Intransigent

Intransigent | 10

Chapter 10

Emma's POV

"Do these injuries cover your body?" the doctor asked, her tone gentle and comforting as she started going through her bag. She was sitting on her knees next to the couch so that she could easily reach my stomach.

I simply nodded for an answer.

"Okay, well I'm Doctor Stage and I'm going to need you to remove your clothes for me and I'll make sure none of them are going to cause any problems, okay?"

I nodded again, and the doctor helped me remove my pants and sweatshirt so that I didn't aggravate the wound in my stomach too much. When they were off, the doctor rocked back, taking in the cuts, scrapes, bruises and scars that covered every inch of my body. Her eyes filled with sympathy.

"You poor thing, what happened to you?" she asked, bewildered as to how anyone could come to this much abuse.

"It's a long story," I told her with a sardonic smile.

She remained silent as she organized her bag some more before she turned back to my stomach. "This one seems to be the worst," she said, gesturing to it. "It will need some stitches to help reduce the scarring and to make it heal faster. I'm going to give you a shot of painkillers and then I'll get to work, alright?"

I nodded in agreement. At least there were painkillers. The doctor at Max's pack just stitched me up without them and he wasn't very gentle about it either. I swear every person in that pack is a sadistic bastard.

The painkillers worked fast. The pain from the beatings I'd endured faded within ten minutes and I smiled at Doctor Stage in thanks. She smiled back, but hers faded as she grabbed some cleaning stuff and turned her attention to my stomach.

I watched her in fascination as she carefully cleaned my stomach, removing not only the fresh blood, but the rest of the scab as well, telling me that it would only make the stitching process more complicated if she left it. She used some sterile rinse and squirted it inside the wound before getting to work stitching it back up, finally satisfied that it was clean enough to do so.

I watched the entire time. Needles and the like no longer bother me and it was kind of fascinating to watch the gaping cut get pulled together in one neat line. I could already tell that she'd greatly reduced the size of that scar. The others would remain huge and ugly, but that one would at least be neater than the others.

Nothing else required stitches, but Doctor Stage spent a long time making sure that all of the scrapes and smaller cuts were very clean, muttering about dirt and bacteria the entire time. When she was satisfied everything was clean, she placed a bandage over my stomach, then wrapped my torso in some thick gauze layers, and added a tight ace bandage around it for support.

"The cut across your stomach should heal within a couple days, but I want it cleaned and rewrapped twice a day," she told me. "I'll leave the supplies with Ashton and he can make sure it happens."

"Thank you so much, Doctor," I told her, giving her a small smile of thanks.

She smiled back and leaned down to hug me gently. "We'll take care of you here, dear. There's nothing to worry about anymore."

I knew that now, but hearing her say it made me feel even more relieved. Rick and I had escaped and we were going to see our families again. I couldn't wait. Hopefully Ashton will let me call my dad when these painkillers wear down a little and I can move around better.

The doctor went out into the hallway where everyone was waiting and gave Ashton my diagnosis. I stood up and decided to put my clothes back on while I tried to listen to the conversation Doctor Stage was having with Ashton, Dane and Rick. It wasn't hard to hear as they were talking at a normal volume.