Adam

I sat watching over Kirsty as she slept. She looked so peaceful now and it was hard to imagine her as she was less than half an hour ago. How could Warren not believe her about Kathy? Did he not know her at all?

A tear leaked from beneath her closed eye lid, even asleep she couldn't full escape. I gently wiped it away with the pad of my thumb all too aware that she could wake at any moment from my touch, but I couldn't watch it fall any longer.

I could tell it was getting late because darkness had fallen outside but Ruth hadn't returned yet so I stayed beside her. If only things had been different. I could imagine us meeting when we were younger, our first date even getting married and having kids. I had to keep reminding myself of the hard truth. She was married to Warren and they had Nita, their daughter to look after.

"Hi," Ruth's small voice caused me to look around at her to see her hovering in the doorway.

"Hey, sorry I was just saying goodnight." I blurted out stupidly scared that she would have been able to read my thoughts. I dipped down placing a kiss to Kirsty's forehead before standing, saying goodnight to Ruth and walking, in a daze out of the psych unit.

I found myself out in the cold night's air. It was quiet around the side of the hospital and lit with a yellowy orange light. I could tell it was him. A black silhouette strutting towards me in a way that I'd only ever seen him do. Suddenly I was angry as I remembered Kirsty sobbing into my arms distraught that he hadn't believed her about his mother. How could he not believe her?

He'd seen me to, I know he had. He was heading to the main entrance but had changed his course and was now heading towards me. I felt my hands balling into fists, my heart beating faster, my face tingeing red. He was not going to get away with not believing Kirsty over his mother.

I started striding towards him in the same aggressive demeanour he was striding towards me with. My fist itched at my side and the second it was in range of Warren's face it struck out. Warren stumbled backwards one of his hands clutching his cheek, but he managed to regain his balance and quickly recovered the couple of paces between us.

"How could you not believe her?" I questioned angrily.

"What?" He quickly lost the look of anger he had and it was replaced by confusion.

"How could you not believe Kirsty over your mother?"

I was transfixed by how quickly the look of confusion changed into the intense the look of anger that literally flicked onto his face. It was at if his eyes had turned red. His mouth was snarling and he look as if he was foaming at the mouth and he reminded me of my childhood when I was attacked by the neighbours vicious dog.

While I was distracted by memories of that dog I missed Warren's fist flying towards me and was caught unaware when it collided with my face with such speed and power that I was thrown to the floor.

He didn't stop and wait for me to get up instead he showered me in blow after blow from either his feet or his fists. I could feel blood trickling down my forehead and my vision was blurry, my body ached all over and my ribs were screaming out in pain.

I must have lost consciousness at some point because the next thing I knew I was waking up in rhesus with Tess hovering over me.

"Adam, you gave us quiet a scare you know." She spoke very motherly.

"Sorry." I said before attempting to sit up. I winced as my ribs prevented me from moving probably.

"Don't try and sit up. You've got a couple of broken ribs." Tess informed me and I felt like informing her that I was a doctor.

The rest of the day went painfully slowly I couldn't wait to get discharged I hated being the patient not the doctor. Colleagues came and went giving me well wishes and telling me that they hoped that they caught who ever did this to me. I knew it was Warren but I wanted to talk to Kirsty before I told the police. Tess had told me that the police had arrived to take a statement from me a couple of hours ago but I told her I wasn't up to it yet so they were coming back in the morning.

I needed to talk to Kirsty. It was as if someone had switched a light bulb on in my head because I suddenly saw things clearly. Warren had been playing us all. It wasn't his brother that had been abusing Kirsty; it was him, and now I knew and I was going to make sure it stopped.

I was just about to do my last check before making my way down to the psych ward to see Kirsty when the door opened and Ruth's head poked through the small opening.

"He's in here." I heard her whisper back out of the door, into the corridor then Kirsty slipped inside closing the door behind her.

"Hey," she sighed not having the guts to look me in the eye, she knew exactly what had happened.

"Hi." She stepped further into the room and I saw she looked awful. Her eyes were swollen and red indicating that she had been crying recently and at the sight of her my heart melted and all the bad feelings I'd been harbouring about Warren disappeared.

"I'm so sorry I should never have spoken to you earlier, I didn't mean to it just sort of happened; I'm so sorry. I promise it will never happen again. Please don't tell anyone, I swear he won't come anywhere near you again. I promise." She blurted out and it took me a couple of second for me to process what she had said.

She was covering for him. I shouldn't have been surprised, she had been doing it for years and years but it never struck me that she would try and cover for him now so instead of answering I just sat staring at her with my mouth open not having a clue how to answer her.

"Ok." I finally answered feeling that I had to say something. I wasn't really sure as to why I had just agreed to it but I had.

"Really?" She questioned obviously surprised by my answer.

All I could do was nod.

"How are you feeling?" She asked changing the subject.

"Ok." I answered knowing that she would have received much worst over the years and never complained about it.

I could tell she didn't believe me but I didn't expect her to retrieve my notes from the end on my bed and start reading through them.

"Kirsty, please I'm fine." I said making a move to grab the notes from her but I didn't get far before I gasped from the pain erupting in my rib cage. She was at my side instantly lying me back down and tucking the covers around me.

"Shall I go and ask for more pain killers for you, you must me in agony?"

"It's nothing compared to some of the breaks you've had." I stated and she stepped back, hurt clear in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Kirsty," I reached out my arm for her but she didn't move to reach for it so I moved to get up to go to her.

"Adam you have to slow down. You're not well enough to get out of bed. You'll hurt yourself more." She spoke caringly as she re-tucked me back into bed but I didn't pay any attention to her tenderness instead I focused on the fact she was being the biggest hypocrite in the world.

"How can you say that to me? You carried on like normal, acting like he wasn't hurting you. I've seen you're X-rays. I've seen the damage he's done to you, old and new. Some of them happened while you worked here and I saw you everyday and you never let on, just carried on coming to work even though the pain must have been unbearable. So you do not get to lecture me on how much I can and can't do." I regretted the words almost immediately, knowing that I had gone too far. I'd taken all my anger out on her and the look on her face made my heart hurt ten times more than my injuries.

Tears welled in her eyes and for a moment she stood not knowing what to do and then, in a split second she'd turned and run. I knew I couldn't catch her so I just watched her go, not know what I would say to her if I could.

I'm really sorry it's taken me this long to upload this chapter but my life took a turn for the worst and its taken me this long to find my feet again, sorry again hope you enjoy it.