Dr Oklays was even more curious now. She was quite eager to unravel this half opened book called Sandra, albeit Dr. Ferdinand had told her to go easy on the girl.
"Why are you single. If you are not comfortable talking about it. We can forget it."
"No. It's okay. I adopted her. Her mother and I are friends. She's left the world and all of us in it behind. The incident was my fault."
Usually, when people spoke this way you could sense some reproach or self pity but what Dr.Oklays sensed was resignation and nonchalance. 'This girl. What has she really gone through?'. She sighed inwardly.
"Do you want to talk about this 'incident?"
"No, I'll pass"
"Does it still trouble you?"
"I...I..." Sandra stammered for along time but could only blurt out a lot of Is.
Her face had turned pale and because she was extremely fair, she looked like a white sheet. Her lips had lost their bloom like a withered flower. She was trying hard not to shiver.Just as she was about to be dragged into a whirlpool of emotions, she had a soft call. It was Dr.Oklays saying her name quietly. The other woman was already beside her, patting her gently.
Sandra sat there quietly and as she slowly recovered she felt resigned. It turns out, she hadn't let go of it. She had just suppressed the feeling. After all...
"I haven't touched this topic in a long time. I'm sorry for the trouble. We'll see again". She said, wearing a forced smile. She carried her hand bag and prepared to leave.
"Miss Stephens..."
The polite bang of the door answered her. The older woman sighed and went back to her sit. She failed a long string of number on the telephone and after a few rings a deep masculine voice said "hello, Abigail"
"Ferdinand, I'm curious. She seems to be fine and not fine at the same time. What are you not telling me?"
"You are not an MI6 agent, woman. Just do your job."
"She's an hand full."
"Be careful. She has a way with people."
And that was how the first session ended.
****
Sandra sat in the car for a very long time. She spaced out just like that without thinking about anything. She badly wanted to think but her brain had shutdown. She was jolted out by the constant vibration of her cellphone. After two rings she took the call.
"Hello. you're on to Sandra Steph..". The caller seemed to be impatient as she quickly interrupted Sandra's automated introduction and relayed a message which made Sandra's forehead crease more and more until the caller hung up and Sandra step on the gas speeding off to God knows where now... Although Sandra drove at high speed, she didn't look distracted at all, she soon stopped in front of the Central City Hospital and dashed out of the car leaving the door ajar. She ran across two hallways before stopping Infront of a familiar surgery room; it was familiar because this was a special surgery room for the NGO she worked for. She paced up and down until the lights in the room went off and the doors were swung open. Out came a middle aged male doctor with other young doctors and several nurses. The others doctors followed the patient and the nurses into a private children's ward to make sure the necessary arrangements where put in place but the middle aged doctor who was donning a gold rimmed spectacles went into the doctors room opposite the theatre and Sandra followed him. He pulled off his coat, hung it, sat on this chair and put down his spectacles. He sighed and looked at Sandra.
"What happened?" Sandra asked.
"She was raped and accidentally injured during the assault" replied the middle aged doctor in a very solemn tone. Sandra was quiet for a while before asking again:
"Is she going to be okay?"
"Sandra, it's a 30/70.If she had been brought in a second later we would have lost her already. We need to get funds to be able to send her to the states... and... probably some connections to facilitate the speed because of the pandemic policies."
Sandra was even more disheartened now.
"Any witnesses?" She asked
"There are no passers-by. We have invited the police and are still working on the medical report."
"Dr. Raymond, I hate this. All of this... why can't it stop?". Her words were emotional but Sandra Stephens portrayed no emotion at all. She was already numb; this was almost becoming an everyday thing for her.
Dr. Raymond sighed deeply. He knew that she was hurting more inside than anyone else but Sandra would just pull off this 'I'm without empathy' on everyone, giving the juniors a hard time.
"It's going to be a tough war this time since we don't know the perpetrators yet. I had a long day. I'm going to see my daughter. See you later, Dr.Raymond"
"Alright, Sandra. See you around." He would very much like to ask how she was doing? How she was moving on?.. But Sandra had always kept their discussions formal. She didn't say anything unnecessary or out of the scope of their job. He had known her for four years now and they had still remained the same way they were when they first met. 'No strings attached'. He had thought that she was like that with him alone but years of complaints from their other colleagues made him realise that that was Sandra's way of doing things. Although she looked like she had the strongest shoulders of them all, she was the most worrisome. All he could do was worry, sigh and worry!
"Dr. Raymond, there's an emergency at PCW4. The patient is having panic attacks and we can't handle it. Please come over quickly" the nurse was off as soon as she relayed the message. She needed to be there too.
In PCW4 , a few doctors and nurses were scurrying from one place to another. Picking up equipments passing them to others, cleaning the floor at the same time. There was blood everywhere and eventhough they were a bunch of medical practitioners, they could not handle the mess in the room. Apart from the patient who having a cardiac attack, there were three bodies laying cold on the floor. The doctors and nurses were practically walking in a pool of blood.
"Can somebody tell me what is happening here?" he asked but everyone was too busy to answer him. He was even shoved off the entrance when the nursing assistants carried the bodies out on stretchers. He could only wait for them to make way.
When he saw a doctor walking towards him, he quickly went forward to meet her.
"Dr. Cassy, what's happening. Did she attack them."
"Oh Dr. Raymond, I'm afraid it's more serious than that. It was an assassination. They are all dead. I mean the nurses. The girl is lucky though. She was previously gravely injured and still needs surgery. They didn't manage to get to her. Our effort would have been for nought otherwise."
"How can that be?" he murmured. "Does anyone know what happened?"
Dr.Cassy shook her head and walked away. He stayed outside the ward and quietly observed everything. Since other doctors were already there, there was nothing he could do.
"This is more than we can chew. I hope all will be well." he sighed.