The Hedge Pt. 05

Pam heard her twice and then got up and climbed into her daughter's bed and cuddled her until she fell asleep and stayed that way until morning. Back in the hospital, Aaron had reviewed the night's events, realising that he probably owed his life to the petite girl they had befriended and was very happy that his present to her had been instrumental in saving him.

On arriving at the hospital in the first ambulance to attend, Baxter was quickly assessed by the trauma team and was sent up for emergency brain surgery to have the torch extracted. He had been connected to various machines to monitor his vital signs but had to wait for the surgeon who was on standby to drive to the hospital.

They took him for a CT scan and x-rays ready for the surgeon to assess the damage and although the torch was still embedded in his skull (they had to carefully unscrewed the light end and extract the batteries) first. When the surgeon arrived, Baxter was waiting in the operating theatre, he was briefed while he scrubbed up, then went into the operating room, where he studied the x-rays and the scan.

The torch was six inches long and because of her small hands, Ashley had jammed half of its length into his ear, possibly only getting that deep with the second hit which was done to stop him twisting her arm. The surgery took almost five hours, extracting the torch, examining the damage to his brain and repairing what they could internally.

Then he had to repair the breaks in the skull that the torch had caused, with tiny plates and screws. His ear would never hear again but they would have to wait until he regained consciousness to assess the internal damage. He was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where he could be monitored twenty-four/seven and the surgeon, when he had cleaned himself up and dressed, went to see the parents.

"Hello Mr and Mrs Baxter, my name is Roland Connors and I operated on your son."

They nodded and he continued.

"We removed the object embedded in his right ear and repaired what we could internally. We also used small plates to hold the broken parts of the surrounding skull area together, now we will have to wait until he wakes up to see how it has affected him."

"When will that be?" Mrs Baxter asked quietly.

"He should be regaining consciousness from the anaesthetic in another two hours or so, then we will try and assess his mental state, you can sit with him until then."

"Thank you" she replied and he left them after asking a nurse to escort them to the ICU.

Later in the morning the police called Alice at nine to ask if they could come and interview the five of them.

"I'm sorry but Aaron is being operated on this morning so won't be available until this evening and Ashley is at her mother's house but Vicky is here."

They arrived at ten, as did the CSI team to go over the crime scene and surrounding area in daylight. Vicky's voice was a little better as she described the evening from her point of view. The detectives asked a few questions about Ashley and were told the story of what happened to Ashley and her friend Annie Dickens and that girl's subsequent suicide.

Sharon added her part but left out the sex, Alice had the least to say but contributed to the overall picture. She gave them Ashley's phone number and one of them called her and arranged to interview her that afternoon.

They went out to the garden and Vicky described the actual fight and re-enacted it with Alice and Sharon taking her's and Ashley's parts and the detectives playing Aaron and Martin Baxter. The CSI's had gone by this time, taking the crime scene tape with them and the detectives thanked them for their assistance and left to start to write their report.

The same detectives interviewed Ashley at two pm to get her side of what happened and the history of the four persons involved. They checked with the hospital to ask when they could interview Aaron and were told that they could at four pm.

The wounds where he had been cut open by the surgical team to fix his bones together with plates and screws, had been stapled and covered with clear tape. He had woken at two pm and been told that the police were coming to interview him at four. He managed to eat a sandwich, drink a cup of tea and had more pain medication which made him feel much better.

The police arrived on time and he told them about his history with Baxter and the histories of Vicky and Ashley too, as he knew it. He explained what he had done to protect the girl by giving her self-defence training as he had for Vicky and Sharon too.

They asked about the torch and he explained about the size difference between her prospective attacker and his victim, which is why he gave her the torch to maybe temporarily blind him and escape. This was in case Baxter came after her when he was released from prison, if the mother and daughter had not moved away by then, as was being planned.

They wrote it all down and left, Sharon arrived at eight with clothes for him as all of his had been cut off when he had arrived in A&E the night before. She helped him dress and get into the wheelchair provided to get him as far as her car, he was holding a pair of arm crutches to use once his arm had healed sufficiently to take his weight, to keep his left leg off the ground at all times.

