“Don’t even think of screaming”, he said. “Or I’ll jab you with it.”

“What are you doing?” I asked. “Where are you taking me?”

“You will see.”

A million thoughts were going through my head. I wanted to freak out, but I had to calm down and think. If I did it right, I should be able to escape. I was weak from my injuries and surgeries, but he was weak, too - from age and whatever else he had going against him. It shouldn’t be hard to get away.

“Where are your horses, Meredith?”

“That’s none of your business, asshole.” He cuffed me across my head with his hand. “Screw you!”

“Do not talk to me like that!”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll do it again. And that’s just the beginning.”

“Better me than my horses.”

“You won’t say that when we get to our destination. You’ll be begging for mercy.”

“Not likely, dickhead.” He cuffed me again.

I turned around in the chair, prepared to hit him back, but he held the syringe up in a threatening way. I couldn’t compete with drugs. I’d have to wait for the right moment. He pushed the chair to a door at the end of the corridor, then opened it and pushed me through. It looked like we were at the back of the hospital. There was a car parked by the door. Watters closed the hospital door, then opened the passenger door of the car. He rummaged around inside. I pulled my phone out from under the sheet - I’d grabbed it off the bed as he began to wheel me out of the room and he apparently had not noticed. I wanted to have it in case Doc called but when I began to suspect all was not on the up and up with my “porter”, I hid it.

I knew I had little time so I tried to do it as fast as I could. I pulled up my contact for Doc, tapped to dial and turned the speaker volume down so that it was essentially off. I did this so that Watters wouldn’t hear Doc. He was still rummaging around in the car like he was looking for something he couldn’t find. So I called up the voice recorder program I’d put on the phone almost as soon as Scott had given it to me and tapped to record. I like to record reminders to myself, it’s a lot easier than typing a note. I wanted to call up the camera but it looked like Dickhead had found what he was looking for so I quickly put it on the seat behind me. I hoped that Doc would answer and it wouldn’t go to his voice mail. When I figured he’d had time to answer, I said in a loud voice “I’m not getting in that car with you, Dr Watters!”

“You have no choice”, he said as he straightened up. I could tell he was in pain. “If you don’t, you will get this shot.”

“Where are we anyway? It looks like the back of the hospital.”

“That’s where we are. Nobody knows we are here.”

“They will come looking for me when I don’t come back from Ultrasound.”

“We’ll be long gone by then.” He unhooked my IV. “Now, I’m going to help you up out of that wheelchair. Don’t try anything.” I took the sheet off my legs and pushed it behind me, making sure it covered the phone. Hopefully, it wouldn’t muffle our voices too much, but even if it did, Doc should have the gist by now.

He bent down and lifted the foot rests so I could get up. I let him take my hands, inwardly cringing at him touching me and vowing to scrub my hands raw when I had a shower, *if* I got out of this situation. I talked to him constantly, reciting what he was doing so that Doc would hear. Watters helped me to my feet. I saw a pair of handcuffs on his dashboard. It was now or never. I leaned into him, pretending to need the support and shifted my weight to my good foot. I lifted my left foot up - the one in the boot cast - as high as I dared, then brought it down as hard as I could, my heel landing on his right foot. “FUCK YOU!!!!” I yelled.

He cried out in pain and at the same time, released my hands. I took a step back and turned around to flee, but he grabbed me by the waist before I could get away. I tried to shake him off, but he held on. I was in front of him with my back to him. I took a step back and stomped on his other foot. This time I heard a crunching sound. I hoped I had broken a bone or two. He let go again and I took a step, but the wheelchair was in front of me, blocking my way. I pushed it to the side, out of the way and started walking as fast as I could away from him. I tried to run, but couldn’t due to my pain.

