Bonnie Sveen Fan: I don't know if you saw it, but I mentioned in Chapter 16 that the pregnancy test was negative.
MrsWhovian: Thanks so much! More to come :-)
Lauren: Thank you and I will do. I have a Lily and Connie scene planned.
Chapter Seventeen
As soon as Lily walked into reception, everyone turned to stare at her. She knew that she was now the freak of the ED, the weird one who refused to talk. No one needed to tell her that.
Robyn was the first one to walk over to her, and she gently placed a comforting hand on Lily's shoulder. Of course, Robyn was aware of the circumstances. Lily flinched a little and pushed her hand away, but she did give her a small smile, so that Robyn didn't think she was being rude. During the past week, where she'd felt unable to say a single word, she'd learnt to express herself by facial expressions and body movement.
Lily couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. Everything had happened so quickly, and although she was pleased that people now knew about the assault, she also wished that she'd been able to keep it hidden for just a little while longer. Iain was good at getting the truth out of her though, but maybe that was what made him a good boyfriend, and it would have been unfair to ask him to keep it from Connie.
"Are you okay?" Iain asked, walking over and giving Lily's hair a gentle stroke.
"Yeah! Are you alright there, Lily?" Cal nodded across at her.
"Don't be ridiculous, you know she's not going to talk," Louise spat, as if the two of them had planned the entire sketch.
"Guys, shut up," Robyn hissed, just as Connie walked past with a pile of paperwork. "She can't help it."
"Unless she's actually lost her voice, I'm pretty sure she can help it," Louise laughed to herself. "You're not actually fooling for this, are you Robyn?"
Iain wrapped an arm around Lily, sighing heavily as Louise continued to talk about her. He was about to step in and defend her, when Connie beat him to it. He felt bad but Lily gave his hand a squeeze, silently telling him that his presence was more than enough.
"Staff Nurse Tyler, I suggest that you be quiet immediately!" Connie snapped.
"We're a registrar down, Mrs Beauchamp," Louise said, folding her arms across her chest. "We certainly can't have one who refuses to talk."
"Enough!" Connie shouted, a lot louder this time.
"You have no idea what she's going through, Louise," Robyn defended.
Lily slowly held a hand to her chest, and Iain gave her arm a squeeze.
"Robyn, stop," he whispered, as he sensed Lily's body tense up.
"No, she can't talk to her like that," Robyn yelled. "Alicia can forgive Lily, so why can't you Louise? She never even did anything to hurt you."
"But she does this all the time," Louise argued. "She bullied Alicia out of a job..."
"Which she returned to!" Robyn finished for her.
"Robyn, stop," Connie calmed the red-head.
She could tell where this was going, and Lily looked as if she was on the verge of a panic attack. Everyone needed to just calm down, before things exploded and got out of control.
"But now she thinks that everyone can just forget about it and move on?" Louise asked. "And she thinks that she can go and play the victim card, when there is actually nothing wrong with her. She needs to grow up!"
"She was raped!" Robyn shouted.
Time then seemed to stop. Heads turned to stare at Robyn, as if she'd just said the worse thing in the world. Louise's arms dropped to her side, Connie held a hand to her head, Iain pursed his lips together and threw his head back in anger, and thick, salty tears filled Lily's eyes with no warning at all.
"Lily," Connie was the first one to talk. "Why don't we go to my office, come on?"
Lily just pushed Iain to one side at that point, and fled reception alone. Of course she would, neither Iain nor Connie could blame her. Robyn had gone and blurted out the fact that she'd been raped, so of course she wasn't going to stand around and wait to hear what people had to say. Iain felt terrible, and knew that he should have dragged Robyn away as soon as she'd started arguing with Louise. As Connie went to go after her, Iain put a hand up.
"I'll go," he offered in a quiet voice, before walking off in the direction that Lily had gone.
It was the least that he could do.
"I'm sorry," he heard Robyn whisper as he left, and wondered if Connie would take her to the office for a lecture.
Anxiety hit him when he found out that Lily had most likely gone into the girls bathroom. Lily needed him though and she obviously had no intention of coming out of her hiding place. Taking a deep breath, Iain ignored the sign on the door and went straight on in. He could hear the muffled sound of crying, and he thanked God that no one else was in the bathroom.
"Chuckles," he called, quietly shutting the door behind him. "Look. Are you going to come out, or are you going to make me stand in the middle of the girls bathroom?"