He would have to come back in a month for more x-rays to check on how well it was healing, a wheelchair would be delivered for him to use in a few days. "I'll manage!" he said determinedly and sat in the car while Sharon returned the wheelchair to the reception area.

They arrived at Redice in time for a late dinner then Vicky took him to bed in the guest bedroom, using the left crutch and with his right upper arm across her shoulders to support himself without hurting his forearm. After washing him in the bathroom as he stood on one leg and one crutch, which she thought was hilarious, she got him into bed.

He had already taken some strong painkillers that Vicky had collected from the hospital pharmacy, they laughed as they tried to find a position where she could cuddle him without putting pressure on either his injured arm or leg. In the end he lay on his back and she lay on her side, facing his right side.

Ashley felt much better that night and went to sleep without a problem and only woke once before going back to sleep again. In the morning, Pam helped her to dress ready to be collected by Alice later, then she caught the early bus to work after carefully hugging her daughter.

Aaron had a fairly good night as long as he didn't move much but because he was on his back, he snored and woke Vicky a few times but she put up with it because he couldn't help it and thought she snored quite a lot herself due to her swollen nose.

She helped him in the bathroom and in the bedroom to get dressed before breakfast and with all of them around the table (Alice feeding Alexis with a spoon), they discussed the sleeping arrangements for the week as Ashley was due to come back today.

"It's going to be at least four weeks until Aaron can make can use both crutches and still may not be able to climb stairs and so come home. Until then Mum will have to help him get around... and hold his cock when he has a piss" Vicky said and laughed.

"HEY! I do not need anyone to hold it for me... besides if she does that, you know what it'll do" and he grinned.

They all had a good laugh, envisioning the scene.

"With Ashley here to help me until she goes back to work, there shouldn't be any problems so you can go home and can get some decent night's sleep, his snoring even woke me up once during the night" her mother said, grinning.

"We'll have to get Ashley some earplugs or let her sleep on the settee but that will be her choice" Sharon added, giggling.

"She might prefer to be home alone during the day when her mother is at work" Aaron added.

"I doubt that" said Vicky, "This has knocked her confidence back a lot so she wants to be with people who love her, all the time and I don't mind if she sleeps with 'Mr Noisy' as long as he doesn't get her pregnant!"

Vicky called her husband's work number and gave a brief description of his injuries and told then he would be off work for at least a month, then she kissed everyone and left for work.

Alice cleared the table, while Sharon went upstairs to get dressed for work leaving him at the table, then his Mother-in-law helped him to the bathroom so that he could wash and didn't offer to hold it for him when he peed for which he was grateful.

Sharon left for work and explained to the manager what had happened to Ashley and he amended her sick file, she still had another three weeks of her certificate to run so would probably be back to work after that, on light duties.

Once he was dressed in loose jogging bottoms and a sweatshirt and slippers Alice supported him to get to the lounge and into an armchair so he could watch TV. Now settled with the TV remote control, Alice showered and dressed and left him with Alexis in the play pen to go and collect Ashley.

Mr and Mrs Baxter had stayed at their son's bedside all the first night, briefly went home to shower and get changed and eat something before returning to his bedside to continue their vigil. Later the surgeon came to see them and explain what he thought was happening.

"The slim torch that had penetrated his right ear went in about three inches, sufficiently far to damage the Thalamus, this is a part of the brain which controls sensory and motor integration. It receives sensory information and relays it to the cerebral cortex, it also receives information from the cerebral cortex and transmits it to other parts of the brain and the brain stem.

His recovery depends on the amount of damage done internally, he may have trouble seeing, feeling or co-ordinating his body movements. Walking may still be a possibility but we will not know his range of movements until he wakes up."

"So he could be anything from fairly disabled to a vegetable, am I right?" Mr Baxter asked.

