casualtyfics111: Thank you! You'll see Connie in this chapter.
Scarlett: Do you really think so? Personally, I don't agree, haha.
Chapter Thirteen
Connie let out a small gasp, as she slowly and gently lifted the back of Lily's t-shirt. Lily tensed up and her eyes diverted to the hooded jacket that she'd been forced to take off. She felt Connie's cold skin touch hers, and a small whimper escaped her mouth.
"It's okay," Connie soothed, immediately noticing Lily's change in behaviour. "Keep still."
Lily shook her head, small tears forming in her eyes. A lump caught in her throat, and she let out a loud sob, feeling completely embarrassed for getting so emotional. Connie rubbed her shoulder and carefully pressed her fingers against one of Lily's bruises.
"Does that hurt?" She asked.
All Lily could do was nod. Connie had to say that she was impressed, although she felt awful considering the circumstances, but she had no idea how Lily was able to keep up constant silence for so long.
It wasn't just Lily who she was impressed with though. She was also impressed with Iain's actions, as well as proud. He hadn't forced Lily to talk, but instead had come up with a strategy to get her to tell him everything.
Lastly, she was impressed with Gem for realising what had happened when no one else had.
"Stay nice and still for me," Connie whispered, glancing across at Charlie who was stood by the door, and she began to feel around Lily's stomach. "There's quite a lot of bruising around the stomach area," she informed the nurse. "And..."
She didn't get to finish as Lily suddenly let out a scream and pulled her body away from her. Usually, Connie wouldn't accept that kind of behaviour from any of her patients, especially Lily because she was supposed to know better, but she was scared for obvious reasons. Connie was still finding it hard to process what had happened.
"Lily, calm down," Charlie tried to comfort her, but stopped when he saw Connie do a subtle shake of the head at him.
"Lily, listen to me," Connie whispered. "Listen to my voice. I know it's uncomfortable, and sore, and scary, but I need to examine your injuries. I'm trying my best to be careful and I hate it just as much, trust me, but it needs doing."
Lily hung her head and held her hands to her face, her legs shaking below her.
"Hey," Connie said. "Have you got any earphones with you? You can sit on the bed and listen to music whilst I examine you, hmm? It might be a good distraction and you won't have to think about what I'm doing then."
Lily shook her head.
"Okay," Connie said. "Charlie, go into my office and my iPod should be in my top drawer. I often use it to go running so it's normally fully charged, bring it back here for me."
Charlie nodded, smiling at how well Connie was dealing with the situation, and left to go and retrieve her iPod.
"Okay, now I won't do anything until those earphones are in your ears," Connie said, as Lily slowly made her way back over to the bed. "Grace is absolutely terrified of needles, so everytime she had to have a blood test or an injection she'd listen to her music. It always helped, so I know what I'm talking about."
Lily managed a small smile, and Charlie soon entered the room again with Connie's iPod in hand.
"Thanks Charlie," Connie said. "Listen, could you go and get Doctor Gardner for me as well? Thank you."
When Charlie had left, Connie passed the iPod to Lily, who seemed a lot more relaxed than earlier.
"Now, you might not enjoy my music taste but it's better than nothing," she joked. "Lay down on the bed for me."
Lily stuck the earphones into her ears and scrolled through the list of songs, deciding on 'Black Magic by Little Mix.' She turned the music up and glanced at Connie cautiously out the corner of her eye.
"Little Mix, eh?" Connie said, taking a peek at the song choice. "That's only on there for Grace, although I do quite enjoy their music myself." She lifted Lily's shirt and pressed down gently on her stomach. "Are you going to have a go at talking to me?"
Lily shrugged her shoulders but just as she did, she whispered, "I don't know."
Connie was surprised at the sound of Lily's voice, but she didn't want to seem as if she was making a big deal out of it. Lily seemed completely distracted by the music, and maybe that was why she'd spoken. Maybe she hadn't even heard herself.
"Really?" She just asked instead. "What are you listening to now?"
