CHAPTER THREE
questions and answers
tw: mentions of sexual assault
THE WHEELS OF HIS CAR CAME TO A SCREECHING stop as Diego Hargreeves slammed his foot down on the brake pedal, the noise causing a few heads to turn and a series of gasps to sound. He didn't even care if this parking spot wasn't meant for patients, all he cared about right now was the unconscious woman bleeding out in his backseat.
Diego cut the engine and jumped out of the car, immediately ripping open the back door and carefully lifting the woman into his arms, being mindful of her wounds. He used his leg to shut the car door before running towards the entrance that read EMERGENCY ROOM in bright, red letters. The doors were automatic and opened the moment he reached them, allowing him to get inside with very little trouble.
Once inside, he began shouting for help.
"Help!" Diego cried, desperately looking around for someone, anyone, that could save her life before it was too late. "Somebody help! She's been shot!"
A male nurse ran over, eyes widening at the sight of all the blood and how pale the woman's skin was. He knew it was because of the amount of blood she had lost. And that was never a good sign in these cases. "Follow me," he said, quickly walking away.
Diego wordlessly followed the male nurse down a hallway and into a room marked TRAUMA 3. He carefully placed the woman down on the bed inside and took a step back as another nurse and a doctor rushed through the doors and began examining her wounds, checking for the source of bleeding.
"What happened?" The doctor asked as they began cutting away at the woman's coat and shirt, leaving her in nothing but her bra.
Diego tried not to look at her body, giving the woman the respect and privacy she deserved. Especially after everything she had just been through in that dark alley. But he was too worried to take his eyes off of her. His eyes were glued to her stomach, specifically the bullet hole, as more and more blood spilled from the wound.
"GSW to the lower abdomen," the male nurse quickly explained.
The doctor removed his stethoscope from around his neck and carefully listened to the woman's breathing. It took a moment for him to hear anything, her pulse was dangerously weak and barely audible. But when he finally heard the way she was breathing, he realized that the bullet had likely punctured one of her lungs. He just hoped it didn't hit bone and fragment as well.
A third nurse ushered Diego out of the room, but he didn't put up a fight, allowing himself to be removed from the room. He didn't want to leave the woman alone, but Diego knew the doctors needed space to work, and they couldn't do that if he was in the way.
Once they were standing in the hallway, the nurse began asking him what happened so she could then relay the information to the doctor and other nurses inside the room.
"Oh, uh, I-I found her in an alley," Diego quickly explained. "She was being attacked by these drunk assholes. They had her pinned to the ground and were going to . . ." He found it hard to say that word, as he still couldn't believe that someone was actually capable of doing such a thing. It made him sick to his stomach just thinking about what could have happened to her if he hadn't been there to stop those men.
Diego could still hear the way she was screaming, the way she was crying, the way she was fighting so hard to get away. He can still hear those men and their laughter. Just thinking about them made his hands ball into tight fists, and he fought the urge to turn around and punch a hole in the wall.
The nurse knew what Diego was implying and she frowned immediately. She turned to look through the windows of the trauma room at the woman on the table with a grim expression, before looking at him again. "Do you remember anything else?"
"One of them had a gun," Diego continued. "They shot her." His face fell, as did his heart. "I couldn't stop it from happening. I tried to stop the bleeding, but . . . hey, is she going to be okay?" He suddenly noticed how pale the woman looked and that only made him worry even more.
"I don't know." The nurse was honest, and he appreciated that. Most people lied to make you feel better, got your hopes up, but this nurse wasn't like that. "She's going to need surgery, by the looks of it. But I can't say whether she will be okay or not, sir. The bullet punctured her lung, and we need to make sure it hasn't done any serious damage. Why don't you wait in the lobby and I'll update you as soon as I can? I'm sure the police will want to ask you some questions when they get here, anyway."
Diego wordlessly nodded, hesitantly turning away from the trauma room. His feet carried him toward the lobby, where he sat in a chair and dropped his face into his blood-stained hands. He replayed the moment in the alley over and over again in his head, and as he closed his eyes, he hoped that the woman would be okay.
Because he wouldn't be able to live with himself if she died.
Eventually, the police showed up, just as the nurse said they would. And much to Diego's surprise, it was Detective Eudora Patch, a friend of his that had gotten him out of trouble on more than one occasion. The moment she saw him, Eudora crossed her arms and shook her head.
"Don't tell me you were involved in the alley case," Eudora said. His silence gave her the answer she hoped wasn't true, and she sighed heavily, uncrossing her arms. "Of course you were."
"I couldn't just stand by, Patch," Diego defended his actions. "What would you have me do, let that woman die there in that alley like that?"
