Chapter 36

As that realisation sank in, bringing with it some very unwelcome suspicions, Kadie said a distracted goodbye to the busy nurse and turned to walk back to the waiting room. Richie? She’d have never taken him for a violent man, but how else would he know? If he and Billie were just friends, as he said, then how likely was it that she’d tell him something like that? Then, on the other hand, Kadie had encountered enough badly hurt or delirious patients to know that sometimes things were said that were never meant to be shared.

Just as she approached the waiting room door, she heard a voice close behind the panel, then the door swung open and Richie walked out. Perfect timing, then.

“Any news?” He asked, closing the door gently behind him.

“Nothing you don’t probably already know.” Kadie replied carefully, looking up at him. It was hard to look into those gentle brown eyes and believe he’d have hurt anyone. Not intentionally at least. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“What happened? I went by to see Billie and found her hurt…..found her bleeding.” He looked closely at Kadie, seeing that this somehow wasn’t what she was asking. “What?”

“I just…..” She took his arm gently, pulling him away from the waiting room, just in case either of the other two came out unexpectedly. “Richie, I know - I think I know - you wouldn’t hurt her on purpose, but did you…….I mean were you………umm……..”

“What?!” Richie blanched. How could she even think that? “Jesus, Kadie, no! If you’re asking if I…….if I raped…..”

“No!” It was her turn to look embarrassed. “I can’t ever see you doing that, Richie. I just meant……shit. Were you two……umm…..experimenting……and things got rougher than intended? I mean, the way she’s hurt……..where she’s bleeding……”

Richie swallowed the bellow of protest at Kadie even thinking it. Because he had to admit, if he were in a different position, he’d likely be having the same thoughts. He chose his words carefully as he gave her the whole truth as he knew it.

“I went by to see Billie tonight, and we had dinner. She got a call partway through, and left suddenly.” He flushed angrily, knowing now that the call had been from the bastard who attacked her, that if only he’d stopped her leaving this might not have happened. “I let her go, dammit. She said she had to make some calls about stuff at home, and I was dumb enough to believe her.” He ran a hand roughly through his hair, then shrugged. “I let her go, then I got a call I’d been waiting for, and tried to call her, to let her know…….. Anyway, turned out she’d dropped her phone in the restaurant, so I decided to take it upstairs to her. She……”

He turned away from Kadie, punching lightly at the wall in frustration, then turning back, his eyes pained.

“She was so pale when she opened the door…….then she started to fall…….I picked her up, and that’s when I saw the blood on the floor. There was a lot of blood.” His voice lowered to a whisper, but he knew he needed to say it. “I carried her through to the bed, and there was blood there, too. She asked me to not call a doctor, because everyone would find out……”

“Rape victims often don’t want people to know.” Kadie said gently, but Richie shook his head vehemently.

“That’s not what she meant. I know what she meant.” He said cryptically. “But she told me what he’d done. How he’d not only raped her, but……..motherfucker……” The punch that hit the wall this time wasn’t so gentle. “I swear, if I get my hands on that cocksucker…..” He drew a deep breath. “She passed out, from blood loss I guess, and I called for help. The rest, you know.”

“Yes, I do.” Kadie rubbed her hand on his arm for a second. “Doctor Riviello really is the best for this kind of thing, Richie. He’s taken her up to surgery now, and I’m sure he’ll do everything he can.” She looked up at him a little curiously. “I have to admit, I still don’t get why you and Mr Bon Jovi are so concerned about Billie, though. She’s only the mom of one of the players.”

“Which makes her almost family.” Richie said cagily. “C’mon, you need to let them know what’s going on.”

“I know.” She whispered. “I don’t want to. Don’t know if I can tell Jay……. Can you take Mr Bon Jovi out of the room for me?”

“His name’s Jon.” Richie smiled, scratching his teeth over his lower lip as he thought. “And, just so’s you know? I told him everything I know.”

Kadie looked at him in surprise. That seemed a bit of a breach of Billie’s confidence, but then she guessed that Richie had just needed to tell someone what he knew. Sometimes a horrible knowledge needed to be shared, just to get it out of your head.

“Okay.” She said slowly. “But can you take him away anyway? I need to tell Jay alone.”

“Sure.”

In the waiting room, Jon’s pacing had reduced until he stood staring out of the window, not even turning when Richie stood, saying he was going to stretch his legs.

