"Dr. Jones can you please tell us the condition of MS Davis when Mr. Smith brought her to the ER?"
"She had a broken jaw, two broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist and she was bleeding internally. She required surgery at which time her spleen was removed." Tony recounted noticing the winces on many people in the courtroom. Many of them looked very much as they had the first time he had listed her injuries.
By the time she was out of surgery the waiting room was full. Jason, Brenda, Sonny and Mike all stood together. Luke, Lucky and Nikolas sat together as well. Zander was sitting with his father, tears in his eyes as he told his father again what had happened.
"I should have got there sooner," he kept repeating until finally Cameron took his son into his arms as he had done when he was still a little boy.
"It's all right son, you got her, and she's going to be okay."
Skye was sitting in one of the chairs holding Kristina who was looking around anxiously. Jax had offered to hold her for a while but Skye refused to let her go. She had failed Alexis, she wouldn't fail Alexis' daughter. Reginald had come by earlier with some bottles and diapers so Skye was determined to sit and wait until she heard Alexis would be fine, then she would take Kristina home with her.
"Dr Jones had all of these injuries been acquired at the same time?"
"No, some were weeks old, others only hours. In my opinion MS Davis had been suffering the abuse for over a month."
Alexis hated the way the words sounded, suffering the abuse, it made her feel like a victim. She was not a battered wife, she had told herself over and over until she had almost been convinced it was true. Ned didn't hit her all the time, she reasoned. He had only attacked her three times, "only three times," as though once wasn't enough to make it real abuse.
"Had any of the earlier injuries been treated Dr Jones?"
"Yes, she had a broken arm which had been set a little more than a month earlier." Tony told the courtroom. He would never forgive himself for what had happened the night Alexis had come to the hospital for treatment.
It had been a typical evening in the ER, crazy and loud without even a minute to think. Ned had walked in supporting Alexis who appeared to have been struck several times.
"What happened?" Tony asked as he began to examine her.
"She was mugged on the dock," Ned explained before Alexis could say anything. Tony had nodded absently and asked a few more questions. He had then done everything he was supposed to. He checked her for a concussion, her arm was put in a cast and he gave her a prescription for painkillers. Finally he asked if they wanted him to call the police.
"We're going to run by the station on the way home." Ned assured him and once again Tony nodded before saying goodbye.
He hadn't noticed the fact that Alexis had not once looked him in the eye or the way Ned had answered every question for her. He didn't even consider the possibility that Ned was lying, or that Alexis was hiding something. If he had looked into her eyes he wondered what he would have seen, perhaps the truth? But it was a busy night in the ER and he didn't have time to waste.