Next thing I knew, something slammed into the backs of my knees and I was sent sprawling to the pavement. I turned around and saw that it was the wheelchair. I used it to try to get up, but Watters was on me. He had his arm around my neck, trying to strangle me. I bit down on it and bit hard. Then I elbowed him in his side. “Get off of me!” He yelled out in pain and let go. I tried again to get up but he pushed me down, face forward. The wheelchair rolled out of reach. I managed to roll over onto my back and as he came at me, I brought my right knee up and caught him where it counts. He fell to the ground in agony. I crawled over to the chair and used it to get up. I was reaching for my phone when out of the corner of my eye I saw him getting up. I turned the volume up and yelled. “Doc, you there?”

“I’m here, hon, heading to the hospital. The police are on their way, too. Where are you?”

“He took me down to where the Ultrasound lab is and headed down the opposite corridor and out the door at the end!” Just then Watters reached me and tried to get my phone out of my hand. I dropped it on the seat of the wheelchair and grabbed his arm. “Leave my phone alone, Watters!”

“Watters, you harm her and I’ll hurt you so bad you’ll wish you were dead!” I heard Doc say.

The old doctor pushed me and I fell down but I held on to both his arms with my hands and he went down with me. I let go when I hit the ground. I couldn’t believe how much strength he had. I had been told he was getting frail. Then again, I couldn’t believe that I was managing to hold my own, given my own problems and pain. He was on me again, punching at my abdomen. I felt some of the punches connect. I brought my knee up, intending to go for the groin again, but he moved out of the way and grabbed my leg. I kicked out but he held on. “Let go of my leg!”

“Did I hurt you, bitch?” he asked. “I hope I did, but it was nothing compared to what awaits you when I get you home.” I could hear Doc calling him all sorts of names in the background, language I’d never heard him use before. Watters had the syringe in his hand but it was still capped. He needed both hands to get the cap off. I couldn’t let him do it. If he knocked me out, he could have me out of there before Doc or the police got there. At least Doc knew who was doing this to me, but I didn’t know if Watters was planning on taking me to his home or somewhere else. I kept kicking my leg out, forcing him to keep holding onto it. He dropped the syringe. I reached for it and grabbed it. He let go of my leg and went for my hand, pinning it down. I gave a supreme effort and twisted my body around so that I was able to kick him. He went sprawling. I started to take the cap off the syringe, intending to push the drug out onto the pavement but hesitated. If I did that, would they still be able to use it as evidence in a trial? I decided they would be able to detect trace amounts of the drug and pushed the plunger.

Watters was on me again, but the drug was gone, thankfully. He slammed my left arm down on the hard ground. I felt a bolt of pain but it was nothing compared to the pain I was already feeling. I was going purely on adrenaline, he probably was, too. I managed to throw him off me again and started crawling toward the wheelchair. He got on top of me from behind and slammed me down. I turned over on my back as fast as I could, throwing him off and brought both knees up. As he tried again to get on top of me, I hollered “Get away from me!” and kicked out with both feet as hard as I could and got him in the abdomen. He fell backwards and I heard a cracking sound as his head hit the pavement.

I tried to sit up, but I was spent. I did manage to turn my body around and looked at him. He was lying still. Not a sound came out of him. I saw blood under his head. OMG, I’ve killed him! I thought. I watched him for a moment and saw his chest rise and fall. Oh, good, he’s alive. I did not want to kill him, just get him off of me. I turned over onto my side and threw up, then tried to get up but there was no way I was going to be able to do that. I wiggled away from the pile of vomit and closed my eyes.

I heard what sounded like brakes being suddenly applied and a car door open. I looked up. “Hon, are you okay?” It was Doc!

“I don’t know, Doc. I hurt all over. But Watters is in worse shape. Go tend to him.”

“I don’t care about Watters.”

“You have to, Doc. Your oath, remember? I think I really hurt him.”

