Invisible String

Chapter 5: Moving On

🦷

If terrible couldn't even try to describe what being committed in a psych ward against your own will, she couldn't find a word to describe what was happening to that girl.

Both Will and Natalie had been working on a teenager that was having a bunch of issues and at some point had to be intubated in a rush and was moved to the ICU, so she was called to do an evaluation after the intubation, to check for possible broken teeth or any other problem.

"HSV, really?" she asked the nurse while reading the chart. "Poor kid."

"Yeah." nurse Amanda nodded, telling her how they discovered the encephalitis, and then they suspected she had been assaulted too. The pelvic exam confirmed it and then the police were called in. "They were just here collecting evidence."

Discreetly, she looked outside the patient room; the girl's parents were pacing around, looking devastated. Allison was 13. How could she be only 13 and being put through something like that?

The nurse stayed in silence while she did the exam. When she finished, she saw Jay pull Will and Natalie into a room. She waved at them through the glass and motioned to the tablet in her hands, asking if she could talk to them before putting down her notes on Allison's chart. Will gestured for her to come in.

"Hey there." Lizzie greeted, opening the door. "Here. Her mom said she just put on braces, so we just have to keep an eye so the wires don't hurt her mouth or the brackets don't get loose and fall."

"Allison did just get her braces on." Natalie repeated.

"Yeah. Mom said about last week or so. Why?"

"So she could've gotten the triazolam there?" Jay asked Will.

"Dentists also sometimes use triazolam. Right?"

"Yeah, but usually not for braces. I don't see why..." she stopped when she saw Jay's expression changing. "Oh." was all she could say as Jay left, probably to go after his new suspect.

And just like that, what was terrible became even worse.

So after she got done with her patients for the day, she lingered around, waiting for updates on Allison, if she was improving, if she was closer to waking up, if the police were closer to catching who did it to her.

She felt relieved when she heard they had extubated her and she was awake.

Silently, she watched as Will came to talk to Allison's mother, while Natalie was talking to Jeff, the med student that usually was around the ED.

"Jay just told me, they got the guy."

"Great." She hoped the guy would rot in jail. Doing something like that to a little girl, a patient that trusted him to take care of her?

Elizabeth breathed in, breathed out. She was relieved about the outcome of this case, and even more relieved that this day was finally over.

"Nina, Lizzie and I are gonna meet Jay at Molly's. You want to join?" she heard Will invite Natalie as they were wrapping up things to leave. "Put this day behind us?"

"Yeah. That sounds great. Uh, I just... I have to do something first, so I'll meet you guys there."

"Okay." he smiled as he watched Natalie walk away. Then he rolled his eyes when she saw how Elizabeth was looking at him. "Don't." he warned.

"Okay, I won't." she raised her hands in surrender. "But try not to look at her like that when we're sitting with your girlfriend at the table."

🦷