After the door closed, he turned slowly, looking at the back of Jay’s head as he sat on the couch, the label from the water bottle now a pile of neat shreds on the table. He was playing with the bottle now, twisting the cap on and off, on and off, and Jon actually smiled as he realised his own hands were busy, too, fidgeting with his sunglasses. Punching a button on the vending machine, he got himself a cup of coffee-flavored water - no way it could be called coffee - and moved around to sit on the couch next to his son.

“How you holding up?” He asked quietly, and Jay kept his eyes on the bottle as he answered.

“How do you think?” He flushed. “Sorry, boss.”

“Don’t apologise.” Jon said sharply. “Nothing to apologise for, Jay.”

He slurped coffee, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “Jesus, that tastes like shit.”

Jay actually managed a brief chuckle at the utter disgust in Jon’s voice, twisting his head to watch as Jon grimaced and drank the rest of the lukewarm brew.

“You shoulda just left it.” He smiled, and Jon shrugged.

“Yeah, well, it’s caffeine I suppose.”

“You sound like my mom.” Jay whispered, his head dropping forward again as he returned his attention to the bottle in his hands, refusing to let himself lose control.

Jon swallowed hard at that, leaning forward to lay the plastic cup on the low table, but his fingers trembled slightly and the cup fell to the floor. As he reached for it, the door opened, and his head snapped up.

Kadie pushed open the waiting room door, feeling Richie close behind her. As she stepped into the room, she saw Jon and Jay sitting side by side on the couch, and at the sound of the door both their heads snapped up, staring across at her. It was like some kind of damned epiphany, as she saw them there, close together, the short cropped brown hair over the bright blue eyes, the slightly open mouths as they scoured her face for information.

“Shit.” She whispered helplessly. Could it be? Could Jon actually be………

Richie bumped into her as she stopped in her tracks, then as he looked past her he knew why she’d frozen, and he used his momentum as an excuse to catch hold of her, leaning to whisper urgently in her ear.

“Jay doesn’t know.” He said quickly. “Please don’t….”

Chapter 35

Both Jay and Kadie breathed a sigh of, well maybe not relief, but at least reprieve, as the figures in the doorway turned out to be Jon and Richie, not a doctor. In Kadie’s mind anyway the longer it took for Doctor Riviello to arrive the better, because that meant Billie was still being worked on.

“What’s happened?!” Jon blurted, seeing them clinging to each other for support, feeling Richie nudge him sharply, and apparently accidentally, as he turned to close the door.

“There’s no news yet.” Kadie spoke, giving Jay a chance to compose himself before he spoke to his boss.

“Well, no news is good news, right?” Richie said, looking hard at Kadie. “I mean, longer it takes for them to come tell us something……”

“Yeah.” Kadie agreed, seeing in his eyes that he knew the whole story, and suspecting he knew more than she did right now. “That’s what I think, too.”

“You didn’t need to come all this way, boss.” Jay extricated himself from Kadie’s embrace, getting to his feet and extending a hand.

“Your mom’s a…..friend.” Jon said, ignoring the outstretched hand and hugging Jay instead, fighting to keep his composure as he felt his son briefly hug him back. “I wanted to come.”

They parted, Jon wishing he could keep his son in his arms until they knew what was happening, Jay puzzled by his boss’s emotional greeting. Maybe it was just his Italian blood.

The four of them sat down, Jay and Kadie on the couch, Jon and Richie taking a pair of armchairs close by. Jon was still sickened by what Richie had told him, and he abruptly stood as nausea hit him, looking around as he tried to control it.

“I’ll be back.” He mumbled, heading for the door, and Richie watched him go with concern, hoping like hell Jon wasn’t about to do something stupid like go busting into the ER. When he saw Jon’s shoulders hunch slightly, though, he realised his buddy was on the point of throwing up from the news he’d been given, and he relaxed slightly, sitting back in his chair as Jon quickly left the room. God knew, he’d felt sick enough when Billie had told him.

By the time Jon reached the bathroom, though, the initial wave of nausea had thankfully passed, and he just leaned heavily on one of the sinks, staring blindly at the mirror. He couldn’t comprehend how - why - Billie would allow that to happen. Not for him, his mind screamed. Please, God, not for me. He wasn’t sure he could handle knowing this was partly his fault. Please, please let her survive this. Please let me have the chance to apologise for being the cause of her pain. God, please give me the chance to make this right. Please.