“You’re right, Meredith.” He went over to the unconscious physician. Then I heard him speaking to someone. I couldn’t see but presumed he was on his phone. “I need a stretcher around back of the hospital. Dr Chad Watters is unconscious. He’s breathing, but very shallow. Wait, he just stopped breathing. I’m going to start CPR.” Doc stopped talking and I heard sounds coming from that direction. I looked and saw him doing chest compressions on Watters. Part of me wanted the prick to die but if he did, then Doc would feel it was his fault for not being able to save him and I didn’t want my beloved Julian to have that guilt on top of the guilt he felt about Jane and his patient from long ago. He was mad as a wet hen right now, and said he didn’t care if the old ob/gyn died, but I knew that if he did, Doc would bear that sense of guilt for a long time.

A police car pulled up and two officers got out. “What happened here?” one of them asked.

“He tried to get me into his car”, I replied. “He had a syringe with some drug in it and was going to jab me with it if I wouldn’t do as he said.”

Just then, some ER personnel arrived with a stretcher. They loaded Watters onto it and one of them said “We can take it from here, Dr Richards. Thank you.”

“Please send another stretcher for Meredith.”

“We will.”

Doc knelt beside me. “What hurts the most, hon?”

“My abdomen.”

He peeked under my gown. “The dressing over your big incision has come off. There are some stitches out. If there’s internal bleeding or you have to have surgery again, I swear I’ll kill him - if he doesn’t die from his head injury first.”

“No, you won’t, Doc. You’re a doctor, you wouldn’t harm a fly.”

“If it harmed you, hon, damn right I would.”

“We’re going to pretend we didn’t hear that”, one of the cops said. “But we need to know more about what happened.”

“Let me get Meredith into the ER and looked at. Then I will tell you what I know. You can talk to her when the ER physician says it’s okay.” Another stretcher arrived and the attendants got me onto it. “I’ll meet you in there, hon, after I park the car.”

I curled up in my ball as I was taken to the ER. A nurse got my vitals. Doc came in a few minutes later, with Scott Fletcher. He had his hospital ID hanging from a ribbon around his neck. “There are no physicians available”, he said to me. “There’s been a bad accident and Watters got the last available one, so you’re stuck with me.”

“I can think of many, many people it would be worse to be ‘stuck with’, Doc.” He smiled.

“Hi, Meredith”, Scott said. “I’m so sorry to hear you’ve had further trouble. I need to stay in here while Julian is treating you to make sure you don’t talk about the incident.”

“Why can’t we talk about it?” I asked.

“Because we haven’t taken your statements yet. This leaves no room for a defence lawyer to claim you two colluded to get his or her client arrested. As soon as Julian is done treating you, I’ll take his statement, as I expect it to be shorter. Then he can stay with you while you give yours as long as he doesn’t talk to you. Don‘t worry about your privacy. I‘ll stand where I can‘t see Julian working on you.”

“Scott, with all the time I’ve been in hospital, modesty went out the window a long time ago!” He laughed.

“Let’s take a look at you, hon. You need to uncurl yourself, sweetie, and lay on your back”, Doc said. I sighed, but did as he asked. He palpated all around my abdomen. “I’m going to get an ultrasound to make sure there aren’t internal injuries. Where else do you hurt?”

“Everywhere, Doc. But my knees and my hand are really bad.”

“Your knees are swelling up. Can you bend them?” He had me bend each, then he took the boot off my left foot. “This should be able to come off soon. Perhaps it’s overdue to come off.”

“I’m glad I had it on, Doc. I might not be here if I hadn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I stomped on Watters’ feet with it. I think I broke some of his bones. It allowed me to try to get away. He caught up with me, but it bought me some time.”

“I have to stop this conversation”, the detective said.

“Sorry, Scott.”

“Your ankle isn’t swollen. Does it hurt?” I nodded. Doc felt all around it. “I don’t think you’ve hurt it, but I’ll get an X-ray of it just to be sure. Let me see your hand.” He looked at the hand that Watters had slammed on the ground. “Can you move it?” I nodded and moved it to show him. “I’ll get an X-ray of that, too, but I think it’s just bruised. I’ll go get the portable ultrasound and order the X-rays.”

