"Last night was good wasn’t it," Danny said during the afternoon shift on New Years day.

"Yeah I could do with not being here today though," Chrissie replied to him, "You left early Sandy."

"Yeah, well Sean wasn’t feeling to good so we went." They had a few emergency cases in but it was relatively quiet as no operations had been timetabled for New Years day except emergencies. The afternoon went quite quickly and when she looked at her watch it was almost the end of the shift.

"Blimey today’s gone quickly hasn’t it," she said to Danny and he and Sandy came back from seeing a patient.

"Can’t complain. Maybe there are good points to consultants not working bank holidays," Danny replied.

"Well you two might as well get off, I expect your seeing Sean tonight Sandy."

"Oh I don’t know. He’s quite busy at the moment."

The next day was a lot more hectic. It was back to too many patients and not enough beds and Chrissie was finding it more tiring than usual. she’d had been seeing relatives all morning the day before and Owen had left work early so they could spend the evening together so she hadn’t had any time to think about the baby. It had calmed down slightly so she went into her office and made herself a cup of coffee. She sat staring at the screen of her computer just thinking but her thoughts were broken by the arrival of an emergency case from A&E. She pulled herself back together and went out into the ward, "What have we got?" Ed Keating joined them then her and Danny did the primary obs on their new patient.

"I’ve lost Sandy," Chrissie said returning to the desk. As she spoke Sandy appeared out of a bay and moved straight on to another patient.

"Keep an eye on her will you Danny. She seems to be doing double the work she usually does and she was in before I was."

"Maybe it’s her new year’s resolution," Danny replied then went off. Chrissie kept a watch over her and couldn’t help thinking there was something different.

"Maybe I’m imagining things, you never know with Sandy," she said to herself picking up a patients file. More and more patients came in and they were almost full. One patient was really starting to annoy her. She’d had an operation postponed a few weeks before due to ill health. Today she’d had a completely unrelated accident but had been sent up to Darwin anyway to be checked out and now she was demanding she got her operation. As per usual it was the nursing staff who got the brunt of the complaining and abuse. Chrissie had had enough of her so she asked Sandy to do her next set of obs.

"OK sure," she replied without hesitation. Chrissie was shocked usually Sandy would make some kind of excuse however feeble but today there was nothing. Chrissie had to see another patient in that bay and she saw Sandy was just getting on with the obs. One of their long term patients was in today for another operation. "Oh where’s Sandy got to?" The patient asked as Chrissie took her some more water. "I’m sorry Mrs Hanley I’ve had to ask her too look at a different patient, she’ll be back later."

"I’m not sure if she’s feeling all right today, she’s not as chatty as she normally is, maybe she’s coming down with something," Mrs Hanley remarked.

"Oh I’m sure she’s fine." As she left the room she could here Sandy’s patient screaming from across the ward so she went to take a look.

"What’s going on?" She asked. Sandy made no attempt to respond and looked almost upset. "Let’s go to my office," Chrissie said looking at her. Chrissie shut the door and pulled the blinds then sat on a chair opposite Sandy.

"I was going to ask if you were OK but I can see something’s up." Sandy was surprised Chrissie was being so nice and patient but she still didn’t want to talk to her. "Is it Sean?" Sandy sat up shocked but nodded slightly. "Has he dumped you?" Chrissie asked. Sandy relaxed again, "No," she replied quietly.

"Well has he cheated on you or something?" She asked again concerned now. Sandy shook her head and began to cry. Chrissie rubbed her arm trying to comfort her and think what on earth could be going on. After a moment she looked down at Sandy and paused. "Sandy," she said then paused again, "Has he hurt you?" Sandy stopped crying and looked up. She looked at Chrissie who was willing her to answer. She got up and moved across the room. Chrissie followed.

"Sandy please tell me, what has he done to you?" Sandy moved away from her again and this time she didn’t followed but stayed on the other side of the room in silence. Sandy felt trapped and confused, she didn’t know what to say or do. She didn’t think she could talk to Chrissie but now she really did seem concerned and she’d guessed so far.

Sandy just looked at her, "He raped me." There was silence, neither moved but just stared at each other. Chrissie moved towards her and hugged her as she was now in tears again. When she’d calmed down slightly she sat her down and held her hand.

"Sandy, we are going to sort this out, I promise. I’ll help you as much as I can, Have you told the police?" As expected Sandy shook her head. "I’d like to call them for you if that’s OK?" Sandy didn’t want to tell then but knew she should so she nodded. "Why don’t you go and get freshened up and get changed. I’ll call them and then come back and find you, is that OK?"

"Yeah thanks Chrissie."

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