His rushing thoughts were broken by the opening of the bathroom door, and he swung around to see a male nurse walk in. The guy barely made eye contact - clearly experienced enough to know that it was best to just let visitors deal with things themselves - but just took care of what he needed to and left the bathroom again without a word.

The interruption, though, had been enough to jolt Jon out of the spiralling thoughts, and when he looked into the mirror again his eyes were clearer, focusing on what they saw, not on what was in his head.

He ran cold water into the sink and splashed it over his face, grabbing paper towels to dry his face again. With his control more or less back in place, he straightened his back and left the bathroom, returning to the waiting room to, well, to wait.

Back in the waiting room, he found the other three sitting in silence, each in their own thoughts. They acknowledged his return with weak smiles, then when he dropped into a chair they pretty much ignored each other, lost in a mixture of fear and hope. Hope that the old adage would hold true this time, and that no news really was good news.

In the emergency room, Doctor Riviello was snapping terse orders at the other medical staff. When he’d arrived, the other doctor had kept on with his attempts to bring Billie back while he got gloved up, and just as he stepped toward the gurney that weak pulse came back.

“She’s back.” Said the nurse watching the monitors. “Pulse is weak but steady. Pressure very low.” He looked at the doctors. “We’re barely holding even with the blood loss.”

“We need to find out where she’s bleeding.” Riviello said, turning to a nurse. “Call upstairs, tell them to get me an OR ready. I’ll do what I can here, but this lady needs help, people.”

Billie had already been stripped of the robe, and the nurses gently rolled her onto her side at his instructions, Riviello probing carefully at the source of the bleeding, silently cursing whatever bastard had done this. No matter how many times he dealt with the results of sexual assault, it never got any easier. Which was why he was the best, because he still cared. Still saw the bloodied, battered body on his table as a person, not just the next number to be stitched and taped and sent on their way. He’d gotten past the point of wanting to personally castrate - without anaesthetic - every attacker whose victim he helped, but sometimes, like now, that urge came back. Because he could tell that this attack had been deliberately brutal, intended to cause maximum pain and humiliation. Hoping that the police found whoever did it, because there was an even chance of it turning to a homicide charge.

The heart monitor flat-lined again, and he cursed bitterly, letting the nurses roll Billie onto her back again, re-starting CPR until they yet again pulled her back.

“Dammit, girl.” He whispered to her. “Fight, goddammit!”

The nurses looked at each other, but they were used to him, and to how quickly he got mentally involved with a patient, so they just redoubled their efforts as he began to snap orders for gauze and dressings. All he could do here was try to stem the bleeding until they could get ahead of it. Any actual treatment was going to have to wait for the operating room, where he could see exactly what was going on.

They were pushing whole blood into her now, fighting to replace what she was losing, and as her blood pressure crept fractionally higher Riviello felt a surge of hope. Maybe……

“Okay, that’s all we can do here.” He said finally, looking at the nurse he’d told to call. “Is that OR ready?”

“Yes, Doctor. Ready and waiting.”

“Right. Let’s get her up there.”

The waiting relatives were all but forgotten as he walked swiftly with the gurney as it was pushed to an elevator, taking Billie upstairs where he could hopefully save her life. Hopefully.

In the waiting room, the mood had shifted from patience to gnawing fear, and the longer they waited without news the worse it became. Jon was pacing back and forth, chewing on a thumbnail as he tried to keep his mind on anything but what had happened. Jay was hunched forward on the couch, a bottle of water in his hands, the label in the process of being slowly shredded as he peeled it off the plastic in tiny strips. Richie was hating every second of this. The last time he’d sat in a hospital waiting room had been when his father was dying, and the memories were still painfully raw. Kadie’s eyes shifted from Jay to Jon to Richie, but always returned to Jay, seeing the muscle working in his clenched jaw as he held himself together with iron control.

After an hour, she’d had enough, and Kadie got abruptly to her feet, surprising the three men.

“I’m going to go see if there’s any news.”

“I’ll come……” Jay said quickly, but Kadie shook her head.

“No, baby. Stay here. Trust me, I’ll tell you whatever I find out, but please just stay here.”