He came back with the machine and set it up. He then pushed my gown up and squeezed gel onto my abdomen. It was cold. He moved the transducer all around, pressing down on me. I winced.

After a few minutes, he wiped the gel off and said “I don’t see any internal bleeding. I can’t tell if the stitches on your bladder are intact, so I will call Ivan Quinn and get his opinion on what to do but given the absence of bleeding, I think he will say to watch and wait. You‘ve been through too many surgeries lately.”

While he was talking to Dr Quinn, the portable X-ray came and the tech took radiographs of both knees, my ankle and my hand. I joked to her that I was going to glow in the dark.

Dr Quinn came down and looked at the ultrasound. He agreed with Doc about leaving my bladder alone and just stitching up the external stitches that got ripped out. By then, the X-ray results were in.

“There are no breaks in your foot or hand, hon”, Doc told me. “There’s a crack in the patella of your left knee. Do you know what the patella is?” I nodded. It’s the kneecap. “I’m going to call Adam Beckett to see how to proceed.”

The orthopedic surgeon looked at the X-ray and said I didn’t need surgery. Big relief! “The bones are not displaced, so it should heal on it’s own. I’m going to give you a brace for it, you need to wear it all the time and stay off that leg for a couple weeks, then get another radiograph and see me for the results. My office will set up an appointment. You don’t need the boot cast on your ankle any more. I’ll wrap your foot - keep that on for a couple weeks.”

Doc set up a tray to replace the stitches that had come out in my abdomen. “As soon as I get this done, you can go back up to your room and we’ll give our statements. I know you’re in a lot of pain, but if I give you pain medication, you can’t talk to the detective as anything you say would be inadmissible.”

“Then don’t give me the meds, Doc. How is Watters?”

“They took him to surgery. He has a bleed on his brain.”

“Doc, if he dies, will I be charged with murder?”

“I very much doubt that, hon. It was self defence.”

“I know, but how do I convince the cops that?”

“Meredith, don’t worry about that”, Scott stepped up to the bed. “We’re doing an investigation and if what you and Julian tell us checks out, you won’t be charged.”

Doc took the dressing off and poured antiseptic over the incision, then patted it dry with gauze. It had bled a little but not a lot. “I’m going to pick out the pieces of the sutures that came out, then I will spray it with a topical anesthetic before I inject the Lidocaine.” A couple minutes later, I winced a bit as he did the injections. Even with the spray, it hurt.

After making sure the freezing had taken, Doc began the stitches. “I only need to do 5, hon.” About half of the total.

“Was it dirty, Doc?” I asked.

“A little, but you are on heavy duty antibiotics for the infections you have, they should prevent any harm. I know I‘m usually pretty concerned about infection, but this time I‘m not.” When he was finished, he re-dressed the incision. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. I need to do your chart entry and call for porters to take you up to your room.”

“Are you going up with me?”

“Of course, Meredith. And I’m not leaving your room again unless I absolutely have to, except for giving Scott my statement and getting your meds or food.”

“Doc, you don’t have to be with me 24/7.”

“Yes, I do. Things happen when I am not there. This wasn’t your fault, but it wouldn’t have happened had I not gone to the apartment to shower.” I couldn’t argue with that. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

A while later, I was in my room, with all my wires and tubes reconnected, including the oxygen I was on. My sats had dropped further since the latest surgery - how I managed to fend off Watters is beyond me. Doc had changed my catheter again. He was concerned about dirt getting into it during the fight, even though it was clamped off. I was not happy about that, given the pain I’d experienced with the last change, but he didn’t give me a choice.

While he was off with Scott giving his statement, I closed my eyes and fell asleep. That fight had taken a lot out of me. I had no idea how I’d managed to hold my own, but I guess it really was adrenaline. Now that I was safely back in my room, I had “come down” and was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Unfortunately, my day wasn’t quite over yet. I still had to talk to the detective.

