This one goes on a bit. Not sure if I like it, but there is lots of Lester so maybe its okay. I was trying to deal with the aftermath of Carla's ordeal. Let me know what you think.

Usual disclaimer.

Chapter 18

Lester and Bobby took me to the medic room which was on the first floor. It was a small room with a proper hospital bed in the middle. Lester carefully lay me down on the bed.

"Carla, I'm going to give Ella a call, get her to bring you some clothes to change in to." Bobby said.

"No, I don't want her to see me like this." I whispered. My throat felt on fire and my voice was failing me again.

"You need to get out of these clothes honey" Bobby said gently. "And if you don't want to go to hospital, I'm gonna have to have examine you, and I would rather do it with Ella present" Bobby admitted.

"Please Bobby" I said trying to fight back tears. "Look at me! I really don't want Ella to see what that bastard has done to me." I swallowed hard to stop the urge to cry. Belivanis was not going to make me cry. "I trust you Bobby, I know I've only known you for . . a few hours, but I trust you. I don't need anyone else here."

Bobby looked at me for a moment before he answered. "Okay Carla, but would you be happy for Lester to stay? Or I could call Steph or Sasha. I don't know exactly what you've been through tonight, but I don't want you to feel uncomfortable being . . . .touched." Bobby looked really awkward. As if he really didn't know what to say or do. He probably didn't come across many sexual assaults in the army.

I lay my head back on the pillow and looked at the ceiling. "Bobby I have been here a few days now, and not once have I felt really uncomfortable or uneasy around any of the men here, even with Lester here and his constant flirting." I looked over at Lester who gave me one of his winks and a huge grin. I looked back over at Bobby who still looked unsure but was at least smiling. "Please just make sure I'm not going to die in my sleep. Lester can stay if you don't want to be on your own with me".

"Les can you go up and get Carla something more comfortable to change in to" Bobby asked.

Lester let go of my hand which I didn't even realise he had been holding. Bobby went over to a small fridge and brought out a bottle of water. He pressed a button on the bed and I was moved to an upright position. He handed me the bottled and helped me drink. My hands were moving but I still didn't have any control over them yet.

"What did he give me Bobby?" I asked once I had taken a long drink.

"I don't know for sure but some kind of date rape drug anyway. Whatever it was you didn't get enough to knock you out, but enough to paralyse you. I'll take some bloods and see what comes up".

"If you hadn't turned up when you did I would have preferred to have been knocked out". I thought of the poor girls he had lured back there and shuddered.

There was a light knock on the door. Bobby answered and turned to look at me. "It's Ranger, can he come in?" I nodded.

Ranger walked in the room looking tired. He came over to me and gently took my hand, before lifting it to his mouth and giving it a small kiss. "I'm so sorry Carla, I made a bad call tonight. I should never had stalled at the gates."

"I'm not going to pretend everything's alright Ranger, I'm fucking furious" I said looking up at him. "But I'm so tired, and sore. Can we leave this till the morning, or later on this morning" I said looking at the clock on the wall. It was after 4am.

"Sure, we have a lot to discuss" Ranger said letting go of my hand and turning to leave. "Thank you Carla" He walked over to the door. "Hal is outside but I'll tell him you need some rest, he can see you tomorrow. I assume as Ella is not here that you don't want to see her just now?"

I shook my head. Ella would possibly hit Ranger across the head if she saw what state I had gotten in. Although that would be quite amusing, it wouldn't be fair on anyone.

"I'll go see her in the morning and explain everything to her. I owe you that much" he said as he walked out the door. You owe me a hell of a lot more than that mister!

Lester came back then with one of my nightshirts and a pair of my big thick socks.

"I thought this was quite appropriate" he said smiling. He opened up the nightshirt to show Bobby what was written on it. It was dark blue with the Scotland flag on the front and the words 'Scotland the Brave' underneath it. I had bought it at the airport in Edinburgh for some unknown reason. It was a good choice though as although it had short sleeves, it was quite long so would cover some of my dignity.

"How do you want to do this Carla?" Bobby asked. "I don't think you are going to manage to change yourself, you struggled holding a bottle of water."

I looked over at Lester. He had seen me in my underwear already, there wasn't much more for him to see. "Would you help me?" I asked him. "No funny business mind" I added with a smile.

Lester didn't smile back. "As if Carla. What do you think I am?".

"It was a joke Les, lighten up" I said indignantly. "I'm fine okay. I just thought since you've been in Victoria's Secrets with me you wouldn't be embarrassed to see me in my underwear . . . again."

