A Shepherd Afield Pt. 05

"The bitch is mine."

The words echoed in Ben's head, getting louder and louder until it was all he heard. He was unaware that the words had come from inside.

Dark. Hot. Big fists hitting him again and again. The stench of stale cigarettes and whisky filling his senses. He glanced over the shoulder of the man he fought to see the crumpled body of...

"MARGARET!! NNNNNOOOOOO!!" Ben screamed and slammed his right fist against the ribcage of the man before him. Bones cracked.

"RRRRAAAAAAA!! Ben roared as his left crashed into the other side with a deep pop sound. The man's smile slipped from his face then exploded in a spray of blood and spit as Ben hammered his jaw from the right then the left in quick succession. The bones snapped out of their sockets as his jaw hung loose.

"BASTARD!" Ben surged forward as the man stumbled back and Ben's next punch landed directly in the center of his face snapping his head back, destroying his nose and cracking the nearby orbital bones. He began to fall backwards, limp as a rag doll.

Ben managed to hit him two more times on the way down in his exploding rage and leapt on him as the heavy body slammed to the floor. He raised his fists clenched together to deliver the final blow.

Two soft bodies hit him from the side, carrying him off the man he had to kill. He was tangled in the soft limbs of the... he needed... Margaret! Was she holding him? His mind spun and took him down into the dark.

Chapter 41

Ben woke up in a hospital bed.

His ribs hurt.

His arms hurt.

His hands hurt.

His head hurt.

He tried to lift his hands to his head and discovered he was strapped down to the bed. He flashed back to the previous time he was tied down and his body jolted violently causing the bed's frame to clang in complaint.

The door opened and a police officer looked inside at him. He looked back at the man in surprise. The door closed and moments later the door opened to admit Dr. Granger.

"Ben, how are you doing?"

"How did I get here?" he asked.

"What do you remember?" she asked and he frowned at her in annoyance.

"I- I went out to dinner with Lisa and Lori, Karen, Penny and their... dates." His memory was playing tricks with him. He saw a flash of Jayden and Frank lying on the floor.

"Then what did you do?" she asked.

He looked at her blankly then he smiled. "We went to the club! Right! We went danc-"

"Ben? Ben!"

"Sorry, what? You know, I'm kind of tired. Maybe I should sleep," he said uneasily.

"Sure, in a minute Ben. What happened next?"

Ben looked at Dr. Granger as he tried to put his scrambled memories together. Finally he just shook his head. Nothing made sense.

"OK Ben you can rest now. I'll speak to you in the morning."

"Why am I tied down? Can you take these off?"

She looked at him sympathetically. "Sorry, not tonight. You're safe. We'll talk in the morning. OK?"

He nodded slowly then closed his eyes. He let the fatigue take him away from the painful memories.

Dr. Granger walked back out into the hall and up to the officers who followed him to the hospital. "I'm sorry, Mr. Shepherd can't remember the fight at this moment and has fallen asleep once more."

"From the extensive bruising on his face it looked like he was struck in the head several times. Does he have brain trauma?" one of the policemen asked.

Dr. Granger smiled at the man's amateur diagnosis. "No, the cat scan showed no swelling or any damage worse than bruising. His ribs are badly bruised, he has a large assortment of other bruises on his body, his knuckles are cut, he aggravated a previous injury to one knuckle, but other than that he has no serious injuries. Is he being charged with anything?" the doctor asked.

"Did you see the man he was beating on?" the first officer asked. "He's a mess! He was in surgery the last we saw. His face looks like it was disassembled!"

"I understand Ben was attacked first and was defending the friends he was with," Granger expressed.

"That's true but there's self-defence then there's what he did to that man," the cop insisted.

"So you're questioning the severity of his response to the danger he and his friends were in due to this man and his gang's unprovoked attack," Dr. Granger said looking the men in the eye. "Do you realize two of Ben's friends are suffering from concussions? Ben himself took far more hits than any of the others and by the strongest of the attackers. These men were attempting to sexually assault the women in the group. Ben and his friends went to the club to dance and ended up fighting for their lives. I think there is plenty of evidence to suggest his response to the threat was not unreasonable."

