"My turn," Dr. Morris says, stepping forward. "I had to remove Tera's spleen, which was badly damaged and bleeding. I also repaired a laceration to her liver. She has severe bruising of her kidneys so we'll be monitoring that closely. If there are any problems, we'll bring in a nephrologist. Tera also had a punctured lung. One of the four ribs she has broken must have come in contact with the lung. It was repaired. She'll need to be on the respirator for that alone but more so for Neurology."
Dr. Levine speaks up again, "She'll be on the respirator for a while. We're going to keep her in a medically-induced coma until some of the brain swelling goes down, as well as letting some of her injuries heal a bit. The damage she has now would be too much for the body and brain to be able to handle."
"Jesus," Linc mutters.
I thought Dr. Levine left earlier. Guess I was wrong.
"The bruising of Tera's organs," Dr. Morris begins, "will be watched but should heal well with time and we're talking months rather than weeks. The repeated blows were traumatic. It's my hope she heals well and comes out of this without any permanent damage but, again, that will have to be monitored long-term to know for sure."
Dad steps forward. "Dr. Levine mentioned a plastic surgeon and orthopedic surgeon. What types of injuries are we dealing with there?"
Dr. Leslie answers. "I don't know the extent of her injuries, but I do know her face was repeatedly slammed into the pavement causing one of her cheek bones to shatter and the other to have damage as well—I'm not sure how much for that one. Her nose was broken. One of her eye sockets was fractured. Her jaw was broken and dislocated, so they'll be wiring her mouth closed around the ventilation tube for now, but when she's off the vent they'll wire it the rest of the way until her jaw heals. Those are the injuries I know of. I don't know if there are more than that, and that's the plastic surgery portion."
"I…" I trail off. "Jesus Christ. How many of them were there, Dad?"
He meets my gaze straight on. "Seven."
"No," I whisper, dropping to my knees. "God, no. How many… God, Dad, how many…?"raped her.I can't say the words aloud.
"One male and one female is what the detective told me."
I lean forward, my face buried in my bent legs.
"The other surgeons should be in soon. Then they'll be moving Tera to ICU," Dr. Levine assures us.
I don't even listen. Linc drops to his knees next to me. Then Jesse. Ben. Kennedy. Ethan, and finally Dad.
"She's strong," Ethan reminds us.
"All of that and we don't even know what bones are broken besides the ones in her face and ribs," Linc growls. "Who the fuck are these people?"
"I don't know, man, but they're going to be dead if the cops don't find them before we do," Ben says.
"Damn right," Kennedy agrees.
I lift my head from where my face was cocooned on my thighs and look at my dad.
"What can we do?"
"We're doing it," he tells me. "Maybe add in a prayer. I know we've never been very religious, but people say it helps."
"It sure can't hurt," Jesse mumbles.
I close my eyes, fold my hands as I've seen people do when they pray, and ask whatever God is up there listening for the impossible.
* * *
"They broke her fuckingtoes," Linc shouts. "Her fuckingtoes!"
In addition to the toes were lower legs, a couple fingers, and her left arm and wrist. Add in the ribs and face. The anger swirling inside me is massive. I have never been so angry, freaked out, or felt so helpless in my entire life and I pray I never feel this way again.
Mr. M comes walking out of the room, his entire body shaking.
"Jose," my dad calls out, striding toward him and wrapping an arm around him before guiding him to the sofa on the far side of the waiting room.
"Our girl, Matthew," Jose mutters brokenly.
"She'll heal," Dad replies.
