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Patrick was very stony-faced when he picked them up. By then, it was very late, and though she was wearing a jacket, Iseult shivered in the cool night air. Saraid was silent, save for the occasional sob, and Iseult worried for her friend as her father's Nissan pulled up with Patrick in the driver's seat. He said not a word as he held the back door open for the girls to get in, and he slammed the door shut with enough force to waken echoes in the quiet street. A dog barked in the distance as Patrick got back in the car and pulled away, barely giving the girls a chance to put their seatbelts on, and Iseult felt cold inside as well as outside.
The drive was silent, and wildly uncomfortable. Saraid shut her eyes, but Iseult shook her. "No," she said softly. "You need to stay awake." She didn't know all that much about drunkeness, having never confronted it before in her life, but she knew it was a bad idea for Saraid to go to sleep. She suspected there were drugs in her friend's system as well, and she prayed Patrick would have the decency to stop at the hospital. Apart from her drunken - and possibly drugged state - Saraid would also need to be looked over following her rape. Iseult shivered again.
Mercifully, Patrick did have the decency to pull into the carpark of the hospital when they reached Belfast, but he remained stony-faced and silent when he opened the door. Iseult helped Saraid out, who was now starting to look very green, and Iseult guided her over to a bin, where her friend was promptly and violently sick. Iseult rubbed her back and murmured comfortingly until the fit passed, and Saraid managed a wan smile as she wiped her mouth.
Patrick had stood back while his sister was sick, and once Saraid had recovered, he spoke his first words of the night. "Good thing you didn't do that in the back of Mr Murray's car," he said, the faintest ghost of a smile tugging at his lips as he took his sister gently by the arm. "God above, girl! What the hell possessed you?"
Saraid's eyes filled with tears. "I thought, since Mam was all done up about you, she wouldn't notice me sneaking off to Galway."
"Kate and her ilk are no good," Patrick chided her. "You of all people should know that." His eyes slid to Iseult, who felt scorced from head to toe. "Both of you should now that," he added, his voice stern, but kind. "C'mon, girls. Let's get you inside and checked over."
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Iseult's check up took no more than ten minutes, but the kindly nurse did advise her to speak to someone about what she'd witnessed. By then, Jamie had arrived, and when Iseult came out and saw him, the tears finally fell, and she sobbed like a baby in her father's arms for quite some time. Jamie wisely refrained from upbraiding her; he knew better than anyone that chastising his daughter was going to make her feel worse. "It's a good thing you did gallivant up to Galway," he said instead, placing an arm around his distraught daughter's shoulders. "God knows what else would've happened to Saraid."
"I feel so stupid," Iseult said miserably.
"Don't," Patrick told her. He still looked ready to do murder, but Iseult knew him well enough to know he wasn't mad at her or his sister. "As your da said, had you not joined my sister in her hairbrained adventure, she'd be in a worse state. And it's a bad enough state she's in at the moment." He sighed, his anger fading into sorrow. "What the hell possessed her to do that?"
"God knows," Iseult said. "I mean, she did tell me that since your mam was upset about you moving out, she wouldn't care too much for what Saraid did. But I never dreamed it would get so out of hand."
"Saraid's been fed more than just alcohol," Jamie surmised. "Did you notice any other drugs, Iseult?"
She shook her head. "I just smelt weed," she said.
Jamie sighed. "I'll wager there was more than just weed being served," he said grimly. He sighed again and ruffled his daughter's hair. "Let's hope it was just weed, or Saraid's going to be in a far worse state."
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Three nerve-jangling hours later, the doctor came out, his face even stonier than Patrick's had been. "Saraid is sleeping now," he told the concerned trio. "The internal damage is concerning, but it's the possibility of a pregnancy that concerns me. We also found traces of cocaine in her system, but it's hard to say how much she consumed, or how long ago. We'll need to keep her in for a few days until we can do a more thorough examination. You three go home; there's nothing more that can be done tonight, and you all look like you need sleep. We'll be in touch if anything chances."99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYUGZRcE2U
Thus dismissed, Iseult, Jamie and Patrick left, and as the first rays of sunlight pierced the low-lying clouds, Iseult begged anyone who might listen that Sariad would come out of this okay. But it wasn't her friend's fate she worried about, although she was deeply concerned - it was her mother's reaction which was going to be the real explosion, and Iseult was not looking forward to that at all.
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