AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not a doctor nor do I spend much time in hospitals. Hope this scene is realistic!
Chapter 7
Rushing into the hospital, Bruce stops the first nurse he sees.
"My name is Bruce Wayne. My ward was just brought. Where is he?"
"I believe he's still in the ER. The doctors needed to do some tests before releasing the child," replies the nurse kindly, as she points in the direction that the ER is located.
Nodding his head, Bruce rushes off past the nurse in the direction that she pointed. Rounding one corner, then another, Wayne quickly finds himself in the waiting room for the Emergency Room. Looking around, he doesn't see Alfred. Striding over to the check in desk, Bruce stops in front of it.
"My ward was just brought in. Where is he?" demands the rich man, in a powerful voice.
"Of course, Mr. Wayne. Richard is resting comfortably now. Your employee, Mr. Pennyworth, is with him. Just go through the door and turn right. Third bed on your left," explains the nurse.
Rushing into the emergency room area, Bruce turns to the right and he strides down the aisle, looking for his ward. Just as he nears the third bed, Bruce hears the sound of a British voice.
"When will we get the results back from the tests?"
"Some of the results we should get back in a matter of hours. Other results will take more time," replies a quiet, calm, female voice.
Wayne enters the area of the bed and looks at the body that goes with that voice. A tall woman, though she would only come up to his shoulders, with a willowy body and curly black hair was speaking with his faithful butler, Alfred.
"Master Bruce," says Alfred, as he notices his employer standing behind the woman. Gesturing to the dark haired woman, Alfred continues, "this is Dr. Roberts."
"Dr. Roberts," says Bruce, with a nod, "how is my boy?"
Glancing toward the patient in question, Bruce can see that the boy is awake, but from the glazed look in his eyes, can also tell that the comfort the desk nurse mentioned came at the expense of drugs.
"I'll be honest, Mr. Wayne," says the doctor, as she motions both men away from the bed and far enough away from the patient to produce some semblance of privacy, "While Richard was hurt badly, he will recover from what happened today."
Waiting for the doctor to continue, Bruce watches as the woman takes her glasses off the bridge of her nose, to rub her eyes, and then places the glasses back on her nose.
"I can be as blunt as you would like me to be," continues Dr. Roberts. "I can simple tell you the basics or be more detailed, if you prefer."
"Tell me everything," replies Bruce, looking over the woman's shoulder toward the now sleeping child on the hospital bed. Someone is going to pay for hurting my boy!
"There is no easy way around this, Mr. Wayne," says the doctor, gaining Bruce's attention. "Your ward was sodomized and then beaten afterwards. We suspect that the attacker used his fists to beat the child with."
"Did the attacker mean to kill Dick?" asks Bruce, glancing once more at the abused child on the bed.
"I can't answer that," replies the doctor with a shake of her head. "To be honest, the beating Richard received wouldn't have been lethal, even if no one checked on him until morning."
"Have you run tests?" asks Bruce, not taking his eyes from Dick.
"Yes, but, as I mentioned to Mr. Pennyworth, the results won't be ready for hours, while others might take days to be complete," explains the doctor.
Nodding his head, Bruce steps around the doctor and walks over to the bedside. Laying a hand down over Dick's hand, Bruce stares down at the boy.
"We did a rape kit," says the doctor gently, as if trying to smooth away the violence that the child suffered. "If the man who did this has a criminal record, the police will be able to identify him from the sample we took."
Nodding his head, Bruce doesn't look at the doctor. Laying a hand of her own on the boy, the doctor glances between the man and child.
"We gave him a little pain medication in the I.V. If you want him to stay, we'll get a room ready for him. But I will be honest," says the doctor, focusing her eyes on the man standing beside her, "what the child needs when he wakes up is people he knows and a setting he is familiar with and feels safe in. The bruises will heal, but there are some wounds that even I can't put a band-aide on."
Patting the boy's leg, the doctor turns and walks away.
