Free Fractured by Dawn Barker

through a pile
     of patient files, talking and gesticulating. She spoke too softly for him to hear clearly, but he knew when she was describing
     Anna’s case by the way the nurses all glanced over at him. The door to Anna’s room was propped open again, but a new policeman
     was on the chair. Tony stroked Anna’s hand; her eyes were still closed.
    Laying his head back down on the bed he tried to sleep. Some time later, he saw a group moving from bed to bed in the main
     area. He recognised the tall, thin frame of Dr Hall, the registrar he’d spoken to yesterday. Maybe they had some test results
     now, some explanation for Anna’s condition. He stood up and waited just outside the door where they couldn’t miss him as they
     walked towards Anna’s room. Dr Hall nodded in his direction but said nothing as the group crowded into her room and stood
     with their backs to Tony. He hovered, trying to see what they were doing, but there was no room for him, so he watched through
     the small window as they examined her. Their voices were low, and he couldn’t hear what they were saying. He didn’t have the
     energy to push his way in, to ask them to speak up. The doctors finished and filedout, darting off to the next bed like a frightened school of fish. Dr Hall, however, paused beside Tony with an older, balding
     man, who held out his hand.
    ‘Mr Patton, I’m Dr Cooper, the consultant here in Emergency. Come with us, please, so we can have a quick talk.’
    Tony nodded, suddenly feeling intimidated. He followed them down a passageway to a small, windowless room with two sofas crammed
     into it. Dusty yellow silk flowers drooped from a vase on a small white formica coffee table against the wall. Dr Cooper and
     Dr Hall sat on one sofa; he sat on the other. He rearranged the cushions to make more room, but his knees still practically
     touched Dr Hall’s.
    Dr Cooper asked the same questions Dr Hall had yesterday and he wearily repeated the same answers. There was nothing more
     he could tell them.
    ‘Mr Patton —’
    ‘Tony.’
    ‘Tony, as you know, we’ve monitored Anna overnight, and we’ve been waiting for the test results. The good news is that we
     can’t find anything medically wrong with her. Her head CT is normal, her temperature is good now, her blood tests are all
     normal.’
    ‘Oh.’ While he was relieved, part of him was disappointed. It would be easier if the doctors had found something wrong with
     Anna, something tangible, something with a name.
    ‘The next thing we have to rule out is any psychiatric condition,’ Dr Cooper went on.
    His head snapped up. ‘But what about shock or something? You know, if someone’s attacked her or taken Jack from her. That
     would explain the way she reacted.’
    The consultant nodded. ‘If that was the case – and I don’t think it is – then the psychiatrist is still the best person to
     help us. There’s no physical reason for her to be so unresponsive, and we haven’t found any evidence that she’s been assaulted
     —’
    ‘But she’s covered in bruises and cuts!’
    ‘Yes, but they don’t look like they were done by a person or a weapon. I think they’re just from the rocks.’
    He rubbed his forehead. He felt as though he was losing, running out of ways to make this man understand. ‘Then maybe they
     just snatched the baby and she fell or something …’
    Dr Cooper took a deep breath. ‘Tony, you’re right, that could have happened; the police will be looking into all possibilities.
     But you’ve told us that she hadn’t been sleeping, that she’d seen her GP who gave her tablets – we must rule out significant
     mental illness.’ He looked at Dr Hall, then back to Tony. ‘The police have probably asked you this already, but did you ever
     worry that Anna could be a danger to herself … or to Jack?’
    He looked at each of the doctors in turn. Did they really believe that she was capable of hurting her son? ‘No! Never! She’d