"Aside from the one whose face was destroyed, a second man is in a coma from a fractured skull. What if he doesn't come out of his coma?" the second officer pushed.

"They were the ones responsible for their actions and the repercussions of them are on them as well," the doctor insisted.

The two officers looked at each other and nodded slowly with a shrug. They'd confirmed the four men had previous records, plenty of instances of assault, disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, and a history of violence. The big one with the destroyed face was actually on probation for sexual assault. If the doctor wasn't going to back their charges they had no interest in taking it to court. They thanked her and made their way to the elevators.

Once they left Dr. Granger let out a breath and leaned against the wall to stop her shaking. Then she pushed off and made her way to the elevator to go down to the ground floor and walked down the hall to a large waiting area. She took a deep breath then entered the crowded room. Faces turned in her direction. So many.

"He's asleep. Physically, he's fine. Just bruises. A lot of them. His ribs are going to hurt for a while." She braced herself for the next part. "Mentally, the story isn't as good. Ben's childhood trauma has resurfaced. It's blocking his current memories. I'm going to have to admit him for treatment." She waited for the protests, the angry comments but the room was largely silent.

The small Korean woman began to cry and the tattooed brunette held her close with her own tears flowing down her face. A tall, lovely brunette sitting next to them, who might be the woman Ben brought from Australia, looked utterly lost. Ben's daughters were holding each other as they cried. Standing next to them the white blond woman was clinging to a gorgeous brunette who was comforting her. Hannah was sitting with the redhead woman Dr. Granger was most afraid of as she was the one who'd almost attacked her before. Today the redhead was just leaning against Hanna's shoulder, a look of despair on her face. She looked up suddenly.

"You don't have him in the psyche ward do you?"

"No, no. He's upstairs on the sixth floor in a regular ward. Lots of nurses and doctors around." Dr. Granger assured her and relaxed when the redhead nodded and looked away.

The door opened behind the doctor and a young black man with a swollen cheek stepped inside. One of Ben's daughters, the blond one, rushed forward to take the young man in her arms. They hugged as the man whispered how sorry he was for not being there for her. She pushed him back and glared in his open eye. "You are not to blame for this!" the girl scolded her boyfriend who smiled at the fierce look on her face.

"How is Frank?" the other daughter asked the young man.

"I think he's ok. He may have a mild concussion and he's definitely got some bruises. Hector and Mariana are with him. Come on, let's go see him." The three left the room.

Dr. Granger saw the small Korean and the tattooed woman were holding the hands of the pretty brunette who wasn't looking so lost anymore. She was giving them a fragile smile.

"Hannah, could I speak with you?" Dr. Granger said and the hospital administrator nodded. She rubbed the redhead's back then stood to follow the doctor out into the hall.

"I'm going to begin Ben's hypnotherapy sessions tomorrow. Before his memories have a chance to submerge once more. I'm going to keep him in the hospital for the week and I'm going to use an intensive session schedule to free the memories. We have to clear this trauma before it hides away again," Dr. Granger said looking her boss in the eye.

Hannah understood what the doctor was telling her. Ben was in for a very rough week. She was going to have to keep the others away until the doctor was done.

"I can't say what I'm going to find in Ben's psyche or what changes may happen to his personality after freeing him of this trauma. I just know he can't continue as he currently is. He's becoming too dangerous." She stepped closer to Hannah to speak quietly. "The man Ben fought tonight isn't going to come out of his coma. Dr. Gillaume let me know the man's brain wave activity is minimal. The police were going to charge Ben but I managed to convince them his response to the threat to himself and his friends made his actions justifiable. I pray no one pushes on this." She looked worried. Hannah pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you!" she whispered fiercely then released the woman.

With a tight nod, the doctor left.

Sighing, Hannah walked back into the waiting room. Eyes looked up at her. "Ben's going to have to stay at the hospital for a week. We have to deal with his trauma now while it's resurfaced. It's not going to be easy for Ben to get through this. The best way to help him is by giving the doctor exclusive access to him over that week. You should all go home. I'll keep you in the loop as I get reports from Dr. Granger."

"I have to see the twins!" Trish said, surging to her feet.

Hannah nodded and looked to Catherine's fiancé who seemed to be the least traumatized person in the room. "Can you get everyone heading home?" she asked and got a nod in return.