He subsided onto the couch with a sigh, dropping his head back into his hands. Watching the momentary interplay between the two, Richie had to hide an unexpected smile. It looked like just maybe Jay had found his own Dorothea, because he knew very well how Dot could tame Jon with just a few words, could make him do her bidding when no-one else could.

Kadie went down toward the ER, shocked to find it empty, but lucking out as a nurse walked toward her.

“Excuse me?”

“Yes? Can I help you?”

“I hope so. The woman who was in the ER - Billie - where……..?”

“I think Doctor Riviello took her up to surgery.” The woman frowned. “Didn’t you used to work here?”

“Uh-huh. I moved to University, but I’m……dating Billie’s son. Can you tell me anything?” Not above begging, for Jay’s sake, Kadie looked beseechingly at the nurse. “Please?”

The nurse sighed, but professional courtesy went a long way. “You know I can’t give you details, but I believe the tears were so bad Doctor needed to get her upstairs stat. She’d lost a lot of blood already, and……….” She shrugged. “Well, you know hard it is to repair rectal tears. I don’t need to tell you….”

“Rectal?” Kadie whispered. Holy shit. That, she hadn’t expected. Hadn’t even imagined.

“Oh, dammit. You didn’t know?”

“I knew she’d been raped - Doctor R kinda gives that away - but……we didn’t know she’d been…… Oh, shit. How can I tell him this? I’ve already had to tell him she may not make it. How can I hit him with this now?”

“My advice? Don’t.” The nurse said sagely. “You’ve told him what he needs to know - that she’s very sick and that’s all he needs to know right now. Just be with him.”

“I can’t lie to him. I won’t. Shit. I can’t tell him in front of……..” Kadie paused, realising. “Richie knows. He knows what’s happened to her.”

Chapter 34

After their brief conversation, Richie and Jay had fallen silent again, each consumed with their own thoughts. The silence had been broken, though, by the incongruous sound of a little girl’s giggles, and as Jay looked around in confusion, Richie smiled.

“My phone.” He explained, pulling it from his pocket and answering it, silencing Ava’s laughter. “Yeah? Yeah. Uh, okay. I’ll come get you.”

Closing the phone, he stood. “I’ll be back. Your…..boss……just got here - I’ll go bring him down.” He smiled reassuringly. “Hang in there, buddy. Your mom’s tough.”

“I know.” Jay smiled bravely as Richie left the room.

His long stride eating up the distance, Richie headed for the doors. Jon’s quick-fire questions, answered with single words, had been to ask if Jay was there - yeah - and how he was holding up - okay. After that, when he said he needed to know what had happened, was when Richie said he’d come outside. That wasn’t an explanation he was willing to make in front of Jay.

He found Jon outside, dragging deeply on a cigarette as he waited, the obligatory sunglasses concealing his eyes, though Richie could read his worry in every line of his body.

“Hey bro.” He said softly.

“Richie? What in the hell happened?” Jon blurted, Richie’s reluctance to explain on the phone enough to raise his worry to near panic. It was even worse because he wasn’t entirely sure if he was simply worried about Billie, or it if was something more selfish, like worry that something might happen and he’d not get the chance to tell Jay how he felt, to tell him he was his son. That thought was followed by one that said why not? Why couldn’t he tell him even if Billie wasn’t around? Jon realised maybe the wine had affected him more than he’d thought. Right now, all that mattered was if Billie was okay. Right?

“Billie was assaulted.” Richie looked around, checking there was no-one in earshot before he continued. “She was beaten and raped, Jon. And worse.”

“Worse?” Jon didn’t get it, but his jaw was clenched tight as he fought to hold control at the information Richie had given him so far.

“Worse.” Richie repeated, trying to evade the penetrating blue of Jon’s gaze. “It…..he…..shit. A guy she’d been out with a couple times - I don’t know how, but he found out……he knows about Jay.”

Jon stared at him silently, not making the connection between Billie being assaulted - raped - ‘worse’, whatever the hell that meant - and his illegitimate son. Richie sighed, explaining reluctantly.

“He found out, Jon, and he told Billie he’d keep quiet. For a price.”

“He was blackmailing her?!” Jon’s voice rose incredulously. “Why didn’t she tell me? How did he even know she had the money to pay him off? Or did he expect her to come to me?”

