“Mr. Harrison, I wanted to let you know everything has come back...clean. Your Jane Doe is all around healthy as any woman her age outside of broken wrist and the bump to her head. Six weeks will heal the wrist up and her head wound just needs to be kept clean.” He stopped for a moment, pulling her chart out from behind his back and flipping through a few pages.
“As for what we do now, we would like to keep her overnight, just to be sure with that head wound and run another course of antibiotics. After that, our options are…” Those gray eyes looked up at him. “Well, limited.”
Isaac leaned forward. Elbows resting on his knees he folded his hands in front of him and looked up at the doctor addressing him.
While he was relieved to hear that she was otherwise healthy, save for the injuries he already knew about, the news that things were going to get worse before they got better made him uneasy. “Limited in what way? Treatments or figuring out who she is? Or both?”
Given the way she dressed and the apparent lack of any withdrawal symptoms that drug addicts often went through, there was a distinct possibility that she wasn’t in the system. Unless she had ever been caught involved with other illegal activity or owned a concealed carry, which he doubted on both cases, he wasn’t entirely sure how else they could learn her name outside of waiting for a missing person's report to come through.
At least with him it was easy, out of habit Isaac always wore his dog tags around his neck and kept another in his boot.
“Unfortunately, both in this case.” Flipping the papers once more, the doctor moved to take a seat in front of the man. “She’s suffering what a form of amnesia known as dissociative amnesia. What this means is that the good news is there is no physical brain damage. The bad news is also there is no physical brain damage. That means there is nothing we can treat.”
“It also means her memories could come back in a matter of hours or possibly not for years.”
The last part he added and fell silent for a long moment. “If there is anything you haven’t told us, anything at all that could help her. The police are in there speaking to her. No one has filed a missing person's report yet so unless something turns up, I’m afraid we will have to turn her over to the state once released.”
“I wish there was something more I could tell you. She was already unconscious when I found her and since waking up she hasn’t been able to tell me much of anything.” Isaac’s lips pursed into a thin line. Clearly his mind was trying to put pieces together, recount the events in a fruitless attempt at remembering something he may have missed.
Nothing…
Just like before there was no other information he could offer. “So what will happen if she is turned over to the state?” It wasn’t like she was young enough to be put into foster care and she wasn’t insane enough to be put into a mental institute...
“She’ll be processed, just incase someone does come looking for her. A social worker will most likely decide if she needs to stay in some sort of assisted living for awhile or she may just be released on her own. The later most likely seeing as she is healthy.”
He rose then, the sound of a page going off for him. “Anyway, the police will most likely wish to still speak with you at some point. But if you will excuse me…”
With a nod, he walked over to the nurses station and with the flick of his wrist, handed off her file for the next. Dr. Nelson felt for her but he couldn’t get attached. Not if he wanted to make it through how ever many more cases came in that night...
For the minutes that passed the young man sat in contemplative silence. Focussed eyes bore holes into the linoleum tile floor that carpeted the waiting room.
Most would have been content knowing that, one way or another, she would be taken care of. But to Isaac it felt more like she would be treated like an afterthought and that didn’t sit well with him. For now though all he could do was wait for the officers to question him again or for the nurse to come out and let him see her; unlikely since they weren’t family but he planned on waiting regardless.
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