A/N: I kinda had this one ready...
Cal, Carol and Bill were at the hospital on Monday lunchtime when Doctor Shetty came into Piper's room to discuss her progress with them. He was a softly spoken man, with black hair which was greying at the temples and he stood at the end of Piper's bed as he checked over her charts.
"As you know, we've carried out a number of scans and checks on Piper since she came into the hospital on Saturday night. We have been checking to see if there are any sign of the brain swelling or any small bleeds in there that might give us cause for concern. With any head injury, it's important to monitor the patient closely over a number of days in case anything develops. Piper's results have consistently showed no adverse changes and she has responded positively to all of the treatment she has received. The head injury was our main concern of course and was the only reason we were keeping her asleep this past couple of days. Following the lasts tests this morning, we're confident now that she can be brought around to consciousness without any risk of brain injury."
Piper's family let out a collective sigh of relief and waited for the Doctor to continue, not wanting to interrupt his flow of apparently good news.
"We can begin this today, but you must not hurry her recovery. Piper may not have a full memory of the attack that brought her in here and that is something that may return to her very quickly or not at all. We will not know until she can talk to us, but I ask you not to press her to recall details of the night or fill in gaps with anything you have heard. The police will want to talk to Piper to get her statement of events and it's important that they are allowed to do that with the correct support from her medical team here. We won't allow Piper to be harried or tired by the legal process at all. Her health and steady recovery should be everyone's priority right now and the support of family and friends will be critical in that. Do I have your support with that?"
He allowed the Chapman's a moment to absorb his request before they all nodded enthusiastically.
"Good. We can bring her around in a few moments then. Please, let me do the talking for the moment when she wakes up so we can control the situation as much as possible and allow Piper to come around in good time." Doctor Shetty smiled warmly and went to get the medical forms signed and the nurses to begin the process.
XXXXX
Piper was lying on the beach with Alex in Boracay, they had just been snorkelling and Alex had insisted on coming back to shore so they could reapply sun lotion. She hated the sun and it was one of the only risks you wouldn't see Alex taking – sun damage of all things. Piper had rolled her eyes, but was laid down drying off while Alex got the sun cream out of their bag. They had been enjoying the peace and quiet of an almost deserted beach all day, so Piper was getting suddenly annoyed by the beeping noise she could hear in the distance. Who was making that noise and why didn't they damn well stop it? The beeping was getting louder and she couldn't place what it was as she was getting increasingly annoyed by it. She furrowed her brow and decided she would go and find whoever it was and give them a piece of her mind.
Opening her eyes with a start, she was more than a little surprised to find not so much as a grain of sand beneath her body and several pairs of eyes peering at her from all around her beach towel where she laid…which was neither a beach towel nor on a beach now. She squeezed her eyes shut again, hoping the beach was the reality she could go back to. Nothing. Just that incessant beeping and now people whispering her name…her Mother whispering her name. Oh God, what kind of nightmare is she having now. Please take me back to the beach! She opened one eye slightly, seeing if the view was anymore beach than last time….Nope.
She squinted her eyes open again, sneaking a look at her surroundings and suddenly feeling claustrophobic from all the bodies leering over her.
"Hello Piper, my name is Doctor Shetty and I'm the Consultant Neurologist at Mount Sinai Hospital here in New York. I'm sorry for interrupting your dreams there, but we needed to wake you up for a while – not least to see your family, who are all here for you see?" The nice man in the white coat gestured towards 3 sets of eyes looming over her on the opposite side of the bed, accompanied by three quite over the top grins. Piper felt herself shrink back from them. They looked like a caricature of her family…all smiley…and not at all like her family. Somehow her WASPy reactions kicked in and she was able to smile warmly back as her face muscles seemed to know the drill better than her brain. She looked back at Doctor Shetty, awaiting a damned good reason from him waking her up into this apparent nightmare situation.
"You have suffered a head injury Piper and we have put a bandage on your head there to cover a wound, but you've been asleep for a couple of days while we have been running some tests to make sure there was no damage to worry about. Everything looks OK and your test results are all clear, so we've been able to wake you up again today….." Aware that Piper was looking pensive now, he asked. "What are you thinking?"
Piper went to lift her hand to feel her head and saw the HR monitor on her finger. She followed the wire and could now see where the annoying beeping was coming from. Her brain and her heart. How ironic that those two things could give her dreams and take her away from them. Aware that the room was silent again, with all eyes still on her she considered that everyone was waiting for her to say something. Never had she had everyone's full attention like this before and it felt like everyone was holding their breath for her to speak, even her Mother. What an opportunity.