“He didn’t want money. He wanted Billie.” Richie had to force the words out. “Wanted her as some kind of sex toy, to do anything he wanted. To whore herself for his fucking pleasure.”

“And she let him? For Jay?” Jon’s jaw was clenched again, a muscle working in his cheek.

“No, you stupid prick. She wasn’t protecting Jay. She was protecting you, Jonny. She said she was trying to give you time to explain to Dot and the kids. She didn’t want them reading about it in the papers, and so she did what he wanted. But tonight I guess she’d had time to think things through a bit more, and she told him to go to hell. She said she wasn’t doing it again.” His voice lowered. “He didn’t like it.”

“So he raped her? Beat her?” The vein at Jon’s temple was throbbing angrily as he spoke, then confusion hit him again. “And what do you mean ‘worse’? What the hell is worse than rape, Rich?”

“Aw, Jesus, Jon, what do you think I mean?” Richie snapped, his own revulsion at what had been done to Billie rising as bile in his throat, threatening to choke him if he didn’t get the words out. “Why do you think she’s in the fucking ER? Bastard raped her, then he turned her over and fucked her in the ass. Hurt her so bad she’s bleeding enough her heart stopped on the way here. The paramedic had to shock her to get her back.” His voice faded at the memory of watching that pale, bruised, bloodied body arching spastically under the jolt of electricity, the terror of those moments followed by the relief as her heartbeat resumed. He swallowed down the nausea and looked at Jon again, seeing him pale and silent, the cigarette fallen from numbed fingers.

“Jesus.” Jon mumbled, not knowing what else to say. “Sweet Jesus, Richie……”

When Richie left him alone, Jay hunched forward, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Staring at the floor, he tried to convince himself that Nick wasn’t enough of a bastard that he’d have hurt his mom, but deep inside he wasn’t so sure. He knew well enough that the guy’s nickname among the team was NTP - Nick-the-Prick - and he’d heard enough stories about him since he’d joined the Soul just months before. If he had been the one to hurt his mom……

“Jay?”

Kadie’s soft voice interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up, grateful for the distraction. When he saw the serious look on her face, though, he wasn’t so sure he was glad.

“Yeah?”

“Where’s Richie?” She asked, closing the door behind her, adding to Jay’s anxiety.

“Boss arrived. He went to bring him down here. What’s happened?”

Hesitantly, hating to be the one who had to tell him this, Kadie crossed to sit beside him on the couch, taking his hands in hers.

“Oh God.” Jay whispered. “No. Kadie, no!” His voice rose in panic.

“Baby, no.” She said swiftly. “She’s still fighting, Jay.” God, let that be true. Let them have dragged her back again from flatline What kind of fate would be cruel enough to rob Jay of his mom? Sadly, though, Kadie knew just how cruel life could be. But, please…..please not this time. Not this one.

“Thank God.”

“Jay, I need to……..the doctor - Doctor Riviello - asked me to tell you what I know so far.” She squeezed his hands. Hard. “This won’t be easy for you to hear, Jay.”

“Just tell me, dammit.” His voice was rough with emotion. “Please, Kadie. Don’t try to sugarcoat things - just tell me what’s wrong…….tell me how bad she is.” His composure broke, and his voice faded to a whisper. “Tell me she’ll be okay.”

“Oh Jesus, Jay, I wish I could, but I don’t know.” Kadie took a deep breath, steeling herself. “I don’t know exactly what’s happened, but the doctor they paged………?”

“This Doctor Riviello?”

“Uh-huh. He specialises in….” She pressed her lips together, searching for that professional detachment she’d been trained to employ. “His specialty is in sexual assault trauma, Jay.”

“What?!”

“Your mom was raped, Jay. Somebody beat her and raped her. She’s lost - losing - a lot of blood, Jay, and she…..her…..”

“Tell me!” He demanded, tears streaking his face as his hands clenched on hers, clinging to her. “Just fucking tell me! Please!” His voice cracked. “Please, Kadie!”

“Her heart stopped, Jay, just a few minutes ago. They’re doing everything they can, but…… you need to understand how serious this is. There’s a chance - a big chance - she won’t make it, Jay.”

“No.” He mumbled, his eyes huge with fear as he looked at her. Never before had he really thought about his mom being ‘mortal’, about her dying. She’d been the one constant in his life, and he couldn’t imagine his life without her there. “No! Dammit, Kadie! No! No!”