"Crudely put but basically yes, at this moment we just don't know, I'm sorry I cannot give you any better news" he finished and left them to ponder on what they could do now. They stayed all day and then went home to eat and sleep.

Alice pulled up in front of the Ashley's house and rang the doorbell, the girl opened the door and smiled. Alice asked about her shoulder and then saw a look of horror on her face. Alice turned and saw a couple in their early forties coming slowly up the path towards them and she guessed who they were. Ashley started to back inside the house but the woman called out to her.

"Ashley! Please... we just want to talk... we want to know why all this has happened, the police wouldn't tell us anything except that Martin had attacked two women and a man, put them all in hospital and one of them had hurt him. Please tell us what it was all about...please..."

"You'd better come in" Ashley said tightly and ushered them into the lounge where they sat on the settee.

"I will tell you the whole story but you will not like it!" she said coldly.

"It will probably all come out in court anyway" Alice added quietly from the doorway.

"We know that he was not a nice child and grew up to be even worse but we don't know anything about what he has done or why he did it, except for the incident which put him in prison" Mrs Baxter added tiredly.

Ashley told them about the bullying and included Aaron and Vicky too, she went on to explain what he had done to her in the old house and what he had ordered the Lanes brothers to do to Annie Dickens and her subsequent suicide, Mr and Mrs Baxter were both visibly shaken. She told them of her relief when he had been sent to prison and meeting Aaron and Vicky who were engaged at that time.

She continued with the friendship and defence training they had given her but she and her mother were planning to move to Lincoln to get away before he was released. When she had found out that he had been released from prison earlier than expected, Alice had offered for her to move in with them.

"We thought it funny that one of the first things he asked when he came home was 'Where was Ashley'."

Mrs Baxter mused. "He signed on at the Job Centre but they wouldn't pay him for two weeks so he got some night delivering and collecting work, we were suspicious about that because they paid 'cash in hand' and it was quite a lot of money but we didn't ask."

"He must of found a way to find where you were living because he took her bike out at night a lot over a couple of weeks and the police found it over a fence next to the house" Mr Baxter added.

"He must have watched the house regularly to know that my partner and I went to the cinema or theatre every Friday night so he waited until we had left" Alice said.

"What he didn't know was that Aaron and Vicky were in the house that night, they must have arrived earlier than he did and put their car in the garage" Ashley continued and completed telling them the events of the attack and how the injuries were all sustained, including their son's.

"Is he still alive?" Alice asked.

"Yes, he should have woken up by now but they say he is in a coma, he could wake up any minute or in a year but he will definitely have some brain damage" the woman said. "I am sorry that all this has happened to you and your friends, past and present.

There is nothing we can say that will make amends for any of it, we can only say that he cannot do anything more to hurt you now and we do not hold any grudges against you or your friends who were only trying to protect each other, thank you for telling us, we won't bother you again, goodbye."

They stood and walked out without looking back and headed home.

"I was not expecting that" Ashley said, obviously very relieved that it was over.

"Come on Honey, let's get you away from here for a few days" Alice said firmly.

There were careful hugs and kisses for Aaron and Alexis when they arrived back at the house, Alice made coffee for them while Ashley relayed the surprise meeting with the Baxter's to him.

"I was wondering why you were so long getting here... It's sad for them to have such a bastard for a son but at least we now know that he will probably never bother any of us again" Aaron said quietly.

"But I still feel guilty for what I've done to him!" the girl cried.

"But it stopped him from killing me with that bar and maybe doing the same to you and Vicky, possibly even waiting for Alice and Sharon too, also it's a bit of payback for Annie and you too..."

"I suppose so, at least he's still alive" said finished.

"Okay kiddies, that's enough of that, there's a certain little girl who is in serious need of playing with, as Daddy can't get down to her level to do it that leaves you Sasha" Alice said as she brought in the drinks.

"Now that will definitely be my pleasure even with this arm" she replied and knelt down with her sling protecting her arm and tickled the little girl who loved it.

Aaron was left alone after lunch because Alice and Ashley went for a long walk with Alexis because the younger woman wanted to talk and ask for some advice.