"Was it your gun at the crime scene?" Eudora asked, pulling out her pad and clicking her pen so she could get every answer she was looking for.
"No, it wasn't," Diego answered. "You know I only use knives."
Eudora eyed him carefully. She could tell that he was speaking nothing but the truth. "Alright," she said. "So tell me what happened, then. And don't leave out a single detail, Diego. I want to know everything that happened in that alley."
Diego nodded, and then he took a deep breath, and he told her everything that happened. Not leaving out a single detail, as she requested. And by the time he finished, Eudora looked sick to her stomach, just like the nurse had when he told her.
"Jesus," she muttered under breath.
"Yeah," Diego nodded and looked down, a grim expression on his face.
"It's a good thing you were there," Eudora told him, her voice sincere. "Otherwise, who knows what kind of condition that she might have been found in. She's alive because of you, Diego."
"Maybe," Diego frowned.
"Hey, don't do that," Eudora said with a shake of her head. "I've seen people survive a lot worse. You can't give up on her now. Not after you fought to protect her life, her virtue, in that alley."
"The bullet punctured her lung, Eudora," Diego said. "She couldn't even breathe. And she . . ." He rubbed a hand over his face. "She was bleeding everywhere."
Eudora shook her head. "You can't think like that, Diego," she told him. "Negative thoughts won't help. And you can't blame yourself if she . . . if she doesn't make it. This isn't your fault."
"But it is," Diego said, his voice cracking just the slightest. Just loud enough for Eudora to hear and look at him with sad eyes. "It is my fault. She was shot because of me. She can't breathe and lost all of that blood because of me."
"And she's alive right now, in a hospital, surrounded by doctors that are helping her, and not stuck out there, alone in the rain, freezing in some dark alley with half her clothes on," Eudora said. "Because of you, Diego. You saved her life tonight."
Diego didn't say anything in response, he just looked down at the ground.
"Do you know who she is?" Eudora asked after a moment. "Her name, where she works, anything about her that might help?"
He looked up, meeting her eyes. "No," he said, shaking his head. "No, I don't know her. But, uh, I grabbed her bag when I put her in my car. She's probably got some I.D. in there or something. I'll go get it."
Without waiting for Eudora to respond, Diego left through the doors he had come through and he found his car still parked in the same spot as before. He walked over and opened up the back door, and he froze at the sight of all the blood. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Diego leaned down and grabbed the woman's bag and then he rushed back inside the hospital doors and made his way back to the lobby, where Eudora was waiting for him.
Eudora turned when she saw him, and she pulled on a pair of latex gloves before digging into the bag to take a look at what was inside. Immediately, she found the wallet, and she opened it up, finding a driver's license, a credit card, two insurance cards, three photographs, and some other cards that were for a local library, Starbucks, and even Subway. She looked at the driver's license first so that she could get a name of the victim.
"Sophie Torres-Kepp," Eudora read out loud for him to hear. "Hyphenated name. Could be married or divorced. Was she wearing a ring?"
"No," Diego replied. Then he thought really hard for a moment. He couldn't remember a ring. But then again, he didn't really focus on her hands. He was more concerned about the bullet in her stomach. "Or, well, I . . I don't remember. Maybe?"
Eudora nodded and went for the photographs next. The first one was of the woman, Sophie, holding a cat. She had a big smile on her face as she kissed the cat's head. The next was a little girl that could easily be a younger version of Sophie. She was in the arms of a man with dark hair, and there was another man standing next to them, his arm wrapped around the other man's shoulder. They looked so happy together. And then the last photograph was of Sophie with a group of children, presumably outside at a school. She noticed that Sophie was wearing some kind of identification badge on her cardigan, and assumed she must be a teacher.
"She likes cats," Eudora told Diego, showing him the photographs one at a time. "She might even have two fathers, which could explain the hyphenated name. Looks like she's a school teacher, too. I'll have to look into her file just to make sure."
Diego nodded, handing her the photographs back, and he watched as Eudora put everything back into the wallet and then she hooked the bag underneath her arm and walked off to speak with one of the nurses or hopefully a doctor so that she could get an update on Sophie Torres-Kepp and how severe her injuries were.
When she came back, Diego was sitting in a chair, and Eudora shared the information with him. "She's still in surgery. The nurse doesn't know how long it's going to be. Could be hours yet."
Diego nodded, his eyes closing briefly. He took that as good news, because for now, Sophie was alive. She was in surgery, getting help. Now all he could do was sit there and wait, and hope that she made it out of surgery alive and well and with very minimal damage to her respiratory system.
a/n: i don't know about you, but the way diego cares this much about sophie already just hits so hard 😩