She didn’t say another word, just freed her hands from his and pulled him close, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight as he clung to her, bewildered by how suddenly everything in his life seemed to be turning upside down, from getting hurt to finding Kadie to now the threat of losing his mom. He may be a grown man, but dammit she was his mom, and it was too soon……too soon to lose her……..

They were still hugging each other for comfort when the door opened, and both their heads snapped around, assuming the worst.

Chapter 33

After Kadie left the room, Richie and Jay sat in an awkward silence, neither quite sure what to say. Jay recovered his poise first, his concern for his mom over-riding his instinctive respect for a guy who was effectively one of his employers.

“Are you seeing my mom?” He asked neutrally, and Richie looked over in sudden concern that Jay thought he’d been the one who caused Billie’s injuries. A swift glance at the younger guy’s face, though, was enough to reassure him Jay wasn’t entertaining any such thoughts.

“No. Well, yeah, but I mean only as a friend.” He shrugged. “I like your mom, but we’re just friends.”

“Oh.” Jay flushed slightly. “Sorry, Mr Sa……”

“Richie’s fine, Jay.” He grinned disarmingly. “Mr Sambora makes me feel so fuckin’ old.”

“Sorry. Richie, then.” Jay grinned. “It’s just that I knew mom had gone out a couple times with……..a guy here, but she did say she was gonna ditch him when I told her he was married.” Jay blanched suddenly as that settled into his brain. No. Surely……surely Nick wouldn’t….. hadn’t.

“Yeah - your mom doesn’t seem the type to get involved with a married man.” Richie said. Of course, she had before, but from what Jon had told him it seemed more than likely she hadn’t known about Dot back then.

Jay wasn’t even listening, though, as he tried frantically to convince himself that Nick wouldn’t have hurt his mom, even if she’d been her usually blunt self when she’d given him his marching orders. He realised Richie was speaking to him again, and he forced his thoughts to shift, to concentrate his attention again on the guy waiting with him. Anything was better than the dread that he really had contributed to the current situation by telling his mom about Nick’s wife.

“Sorry - I was thinking.” He apologised to Richie, who’d been watching the play of emotions on Jay’s face, and had a pretty shrewd idea of what his thoughts had been.

“No worries.” Richie smiled gently. “But if your thoughts were anything about this somehow being down to you, for telling your mom this guy’s married…..stop it. Nobody to blame but the blac…” He cut himself off as he almost said ‘blackmailing’, changing it quickly. “The black-hearted bastard who did this to her.”

“Didn’t she say anything?” Jay asked. “I can’t believe Nick would……….didn’t she say who did it?”

“She didn’t say much, Jay.” Richie replied before probing gently. “Nick who?”

“Huh? Oh. Nick Fabian. Our team physio? Mom went out with him a couple of times. Asshole neglected to mention to her that he’s married.”

“And he didn’t think she’d find out?” Richie remembered seeing the guy around at Wachovia, and he also remembered his almost instant dislike of him. Which was pretty out of character for someone who believed in never making a snap judgement of anyone.

“I guess not.” Jay’s eyes darkened angrily, Richie fascinated to see that Bongiovi trait carried over to the next generation. “Not sure how he expected it’d stay a secret, considering he’s been bragging all over Wachovia about how they’ve…..”

Richie’s fists tightened as Jay stopped, clearly uncomfortable with saying just what Nick had been bragging about. Didn’t take a genius to figure it out though.

At the moment, his money was fairly heavily on Nick being Billie’s blackmailing, asshole rapist. He just wished Jon would hurry up and get his ass here, because he was the only one - other than Billie - who knew the reason for this attack. Well, at the moment Jon didn’t know the whole story. At the moment it was only Richie and Billie - and Nick, assuming he was the guilty party - who knew the whole story, but as soon as Jon got here Richie would be able to fill him in on all the details. And, whether he liked it or not, Richie was going to make Jon listen to exactly what Billie had put herself through to protect him. After that, well, maybe they’d have to go get a bit Joisey on Nicky-boy’s ass.