"Wait a minute" Bobby said smiling. "You got Les into Victoria's Secrets? Ha wait till Lula and Steph hear that. They've been trying to get one of us in there for ages. And when exactly did you see her in her underwear?" he asked laughing.

"What you didn't tell him about this morning?" I asked Lester. I suppose it was yesterday morning. It felt like a lifetime ago.

"I can be the height of discretion. I'm not really a kiss and tell kind of a guy" he smirked.

"Yeah right" Bobby laughed.

"Actually I forgot all about that" Lester said. "What with you dragging me shopping, Grandma Mazur feeling me up and you knocking yourself out, I'll tell you about it later Bobby man."

I started to laugh but it ended up as a cough and the pain was excruciating. The laughter stopped and the room got serious again.

"I need to take a look at your abdomen Carla. If you have broken ribs or internal bleeding you need to get proper medical care. Where does it hurt?"

Everywhere I thought. "Its my ribs I think, where he kicked me in the stomach" I replied.

"Fucker" Lester said his face like thunder.

"I need to get that jacket off you. You okay with that?" I nodded. I wished he would stop feeling so damn uncomfortable around me.

I tried to get the zip of Joe's jacket down but once again my fingers lets me down. Lester gently took over and between the two men they got the jacket off with hurting me. They both looked down at me and Bobby let out a gasp. I looked down at the corset which was torn open to just under my breasts. I tried to close it as well as I could.

"It's okay honey, that's not what I'm looking at" Bobby said handing me a sheet to cover myself with. I looked down to see what else he could be looking at.

"I'll need to clean that up, and I'm going to take bloods and give you shots too to make sure you haven't . . . . .caught anything".

"What are you talking about Bobby?" I asked.

I looked at Bobby then Lester, then down to my arm where they were both staring. On my right shoulder was a huge bite mark. I remembered the pain in the car as Belivanis had bitten down. I hadn't realised he had broken the skin.

"I'll get you cleaned up, and your legs too. You have some pretty deep scratches there. Is it ok if I feel your abdomen now?"

I nodded my head again. I moved the sheet I was covering myself with. Bobby felt around over the top of my corset. There was no pain lower down but when he moved his hand over my rib cage, just under my breasts, I cried out in pain.

"Sorry Carla" he said but kept feeling around. He obviously knew what he was doing, but probably wasn't used to doing it with the female variety of chests! I think breasts were a definite distraction for him.

"I don't think you've broken ribs, just badly bruised. An x ray would confirm it. If you still have pain after the painkillers you need to tell me, so we can get you to hospital for further checks".

I nodded again at him. No way was I going to any hospital.

"Right Les you help Carla get changed, I need to go get some meds. I'll get you some painkillers and something to help you sleep" Bobby said heading for the door. I didn't think I would need anything to sleep, but a lot of painkillers would be nice.

Bobby left the room and Lester looked down at me. "How we gonna do this then, without you giving me an eyeful?"

"Don't you want an eyeful now I'm all cut and bruised?" I asked

"Carla, we can carry on with the flirting once this is all over, and we know you are gonna be okay. Right now you're hurting and I want to make it all better" he said looking at me seriously.

"Okay" was all I could say. This was a side to Lester I hadn't imagined. But I suppose to him this was just a job that needed doing.

"Right we're gonna put your nightshirt on, then we can get the corset off under it" he said. He put the shirt over my head then helped me get my arms through the sleeves. It was the weirdest feeling. My brain was telling my arms to move but they were doing there own thing. I tried to undo the fastenings but my fingers just weren't co-operating. I looked up at Lester in frustration.

"You okay with me helping getting it undone?" he asked.

I nodded feeling embarrassed. "Oh wait" I shouted just at he was putting his hands under my shirt. "It ties up the back, it might be easier doing it that way". Lester looked relieved. I wasn't sure if he just didn't want to touch me, or if it was to save my embarrassment. He helped me sit up, then lifted the shirt to untie the ribbons at the back. After a minute or two of fumbling on his part he managed to loosen it sufficiently to get the corset off. This wasn't the way I had fantasised about the corset being removed by Lester.

"Me neither Gorgeous" Lester smiled.

"Please tell me I didn't say that out loud" I said, my face burning. Lester just laughed softly.

Next was the skirt. We decided the best course of action was just to cut it off, as it was beyond ruined now. Lester took a knife from his pocket and carefully cut the rest of the waistband away. Then he put my arm around his neck and gently lifted me so he could pull the skirt from under me, and pull my nightshirt down to cover my thighs. We both winced when we saw how deep the scratches where on my legs. Lester walked down to the bottom of the bed and gently removed my ruined shoes.