He received no answer. He slowly walked over to the cubicle that was nearest the door and gave it a gentle poke with his finger. It slowly swung open to reveal Lily sitting on the closed toilet seat with tears streaming down her face. Her knees were hugged to her chest, and her arms were marked with scratches.
"Hey," he whispered. "Do you want to talk?"
Lily just shook her head, and began to bite on her fingernails.
"Alright. That's fine." Iain nodded. "I won't force you to talk, not if you don't want to. Robyn's really sorry though, I heard her apologise to Connie. She was just angry at Louise though Lily, she was defending you."
Lily said nothing, and just allowed her tears to fall.
"Maybe it's best for everyone to know, eh?" He sighed, walking into the cubicle and crouching down on the floor in front of her. He gently placed his hands on her knees and whispered, "they would have found out eventually."
Lily shrugged her shoulders. That wasn't the point. She wasn't ready and besides, it was the way that they had found out.
"One of my all time favourite songs is called All Of Me by John Legend," Iain said randomly. "And one of my favourite lyrics is even though you're crying, you're beautiful too."
He smiled weakly and he reached up to wipe a tear from the side of Lily's face.
"I'm so proud of you," he whispered. "And I don't want you to let something like this get to you. No one is going to be angry, and no one is going to judge you either. Louise can be nice when she wants to be."
He still didn't receive an answer from her.
"Don't worry though," he whispered. "We can stay in here for as long as you need to."
"Doctor Gardner!" Connie shouted, as she crossed reception.
Robyn and Louise hovered behind the clinical lead, anxiously waiting for Connie to drag them to the office to give them a lecture. Lily hadn't returned, and neither had Iain, so they only hoped that he'd found her.
"What's going on here then?" Elle asked, looking past Connie to where Robyn and Louise were stood.
"Nothing for you to worry about," Connie sighed, shaking her head. "I just need to have a little chat with the two of them. Right. That Frankie Burgess who was admitted a few days ago, do you remember him?"
"I do," Elle said. "He was a bit awkward, wasn't he?"
"Well, he has actually put a complaint in about Lily," Connie whispered. "So we're going to need to sort that out. Could you look into it for me?"
"Yes, of course," Elle said, feeling sorry for the registrar.
Lily hadn't had it easy, first with the assault, and then the anxiety that was slowly building up inside of her. She hated the fact that a patient had actually complained about her, it just seemed unfortunate that it had been Lily dealing with him.
"You two, come with me," Connie ordered, beckoning Louise and Robyn to the office. "I honestly can't believe your behaviour out there. You two are supposed to be nurses!"
"I'm sorry, Mrs Beauchamp," Robyn whispered shyly, as Connie slammed the office door loudly behind them. "I didn't mean to tell anyone."
"That isn't what I'm angry about," Connie said, glancing at Louise out of the corner of her eye. "Yes, you shouldn't have told everyone like that but I do understand that you were only defending Lily. It was more the shouting match, in front of patients and other colleagues."
"It won't happen again," Robyn promised.
"I should hope not. Well, Staff Nurse Tyler," Connie spat at Louise. "What have you got to say for yourself? I thought you were better than this Louise, but the things that you said about Lily and in front of her out there was totally uncalled for!"
"I...I didn't know what had happened," Louise stuttered.
"That doesn't matter," Connie said. "You don't talk about other members of staff in that manner."
"I'm sorry," she apologised.
"It isn't me you should be apologising too," Connie said. "I want you to give Lily a proper apology."
"But she still won't talk to me, will she?" Louise mumbled.
"Enough!" Connie scolded. "Even so, I would like you to apologise to her. And I'm suspending you for a period of fourteen working days."
"Are you serious?" Louise yelled.
"Deadly," Connie said. "And you're not leaving this ED until you apologise to Lily."
"Fine," Louise muttered under her breath, and shrugged her shoulders.
"Okay," Connie sighed. "You may go."
Louise didn't even hesitate to leave the office, but Robyn stayed where she was. She seriously hoped that Lily was alright.
"Mrs Beauchamp," she whispered. "I really am sorry."
"I know you are," Connie whispered back. "Don't worry about it, alright?"
"Alright." Robyn managed a small smile.
Even though she'd been given some reassurance, she still felt extremely guilty for what had happened.
A bit of a long and dramatic chapter there, but I hope you enjoyed it. I have a lot planned for this story so stay tuned. There'll be a few more Connie and Lily scenes, and of course some Iain and Lily scenes as well.
So Lily will see a speech therapist in the next chapter and a diagnosis of anxiety will be just around the corner. Let's see how that goes. Thanks for the reads, follows, favourites, and reviews. It means a lot.