Leaving the waiting room, Kadie walked slowly down the hallway toward the emergency room. She wasn’t honestly sure how much information they’d give her, particularly when she wasn’t family, but her suggestion had been made mostly to get Jay out of the way, because she had enough experience of family reactions to trauma to know he’d only get in the way, which wouldn’t help anyone. Right now, he was best kept at arms-length from this, safely away in the waiting room while the doctors and nurses worked on his mom. Especially in light of the type of doctor they’d just paged.

She’d almost made it to the ER when she nearly walked right into the doctor who’d been paged as he strode toward the ER.

“Sorry, Doctor Riviello.” She stepped instinctively aside, and he paused fractionally, glancing at her, slightly puzzled that someone he’d taken to be a visitor would know his name.

“You’re a nurse, aren’t you?” He frowned, thinking, recalling her name because it was unusual. “Kadie?”

“That’s right, Doctor.” She smiled, pleased by the recognition. Mostly because her chances of getting information had just risen sharply.

“You’re not back working here, are you?” He asked, then started move again. “Sorry, I have to……..”

“I know. No, I’m not working here now. I’m here with a……” What the hell. “With my boyfriend. I think you got paged to see his mom. She was just brought in.”

“Ah.” The doctor’s face was serious, since they were both well aware of his specialty.

“Yeah. I said I’d come see what I could find out.” Kadie was walking beside him as they neared the doors to the ER. “Then I heard them page you, so I knew…..”

“Does her son know?” He paused with his hand on the door, pushing it open a little as Kadie shook her head. “I suggest you go wait with him. Maybe you should warn him of what’s happened.”

As he spoke, the doctor leaned more weight on the door, opening it further, and just at that moment they both heard an all too familiar sound. The sound of a cardiac monitor flat-lining.

“Oh no.” Kadie whispered, her hand flying up to cover her mouth as Riviello pushed into the room, the doctor already there yelling for a crash cart, and even from here Kadie could see the blood on the ER floor.

“I’ll come to the waiting room when there’s news.” The doctor snapped quickly. “Go let him know how serious this is. Tell him I’ll do all I can.” He looked into the room before turning to her again. “But you may want to prepare him for bad news.”

With those parting words, he shut the door in her face, leaving Kadie standing helplessly in the hallway, staring at the door, hearing the voices inside as the medics fought for Billie’s life.

After a moment of panic and fear, Kadie swallowed hard. How the hell was she supposed to tell Jay that his mom had been raped? And raped so brutally that she’d lost enough blood to send her into cardiac arrest. How could she tell him his mom may die here today?

Without any answers coming to her, she turned away from the ER, heading back to Jay.

Chapter 32

Sitting in the cramped confines of the ambulance, Richie just tried to stay out of the way as the more senior of the two paramedics worked on Billie. His colleague was fully employed in driving the ambulance, and as the guy in back glanced away from his patient for a moment, he saw the tension and helplessness in Richie’s face. From years of experience, he knew the hardest thing for friends and relatives to deal with was the helplessness, and as he finished hooking an IV of fluids to Billie’s arm, he turned to Richie again.

“Could you help me out here?” He asked, holding out the thick plastic bag of clear fluid. “Could you hold this up, keep squeezing it through? I need to get fluid into her as fast as I can.”

“Sure.” Richie took it gladly, following the instructions and squeezing the bag, forcing the life-giving fluid through the tube as fast as it could go. “Shouldn’t……shouldn’t you be giving her blood?”

“Don’t know her blood type, and anyway we don’t carry bloods. This is plasma - next best thing, trust me.”

“How bad is she?” Richie asked quietly, not sure he wanted the answer.

“It’s bad.” The guy told him, shaking his head sadly. In his line of work, he saw all kinds of things, but this was one of the worst assaults he’d seen in a long time. Sometimes he wondered just what kind of hell the city had become. “Do you know who did it?”

“No.” Richie’s grip on the bag of plasma tightened even more. “But I swear to God I’d like to get my hands on him.”

“Yeah, I……….” The paramedic stopped speaking as one of the monitors hooked to Billie began to screech an alarm. “Shit! Derek, step on it - we’re losing her!” He yelled to the driver as he grabbed for the defibrillator kit.

“Aw fuck, Billie! No!” Richie yelled, leaning closer to her. “Dammit, cowgirl, fight!”

“Get back.” The paramedic snapped, pulling down the blanket and yanking Billie’s robe open, her modesty the last of his concerns right now.

He quickly set the charge on the defib unit then squeezed the conductive gel onto the paddles before laying them on her skin.