"Damn I really liked these shoes too" he said, almost to himself. He then looked up my legs to the top of the thigh highs. More embarrassment was to come. He walked back round to stand beside me and put his hands up my nightshirt to unclip the suspenders from the thigh highs. Then he very carefully rolled them down my legs. They were sticking to my legs where the blood had dried, and some of the scratches started to bleed slightly.

"You've done that before" I joked. Lester didn't see the funny side. He got a sheet and covered my with it, before moving to the bottom of the bed again to put the socks on.

He grabbed a chair from the corner of the room and brought it back up to sit beside me.

"What happened to you?" I asked him now that I was sorted.

"Someone took a shot at me, I had put the vest on in the car on the way over, so I'm just bruised. We had to go to the hospital anyway so Bobby got me checked out."

"Why did you have to go to the hospital?" I asked concerned. "Was someone else hurt?"

"Belivanis" Lester spat.

"Oh" was all I could say.

"The bastard is okay, in a lot of fucking pain, but okay." Lester took my hand in his again. It felt good there. "He's locked up now though".

Bobby came back in the room with a bag of goodies for me. Well apart from the needles. I hate needles.

"I'm going to give you a shot to try and prevent any infection, and I'm going to take some bloods just to check he hasn't given you anything nasty, and to try and find out what drugs he gave you". Bobby said getting his needles ready.

"Do you have an underground lab or something here?" I asked.

"No, just a very good friend down the hospital. I'll get these sent over right away".

I turned to look at Lester when he was doing all the needle stuff. I had a bit of a fear of needles. Lester sensed this and squeezed my hand gently. I closed my eyes and started to feel myself drifting off. I was nudged awake by Lester and few minutes later.

Bobby was talking to me again. He handed me some painkillers and helped me swallow them with a glass of water. I declined the sleeping tablets. I didn't think I would need them.

"Is it okay if I check your ribs again, now you have that corset off?" Bobby asked.

"As long as your hands are warm" I said.

Bobby carefully felt around under my nightshirt. Again it hurt when he felt my ribs. He did it a bit more thoroughly this time.

"Definitely not broken" he confirmed to himself. I'm going to clean your cuts up now, just lie back, you can sleep if you want to. Although this might sting a bit" he warned.

I lay back and closed my eyes. I felt as Bobby started to clean the bite on my arm, then I felt him on my legs. The painkillers must have been pretty strong as I felt a bit out of it. I could heard Bobby and Lester talking but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Lester still held my hand as I felt myself drifting off.

I awoke in my bed, in the apartment. The sun was streaming through the window. I wasn't sure how long I had been out of it. I tried to move my arms and legs and was delighted to feel they were working again. I still felt as if I had been hit by a bus though. My head was pounding and my limbs were aching. Breathing felt easier but it still hurt when I yawned. I was facing the bedroom door and I could see a pillow and blanket laid out on the couch. Someone must have stayed with me last night.

"Morning Gorgeous".

I jumped and turned to find Lester lying in my bed, albeit on top of the covers.

"What are you doing here" I asked him, pretending to be annoyed. But I wasn't. Heat was radiating from his body and I would have loved to snuggle into him. He was still wearing his t shirt but looking lower I could see he just had a pair of boxers on. Oh boy!

"You were having a nightmare. I came through to try and calm you down and you pulled me into bed with you" he smiled.

"I did not!" I said indignantly

"Did to" he laughed. "Seriously, you were shouting out in your sleep and thrashing around. I was worried you were going to hurt yourself".

How embarrassing! I really didn't want Lester to have seen that. But it was nice that he wanted to help.

"Who's Fraser?" Lester asked gently.

"What?" I croaked.

"You were calling that name out in your sleep."

I thought about lying, but I thought Lester would probably see through it. "My ex." I admitted. I hadn't had a nightmare about him in a long time.

"You wanna talk about it?" Lester asked.

"Nope" I said sitting up. I lay back down quickly when I realised how close I was to his boxers and his rather large package. Lester must have realised and chuckled quietly. He moved to lie on his side, his head propped on his elbow.

"You back to your normal self then?" I asked him.

"Sweetness, if I was back to myself I wouldn't be lying here in your bed talking to you"

Oh sweet Jesus I needed to get out of bed and have a cold shower, before I shut him up myself. "I need a shower" I mumbled.

