Connie held her phone in her hands. The screen was smashed, little bits of plastic and glass crumbled into her palm as she held it. The police had given it back to her with little more than a casual enquiry after her health, which she had artfully deflected. And now she was here, back in the office, with Charlie.

She sat on the sofa, her legs crossed, her hands folded, fingers interlinked across her knee cap.

"You know that whatever you say, will remain between us...?"

Charlie spoke quietly. He was sat next to her on the sofa. Connie could feel the weight of his body so close to hers and as he spoke she was sure that she could feel his breath on her face.

She looked down at her hands. There was no point in pretending.

"We uh...we were at a bar in town. There was a group of men there..."

She pushed a strand of hair from her face and frowned. She could remember how cold it had been when they stepped out of the bar and into the fresh air. She could remember the stars above them, and how yellow and clear the moon had been.

"They uhm...they followed us out...four or five of them..."

She pursed her lips and glanced to the toe of her shoe. The black leather seemed to pixelate before her eyes and she drew in a steadying breath and blinked repeatedly. She would not cry, not now.

He watched her struggle, though it was almost unbearable to see her breaking before him. He watched as her whole body tensed, trying as hard as it could to shut out this thing that caused her so much pain. She wanted nothing more than to push it away and let it go ignored, but it was still there, they were still there, the men... She had assumed it would be easy to push to the back of her mind, to forget about it...She had thought she was stronger than this.

"I assume that these men did more than just take your phone?"

Charlie's voice was quiet and calm. He had seen so many women pass through the doors of this ED with that same wild eyed look of despair that laced Connie's now. He had seen the bruises before, and he had witnessed how hard it was to even say the words, as if their ordeal had rendered them mute.

He saw this all in the flicker of a moment when Connie glanced to the ground, and instantly he knew what had happened.

"I'm sorry..."

He whispered, and she bowed her head again so that her hair fell over her shoulder to shield her face.

"Connie..."

He made to reach out with his hand to touch her arm, but even as his fingers neared the fabric of her shirt he felt her flinch, and he retracted his hand, curling it back into his lap. Why was it that after all these years, and all of his experience, now that it was Connie sat here, admitting this to him, he had no idea what it was that he should do?

"I know you won't want to hear this, but there are tests that should be done..."

"HIV, STI's, pregnancy..."

She cut him off and he sighed, almost smiling. He should have known she would have thought of everything.

"The results should be with me tomorrow."

She murmured, and she glanced pointedly to the brown envelope that she had left on her desk. He followed her gaze and for a moment they were silent.

"What about physically...are you..."

He paused, he couldn't quite make the words come out.

Connie drew in a breath and looked up toward the ceiling, as though the mere act of tilting her head back might stop the tears from coming. She could feel the acidic burn of the lump within her throat. She could feel the sting of tears at the corners of her eyes, and try as she might she could not stop the tremble of her lips.

"Are you...hurt...?"

He ventured. But before he could even finish she shook her head. An odd groan of a breath escaped her lips and gave into the struggle and closed her eyes. He could see her body tense, every single bit of her was trying so desperately to remain in control, and every single bit of her was failing.

"What about the police?"

"No police."

She cut him off. Her voice was thick and as she spoke her words hitched and broke, as though it were someone else's voice that was passing through her lips.

He made to speak again, perhaps to try to persuade her otherwise, but she held up a hand to stop him and finally she looked back at him. Her eyes were bloodshot and glassy, her forehead creased with unimaginable pain.

He sucked in a long breath and released it through his teeth, all the while looking back at her, until suddenly a wave of realisation came over him and he frowned.

"I'm sorry...you said 'we'?"

He asked, recalling what she had said earlier.

Her eyes flickered away from him again.

"Rita..."

"Rita!"

He exclaimed, almost before she had even finished saying the nurses name.

"Where is she now?"

He asked, and it was Connie's turn to sigh.

"At my house. She stayed with me...she..."

She what? She let the words linger in the air though the sentence had no planned destination. Rita had what? Crawled into bed with her despite the blood, when she had needed her the most, when she was so scared to be alone that she had contemplated hurting herself? Or that she had talked to Connie for hours, until she had finally fallen asleep. She had talked about art and books, fictional characters she had dreamed of becoming as a girl. She had told her about her family, her childhood pets...simple things, but the sort of things that calmed her for a moment, just long enough for her to fall asleep.

"Is she ok?"

Charlie asked slowly, almost not wishing to hear the answer.

Connie's lips twisted into the thin line of a heart broken smile.

"I made sure they didn't touch her."

She whispered, her voice barely audible. Her tongue ached in her mouth and again she had to swallow against the tears that threatened her. And that was when Charlie realised that the woman who sat before him, who had spent so many years of her life proving herself to be better than the men who dominated her field of work, this woman wasn't an 'ice queen', or a 'demon' as so many liked to joke...she was a woman. And in this case, that was worse.

Oh this was a painful update! I wrote it...then it froze, deleted, and I had to write it again...and I was so pleased with the originial, too! It was longer, and included another Rita section at the end, but you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what Rita got up to for the rest of her time in Connie's house now :)

Not only that but I have lost all of my notes for it as well. Hooray! Ugh...

Any nice reviews to cheer me up would be SO gratefully received! :) xxx