"Ed Sheeran," Lily answered, showing the screen of the iPod to Connie. "I love this song. Iain and I often talked about seeing him live, but we could never get tickets."
"He is popular," Connie said. "Are you and Iain in a relationship now?"
Lily tensed up at the feel of Connie's hands, and squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to focus on the lyrics of the song instead, whilst telling herself that it was just Connie. She could trust Connie, right?
"I think so," Lily said. "Please, stop," she whined.
"I'm sorry, Lily," Connie apologised quietly, and held her hands up. "Is it uncomfortable?" Lily nodded, her lip wobbling as tears rolled down her cheeks. "I will need to carry on, I'm afraid. Come on, you're doing well so far."
Lily held a hand to her face, her tears falling harder and harder. She just wanted to go home and pretend that nothing had even happened. She wanted to be on her own, and Connie wasn't allowing that.
"Here," Connie whispered, handing her a tissue. "Just let me continue, yeah? It'll be over soon. Just talk to me, about you and Iain. You said that you were in a relationship."
"I'm not sure," Lily sobbed, as she dabbed at her eyes with the tissue. "We both feel the same way, but I'm just nervous about...Contact."
"He's not going to hurt you, he's a good guy," Connie reassured her, as she had another gentle feel around Lily's stomach. "Your fears are understandable, but I think he could be good for you." Lily nodded, and flinched as Connie touched a particular uncomfortable spot. "Alright. I've just about finished, so well done. You can turn the music off now."
"No," Lily whispered, shaking her head and gripping the iPod tightly.
"Okay," Connie said. "We're going to have to call the police regarding this, and you will need to have a thorough rape examination done on the sexual health ward."
"Will I have to talk to anyone?" Lily whispered in a croaky voice.
"The police will need a statement," Connie whispered back. "I'll explain the situation to them though, don't worry. Now, did you take any protection after it happened Lily, the morning after pill or anything like that?"
Lily shook her head, her voice fading away slowly again. She felt sick.
"Then we're going to have to do a pregnancy test as well," Connie said. "It's just a precaution, you know that. Well done though, you've been really brave and I am very proud of you."
Elle walked into the room then, shooting Lily a comforting smile before moving to stand at Connie's side.
Lily didn't even return the smile. Her song finished, and she went quiet again.
"Coffee to go," Iain sighed deeply, throwing the correct amount of change onto the counter in front of Gem.
Gem nodded and scooped up the money, before making her brother a cup. She knew the exact way that he had it already, so didn't need to ask, but his facial expressions did concern her and she could tell that there was something wrong.
"What happened?" She asked him.
"I came to apologise," he said to her.
"Why?" Gem frowned.
"You were right," he sighed, and wiped away an escaped tear quickly. "Lily's been hurt."
Gem gulped nervously and quietly asked, "what happened?"
"Sexual assault." Iain shrugged, and more tears started to fall. "Sorry. Mrs Beauchamp's currently examining her, and we don't know who it was, but..."
"Did she tell you this?" Gem questioned.
"Well, I asked her," Iain said. "She nodded. I just can't believe we never even noticed it."
"She'll be okay," Gem whispered.
"I love her, Gemma," Iain said. "I want to be with her, but some horrible, nasty, messed up man has gone and raped her! Lily's never going to get over this, she's never going to be able to look at another man again! I'm telling you Gem, that if I find out the name of this guy, I'm going to kill him."
I found this chapter extremely difficult to write, especially the scene between Lily and Connie. I hope you enjoyed it though, and there'll be more to come.
So very quickly, I have edited this story and ditched the cyberbullying storyline. You're probably asking why! Reason being was because I was really struggling with these past couple of chapters, and it felt as if too much was going on at once. I had the assault, the mutism, and the cyberbullying.
After editing and reading back though, I feel a bit happier with the story, so I hope you're not too disappointed.
I was also struggling with people finding out about the messages, and wasn't exactly sure how I was going to tie that into the story.
I didn't actually have to change that much at all, so it should all flow and be the exact same as before, just minus the messages. I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway, and I'll update when I can x