“Put down the bag and stay clear.” He barked at an ashen-faced Richie, who obeyed instantly, wincing as Billie’s body arched at the shock.

“Billie - c’mon.” He whispered. “C’mon, darlin’. Don’t do this…….don’t leave your boy alone.”

The paramedic looked at the monitor as it still screamed at him, and he checked Richie was still clear before shocking Billie again. This time, to Richie’s utter relief, the monitor settled back to a steady beep, the irregular mountain-range shapes of her heartbeat once more taking the place of that terrifying flatline.

“Shit.” Richie muttered, picking up the bag of plasma without being told, then talking conversationally to the chalk-white woman on the gurney. “Don’t do that, Billie girl!”

There wasn’t even a flicker of response, but the paramedic encouraged Richie with a smile as he gently covered her bruised, damaged body with the blanket.

“She can probably hear you, so talk to her all you want.”

So he did. For the rest of the blessedly short ride to the hospital, Richie talked to Billie about random things, but mostly about Jay and how well he was doing on the team. Fortunately for his own heart, she didn’t slip away from them again, and though her pulse remained faint and thready, it never stopped, the plasma forcing into her bloodstream stabilising her for the moment.

“We’re here.” The paramedic said suddenly as the ambulance veered off the main road and up to the doors of the ER.

Looking out through the windshield, Richie saw a team of medical people waiting, and he realised that the paramedics must have radioed ahead once they saw how sick Billie was.

When the doors opened, she was whisked away, already inside the building by the time he got out of the ambulance, and he turned to thank the paramedic. The guy gave him a sad, tired smile.

“Just hope we got her here in time.” He shook Richie’s outstretched hand. “Hope she pulls through.”

“Me too, buddy. Me too.”

Richie headed inside, looking around to figure out where the hell they’d taken her.

“Help you, sir?” A male voice, and Richie turned to find a large security guard.

“The woman who was just brought in. Where is she? I came in with her.”

“Emergency room.” The guy pointed to a window. “But you can’t go in there.”

“But…….”

Before Richie could protest further, another voice spoke.

“Mr……Mr Sambora?”

Swinging around, he saw Jay, so damned like a young Jon as he stood there.

“Jay.” Without even thinking about it, Richie wrapped his arms around the kid, hugging him until Jay pulled free.

“What’s going on?” Jay misread the concern and compassion on Richie’s face, assuming the worst. “Oh, Jesus, no! Mom? She’s not…..?” He couldn’t say it, but Richie understood.

“Oh, shit! No, Jay! She’s not……she’s in there!” He pointed to the emergency room, and Jay took one step before the security guard stopped him. Jay spun around angrily.

“That’s my mom in there! Don’t you tell me I can’t fucking see her! You think you’re gonna stop me?!”

As Jay faced up to him, the guard dropped his hand to the radio clipped on his belt, then Kadie was between them, one hand raised to each man.

“It’s okay.” She told the guard, her eyes begging him for understanding before she turned to Jay. “Baby, you need to let them help her. There’s nothing you - either of you.” She glanced at Richie. “Can do except get in their way. Let me see what I can find out.”

The three men looked at her, but there was a definite note of command in her soft voice, and at the look on her face Jay backed down slowly, exhaling and trying to get a grip on himself.

“Sorry.” He said to the security guard, and even in that moment of tension Richie felt a smile flicker on his lips at how ‘Jon’ the kid seemed right then, hating to have to apologise, but doing it anyway because he knew he was in the wrong.

“No problem.” The big guy nodded, mollified. “Hope she’s okay. Waiting room just down there.”

With Kadie leading the way - leading Jay by the hand - they made their way to the waiting room. She told them to sit down, she’d see what she could find out, then they heard the strident sound of the hospital paging system.

“Doctor Riviello to ER, please. Doctor Riviello.”

The urgency in the woman’s voice was clear, and Kadie looked over at Richie in shock. She’d worked briefly in this hospital, and she knew Doctor Riviello. Knew he was the head of the sexual assault department, with a combined specialty in gynecology and trauma. Richie saw the realisation in her eyes and just gave a tiny nod.

Her face pale and set, very glad Jay had missed the silent communication, Kadie left the room to go see what she could find out, just hoping that her nursing status would buy her a bit more honesty than being merely a friend of the family.