She opened her mouth, fighting to hold back a smirk as they all leaned in closer. "I…." Closed her mouth again as it was dry. She looked over at the pitcher of water next to her bed and her Dad immediately poured her a glass and handed it to her. She smiled and took a few sips, looking into the bottom of the glass, the room still silent. She put the glass down and wriggled to sit up a little. Cal rushed over to move her pillows. She smiled her thanks before reaching for her Mother's hand. If she'd have been holding Rosary Beads in a movie death scene, hanging on Piper's last mortal words it would look like this. Her Mother leaned in more to hear the all important words.
"I like hot boys and I like hot girls and you just woke me up from the hottest girl of all rubbing lotion on my back. I'm thinking couldn't you have left it another 10 minutes?" She snapped a mental picture of her Mother's face before turning sweetly to Doctor Shetty. She could hear Cal trying to keep his urge to laugh loudly to a restrained chuckle behind her.
"Ah, OK. Well that all sounds very good….Um, how are you feeling though?" Doctor Shetty was looking for something more medical she guessed.
"Like I have a Hell of a hangover and need to sleep it off?"
The Doctor chuckled and said that was to be expected and the drowsiness is caused by the medication, but she will tire quickly for the first few days.
Piper looked down at her hands now she was sitting up and saw the cuts on her knuckles. She closed her fingers into soft fists to feel they ached as well and she could feel the jagged edges of her red nails scratching against her palms. Stretching out her fingers again, she saw her nails had been roughly cut since they were painted and she was struggling to remember why she would do that.
Seeing Piper look at her hands, the Doctor asked if she could remember what happened to her.
She didn't look up as she nodded slowly and lifted her hand to feel her bandaged head. Her fingertips moved slowly over the bandage where it hurt, towards her face, which was still swollen around her eye. Feeling the swelling and the bruising across her face and eye, she dropped her hand back to her side and laid back on her pillows, deliberately keeping her eyes towards the medical staff rather than her family. Now would come the questions and she simply didn't have the energy or the answers right now.
The Doctor spoke again.
"OK. The police will want to visit later today to talk to you about the events on Friday night. Do you think you could manage that if you have a sleep now?"
Tiredness was overwhelming her and she nodded gently before closing her eyes and letting sleepiness wash over her.
Doctor Shetty turned to Piper's family now.
"This is completely normal and you will find that she will wake up for short periods and need to nap again for the next day or so. The good thing is, that she appears to remember what happened and so that indicates her memory is intact. I'll let the police know that they can come and speak to her this evening. We will continue to monitor of course, but we can move her from the ICU ward tomorrow I think and she can be somewhere with less beeping monitors through the night". He turned to leave and the nurses made some final checks before leaving the Chapmans alone with Piper again. They stayed for another two hours before her parents went to get coffees and left Cal reading in the corner.
Piper opened one eye slowly to make sure they were gone before checking Cal was alone.
"Jesus. Couldn't you get rid of them any sooner?!" Piper opened her eyes fully and glared at Cal, who laughed.
"Hey sis. How long have you been lying there praying for that coffee break?"
"Long enough to be sick of people observing me like a specimen in a science lab. Haven't you got something better to be doing than sitting in this place?" Piper hissed in case people were standing outside her room.
"Nope. Pretty much cleared my schedule for drinking shitty hospital coffee and watching you snore. Anyone would think you weren't delighted to have Mummy dearest fawning over you and looking down her nose at all the other patients in here. She's tried to have you upgraded you know?" Cal laughed. "She asked for something with a city view and an en suite - and I hear you're moving tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed her gold card did the trick eh?" He winked as he scooted closer to the bed with his chair.
"Ugh. Can't you persuade them to go home for the night at least?"
"I might. If you can persuade me you are feeling OK…Go ahead, your time starts…now!"
"Seriously? I'm fine. A little groggy and aching all over, but I'm really OK. I will probably be sleeping anyway most of the time, so there's nothing to see here. Move along people." She waved her hands as though shooing them away from her and grinned at Cal.
"That wasn't a bad effort…I'm glad you're OK Piper. You had us all pretty worried there. The Doctor told us not to talk to you about what happened, but do you remember anything?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. I guess I'll have to go through all of that with the police soon and I really don't want to do it twice today. Do you mind if we skip the deets and get straight to the part where you're dragging our parents out of the hospital for me?"
"Well, I can see your Bambi eyes are still working perfectly." He rolled his eyes and considered her request.
"Alright, I'll do it. But I'll bring them back with camp beds if I find out you're not as OK as you make out. Do you want me to be here when the police come in to see you? Or maybe I could call Polly for you or something?"
"Oh, thanks Cal! You're a superstar! Um, no I think I'll be OK with the police actually. Can you pass me my phone though please? I can text Polly to let her know I'm back in the land of the living now as well. Unlike my phone, which needs charging it seems...Ugh. Can you call Pol and ask her to bring me some stuff from my apartment please? I'll make a list."
