Chapter 29

My hands shook as me and Josh walked through the revolving doors of the hospital. I walked up to the counter to get a visitor sticker. I turned around to sit in the waiting room and saw my whole family. Brandon was the first to come up and hug me.

"How is he?" I looked up at him my eyes were full of tears.

"Okay, he is in the process of his second blood transfusion." He walked me over to were our parents were sitting they both got up to give me a hug and so did Johnny.

"Where is Chris?" I looked around to see if he was here.

"He is on his way now. He couldn't make the flight that we took." Johnny got up and grabbed my arm and walked me outside.

"Me, Brandon and Josh have been talking. We want you to come home. Brandon has already talked to some administrators about getting you in to CSU. The whole family would just feel more safe if you were around us." I crossed my arms and looked at the ground.

"Johnny, honesty I am so out of it right now. I'm not thinking strait too much is going on for me to even think about this. Can you do me a favor and talk about this later?"

"Yeah just keep it in the back of your head." He leaned against the wall and lit a cigarette

"You still smoke those cancer sticks?"

"Well I do now...I quit for awhile." We chatted for a little bit when my dad poked his head out of the door.

"Kate." He walked closer. "The police are here, they want to talk to you." I sighed and walked into the waiting room. I his hand as he took me to an isolated room and sat me down.

"Ms. Kate Patrick correct?" He had a pen and a paper. He wasn't looking at me.

"Yes."

"19 years of age?"

"Yes." I put my hands on the table and took a deep breath.

"Okay, can you tell me a little about your relationship with your x-boyfriend?"

"Um, we grew up together and our families were really close. I started to date him when I was 16 and we were together for 2 years."

"Okay. Has he ever physically abused you?" I felt like I was back in the courtroom when I tried to get the retraining orders.

"No."

"Mentally?" Nobody ever asked me this before and as I thought about it Brian always messed with my mind.

"Um I guess I'm not really sure."

"Just tell me some things he would say to you that would hurt you." He finally took his eyes off the paper and looked at me.

"Well, he always told me I was a bitch, he would tell me I was never good enough for him. When we got into heated fights he would threaten to hurt me but he never went through with it."

"Okay." He paused his questioning to write down all of what I had just said. "Tell me a bit about his older brother Justin."

"He is scum. He never treated anyone right, he had horrible manners. When we were younger My brother Riley and him never got along. They always fought." Before I could finish a knock came at the door. The officer walked to the door and slightly cracked it.

"What's up." Another officer walked in a little bit.

"He is awake and conscious we should probably get what we can now and finish with her later."

"My brothers awake?" I stood up "Can I see him please."

"Ms. Patrick we are going to have to talk to him first then we have to finish up with you. It might be another hour or two before we can let you see him. You can wait with your family and we will update you as soon as we can."

"Okay." They walked me back to the waiting room and headed back to see Riley. I sat down and buried my face in my knees.

"Everything will be okay." I felt my mom rub my back.

"This is my fault, Brian and Justin want me and Riley was just in the way...I should have been home."

"Kate don't you dare blame this on yourself! Could you imagine what they would have done to you! Riley is your brother and he was doing what he had to and I don't think he will ever regret this nor will he ever want you to blame yourself." I didn't say anything I just leaned back and closed my eyes. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes when someone smacked me on the leg to wake me up.

"Nick? what are you doing here?" I gave him a hug.

"Well Josh left a message on my answering machine last night and I didn't check it till now. Why didn't you tell me."

"I just don't want you to have to worry about this or think that you need to do anything. You have other priorities right now."

"Well my girlfriend is a pretty big priority to me."

"Yeah but you have a game tonight."

"And." He stood up to take his jacket off.

"And you need to be thinking about that!"

"I am but you don't understand that when I get on the ice everything that I have been thinking about earlier in the day floats away. I'm fine don't worry about it."

"Okay. Well while your here, Nick this is my Mom, Dad, Older brothers Brandon and Johnny. Chris is on his way." He got up and gave my mom a hug and kiss on the cheek and shook My dads hand and Johnny and Brandon.

"It's nice to meet you all. I'm sorry that it's because of these circumstances."

"You too Hunny." The officers walked back out and asked me to follow them.

"I thought you needed to talk to my brother?"

"He fell back to sleep so the sooner we finish with you the better."

"Alright." I got up and turned around and gave Nick a hug. "You okay out here by yourself? You can leave whenever you want."

"I'm Fine. It will be nice to finally talk to your whole family." I gave him a quick kiss and followed the officers back to the same room.

"So Ms. Patrick we have some good news."

"Yeah?"

"We are in the process of approving your restraining orders." I raised my eyebrow

"Are you serious?! It's a little late don't you think?"

"Well late is better than never, so where were we?"

"Justin." I rested my elbow on the table.

"Ah Justin yes. Okay now has he ever abused you?"

"Besides the rape?"

"Yes."

"Um.....yeah he has." I had never told anyone that after Justin got out of jail he came and found me one night. I never wanted to talk about this.

"Okay please explain."

"Do I have to?"