I pushed myself out of bed quickly and stood at the side of the bed. I don't know if I had just stood up too quickly, or if it was still a hangover from the drugs, but the room started to sway and my legs buckled. I started to fall backwards and was caught by Lester's strong arms. He had jumped up and was on his knees on the bed. He gently pulled me down to sit between his legs, keeping his arms around me. He was doing nothing to quell my raging hormones. What can I say, I was nearly raped last night, but was still thinking dirty thoughts about Lester Santos. Maybe it was psychiatric help I was needing.

"I'll go run you a bath, I don't think you're up to a shower yet, unless you want some help in there."

"A bath would be nice thanks" I answered before I took him up on his offer.

Lester carefully moved around me and through to the bathroom, while I tried not to ogle his backside. He did have a lovely backside though. I got up, slowly this time, and found my feet. I went over to the closet to find some clothes to change into and wandered through to the bathroom where Lester was running a very bubbly bath. He caught my blush as my eyes wandered south again.

"I'll go get some more clothes on" he winked at me.

I rolled my eyes at him and moved over to the sink to brush my teeth. I glanced up at myself in the mirror and my breath caught in my throat. This was the first time I had seen my face, and it wasn't pretty. My hair was matted to my head but that was the least of my worries. My right eye was black and blue, with lovely shades of purple in between. My bottom lip was swollen where it was cut, just to the right hand side of my mouth. My neck was bruised too where Belivanis had left his mark, and I could see the edges of the bite mark peeking out the sleeves of my nightshirt. I felt the tears welling up, and knew I wouldn't be able to stop them this time. I felt like screaming. I started shaking and felt I wanted to hit somebody. Instead I picked up a my bottle of shampoo sitting on the shelf beside the bath, and threw it across the room.

Lester came running through from the bedroom. I turned away from him so he couldn't see me cry. He went over to turn the water off then came over beside me. He tried to turn me towards him but I resisted. So he wrapped his arms around me anyway.

"What's wrong Carla?" he asked.

"My . . .my . . . My" I couldn't speak I was sobbing so hard. I was losing it, I had never, ever cried like this before.

Lester managed to turn me around and I buried my face in his chest. I didn't want him to look at me again. We stood there for ages until my sobs subsided. Lester must think I'm a right idiot now I thought. But he just held me.

"The cuts and bruises will be gone in a few days gorgeous. I know you'll take longer to heal inside, but Carla" he said lifting my face to look at him. "Don't let that bastard do this to you" he finished.

How could I tell him that wasn't the reason I was so upset. I have had black eyes and cut lips before. I just didn't think I would ever have to stand looking in the mirror at my bruised reflection again. I thought that was all behind me. I was fed up of always being the fucking victim.

I sniffed and pulled away from him. "I'll have my bath now, thanks Lester but I'm okay. Sorry you had to deal with that". He pulled me back towards him and kissed my forehead.

"Don't lock the door, I'll be right outside if you need me". He was back to being serious again. No innuendo now, I'd probably scared him off!

Lester left the room closing the door behind him. I shed my clothing and climbed into the hot bath. There was so many bubbles I nearly disappeared. I wet my hair and reached for my bottle of shampoo. It was still lying across the room on the floor.

I felt the tears building again. I wasn't going to cry over a fucking bottle of shampoo. I had to wash my hair though, it was a mess.

Lester tapped lightly on the door and asked if I was okay. When I didn't answer he popped his head round the door. He couldn't see anything for the bubbles.

"You okay?" he asked again.

"My shampoo is over there" I said pointing to the floor. I was sitting with my knees drawn up to my chin, my arms wrapped round my legs. Lester went over to pick the bottle up before coming over to kneel beside me.

"Do you want me to do it?" he asked gently.

I nodded my head without looking at him. I don't know why but I trusted this man completely. He looked like a mean bad ass but he was so tender and caring. I felt better just having him near. I knew I was going to be pretty fucked up with the feelings I was developing for him, but I would have to deal with them later.

Lester opened the bottle and poured some shampoo onto his hand. He then started to gently massage my head. It felt so good, but it was relaxing me rather than turning me on. Once he had finished lathering up he reached up for the shower head and rinsed the bubbles out. He switched the water off and returned the shower to its place.

"Will you be okay getting out" he asked.

"Yeah I'll take it from here thanks" I said. I felt so much better now.

"I'll go wait outside again" he said moving to the door.

"Thank you Les, for everything" I called after him.

"Anytime Gorgeous" he replied, closing the door behind him.