Consequences

Part 85

Doug wasn't sure quite what to expect. But this wasn't it. At the reception desk he'd been asked for identification. After he'd provided it he'd asked to see Isabelle. The receptionist directed him to a waiting room. He wasn't the only one waiting to see her. There were six women and a couple of children already in the waiting room. He took a chair. They others in the room looked at him with a mixture of suspicion and wariness. He offered what he hoped was a warm smile. That seemed to make them even more nervous.

Her office door was open, and they could all hear the argument going on. None seemed to take any notice.

"It isn't going to close." Isabelle repeated, in the same calm tone he'd heard her use a few seconds ago.

"Yeah right. You haven't got a job. What are you going to do, sell your house?"

"We'll manage." Isabelle repeated and kept her voice calm and her tone soft.

"Yeah, that's why Cindy has to find another job." The young male voice accused.

"Things are tight at the moment, but that doesn't mean we are closing this place." She was going to make sure this place remained viable, she just needed to work on her cash flow situation.

"Mum has nearly finished her studying. You told her to study. What happens to her if you close now? How will she finish?" The young boy demanded.

"She'll finish." Isabelle said gently.

"I should have left school, we could have had some money come in. Now she'll go back on the game. She'll..."

"Sam!" Isabelle interrupted before he worked himself up into a state. "She won't." Isabelle sighed and made sure the young boy could see that Isabelle meant what she was saying, "And you leaving school and getting work doesn't help her. Not in the long run. She needs to be independent, not rely on you, or another man to support her and your family. Say you got a job, and heaven forbid but you got hurt, she'd still be vulnerable. With qualifications she can take charge of her life."

"Yeah, but what if..."

"We aren't closing Sam. I admit we have had to tighten our belts, but Rina is still working, so the rent for this place is covered, and between us we can manage the place. I don't want you to worry about your mother. You need to finish school. Your mother wants that too. You have my word. This place isn't closing, ok? Now go check on your brother and sister, and then go to bed."

Doug heard some muffled talk, then a young boy of about 14 or 15 walked out of the office and one of the women walked in and closed the door behind her. By this point two other women had joined the line. Doug's words returned to haunt him. He'd practically accused Isabelle of being lazy, the first time they'd met. Now he could understand why she was tired. If she'd put in a night like this, come morning she would be exhausted. And she was still recovering from the flu. What was she doing here? She should be at home in bed.

Ten minutes later the woman left, and a young boy walked in to the office. She left the door open. Once again everyone in the outer waiting room was party to her conversation. And so it went. When an adult went into the room the door was shut, but with the children, unless they went in with an adult, the door was left open. Some two hours later, Doug had nearly made it to the front of the line when Rhianna walked in, one hand holding a Moses basket, while her other hand had her medical bag.

"Hey." Rhianna said quietly, but the surprise was clear. "What are you doing here?" She looked around at the other faces, some that she recognized, others she didn't.

"Waiting my turn to see Isabelle." He got to his feet, kissed Rhianna on the cheek and asked with a smile, "What's your excuse?" He peered into the Moses basket and saw that her baby was fast asleep.

"I got an emergency call out. Marina is on night duty for the month, otherwise she usually takes these. Jethro's taking Mick down to Dunedin, so I dropped Travis at mum's but this little chap is stuck with me. He's still breast feeding." Rhianna glanced around again, then ushered Doug to the door, and lowered her voice as she told him, "I was going to pop in and say hi to Belle, but it looks like a busy night."

"Is it always like this?" His head nodded toward the group in the room.

Rhianna nodded. "Yeah. I think. Sometimes. I've only been helping for a few months. Marina and I do a clinic once a month, during the day, and once a month at night. So I don't really know how busy it gets at other times."

"You finished for the night?"

Rhianna nodded. She took note of the rest of the crowd in the room, "Look, I won't hang about, I'll head home. Could you tell Belle I said hi."

Doug nodded. "I'll walk you to the car." He couldn't imagine Jethro would be happy to know his wife was walking the streets by the docks at this time of the night.

Rhianna shook her head and smiled. "There's no need. Usually a couple of the women walk me to my car if I do a night shift."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. They are waiting for me at reception. I'm just parked across the street, so they won't have to walk me far, and you can see it from the reception desk." She knew this man well enough to know that he'd worry about her. That was just part of his nature. If you were family he would ensure you came first.

"It's no trouble you know. I can walk you to the car."

"I know. But I'm used to this routine. So are the women here. Sometimes they want to talk about stuff on the way to the car."

"Oh. Ok. If you're sure?"

Rhianna nodded. "Very."

"Take care." He said and then grinned, "Otherwise Jethro is likely to wring my neck if anything happened to you out there."

She checked on her son, then got up on tip toe to give Doug a quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry." She smiled and then with a quick goodbye she walked down the corridor.