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‘Aw, shucks, lad. You’ll have a grand time. The nurses will spoil you rotten.’
Leaving them to it, Molly headed for Kath Burgess’s cubicle, only to have Hazel, the only female doctor on duty, call from the hub, ‘Molly, I want you with me when I examine Kath. She’s spent time with you already, and I think it’s important not to bring in too many new faces since you managed to calm her down.’
‘I agree.’ The woman had been distraught when she’d arrived, clutching her stomach like it was going to split open, howling that she might be losing her baby. It had taken ages to quieten her enough to get some obs done.
‘We all heard the commotion and our first instinct was to crowd in to see what we could do, until it quickly became obvious that the screeching was lowering to sobs and you had the situation under control. Nathan and I decided not to interfere unless you called for help. We didn’t want to fire her up again.’ Hazel was reading the triage notes.
‘Thank goodness you did. She refuses to be seen by a male doctor.’ That’d immediately put Molly on notice, wondering if Kath had been abused by a man, but when she’d tried to find out she had been told she’d fallen down the stairs at the back of her house. Molly had gone straight to Hazel to explain her concerns, but as Hazel had been about to suture a deep wound in a young male’s thigh, she’d flagged Kath’s notes instead and kept an eye out for whoever might be going into the cubicle.
‘That doesn’t sound good,’ Hazel commented as she led the way into the small space where Kath lay curled up on the bed, a bunch of tissues clasped in her hand.
Closing the curtains, Molly watched Kath closely as Hazel asked questions about what had brought her to hospital.
‘I fell down the steps.’
‘You’re complaining of abdominal pain. How did that happen?’
‘There was a toolbox there, all right?’ Kath’s voice was rising. ‘I must’ve landed on that.’
‘You don’t know for sure?’
‘I did.’ Tears streamed down the woman’s face.
Molly’s heart went out to her. If only she could hug her and say, ‘Tell us everything, and we’ll get you help’—but she knew where that’d lead. The police would have to be informed, and social services would send someone to help. Kath had to be ready for what that involved. It wasn’t as easy as someone who hadn’t been abused would believe. Of course, Molly could be wrong, but she doubted it. It was like looking into her own eyes from the past.
When Molly had removed the sheet covering Kath and lowered her jeans and panties, she stepped aside for Hazel’s examination, talking softly to Kath about anything that didn’t broach the subject of her husband.
Finally Hazel straightened and pulled up Kath’s clothes. ‘You’re not miscarrying. But I want you to remain in bed for the next few days, at least until the pain subsides. There’s still a risk of miscarriage.’
‘He won’t be happy,’ their patient said in a dead voice.
‘About you staying in bed, or about not losing the baby?’ Molly asked softly.
‘What do you think?’
Both, if she was on the right page. But she kept quiet. Kath was getting wound up again. Better to keep her calm and only mention help was available if she was receptive.
Molly opened the curtains so they could keep an eye on her from the hub.
‘Hey, you can’t come in here without permission,’ Hank said loudly from the other end of the department.
‘Try and stop me,’ came the angry voice of an unknown male.
‘Come here,’ Hank demanded.
‘Where is she?’
Kath gasped, ‘No,’ and curled in on herself.
Molly asked, ‘Someone you know?’
‘My man. He’s been drinking since early afternoon.’
Great. Just what they needed. The sound of curtains being jerked open and sliding doors rammed back made her skin crawl. He was getting closer, and it wouldn’t be long before he found who he was looking for.
‘Stop right there,’ Hank ordered.
‘This is going to be fun,’ Hazel muttered.
‘Stop. You are disturbing our patients.’ Nathan stood at the central counter, hands tense at his sides, his feet planted slightly apart. ‘Tell me who you’ve come to see and I’ll check if you can visit.’
‘You’ve got my wife hiding in here. I’m going to find her. Now,’ the man shouted.
Kath buried her head under the pillow.
Then her husband stormed into the cubicle, the rage in his face terrifying. ‘Get out of my way,’ he yelled at Hazel, raising a fist.
It was instinctive. Molly saw movement out of the corner of her eye. One step closed the gap. Her arm came up, locked with the assailant’s. Using his forward motion she hauled him toward her, dropped her weight forward and swung her upper body around, taking him with her, dropping him to the floor before landing on top of him, her knees pressing into his shoulders, her hand still tight around his lower arm.
Silence fell over the department.
Then the man began swearing. He struggled beneath her, trying to push her off, getting madder by the second.
She was about to be tossed aside by a raging man who had no brakes on his temper. Then Nathan planted a foot firmly in the small of the man’s back. ‘Stay still.’ Under his breath he added, ‘Or, hell, you’re going to regret it.’
She was probably the only person to hear that. Certainly the man underneath her either hadn’t or didn’t believe Nathan because he was still trying to get up.
Then Hank grabbed the man’s flailing arms and slammed them down on the floor. ‘Shut up, buster.’
Nathan tapped her lightly. ‘You can get off now. We’ve got him.’
She did, fast, not taking her eyes off her opponent until she’d stepped away. ‘Has someone called Security?’ Where had they been when this guy had got into the department? Taking a break? At least one security guard had to remain at the main entrance at all times.
‘Right here.’ Two uniformed men raced towards them and took over.
‘You okay?’ Nathan asked, his hand on her elbow.
‘Sure.’ She nodded.
‘Molly, he was going to hit me.’ Hazel nudged Nathan aside to throw her arms around her and hold tight. ‘I froze when I saw his arm come up.’
Molly squeezed back, a trembling starting up in her belly and spreading throughout her body. ‘Glad I didn’t.’
Hazel stepped back and wiped her eyes. ‘Seriously, you saved me. He was aiming for my face.’
‘You reacted so fast, it had to be instinctive. I’m impressed.’ There was something akin to awe in Nathan’s voice as his hand moved from her elbow to her shoulder. ‘Come and sit down. You look like you’ve been hit by a bus.’
Now that the adrenaline was ebbing, that was exactly how she felt. Flattened. Shocked. ‘I can’t believe I did that.’
‘How’d you know what to do?’ Nathan asked after he had her seated and parked his butt on the counter. ‘One second that man was attacking Hazel and the next you threw him on the floor and sat on him.’
‘Not quite. I had my knees on his shoulders.’ She gulped. That had been so close. Not once had she thought about what she was doing. When she’d caught sight of that swinging arm out of the corner of her eye the rest had followed naturally. As she’d been taught to do in her judo classes. If only she’d done martial arts when she’d been with Paul, she might have stopped him in his tracks permanently. ‘I saw a movement and instantly went into defence mode. I’ve got an orange belt in judo,’ she added when she saw the confusion enter Nathan’s eyes.
‘That explains it.’ Maybe, but that confusion remained.
Molly hastened to divert him. ‘I’ve always wondered how I’d react if I needed to. Now I know.’
‘Why did you learn judo?’ Straight to the point.<