Doc sat beside my bed while I gave my statement to Scott. The detective let him hold my hand. Kristin, his partner, had come in at his request to be there as a witness to certify that Doc and I did not talk during it.

“Meredith, I’m going to tape the conversation, then take it back to the station to be transcribed and I’ll bring the print-out here tomorrow for you to sign, okay?”

“Yes, that is fine.”

“Let’s get started.”

Scott had me go through what had happened, starting from when Watters had appeared in my room ostensibly to take me to Ultrasound. I told him everything that I remembered right up to the time Doc arrived. When I was done, he asked “Do you have any idea why he’d want to take you away and harm you?”

“Yes. He had threatened my horses, but he couldn’t find them, so he came after me.”

“Why did he threaten your horses?” I told him everything, about what he’d done to me when I was his patient and how I had told him I was going to report him to the College, then how he’d threatened first my husband, then my horses after Chris died. I told him about the night I needed emergency surgery and he was on call and I would not allow him to operate on me. And how Doc insisted on going to the College when I told him what Watters had done to me. And, finally, about us talking to the College’s lawyer by video linkup from the safe house and that they were going to put restrictions on his licence and set up a hearing to permanently revoke it.

“I’m assuming that is why he did this, because of the restriction about a chaperone as he’s apparently done similar things to other women. He didn’t know where I was at the time, I don’t know how he found out I am here.”

“We’ll look into that and see if we can find out.”

“Do you know how he is doing?” I asked.

“Julian called the ICU before we came back here.”

“He’s in a coma”, Doc said.

“I don’t want him to die! I wasn’t trying to kill him, just stop him from taking me away!”

“I know”, Scott said. “Based on what you both have told me about what happened, I don’t see any charges being laid. Julian heard you tell him you didn’t want to go with him and him telling you that if you didn’t, he would stick you with the needle. He heard enough of your scuffle to know that Watters was trying to physically force you and you were just trying to get away. Sometimes, when someone is being attacked, they have to inflict damage on their assailant to stop the assault. That is allowed in law. I have to get going, but I will be back tomorrow to get you to sign the statements - or whenever they are ready - and hopefully, I’ll know more about how he found you.”

After he had gone, Doc said he would get my pain medication and restart my IV. The cannula had come out of my hand while I was fighting Watters. “It’s close to supper time, but I doubt you want anything to eat.”

“I don’t, Doc. Sorry, honey.”

“Don’t be sorry, Meredith. It’s totally understandable why you don’t want anything. Maybe you’ll want some toast later.”

I seemed to drift off as soon as I closed my eyes. I was spent. I had no physical or emotional energy left. I did wake up later and had half a slice of toast. It was all I could manage. Doc didn’t give me a hard time about it. After he cleaned up, he got on the bed and held me until I fell asleep again.

Scott came by the next day and we signed the statements. He told us that they found my phone on the wheelchair and looked at the call history, which confirmed that I had called Doc. They also listened to the voice recording and could tell that I was trying to get away from Watters and that he was attempting to kidnap me. He said that they had found the syringe and there was enough drug left in it to analyze. The detective reassured me that charges most likely would not be laid against me, but he had to present everything to the Chief of Detectives to get a final determination on that. Watters was still in a coma.

I spent most of the day and evening in and out of sleep. Doc was giving me pain medication as often as he could. He would not leave the room. He was even using the washroom and shower. Curt Wilcox had said he would bring him a clean set of clothes from the apartment every day and take the dirty set back. He - Curt - had me on inhalers and steroid medications for my lungs.

The next day, two days after the incident, Scott stopped in later in the afternoon. “I wanted to let you know what we have found. The College confirmed your statements to them and that Dr Watters was placed on restrictions, namely a chaperone when examining patients. Also that a hearing was being set up to revoke his licence to practice medicine. That establishes a motive”, he said to us.

