ᵒⁿᵉ ᶜʰⁱᶜᵃᵍᵒ ˢᵗᵒʳⁱᵉˢ

Rayleigh

Rayleigh just got done with helping a patient, handing the chart to the other charts and getting ready to have a new one. Letting out a small sigh, she pushes her bangs out of her eyes a little bit while Rayleigh looks over at the chart in her hands.

"Rayleigh, you're going to Treatment Three!"

Rayleigh puts down the chart she had in her hand and rushes up to the patient, grabbing gloves on the way.

"What do we got?"

"Amana Hernandez, sixteen-year-old female, raped and manic." Aina, the paramedic, replied to her. "GCS 13. Couldn't quite get vitals when we picked her up and drove here. She was thrashing around and almost punched me in the face."

"That's okay, we can try and get vitals here," Rayleigh replies and they turn to Treatment Three and they roll up next to the bed. "Alright, transfer on my count. One, two, three!" They transfer the patient, and she shrieks and begins thrashing again. "Soft restraints. Let's get her vitals!" Rayleigh instructs the nurses.

"Rayleigh, do you need help?" Natalie asks coming in. Rayleigh looks up and nods. "Alright, let's get a CMP, BMP, Coags, HCG, urine tox and blood tests."

"No!" shouts the patient trying to thrash again but she was restrained. "Leave me alone!"

"Amana, it's okay," Rayleigh spoke to her gently. "We're only trying to help. We need three milligrams of Ativan to calm her down."

"Yes, Doctor." Doris spoke grabbing the meds and putting in her arm and Amana begins calming down. "She's calm."

"Alright, let's grab vitals." Natalie begins as they were getting the vitals.

Doris looks at the screen. "BP 100/70, Heartrate 110, Stats at 99%." Doris tells both Doctors as the two women nod towards the nurse.

"Natalie," Rayleigh looks at her friend. "What should we do? Since I sedated her, we can't do a rape kit without consent."

"No..." The young girl, Amana, cried out gently. "No rape kit! No police!"

Rayleigh and Natalie both look at her worriedly, and then look back at one another. "Get Dr. Charlies, Kaylin should be with him. We can get a statement and maybe they can convince her to do a rape kit."

Rayleigh nodded and then begins walking down to Dr. Charles's office. Rayleigh began thinking about her case, she couldn't remember much of what happened with her other than she was raped, defiled and beaten nearly to death if she hadn't escape. She tries so hard to remember, but for some reason she can't. Kevin has been wonderful to help her when she cries and screams in the middle of the night. Shaking her head, she knocks on the door.

Rayleigh opens the door and looks at both the head psychiatrist and the detective. "Excuse me, Dr. Charles, I have a patient upstairs that needs a consult and a police officer."

She saw Kaylin stand up and grab her things from Dr. Charles. "What's going on?"

"She's a teenager, raped. I sedated her for the treatment and blood work. But I'm wondering if she can get an eval to make sure she's in her right mind." Rayleigh informed Kaylin who nods putting her badge on her pants and her gun at her side. "I tried talking to her, but she became erratic and manic."

"Alright," Kaylin started looking at Rayleigh. "Let's go."

⋆ ★

Walking up to the patient's room, Rayleigh began feeling nervous. Her stomach was churning, and butterflies were flying around her stomach. When they made it to the room, Rayleigh walked in first, then Kaylin and Dr. Charles.

"Amana, this is Dr. Charles and Detective Benson. I asked him to consult, and she needs to take your statement to take down what happened."

"I told you I didn't want the police involved!" Amana screamed at her. "There's nothing they can do to stop what had happened!!"

Rayleigh began shutting down, Kaylin could sense it and she touches her arm and then walks towards Amana. "Listen," Kaylin began but Amana shakes her head. "I know this hard, but I assure you this is a normal reaction from anyone who has trauma from what happened." Rayleigh looks at her, Rayleigh remembers Kaylin talking to her like this as well. She remembers that Kaylin used to be Special Victims back in New York with her mom, so she knew how to talk to people about this kind of stuff.

"You see Dr. Strife there," Rayleigh who stares at Kaylin, as does Dr. Charles and Amana. "You see, she was gone for weeks, and it was hard for us to find her. When she escaped her rapists, she ran to our Chicago Fire Department, and they brought her here. She had extensive injuries but that didn't stop her. To this day, she is trying to remember who did it to her."

Amana looked to Rayleigh who looked depressed and almost disassociated. She knew why Kaylin brought this up, she was trying to let Amana know she wasn't alone. But the trauma was still there. Amana frowns and looks down. "It's been a while, but we haven't given up on her case and we're still working on it. Just like with you -- we won't give up on you." Kaylin assures her. "So, again, Amana, let me ask you some questions."

Amana looks up at Rayleigh and she looks back at her. Rayleigh then feels Amana touch her hand making her look at her patient shocked. Dr. Charles smiles and quietly excuses himself and Kaylin nods his way. Swallowing thickly, Rayleigh squeezes her hand gently. "I'm so sorry that happened to you, Dr. Strife." Amana spoke to her making Rayleigh sadly smile at her. "I know you were trying to help. But -- after all this happened. I freaked out."

"It's okay, like Kaylin said -- it's a normal response. I was honestly the same way." Rayleigh admitted to her. "But -- thanks to Kaylin, I have been able to live my life. Sure, it's been hard, but I'm living for today."

Amana sadly smiles, she then looks towards Kaylin. "I'm ready to tell you what I know and what happened."

"Alright, whenever you're ready, Amana."

⋆ ★

"You okay?" asks Kevin stopping in front of her when he came to pick her up.

Rayleigh turns around seeing him stop in front of her. It was the end of her shift, and she was ready to go home. "Yeah, let me grab my things."

"Alright, where do you wanna go to eat?"

Rayleigh thinks a little bit and looks at him really quick. "Chinese."

"You got it, baby."

Rayleigh smiles and goes to grab her things. Her phone vibrates and she brings it up seeing her mom's number flashing on the screen. She shakes her head and silences her phone and puts it in her pocket. She wasn't ready. She'll never be ready. But fate has other plans, right?