Beneath This Man

I say nothing. I’ve come over all sleepy again, and I haven’t the energy to deal with a Jesse inquisition. I rest my head back and doze off. I could be pregnant and this is really shitty news. He’s going to go absolutely spare.

‘I was told you were awake.’

I open my eyes and find a white cloaked Indian man standing over the bed. ‘Hi,’ I croak.

‘I’m Doctor Manvi. How do you feel, Ava?’ He speaks perfect English, with no hint of an accent.

‘Fine,’ I sigh wearily. ‘My head is banging, but other than that, I’m fine.’ I hear Jesse growl beside me, and I look at him in exasperation. I just want to go home.

‘I’m glad.’ Doctor Manvi shines a light in both of my eyes and pops the pencil like contraption back in his top pocket. ‘Ava, what do you remember about last night?’

If anyone else asks me that bloody question! ‘Not a lot.’ I feel Jesse’s hand lock harder around mine and I turn my head towards him, finding the anger still evident. I feel God awful. I don’t need this.

Doctor Manvi glances at Jesse. ‘You are?’

‘Husband.’ he states sharply, without taking his eyes from mine.

My eyes widen, but he’s completely impassive, completely unruffled by my obvious silent challenge. He forgot the ‘to be’ part.

‘Oh?’ The Doctor flicks through my papers. ‘It’s says Miss O’Shea.’

‘We get married next month.’ His eyes drill into mine, daring me to challenge him. I don’t have the energy. I flop my head back gingerly on the bed.

‘Oh, okay,’ Doctor Manvi seems satisfied with Jesse’s explanation of who he is. I’m past caring. ‘We ran some routine tests on your urine.’ He pulls up a chair and it scrapes along the rubber floor, making me wince. ‘When was the date of your last period?’ He looks at me with sympathetic eyes, and I want to crawl across the room and into the clinical waste bin.

‘A week-ish ago.’ I answer quietly to the ceiling. I don’t need to look at Jesse to know he’s twitching.

‘Right, well its routine for us to do a pregnancy test to try and establish what caused the blackout episode.’ He pauses, and I brace myself for the hurricane that will be Jesse flying around the room in a complete frenzy. ‘You’re not pregnant.’

My head flies up. ‘I’m not?’

‘Well, I say you’re not, but if it’s only been a week since your period, it may be too early to tell.’ He smiles kindly, but it does nothing to settle me. ‘Do you use the contraceptive pill, Ava?’

‘Yes.’ I virtually squeak.

‘Then I think we can safely say you’re not pregnant.’

Oh God!

‘Ava, it’s important that you try to remember anything of last night, who you spoke to, who you met.’

Jesse’s animosity travels through our joined hands, attacking me. ‘What?’ he snaps. ‘What are you trying to say?’

I don’t bother with scorning him for his rudeness, and Doctor Manvi continues, turning a blind eye. ‘We proceeded with a further test. Your symptoms prompted it.’

‘Symptoms? What symptoms?’ I ask, completely confused.

The Doctor inhales and shifts in his chair. ‘We found clear evidence of Rohypnol in your urine.’ he says regretfully.

‘WHAT!’ Jesse roars.

My eyes widen and my heart starts hammering in my chest. As in date rape? Oh, f**king hell!

Jesse flies up from his sitting position, dropping my hand, and I glace up nervously to find him shaking and sweating, the anger pouring from him. ‘As in date rape?’ he yells at the poor Doctor.

‘Yes.’ Doctor Manvi confirms mine and Jesse’s fears.

I spiral into panic at the doctor’s diagnosis to my blackout episode. Oh, this is so bad.

Jesse flies around and throws his head back. ‘Jesus f**king Christ!’ he cries. I see the back of his shirt rising and falling violently as he braces his arms on a nearby metal unit.

‘Ava, I would advise you notify the police. You need to tell them everything you remember.’ He turns to Jesse. ‘Sir, can you confirm whether she was alone at any point?’

My mind races with the evenings events. I don’t think I was. I watch as Jesse’s fingertips reach for his temples and start circling. He’s going to explode. He’ll be like a whirlwind flying through the hospital. Suddenly, telling him I could be pregnant seems so much more appealing than this.

The doctor looks back at me when he gets no response from Jesse. ‘We need to do an examination to determine whether you were raped.’

‘What?’ I blurt. Oh God!

‘She wasn’t alone,’ Jesse replies, more calmly than I expected. ‘I watched her hit the deck, I was there in a split second.’ He turns to face me, and I stare into his tortured eyes. I feel devoid of any emotion. I think I might be in shock.

‘And you are sure of this?’

‘Yes.’ Jesse all but growls.

‘Sir, I would like to carry out the checks,’ he pushes, ‘for bruises and scratches, initially.’

‘I’ve checked every square inch of her. There isn’t a mark on her.’ Jesse stomps across the room and flings the door open. ‘Kate?’

I hear a brief exchange of abrupt, muffled words from outside the door, no doubt Jesse pressing for answers. The doctor flicks a confused gaze from me to Jesse, while I continue to wrack my brain for something.

He’s by my side again. ‘Baby, Kate said she went for a cigarette, but Tom was with you. Can you remember that?’