~ * ~
Adele watched as Dominic knelt, frozen in shock, looking down at the limp girl in his arms. She was having as much trouble as he was catching up with everything that had happened in the last five minutes. They had been happily finishing off their lunch, chatting away, having a great time then they both heard something moving toward them from the lake. He had stood and turned toward the noise, so fast it startled her. She began to ask what was there when a tiny wisp of a girl came into view. They had both frozen in shock for a moment. Adele slowly rose to her feet with a gasp of horror. She was just a child, couldn't have been much more than eleven years old, and she had been badly beaten. She had an over-sized blood stained t-shirt on with a jumper tied around her waist, some old trackies and ill-fitting shoes, but the sight that held her transfixed was that every exposed piece of her skin was black, blue, green or red. She was thankful Dominic had snapped out of his shock in time to sweep her up before she hit the ground as she passed out cold. Adele laid her hand on his shoulder, needing a connection to him to help her process what was in front of her. He slowly stood up with the child in his arms. He was so gentle, so careful. He looked into Adele's eyes. His eyes were filled with pain, sorrow and horror. Adele was sure her eyes mirrored his emotions.
"She's so light, Adele, so small." He swallowed roughly.
"What kind of bastard does this? To a child? Bloody hell, just look at her!"
Adele's heart was breaking just looking at this poor petit fille in Dominic's arms. As a tear escaped down her cheek, she snapped into paramedic mode. She wiped the tear from her face and moved in close to the child, gently pressed her fingers to the child's neck to check for a pulse. Relief rushed over her as she counted the weak but steady beat beneath her fingers.
"Bring her over to the rug, Dominic, I need to check her over before we take her in."
Adele walked behind Dominic as he headed over to their picnic rug and gently laid out the injured child. She tried hard to remain focused on the young girl and not how good Dominic looked with her in his arms or how gently and carefully he cared for her. As he laid the petit fille out on the rug, she moaned and began to stir.
"I heard her say something about a 'him,' and I'm thinking it might be best if a man wasn't the first person she sees when she comes around. The last thing we need is for her to freak out and injure herself further."
She looked up at Dominic to see his pained expression.
"I know you would never hurt her, but she doesn't know that. I'll be as quick as I can here; we need to get her to the hospital as soon as possible," she whispered.
"I'm going to need you to carry her to the car, so we need to tread carefully."
Dominic gave her a quick nod and he went to stand off to the side out of the child's line of sight. He was so compassionate and considerate of others.
She looked back down at the child, still a little in shock at the sight of such injuries on such a young girl. Children were precious, a blessing, gifts that should be cherished and protected--not abused to within inches of their lives. The child came awake, instinctively curling herself in a ball and whispering, "It hurts, please no more," over and over.
Adele's maternal instincts took over, leaving her medical ones in the dust. She lay down beside the child, gently stroking her hair, coaxing her to uncurl. She murmured gently to her, nothing important just soothing words in both English and French, trying to calm the petite fille into relaxing a little. Adele sighed in relief as the child began to slowly uncurl. She heard Dominic exhale in a rush and looked up at him. It looked like her words were soothing him too. His lids were closed and his face was slowly draining of its fury. He opened his eyes, gave her a quick nod then pulled out his phone as he stepped a little further away from them.
Adele stayed on the ground wrapped around the child, stroking her messy black curls and whispering to her until she had completely uncurled. Raising her head slightly, she found big round grey eyes observing her. Adele's breath froze in her lungs at the depth of the fear, pain and sorrow held in those young grey depths.
"Can you tell me your name, cherie? What do you want me to call you?" She kept her voice low, smooth so she didn't startle the child.
"K--Kel--Kelly," the child stammered.
"You're not hurting me? Please don't send me back to him." The poor child sounded confused at the concept that she was no longer being hurt. What hell had she escaped from?
"Oh petit fille, I promise I will never hurt you. My name is Adele. I'm a paramedic. All I will ever do is help you, cherie."
~ * ~
As relief poured through her body, Kelly started shaking. She was safe. This lady, Adele, would look after her; she could feel it in her soul that she was a protector. Her hell was over. She started to cry at the solace of feeling safe for the first time since...well, since ever.