Learning To Trust Again

Walking into the reception area Rebecca didn’t pause to make inquiries. She ignored the surprised looks of the staff on duty doing triage and let herself in through the locked inner door with her staff pass. Finding no one behind the counter inside the doors Rebecca reached over and grabbed the sheet of patients she could see on the desk behind.  Wasting no time, she searched through the names. At the end of the list, last patient in, she found what she was looking for. Dropping the clip board, not bothering to wait and ask permission, Rebecca made her way to the room she knew Todd had been placed in.

Entering the treatment room Rebecca stopped and put her hand to her mouth. Todd’s face was swollen beyond recognition and he had a bandage wrapped around his head. If she didn’t know he had been placed in this room, she wouldn’t have believed it was her little brother lying there. His shirt had been removed and she could see the extensive bruising to his torso. There wasn’t a part of him that wasn’t black and blue and his arms and legs were no better. Being a nurse she thought she was prepared for what she would see but knowing it was Todd, she was shaken.

The nurse working on Todd, taking his blood pressure, lifted her head and with a surprised frown said ‘Bec?’

As the woman spoke Rebecca dragged her gaze away to look at her and pulling her focus back from her brother she cleared her throat. Moving further into the room she said ‘Hannah, hi. How is he?’

Hannah was a petite blonde, who was stronger than her small frame suggested. Still frowning she said ‘do you know him?’

Rebecca nodded and a tear slid down her cheek. As she wiped it away she said in a quiet voice ‘he’s my brother.’

‘On my god’ Hannah said ‘I’m sorry Bec. I didn’t know. He’ll be okay though. His injuries aren’t life threatening although Ian said he would like to see him regain consciousness soon.’

‘What’s the damage’ Rebecca asked, taking a deep breath and pulling herself together.

‘Ian will be back in a minute’ Hannah said ‘he’ll fill you in. How did you find out he was here? The ambo’s gave us a name, we assumed that came from someone at the scene because he had no Id on him. The uniforms that came in with him didn’t have any other details either.’

‘A friend’ Rebecca said not quite truthfully. She didn’t consider Jake a friend nor did she want him as one. ‘He’s a cop. He was called to the scene and recognised Todd. He called to let me know.’

Hannah nodded and turned her attention back to her patient as Dr Ian Nichols entered the room.