Hannah took Trish's arm and walked with her to the ER where they found Lisa and Lori speaking to a police officer giving their statement. Lisa had a bruise on the left side of her face and a split lip but Lori looked uninjured. Hannah listened in nervously but the ladies made no mention of Ben's attempt to kill his attacker. They ended the story with Ben knocking him unconscious and them rushing to him as he passed out as well.

Apparently, Mariana had managed to escape and called the police. She was in the next room clinging to a bruised but happy Hector who was being interviewed by another officer. He was giving the same story the twins gave from his point of reference, when he'd been standing over the man he'd taken out.

Hannah sighed with relief. She left Trish waiting outside the curtain of the twin's cubicle and made her way over to Jayden and Ben's daughters who were standing next to the bed Frank was sitting up in.

"How are you doing Frank?" Hannah asked.

The young man was holding Penny's hand and smiling at her. "I'm doing ok. My head is ringing a little. The big guy sucker punched me. He hits really hard!" Penny leaned in and kissed his temple making him smile again.

Hannah smiled at him. "Did you give your statements to the police?" she asked the group.

"Yes, we spoke with them at the club. We were the first ones to be interviewed," Karen said.

"I was hit the moment I walked out of the change room so I didn't see anything," Jayden said, wincing.

"I was attacked a short distance from the change room and almost had the guy when I got hit. When I came to the guy I fought was on his back, out like a light. The room was spinning and I threw up," Frank said quietly.

Penny picked up the story from there. "Hector was attacked and managed to get Mariana out the exit to the next room before dealing with his opponent. That's when the big guy showed up and ripped our bikini tops off. He trapped us against the wall and was moving closer when Lisa leapt on his back and clawed his face. He spun and tossed her off but she managed to land on her feet. He lunged forward and ripped her and Lori's tops off and he leered at them as he moved closer. Then he noticed his face was bleeding. He got really scary after that and attacked Lisa. Lori jumped on him then Ben arrived."

They all shared a smile as they remembered the relief they felt when they saw him. Karen's smile fell away as she recalled the beating Ben took. "The man was so strong and he kept hitting Ben again and again! I thought Ben was going to fall but he suddenly started hitting back. So hard! I swear I could hear bones breaking!" She shivered with a little thrill.

"Can we see him?" Penny asked.

"Ben's going to be staying in the hospital for a little while so Dr. Granger can work out some things with him. He won't be having any visitors for at least a week," Hannah replied gently. Faces fell.

"Is he ok?" Jayden asked.

Hannah smiled at the young man. "He will be but we're all going to have to be patient."

They nodded sadly to her and she moved back to the twins. The officer was gone and Trish was speaking quietly with the two young ladies, likely filling them in on Ben's condition.

Lori moved closer to speak quietly to Hannah. "Who is Margaret?" she asked.

Hannah felt a jolt run through her body. So he'd been reliving the experience again. She'd have to inform Dr. Granger about this. She was grateful the twins hadn't shared this with the police. "Someone Ben knew a long, long time ago. Someone who meant a lot to him. Her death was very traumatic for him," she said equally quiet. The twins and Trish stared at her expectantly. "I'm sorry. I can't say more and I shouldn't have even shared that much." She looked around for ears listening in.

Trish suddenly stood and walked to stand directly in front of Hannah. She was trembling with impotent rage.

"I'm sorry," Hannah whispered.

Trish wrapped her arms around her friend and the tears burst forth. Hannah wrapped her own arms around Trish and held her tight as a few tears of her own slid silently down her cheeks. The twins held hands as they watched them sharing their grief.

When Trish seemed to be relaxed Lori made a noise to catch their attention. "Can we go home? We have work in the morning."

Trish nodded. "I'll take you home."

Hannah squeezed Trish's hand and watched her leave the room with the two lovely women.

She checked on Ben's daughters and Jayden once more and suggested they head home as well. Frank was staying in overnight for observation. Penny gave him a kiss then the three moved out of the ER to catch a cab home.

Hannah checked on the thug with a badly broken ankle. He was shackled to the bed and an officer was guarding him. Two of his buddies were in surgery and the third, the one Hector beat unconscious, had been taken to the precinct. She looked at the cop. "Did they say what the hell they were thinking trying to rape those women?"

