Chapter 6
The seven o'clock train to Denver was delayed by the heavy rain. Hank and Katie sat side by side, his jacket pulled tight around her as the wind blew the heavy rain under the station's roof. The station was empty, and no one had bothered them in the time they had sat waiting in silence.
"What happens?" Katie broke the silence, her voice shaking from her sobbing fit earlier in the woods.
Hank took a drag from his half smoked cigar and exhaled slowly shrugging his shoulders "I Don't ask, I pay the money and when they come out, problem solved"
"It's an abortion" Katie whispered for the first time putting the clinical name to the help that Hank was giving her. The first time considering what it would entail.
"Guess so" Hank whispered back, darting his eyes around the station to ensure that no one had approached them to overhear their conversation.
"But those are illegal"
"You don't need to worry about that" Hank glanced at the young girl, concern now crawling across her face that had already been washed with fear and despair "If it makes you feel any better your parents done their fair share of illegal in their time"
Katie took his words in for a few moments, casting her mind back to all the times that her parents had stood in front of the law. "But they only ever did it for good, when they had a proper reason"
"You don't got a proper reason?" Hank stared down at Katie's stomach. He took a deep breath and threw his cigar out into the rain. His arms now free he turned the young girl to face him his blue eyes staring intently into her own, his long fingers holding tightly onto her slender shoulders. "What you're going to do. It's not wrong. That ain't something you've made with someone you love. It's not made with someone you know, who cares about you. It was put in you by a monster. You don't got to suffer because of what someone done to you" he blinked back tears, tears which he never would have suffered from, but the whole situation, was too much and he wasn't even the one who was experiencing the brunt of it. Katie dissolved into tears again, her shoulders shaking violently as her body was wracked with anguish. Hank took her into his arms lightly kissing the top of her head to sooth her the best he could.
"I got your glasses" Sully whispered pushing his head round the door of the recovery room "How's he doing?" he asked moving into the room and staring at the bruised and battered Loren. The old man looked dreadful his face purple and swollen, his lips broken, his hand heavily bandaged.
"A couple of cracked ribs and a severe concussion along with some severe bruising" her voice was shaky "I don't know about his hand, how much damage to the tendons, if he'll be able to have use of it again. We'll have to wait for him to wake up"
"How about you, are you OK?"Sully took in her puffy tear stained eyes and put his arm protectively around her, he hated to see her like this, hated knowing that there was nothing he could do to make her anguish go away.
"I'll be fine" she hugged Sully tightly for a few moments, as if her life depended on it "Did you speak to Katie about Dorothy?"
"No" Sully kissed the top of her head
"I thought you went to my office?" Michaela looked up at Sully shook his head
"Your door was open, no one was in there. Your glasses were on the table outside"
"She wasn't in there?"
"Nope"
Michaela frowned, shaking her head with tiredness, she made her way out of the recovery room Sully close behind her. The hospital was still buzzing, the members of staff rushing about as they dealt with not only their normal caseload but also the premature infant, Millie, her grandmother and Loren. "Evelyn" Michaela called to one of the nurses "Have you seen Katie?"
"No sorry Dr Mike, I've been looking after the baby all day. Maybe Jenny or Claire have seen her they've been doing triage shifts today"
Michaela gave an awkward nod of thanks to the nurse and headed towards the reception area. Her pace was rapid, her heels clattering loudly on the wooden floor. Quickly she made her way to the triage area where the youngest of the hospital's nurses sat reading a medical textbook.
"Jenny have you seen Katie?"
"She's not back?" the young nurse looked up from the book with mild surprise.
"Back?" Sully queried placing a reassuring hand on Michaela's forearm as he saw her shoulders and jaw tense with concern.
"She left before they brought Mr Bray in. I thought she went to get something to eat"
Michaela pivoted on the spot and rushed for the door, appalled that Katie had been outside at the time of the incident at the store, which meant she would now certainly know about Dorothy's death. Sully rushed after her, his long legs easily matching the rapid pace of her shorter ones.
"Michaela slow down" quickly he divested his coat and threw it over Michaela's shoulders, shielding her thin blouse from the heavy rain. "Grace probably kept hold o' her while the men are handling the cleanup" He looked down one of the main roads into town, the sound of horses charging in, a wagon and a platoon of townsfolk steaming into town at great speed "Looks like they're heading for the hospital" he called after Michaela.
"Simon can deal with it" Michaela dismissed the further commotion as she rushed through the empty cafe and towards Grace and Robert E's property. Sully paused and watched as the group of men pulled to a halt outside the hospital. His eyes widened as he saw them pull a broken and bleeding body out of a wagon, Jake's body.
"MICHAELA!" Sully called after his fleeing wife, he knew she would be needed and he raced after her. "You need to get back to the hospital"
She had stopped but she was not looking in the direction of the hospital, her two tone eyes were focussed up the street staring at the train station, clouded with confusion. Sully followed her gaze, to where Katie sat with Hank.
