"No, no I'm not," she admits, "I just found out that my husband got out of prison on a good behaviour bond and he's filled for custody. So no I'm not at all okay. My life just got ten times more shitty and depressing. Yay me!" Jo says with a sarcastic fist bump.
"Okay, clearly you're not in the right frame of mind for this surgery, I wouldn't be either. So I want you to take the afternoon off and I want you to take tomorrow off to sort some things out," she instructs.
"Dr Stevens, with all due respect, I can't financially afford to do that. I'm an intern and I have a baby. I really couldn't afford to take the 6 weeks off when I had her, but I had to do that because she needed to be 6 weeks old to attend the daycare. I have a meeting with a lawyer at 3pm today. I will be gone a few hours and then I'll be back to finish my shift," Jo replies firmly, "with all due respect, once again."
"Look, I understand the financial hardships of being a single mother, I really do. It's one of the reasons why I gave my daughter up when I was 16. I understand that you didn't want to do that, and I totally get it. But you are a single mother and there are certain responsibilities that come with that. You need to be able to afford to take time of when it's needed... life gets hard, especially in your situation and mental health is no joke... you need to look after you. And... and kids get sick, especially babies. Starting daycare exposes their immune system to all sorts of different viruses. You should go and talk to Bailey and figure something out," izzie says empathetically. Jo wipes a lone tear off their right cheek and nods her head.
Scene break
The room, it was prim and proper, clean and crisp. It was everything that you'd expect a lawyers office to be, well at least the good ones anyway. Jo hoped with all of her might that this lawyer would take on her case, however given the fact that she was referred to this office from the police station, she knew that the likelihood was high.
"Dr Josephine Stadler," lawyer Sally Langdon says as she walks into her office. She was middle aged, quite tall and had blonde hair that was tied in a ponytail.
"That's me," Jo smiles as Sally proceeds to walk around to her large leather swivel chair on the other side of the desk.
"Pleased to meet you. Sally Langdon," Sally says with a smile as she extended her hand. Jo extends her hand and shakes her hand.
"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice," Jo says great-fully.
"That's okay. When Liam sent me your file and explained everything to me I knew I just had to help. What you've been through and what you are going through is hard for anybody and if I can help make this situation a little better then I've done my job," She replies as she sits down at her chair. "But I'm keen to hear you explain it to me," Sally opens up her notebook and grabs a pen from the cup holder to her right.
"My ah… my soon to be Ex Husband and I were married for almost 6 years. He was violet towards me. I ah…. I don't want to go into too much detail, but It was bad….. I feared for my life but yet I ah… I stayed. and I'm ashamed to admit that. We went out to a bar one night. When we go out I only have 1 drink, and there is a very good reason for that. But that night I let my guard down for some stupid, stupid reason and I had more then 1 drink and I got drunk. We went home and Had sex. I make it a rule not to have sex with my husband and yet that night I did, because I let my guard down and got drunk.
When I suspected I was pregnant I knew I had to get out. I had a plan. I was saving money to get out. I didn't tell Paul when I was pregnant and when he found out he was mad. A couple of weeks later He very was physical towards me, especially in the abdomen. I went to one of my superiors at the hospital and we got the police involved. I believe you know everything that has happened in regards to the case," Jo replies.
Sally nods her head, "Yes, Liam has filled me in. Now, we have a strong case, especially with the DV case pending. There is a good chance the the Judge will look at the case and throw it out. But, there is also a good chance that Paul will get supervised visits. I want you to be aware of that, however I am going to do everything in my power not to have that happen," Sally replies.
Jo takes a nervous gulp, "Okay," She says anxiously.
"I know that you're anxious and nervous. And that's okay, you have every right to feel that way, because it is going to be a long process. We will respond to the custody petition with our counter offer which I'm assuming will be sole legal and physical custody?" Sally questions.
"Yes," Jo replies with a nod of the head.
"We will then gather our evidence and will be given a court date, which could be a while away…. But when I file I'm going to file it as an emergency petition, which will speed up the process," Sally then continues to explain the process to Jo.
When Jo leave's the lawyers office her head is in a spin. Character witnesses? Where the hell was she going to get character witnesses to prove that she was a good mother. She barley liked her daughter and now she had to find people who were willing to stand up and say that she is a good mother... her daughter didn't even have a name yet.