Page 2 of Heal
"Not her. I don't want her to touch me." The girl pointed at Fran.
Beau nodded. "That's okay. No one is going to touch you without your permission, but we'd like to make sure that you're okay. Will you allow one of our nurses to examine you?" He nodded to the two nurses on the other side of the bed. They were trained to handle sexual assault cases, and while they couldn't treat any major injuries the way he could, they could obtain the things needed for a rape kit.
"No!" The girl shook her head.
"What's your name?" Beau asked.
The girl clamped her lips shut as she closed her eyes. Tears leaked from the corners of them.
"What can we do to make you more comfortable?"
"Where's my brother?" The girl leaned up on her elbows and looked around.
"Was he with you?" Beau asked.
She nodded. "He's only ten."
"There are three more coming in the other ambulances from where you were. I'm sure he is one of them. As soon as we make sure you are both okay, I'll make sure you see him." He prayed the patient with rectal injuries wasn't her brother.
"I'm okay, but he isn't. I need to be there for him." She tried to sit up, but the bindings around her chest held her to the gurney.
"Easy. Let's get you transferred to a hospital bed, then you can move better. We need to make sure you're okay first, but I promise once we do, you can see your brother." Beau wondered if it was a family member who did this to them.
"I'm not hurt." She waved her hand over her body.
"Will you let one of us make sure?" He was sure the paramedics wouldn't have brought her here if she wasn't hurt or a possible rape victim.
The young girl looked around at the faces surrounding her. "You do it. Not her." She again pointed at Fran.
Fran gave him a simple nod. She wouldn't be offended. They would do whatever helped to make the patient comfortable.
"I'm going to need a nurse with me. Will that be okay?" Beau asked softly.
"I don't want any of them." The girl motioned to the female nurses around.
"Fran, grab Bobby for me." If the girl didn't want females in the room, Bobby was the only male nurse on duty. He wasn't trained in handling sexual assaults, but Beau didn't need him to be. He only needed a second person there, because the law stated he couldn't treat a female patient alone. They liked to always have a female present when examining a young girl, but for some reason, this girl didn't want females around.
A second later, Bobby ran up. "Did you need me?"
Beau nodded as he glanced at the girl again. "Will you let the two of us examine you?"
The girl took a deep breath as she glanced around again. "Yeah, if I can be with Jeff when he gets here."
"I promise you can see him as soon as we make sure you're both okay. But until we examine you both, you'll have to wait, okay?" Beau was already leading the gurney into the exam room.
"He's hurt. I know he is. I saw him." Tears filled her eyes.
Beau waited until the paramedics had wheeled their gurney out of the room and the girl was situated on the bed before speaking. "I know he's hurt, and we're going to do everything we can to help him, but first, I need to worry about you. I know you didn't want Dr. Fran to help you, but I need to examine your whole body. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have a female do this?"
The girl shook her head. "That doctor, she looks like the lady who…" Tears started to flow again.
Beau pushed back his anger at what the girl was implying. "It's okay. I understand. You don't have to talk to me about anything that happened if you don't want to, but I am going to have to do a full exam, and that means I'm going to have to—"
"I know what you have to do. It's okay. Just get it done so I can be with Jeff." The girl closed her eyes as if bracing herself for the intrusive exam.
"Will you tell me your name?" Beau moved slowly as he slid a prepped cart closer to him.
Bobby stood back several feet, waiting for instruction.
