Iris

Lana's Heart

Chapter 3 - Lana's Heart

Present Time

"You might never be able to regain full mobility, if you regain it at all."

"What are my chances?" the soft voice asked nervously.

"The bullet came really close to rupturing through your spinal cord, but by some miracle.

Well......" he let the sentence drift and he gestured to her.

"The swelling that had reoccurred near your spinal cord has deceased and hopefully by the end of the week it will be completely gone. I would like you to start intensive physical therapy next month, so we can get you out of that wheelchair. I want you using a walker at the very least within the next six months."

"Matthew I want to walk within the next six months."

"I thought you might be interested in reconstructive surgery to___"

"No," the voice was firm.

"Don't you want to___"

"No. I'm not going to have reconstructive surgery Matthew. We've had this discussion and I haven't changed my mind. I am going to look in the mirror everyday and I'm not going to forget what those monsters did to me," the voice was hard.

"I had just thought that you might want to move on and put all of this behind you."

"I will never leave this behind me. I will never forget. I will never forgive. They took my past and I want to know why. Could you Matthew, simply move on?" one of her eyebrows went up.

"Do you remember what I looked like when I first came here? I do. Could you forget?"

Matthew sighed looking at the woman sitting before him. She had come a long way.

"Three years to be exact Matthew," she almost laughed at the look on his face

"Don't worry Matthew I am not a mind reader," she smiled and her face softened. She has learnt to read body language quite well over the years, the subtle changes in facial expressions that people didn't even realise had occurred.

Matthew could see the beauty in that face, behind the scars, behind the anger, there was something special and exceptional about her. Though he knew that some people would never be able to see past those scars and she would never let them in so they could see the beauty of her heart. Matthew focused on the scars objectively. She really did need the reconstructive surgery.

Three years ago she had been a mess. A shattered cheekbone and the legacy was a slight sinking in her right cheek and a small web of scars. They had tried to stitch it as best as they could, knowing that they could offer her plastic surgery. Matthew had never dreamed that she would refuse. A broken jaw, hundreds of small deep lacerations made by a blunt instrument all over her legs and arms. Her ovaries had been severely scarred in a surgical procedure and they had been unable to save one and the other was useless. She would never have her own children.

There had also been fading and new bruises all over her body. The bullet wound near her spinal cord had been untreated for weeks before they had found her. He had seen a lot of wounds in his career as a doctor, he had also seen torture victims. This young lady had been a torture victim. There had been severe trauma. It was after two years of major operations that she had shown strong signs of recovery. She had also said her first words then. Her memory had not returned. They had tried everything from therapy to hypnosis. His professional opinion had been inconclusive, personally as strange as it sounded, he thought she had suffered a memory wipe. Stranger than that is the fact that only particular memories had been targeted.