“We got a search warrant and searched his house. We’ve seized his computer to examine for evidence. Now, for the bombshell.” Doc and I looked at him fearfully. “We found a locked room in his basement. It was just a padlock but we couldn’t find a key to it, so we had to use bolt cutters. The search warrant was our authorization to do that.

“Inside the room, we found what could only be described as a dungeon and torture chamber. There are all sorts of chains and restraints, including shackles and rings on the wall, ball gags and the like. There’s a table with restraints on it. There are also implements of torture. I won’t go into what they are, though you will find out if there’s a trial.”

“What are they?” I asked.

“You don’t want to know, trust me on that. It’s best that you not know.”

Doc’s face was white. “Listen to him, hon. Scott, do you think those were meant for Meredith? Wait, let‘s step out of the room before you answer that.”

“No, stay”, I said. “I want to know the answer to that.”

“Meredith…”

“He’s already told me about the dungeon, Doc. I might as well hear whether it was meant for me or not.”

“Yes, we do think it was, Meredith. Almost everything is new and looks like it has never been used. There are a couple things, like the table, that obviously have been used. He probably picked them up second hand. We’re searching through his desk for receipts and will also be looking for digital receipts on his computer.”

“Oh.my.god”, was all I could squeak out.

“Meredith, look at it this way. He didn’t succeed in kidnapping you. You fought him off - and from what we heard on your phone’s recording, it sounds like it was quite a fight.”

“Thank God you fought him off”, Doc said.

“I don’t know where I got the strength - or where he did! He totally surprised me!”

“It’s amazing what people can do when they feel they are in danger”, Scott told me.

“I’m so glad I was able to do it. I think Doc gave me the strength.”

“How so, hon?”

“Knowing what it would do to you if I went missing again and if he ….if he killed me.” I could see his eyes water up and knew mine were, too.

“I’m going to give you two some privacy and scram, but I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on.”

“Thanks, Scott.”

“You take care of her, Julian.”

“I will.”

“I want to be there when you two get married.”

“What? I haven’t proposed to her.”

“Oh, you will, Julian. I can see the depth of your love for her and of hers for you. There will be a wedding, I’m sure of that. Bruce and I will want an invitation.”

“Bruce?” Doc asked.

“My husband. I hope you don’t have a problem with that?”

“Not at all”, we both said in unison.

“You two will definitely be invited - if there’s a wedding”, I said. “Just don’t dress better than me.” I winked at him and he laughed.

“Meredith and I were talking about having a dinner for you and Randall and Dana and our neighbours if we could get Randall and Dana out here. Of course, Bruce would be invited too, ditto for their significant others.”

“We’d be happy to come. I’ve heard your cooking is exceptional, but is it better than Bruce’s?”

“He cooks?”

“Yes, and very well. He loves it.”

“I think we will get along quite well.”

“I really must get going. I’ll be sleeping on the sofa if I’m late getting home. We’re going out to dinner with some friends. I’ll be in touch soon.”

After Scott left, Doc gave me a hug. “Hon, I think you should talk to Alex about this.”

“No, Doc. I don’t want to talk to anybody about it.”

“Alex can help you deal with what’s happened and with what we just found out.” Apparently, he had been in to see me a couple times over the last day or so but I’d been sleeping both times and Doc didn’t want to wake me up.

“No.” I changed the subject. “Doc, I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Not for a pee, I presume?”

“You presume correct.”

“Okay, hon.” He got me unhooked from everything and into a wheelchair, then wheeled me into the bathroom. “Just yell when you’re done, Meredith. I will come and get you.”

While I did my business, I could not help but think about what I had just learned. I had been calm, but thinking about it was causing me to panic inside. When were these things going to stop happening to me? I wondered. My first instinct, as it always was, was to flee and go home, but I knew that was impossible. Not only would Doc forbid it, but I could not do it physically. I was in worse shape than I was a week ago when I went home by cab. What to do?

