darker_london | Renee and family - At the hospital

It was a long, uncomfortable journey to the hospital with Lizzie and her parents. At least, it seemed long. It felt like there was something that needed to be said, but nobody knew what it was or how to say it.

"Shit," Renee muttered as she stared out the window as they passed through the streets leading to the hospital. It was was the only thing said for the entire journey.

Once they arrived at the hospital, Renee draw Aunt Ivana into a tight hug. "How is she?" Renee asked quietly.

"I just don't understand," Ivana lamented, shaking her head. "The doctors found cuts all over her arms, strange words scratched into her... and she had a head injury too. I don't know where any of these came from! And some of the cuts were so old that they couldn't have been from when I was at work..." She broke down into tears, clinging to Renee. Renee felt like she was the last person a grown woman should be clinging to right now, but she did her best to comfort Ivana anyway.

"Are we able to see her?" Renee's father Remy asked.

Ivana pulled away from Renee and nodded. "You can, but she's asleep. They had to knock her out. Because of the pain."

"But what's causing it?" Emilie asked.

Ivana shook her head helplessly. "Nobody knows. They haven't been able to find anything wrong with her yet."

"I'm going to see her," Renee said. "Where is she?"

"Room 138," Ivana told her. "Just down that corridor."

Renee nodded and headed down the corridor, leaving her parents to comfort Ivana. She knew Tasha had been acting strangely, but she hadn't expected anything like this...

It was strange to see Tasha in white. The hospital gown left her arms exposed, both of them wrapped in bandages from elbow to wrist. There was another bandage around her head. She looked incredibly pale and drawn, and there was a drip attached to her arm. Renee wondered what it was for...

At a loss for anything else to do, she sat down by Tasha's side and stroked her hair, waiting for answers.

* * *

At least some of the answers came later when Michel had arrived, and Tasha's doctor had taken the opportunity to talk to the whole family at once.

"First of all, I have to tell you that we still have no idea what was causing Natasha's pain. Aside from her wounds, we can't find anything physically wrong with her. Hopefully, she'll be able to shed some light on the source of her troubles herself once she wakes up. However, we are worried about her mental state. The wounds on her arms are obviously self-inflicted, and she has a number of scratches on her that look like they might have been caused during a sexual encounter, possibly a rape."

Ivana gasped in horror, and Emilie let out a pained sound. Part of Renee wanted to speak up and tell the doctor that Tasha liked it rough, but she held her tongue. Tasha could give the explanations herself, hopefully without her parents present.

"The head injury is troubling us, because we don't know if it was accidental, or if somebody attacked her. She was also undernourished." He turned to Tasha's parents. "Are you aware that she hasn't been eating?"

"No," Ivana shook her head. "She hadn't been joining us for meals, but sometimes she prefers to eat with her friends, and she's been having people over lately, so we just thought..." she spread her hands helplessly.

"Alright," the doctor nodded. "We've got her on a drip now, and that should help stabilise her condition. There's not much else we can do until she wakes up. Hopefully she'll be able to give us some more insight into how we can help her."

The doctor was about to head off and go about his business when Renee spoke up. "Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Tasha... she told me she'd been having waking nightmares. Seeing things. And that she didn't know where the wounds on her arms came from." She found it hard to meet the doctor's eyes, feeling like she was betraying Tasha. But she wanted her to get better. If anything happened to her...

"I see," the doctor nodded, writing something down on his notepad. "That's very helpful, Renee. We'll keep you informed." And then he did disappear, going to do who-knew-what with the information that Renee had given him...