"Aaaand here's bossy Piper, back in the room. Sure, let me get you a pen…
XXXXX
Piper had time for another little sleep before the police came in and woke her from her slumber. DCI Singer and DCI Curtis were let into Piper's room by a nurse who told them that they were allowed no more than 20 mins with her before they had to leave so she could rest.
DCI Singer asked her how much she remembered from Friday night and could she tell them what happened after she came out of the restrooms in the bar and met Darryl outside. She told them about him apologising and offering to get her a drink, which she accepted, even though he was a creep for the sake of not upsetting Steve.
"Steve! Oh God, how is he? Does he know what happened? Is he OK?"
DCI Curtis reassured her he was just fine and was back home at the moment, but had been calling the hospital for daily updates. Piper relaxed some, but worried about what he might have been told about the night.
"So you agreed to let Darryl buy you a drink, right?" Piper nodded to confirm that is what happened.
"Did you see the bar tender make the drink? Did Darryl touch the drink before you picked it up from the bar?" DCI Singer pressed her to return to the events of Friday night.
"Erm….no. I was looking for Steve because I didn't want to be on my own with Darryl for any longer than necessary. I asked for a margarita and he went to the bar to get it while I was looking around for Steve. He brought me the drink as I was facing away from him I think. Why is that so important?"
"We'll come back to that later Ms Chapman. What happened next?"
Piper explained about wanting to find Steve and Darryl suggesting they look outside around the back of the bar. She told the officers how he was guiding her with his hand on the small of her back, then more forcefully around her waist after she told him to get off her. When he grabbed her by the wrist as she turned to leave, she threw the rest of her drink at him but he didn't release her…"
"OK Ms Chapman. How much of that drink did you consume do you think?"
"I don't know, not much. No more than a mouthful I'd say as I downed the previous one too quickly and didn't want to get really drunk with him anywhere near me. You're very interested in this drink. Can I ask why?"
"When we found the broken glass out the back of the bar, we had it tested and found your prints on it. It was your margarita glass and we found traces of a drug called GBL – short for gamma-butyrolactone on the glass, which tells us that your drink was spiked on Friday night. We think this was a pre-meditated attack Ms Chapman."
Piper was shocked and suddenly nauseous that this low life had planned to go out that Friday with drugs in his pocket, looking for an opportunity to prey on a woman.
"I know this is difficult for you Ms Chapman and we really don't want to keep you talking for longer than necessary. But can you tell us what happened after you dropped your glass when Mr Santos grabbed your wrist?"
She took a deep breath and told them about how he'd pushed her up against the wall by her throat and covered her mouth with his hand when she tried to scream. She recalled biting his hand to the point it was bleeding and him threatening to rape her and pulling her dress up…
Piper looked at the officers with wide eyes as she recalled the last things she heard him say before blacking out. "He….he said he'd ruin…" Piper closed her eyes to stop tears from falling. She was not going to cry through this and sniffed as she took another deep breath to get the words out in one go.
"Ruin my cunt even if I was unconscious and bleeding on the floor." She opened her eyes and fixed them on DCI Singer. This was the time she would either face it head on or elect to put her head in the clouds and pretend it wasn't real. The clouds were looking mighty comfy right now she thought as she remained fixed on DCI Singer.
"Did he?" She asked, her eyes not blinking or breaking contact. "Did he rape me?"
"Ms Chapman, you were found in a state of undress that made us suspect an attempted rape. Your friend Mr Lockhart provided a statement that also suggested an attempted rape had taken place, so we had to take measures to gather evidence and do some tests while you were unconscious in order to gather any DNA. We have run tests on your clothing, taken samples from under your nails and I'm afraid we also had to do some tests of an intimate nature to ascertain whether Mr Santos had penetrated you. All of these results came back negative, so it looks like your friend Mr Lockhart arrived in time to stop Mr Santos from carrying out those threats."
Piper fell back onto her pillows and cried, allowing the tears to run down her face, her body heaving for air. DCI Curtis left the room and returned with some tissues from the nurse, who followed him back and told them they needed to leave in the next 5 minutes.
"Ms Chapman, we have Mr Santos in custody already and he has denied any accusations of wrongdoing so far. We are confident with your statement and those provided by other witnesses, along with the physical evidence we have gathered that we have a strong case already. We will be in touch if we need anything further from you and of course, we will provide you with contact information for our Victim Support Unit in order that you have confidential and qualified help at all times through the recovery process. We're sorry you had to go through this Ms Chapman, but please be assured we will do all we can to ensure you receive justice. I'm glad you're OK Ms Chapman, have a good evening."