I finished on the toilet and washed my hands at the sink. I tried to take a step toward the door, but stumbled and fell to the ground. I could feel pain in my knees as they hit the hard stone floor. My left knee had the brace on it, which helped lessen the impact but the other one had nothing, not even clothing between it and the floor. I tried to get up, but couldn’t tolerate my weight on my knees. This was the last straw. I pulled myself into the shower area with my arms. The floor is flat going into the showers so that non ambulatory patients can be wheeled in. I headed for the farthest corner and pulled myself to a sitting position. I brought my knees up, ignoring the pain, and curled up in the corner. I could feel myself trembling, then I started to withdraw.

I vaguely heard my name being called, but couldn’t answer. I heard the door open and Doc call out “Meredith? Hon, where are you?” His voice got closer. Then he was in the shower area and saw me in the corner. “Hon, what happened?” I didn’t answer. He knelt down and pulled me into his arms. I tried to resist, but had no strength. “It’s going to be okay, Meredith. We’ll get through this.”

“I’m done.”

“What did you say?”

“I’m done.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t do this anymore.”

“What can’t you do anymore?”

“This.”

Doc let me go and took his phone out of his pocket. I moved back against the wall. “Alex? Are you still at the hospital?” A pause. “It’s Meredith. She’s on the floor in the corner of the shower and won’t move. She says she is done and can’t do this anymore.” Another pause. “I don’t know what she means but she’s trembling and sitting all curled up. I can’t get her to move.” A pause. “Yes, she got some upsetting news just a while ago.” Yet another pause. “Thanks, Alex. See you shortly.”

He put his phone back in his pocket and said to me “Alex is on his way up, hon. He’ll know how to help you.” He rubbed my back until our friend got there. He took Alex out to the other part of the washroom and I heard him tell him about the police finding the dungeon in Watters’ basement. And of what was in it. They both came into the shower area.

Alex knelt down in front of me. “Meredith, I know what happened the other day, and Julian just told me about what the police found. Do you want to talk about it?” I shook my head no. “Why not?”

“I’m done.”

Doc walked out to the other area. “Where are you going, Julian?” Alex asked as he went through the open doorway.

“To the ICU. To kill Watters.”

Alex got up and sprinted after him. I could hear them talking. “You can’t do that, Julian.”

“Want to bet?”

“Think about it, Julian. I know you’re upset.”

“Alex, this is the last straw. He was going to torture and kill Meredith. And look at her in there. I’ve never seen her this bad all through the things that have happened in recent months. I can’t stand what he’s done to her.”

“It’s not just him that has hurt her, Julian.”

“I know and I’d kill Jane too if I could get to her.”

“Julian, it’s understandable that you are so angry. But think for a moment. If you kill Watters, it will be murder. If he dies from Meredith kicking him and him hitting his head on the ground, that’s self defence on Meredith’s part. But he’s in a coma now and not harming anyone. You’d be charged with at least second degree murder, meaning you’d be in prison for a minimum of 10 years. You’d lose your career and maybe even Meredith, if she decided she couldn’t wait for you. Even if she did wait, you’d have denied both of you at least 10 years together. Watters is being punished. He’s in a coma. Even if he comes out of it, what quality of life will he have? Chances are he will have at least some cognitive impairment. And if he doesn’t have a lot and is declared fit to stand trial, he’ll most likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Please, Julian, go back in there to Meredith. And let the justice system take care of Watters.”

He must have got through to Doc because he came back to where I was. “Meredith, let us get you back to your bed, hon.” I didn’t move.

Doc tried to pull me up, but I kicked out at him. He deked out of the way. “Leave her be for a moment”, Alex said. “I’ll be back in a couple minutes.” Doc rubbed my back again while he was gone. When Alex returned, he had a syringe in his hand.

“Meredith, this is Ativan. I’m going to inject it into your hip, okay? It will help you relax so we can get you back to your bed.” I nodded.

He tore open the packet and swabbed my hip with the gauze before injecting the sedative into me. “Thank you”, I said after he withdrew the needle. “I don’t want to be awake.”