Bad News One Shots

A&E

The rickety hospital bed jolted over the door frame, shooting pain through his broken body.

Lincoln groaned and he felt his mother squeeze his hand in sympathy.

The orderlies wheeled him back into a cubicle in the emergency department.  They had waited an age to go in for the X-rays. Lincoln didn't need X-rays to tell him he had broken some ribs; he'd had that experience before.

As the orderlies left, his mother Sophia sat down on the orange plastic chair by his head.

She stroked the hair out of his eyes.

"Close your eyes sweetie" she whispered, "The Doctors will be a while."

He did as she said.

---

Lincoln awoke to voices.

"I'm not sure" he heard his mother say, her voice nervous.

He opened his eyes and saw her standing next to the Dr who was holding up an X-ray.

"There are several older fractures Mrs Briggs...he would have been in a lot of pain..."

"He falls off his bike a lot" she said with hesitation.

"I see" said the Dr, his face sombre.

"A nurse will be back later to dress the wound on his forehead."

"Thank you Dr"

Sophia's face looked pale as she turned around towards her son.

"Mum" Lincoln tried to sit up, "Is everything ok?"

She forced a smile and sat next to him again. "Try to rest sweetie, everything will be fine"

Her eyes were weary as she spoke.

----

Sergeant Luca waited for the Doctor patiently.  He knew their jobs were fraught and he was happy to sit quietly with a cup of coffee for a few minutes, hearing the background noise of the hospital from outside the door.

He had heard the call on the radio and recognised the kid's name. Lincoln Taylor – unique and hard to forget. The look of fear on Lincoln's face the last time Luca had seen him had been harder to forget.

A young doctor opened the door and stuck his head in.

"I'm Dr Faris. Are you here for the child protection call?"

Luca stood whilst nodding and introduced himself.

"What is the situation?" he asked as Dr Faris came in and sat down opposite him.

"Kid came in with his mother, cuts and bruises on his face and body and X-rays confirmed 3 broken ribs." He took a breath. "The mother said that he had been beaten up by a gang."

The Dr opened the file in his hands and held up the X-rays.

"However when we got the X-ray films back, they show that there are older healed fractures on his ribs. There are also several scars on his back and burn marks on his chest. In my experience, these types of injuries are consistent with physical abuse."

Luca nodded solemnly.

"You don't seem surprised?" commented Dr Faris. "Jaded by this stuff over the years?"

Luca shook his head. "No, but I have run into this family before."

The Doctor nodded back knowingly.

"I spoke to the mother about the previous injuries and she seemed scared and gave me some line about him falling off his bike. These types of injuries would be near impossible to get from that."