"I-cee... I uhh... wanted to ask you for some advice but I don't want to upset anyone in the 'Family', it's sort of personal but you've all been so good to me these past months and I..." she said quietly but ran out of words.

"You want to ask if we would object to you asking that nice junior doctor for a date" she replied, smiling at Ashley's shocked expression.

"Y-yes, how did you know?"

"Roni and I were in the next bay when you were asking that nurse about him, she went out and came back to see you again but only for a few seconds. We guessed that she passed you a note with his phone number on it, didn't she?"

"Yes, hospital policy is that doctors and nurses are not allowed to date patients but..."

"But you are not a patient anymore are you?"

"No, I have to go and see my own doctor to get a certificate to go back to work in a couple of weeks but what about the others? I feel like I'm rejecting them after all they've done for me" Ashley cried getting upset.

"Ashley Hunter! You are a beautiful, kind, loving, caring girl and we all love you very much but you must eventually find your own way in this world, which includes love and marriage and even children.

You obviously find this young man very attractive and as long as it is not just gratitude because he fixed your arm, then we say 'go for it'. It may not work out for you this time but it is a big step towards your independence and of course you will be welcome to visit us any time, as it seems that Baxter is now out of the picture."

"Thank you I-cee, I will always love all of you and would love to visit often" she replied happily and hugged and kissed her friend and occasional lover. "Uhh... is Roni disappointed, I mean he has done the most for me and we...?"

"Of course not, he is very happy for you and of course he has Vicky."

"And you and Redi too."

"For as long as he wants us, which will hopefully be for life, although he might not want to make love to us when we are in our seventies..."Alice added.

"I wouldn't bet on it!" Ashley answered and they both laughed.

54.

When they returned home, Ashley carefully hugged and kissed Aaron.

"What have I done to deserve this?" he asked, "Not that I'm complaining."

"It's about a certain junior doctor" Alice said from the doorway.

"Ahh, good luck my love but if he's on nights, you better not call him until well after lunch, I hope it goes okay."

"And I don't mind playing taxi driver until you can drive again" Alice added and Ashley hugged and kissed her too.

She was nervously watching the clock as soon as the lunch plates and dishes were stacked in the dishwasher, waiting for the evening ones to be added. To keep her mind off the time, Alice asked her to go out to the garden and bring in some herbs for dinner and some to dry for use in the winter.

She showed the girl how to dry them, using a microwave oven, then crush them to be put into jars. By three pm she was almost crying with frustration so Aaron told her that he would probably be up by then so she dialled the number on her phone and walked out into the hall.

"Hello, Doctor Morris, my name is Ashley Hunter, you fixed my dislocated shoulder on Friday night."

"Hello Ashley, yes I remember you... how did you get my number...?"

"Uhh... I was wondering if we could meet for a coffee... or a drink... or something... sometime... if you're not too busy..."

"Oh I'm always busy but that doesn't matter, did you know that the hospital has a policy that the staff cannot date patients?"

"Uhh... yes, the nurse told me but I'm not a patient anymore am I? So I thought..."

"Ahh that would be Iris, I'll have words with her" he said.

"Please don't get her into trouble, she was only trying to help."

"Don't worry, she thinks I might be lonely since I transferred to this hospital and not knowing anyone outside of work" he replied and laughed. "I'm very busy here and studying too... Do you have transport, I mean your arm...?"

"I do have a chauffeur until I can drive again."

"In that case, would you like to meet me in the hospital cafeteria at 7am for breakfast on Thursday morning, after I've finished my shift, if it's not too early?"

"Just a moment while I ask my driver... I-cee can you take me to the hospital for seven am on Thursday please, I've been invited for breakfast?" she turned to Alice and begged and the woman nodded, laughing.

"She said yes."

"Was that after they finished laughing?" he asked, trying not to laugh himself and failing.

"Yes it was, doctor."

"Please call me Andy, was that your parents?"

"No, just very good friends."