Intertwined

The Nurse and the Defiant

A/N: Hello beautiful readers. Hope you're enjoying the story so far.
I have the next few chapters worked out in my head, but am busy with work and kids and life and trying to save to go from Australia to London for the Halloween Ball.

I will get chapters out as quick as I can.
As always please take care when reading. Here are your trigger warnings for this chapter:

Emetophobia, SA, Assault, descriptions of injury.

When Mia had to leave Charlotte to go to surgery she slowly slid down the wall next to the theatre. Maybe she could stay here until Char came out. Part of her wanted to imagine holding Char at home in the kitchen, listening to the girls play. Another part of her was too terrified to hold onto those images and she tried to shake them away. Mia buried her face in her knees bent up close to her chest.

She heard the doors near her open and saw the bottom of blue scrubs stop beside her. She felt irrationally angry, daring them to tell her to move so she could let off some steam. Blue scrubs sat down beside her. Mia looked up and saw the kind face of one of the parents from Char's room at the Nursery.
'Vivian,' Mia said softly.
'She's in the best possible hands, you know,' the dark haired woman tapped Mia's knee and rested her hand there. 'It's going to be a while though,'
'Can we just stay here for a bit longer? I'm not ready to go back out to everyone yet,' Vivian nodded.
'I'll come out with you if you like. When you're ready,' the nurse smiled to reassure the redhead.

'I'm scared,' Mia confessed. She didn't know Vivian well, but she had seen and heard her talk to Siobhan. Vivian was kind, but honest, bold and direct. Mia could relate to that kind of personality and felt comfortable she would be honest, 'Will Char be ok?'

Vivian looked thoughtful. She had an idea of specifics, because of what she had seen when Charlotte was brought in and her experience as a nurse, but some of that would depend on how the surgeries went tonight and the following weeks and months. So she decided on an honest but general explanation.

'Charlotte has external and internal injuries Mia. She has electrical burns and we won't know yet how that's affected some parts of her body. She will need surgeries for her burns, physical therapy,' the dark haired woman could see Mia's despair and decided to finish in a positive and gentle way, 'but she has the best support network a person could have and she has you and her girls,' Vivian was genuine in her hopefulness and it gave Mia some hope too.

'Thank you, Vivian,' the redhead gave a small smile to the nurse. They were both just sitting there silent for a while. Mia was exhausted and emotionally wrung out. The nurse had dealt with families and loved ones not knowing if their person was going to live or die and she knew Mia just needed a presence, an understanding presence.

Then Mia spoke, as being with Vivian reminded her of someone else, 'You know who helped us find Charlotte?'
'Hmm?' The nurse asked.
'Siobhan,' Vivian looked curious, but not surprised and Mia continued, 'she realised Roger's involvement,' this detail surprised the dark haired woman. 'It was really brave of her to come to us,' the nurse was relieved that Siobhan had finally done something to stand up to Mr persistent texter. 'He's been hurting her Viv,' Mia hadn't used Vivian's nickname before but it just came out naturally, like they could have been friends for a while.
'I figured he had been. All the signs are there,' Vivian swallowed and took a deep breath at the thought of someone hurting her, friend and also kind and gentle Charlotte that way. 'So he is somehow involved and in what happened to Charlotte?' Mia felt the colour drain from her face at the thought that Roger had hurt Char to punish her.
'Hmm. Hopefully he gets what is coming to him,' Mia clenched her fists. She needed to not speak for a while to calm down, as she didn't want to scream or cry.