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I watched him carefully. He knew about them. Knew that they were… knew he’d better not make a wrong goddamn move. Nyssa rose carefully as he stepped into the sitting room.
Vivienne spoke to her first. Then Nyssa. Only then did the doctor approach Bethany. I stayed where I was and watched. Bethany allowed her pulse to be taken. Blood pressure. Pupils checked. Temperature. Water offered. She drank when Nyssa put the glass beside her. Didn’t when the doctor did.
Interesting.
“She’s dehydrated,” the doctor said quietly.
“How badly?”
“Moderately.”
“Drugs?”
“Nothing obvious from presentation.”
“Obvious isn’t good enough.”
His eyes lifted to mine. “Then I’ll need blood and urine for anything definitive.”
“Do it.”
Bethany recoiled. Instantly. Her body folded inward.
Nyssa moved closer. “Stop.”
One word.
Everyone did.
Including me.
Nyssa looked at Bethany. “You don’t have to.”
The doctor nodded immediately. “Not tonight.”
My jaw clenched.
Evidence disappearing by the minute. I hated myself for thinking it. Bethany wasn’t evidence. She was a woman. One who’d already had enough people deciding what happened to her body.
“Any physical trauma?” I asked.
“Nothing significant. Some scrapes and bruises on her feet from walking, other than that it’d require a more invasive examination.”
The doctor paused.
He didn’t need to say the next part.
I did.
“Sexual assault?”
Nyssa’s head snapped toward me. Pain flashed across her face.
Fuck.
The doctor kept his voice neutral. “I can’t determine that without Bethany’s consent to an examination.”
“Then we don’t determine it.”