"HANK" Sully bellowed rushing through the dark street to the train station, Michaela only a few steps behind him. "Get off her" He wrenched Katie from Hank's grip pushing her towards Michaela "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to help" Hank bleated standing up, he could see the dangerous glint in the mountain man's eyes "Trying to help your kid"
"She don't need your help" Sully bellowed, his dark anger was surfacing and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"Pa stop it!" Katie cried tears flowing down her face, struggling from her mother's grip.
"Katie what has he been telling you?" Michaela asked her daughter, her finger's tightening around Katie's shoulders as her daughter struggled and Michaela studied her child's appearance.
"You been scaring her and I'll" Sully clenched his hand, he so badly wanted what Hank had said earlier at the hospital to be false but the more he thought about what had happened to Millie and the similarities to Katie's accident the harder it was to deny his words.
"I ain't told her that," Hank rose his arm in defence; quickly he swung out a fist at Sully catching the mountain man off guard.
"Sully!" Michaela released Katie and took a step towards her husband as he fell back to the floor. In an instance Sully was on his feet and he ploughed into Hank with all the force his misdirected anger could bring.
"STOP IT" Katie screamed "Just stop it" her screams were lost in the whistle of the approaching train and she turned running away from the fighting men.
"Katie!" Michaela called rushing after her fleeing daughter; she stumbled across the tracks, narrowly missing being struck by the approaching train as it slid into the station. Michaela ran as fast as her rain soaked dress would allow her, rushing after Katie as her daughter ran down the drenched streets.
Katie reached the creek, its contents flowing fast and high, she dropped to her knees and slid her way to the crumbling bank. In her distraught mind it was the only way. She reached her feet out to the water, letting it lick her shoes and dress pulling her as it raced along. She braced herself and began to push off with her hands her legs slipping further into the racing torrent.
Michaela fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around her daughter pulling her back from the edge of the thundering creek. Her mind was raging like the turbulent water, not able to comprehend why her daughter was acting in such a way, why she would be trying to do something so dangerous, or why she was sobbing so hard. She pulled Katie close to her, Katie's back pulled tight against her own torso, clinging to her little girl with determination as they sat on the rain soaked ground "Katie" she managed to whisper, gently rocking her distraught daughter backwards and forwards trying to sooth her and take away the pain that she did not understand.
"I don't want it, I don't want it" Katie sobbed her exhausted body collapsing within the warm and comforting embrace of her mother's arms. "I don't want it mommy make it got away"
"Make what go away, darling" Michaela tensed as Katie let out a scream of complete agony, a sound that she had never heard come out of someone so young, that she never thought she would hear come out from her daughter. She leant her head in close to Katie's desperately trying to hear what her daughter had started to mumble above the sound of the raging creaking and pounding rain. Her head retracted like she had been shot and she stared down at her daughter's agonised body "baby?"
Sully walked slowly into the bedroom, he felt like he was walking though fog, everything unfamiliar and strange, his whole world covered in a thick layer of anger, fear, confusion and horror. If he had been asked this morning to imagine the worst thing that could happen he would never have expected anything as terrible as what was occurring, and to think the person who had done this to his little girl had been working in the hospital as if nothing had happened, someone who he had laughed and joked with, someone who's hand he had shook and all the while that animal had done this to his baby girl. These thoughts made him feel physically sick knowing that while Katie had been suffering in silence that monster had been in their lives, and now he had changed their lives forever. That monster had robbed Dorothy of her life, injured Loren and Jake beyond compare and worst of all had robbed Katie of her youth and innocence, condemned her to a life he did not want to even consider.
The scene on the bed made him feel like his heart would break. Katie lay in the centre of the bed asleep, her body completely exhausted by all that she had had to assimilate today. Her blonde head still damp from the rain, was tucked into the crook of Michaela's arm. Michaela was sat still her eyes fixed unmoving and trancelike on her daughter. She had pulled Katie's white nightgown tight across Katie's stomach and her left hand was tracing the slope of her young daughter's abdomen, testing it as if trying to prove that the nightmare was fake.
"Judging from the date of her accident I believe she is in her 19th week of gestation, which would make her due in August" Michaela's voice was hard and clinical, Sully knew she was only trying to deal with the facts so that she did not have to face the reality of what had happened to their young daughter.
Sully stared down at them his eyes fixed on Michaela's roving hand "I don't get how...she hadn't..." he dropped his head in defeat.
Michaela sighed "She was obviously in her first cycle, it is possible for pregnancy to occur before the first bleed" her response sounded forced, like she was quoting from a textbook.
"Possible" Sully snorted
"Well obviously it possible" her hand retracted from Katie's abdomen, her head sagging "How did I not see it Sully?" Michaela's voice broke with anguish "How did I not see what was happening to my little girl?"
Sully knelt down beside the bed, his eyes filling with tears as he gently brushed drying tears from Michaela's soft cheeks "Because you weren't looking for it, because you couldn't imagine it"
Michaela's face crumpled and her eyes erupted with hot angry tears "How could someone do this to her?"
Sully reached forward pulling his wife into his arms "I have no answer to that Michaela, I just..." Sully broke off his mind for once not able to find the words to sooth his wife.
"She's just a child" Michaela sobbed into his shoulder "She's so young. Oh Sully, she's just a baby, our baby, she can't be having a baby of her own"