The cop just frowned and shook his head in disgust.

"Hey! I didn't rape no one!" the man in the bed growled.

"No? You seemed to be preparing to," Hannah retorted.

"Nah, Pete just wanted to have a little fun with the bitches. You know, feel them up a little! They had huge titties! Pete likes big ones like that! If they liked it maybe they'd do something nice for Pete, ya know what I mean?" he said with a grin.

"What if they didn't like it?" Hannah asked and the man just shrugged.

"The ladies were with their boyfriends-"

"Just some punks! They ain't got nothing on us!" the man growled.

"Nothing except girlfriends apparently. Oh, and jobs, respect, and most importantly their freedom," Hannah pointed out.

"We got jobs! Good payin' ones too! Unionized! We're cargo handlers at the airport!" he bragged.

"Yet you go to clubs to beat up the patrons and sexually assault their dates?" Hannah asked in puzzlement.

"Hey! We was just havin' some fun! Blowin' off a little steam! Besides, bitches who look like that want it! That's why they get their tits all inflated like that!" he growled.

"Those two ladies were abducted as young teens overseas and their captor forced them to endure the operations to turn them into what you see today. They had no choice in the matter. That aside you're a fucking moron if you believe anyone wants to be sexually assaulted. I sincerely hope you discover that personally in prison," Hannah growled and walked away after nodding to the smiling officer.

Hannah walked back to the waiting room but saw everyone had left. She nodded and made her way back to her office. She locked her door, sat at her desk, and pulled a box of tissues from the bottom drawer.

Alone, finally, she released her tight control and her tears burst forth. She sobbed as her heart ached for Ben.

Chapter 42

Ben's bed was tilted up so he could easily see Dr. Granger as she sat in the chair next to his bed. She had a folder on her lap.

"How are you feeling this morning?" she asked.

He watched her as he shifted a little to get more comfortable. His restraints, a band across his chest and thighs, wrists and ankles secured to the bed meant he had little freedom to get comfortable in. "I would feel better if I wasn't strapped to my bed."

"We'll take care of those once we're sure you are safe," she said gently.

"Safe for others or from myself?" he asked and she just smiled at him.

"This morning we will begin the hypnotherapy sessions we spoke of earlier. We can no longer wait for a 'good time' to schedule them. Life made other plans but I'm confident we will be able to help you."

Dread filled Ben's stomach. He recalled their previous attempt and how disturbing the sessions had been. He remembered the horrible nightmares he'd had each night after the sessions.

"Ben, we will take care of you. You are safe and protected here. There is nothing to fear. No worries. All is calm and good."

In spite of himself he felt his body relaxing automatically at her words, her calm tone and gentle smile.

Dr. Granger took him through the exercises to reach a state where he felt himself rising above his mind, aware of his thoughts but disconnected from them. The room appeared a little lighter to him though the light was softer. He could hear the doctor's soothing voice above all else.

"Ben, how are you feeling right now."

"Good. I- I feel good."

"That's very good. We are going to talk a little and look at pictures, observe what's happening in them but only from the outside. They are merely images and can't touch us. Alright?"

"Yes, sure," he sighed.

"When you were twelve you were moved from a foster home you'd only spent three months in to a new home. Do you recall why you were moved?" Granger asked calmly.

Ben's mind could see the red brick house with the white window boxes. "The Morgans... they were nice. I thought I was going to be happy there but the house mom found out she was sick. Cancer. All the kids had to be moved. There were three of us."

"Yes, that was sad but you didn't have long to wait before you were taken in by another family."

Ben jolted against his restraints.

"All is good Ben. We're just floating above everything, nothing can touch us here. We can see the images and we can talk about them but they can't see or touch us in return."

Ben relaxed once more and Dr. Greyson turned to the next page in Ben's file.

"When you moved to the new home, was it nice?" she asked.

Ben nodded. "Yes, the home was lovely."

"Did you have your own bedroom?"

Ben's eyes widened in delight as he remembered the first time he was shown where he would be staying. "Yes! It was so much room and it was just for me!"

Dr. Granger gradually worked him through the environment he'd found himself in until she felt he was relaxed enough to begin addressing the next element. The foster parents.