Good Old Joe

         "What are we gonna do with her?"
         "Watch out here she goes again!"  The man ducks below the incomming blow.  Three doctors have already limped away to get their injuries tended to.  This woman was cray.  If they didn't subdue her soon, she would hurt herself even worse.  "Where's the God Damned demoral!"  A hand shoots forward just then with an needle in it.  He grabs the needle and quickly admisisters the dose.  Qfter a few moments the other doctors back away from the small woman on the bed, breathing a sigh of relief.  She is calm, for now.
         Unknown to the woman, in a confrence room down the hall the six doctors who were trying to subdue her were talking about the strange case before them.  "How did she get here?"  "Who is she?"  "Do we know what happened to
her?"  Nick Peterson, also known as Dr. Peterson, listened with half an ear untill the chatter died down, then started to speak, "At this point, I don't care who she is, or where she came from.  The most important thing to do now is find out what is wrong and treat her."
         She was in pain.  A lot of pain.  It felt like it went from the tip of her toes to the top of her head.  Where was she?  What had happened?  The last thing she remembered was trying to get out of that car.  She had kicked, and bit and screamed.  Nothing had worked.  She had been trapped.  What if they still had her?  She needed to get out, NOW!.  She jumped out of the bed she was lying on and raced to the door.  She prayed it wasn't locked and thankfully it wasn't.  She ran from the room and down the hall seeeing nothing, just trying to escape her
terror.  "AHHH," she screamed as she collided with something and hit the floor.  She looked up and saw what looked like some kind of monster.  She screamed again as the figure reached down towards her.  She and to fight.  It didn't work before, but she had to try.  As she was punching and kicking, she heard the words "Demoral, Stat!!"  Then everyting went black again.

         "It's been days doc. how long are we gonna keep her under?", the day nurse asked.  "Just untill her wounds are healed.  Then we'll bring her out of the coma and call the sphych ward", Dr. Peterson said, "It soud be ok tomarrow or the day after."  He seems distracted today, the nurse thought.  Must be that ex-wife of his giving him trouble again.  Even if she was a movie star, that didn't automaticly mean she should have custody of that beautiful baby. Oh well, there is nothing she can do about it, best get back to her rounds.
         "Who are you?" a small voice asked, penetrating the dark haze in which the woman was stuck.  She opened her eyes and looked around the room as she heard the voice say, "Are you ok, what happend to you?  Do you know my daddy?"  Her eyes focused on the spot the words came from asnd she saw a child standing there.  It was a beautiful little girl with blond hair and blue eyes.  She looked like an angel standing there in the light from the doorway. "My name is Angel.  Can you help me look for my daddy?"
         Getting out of the bed, she felt a since of calmness she hadn't felt in a long time.  "Come with me," she said, taking Angel by the hand and stepping out the door.  For the first time she realised she was in a hostpital. What she was doing here she didn't know, but the agonizing pain she had felt before was gone.  "I'll take you to the nurses station and you can ask them to find yourdaddy."  Finding the nurses station empty, she took the child back to her room.
         Sitting on the bed Angel took a brush out of her pocket and began brushing the womans hair and humming.  "You know, I used to brush my step-mothers hair when I was little.  Now I know why she liked it so much."
"Mommy won't let me brush her hair.  She said that Salson does it, and I would just make a mess.", Angel said.
"Who is Salson?", the woman replied.
"Mommies hairdresser.  My Mommie is in the T.V. and in the movie theater."
         Outside the room the nurses had returned and were watching the two of them silently, while waiting for Dr. Peterson to return.  "Should we get Angel out of there?"  one nurse asked.  "No.", the head floor nurse replied.  "Our Jane Doe seems to be responding to her,  I don't think she is in danger.  Besides, I paged Dr. Peterson a little while ago and he should be here soon."

         Just then Dr. Peterson stepped from the elevator and asked if anyone had seen Angel.  "Her mom called about a half an hour ago and said she dropped her off, I haven't been able to find her."
         The head nurse nodded her heade and held a finger to her lips as she led him to the womans room.  There sitting on the bed he saw his daughter.  Her petite little hands holding an oversized brush. The woman in the bed was different from the last time he had seen her awake.  She was calm, and she was talking to Angel as if nothing had happened to her.  He wasn't as shocked as the nurses had been.  He had seen his little girl do this before.  She had a way about her that just made everyone around her feel like the world was right.
         As he stepped into the room, Angel looked up and saw him.  "Daddy!!" she yelled and jumped off of the bed to run to him.  He picked her up and looked back at the woman on the bed to find that she had drawn herself into a tight little ball and was rocking back and forth.  "Daddy, put me down please.", Angel said, then walked to the bed, climed up on it and whispered to the woman, "Don't be scared, please, that's my Daddy.  He wont hurt you."
         The woman stopped rocking and looked at the child.  She wiped at the tears that were streaming down her face.  She couldn't talk.  She felt like she wanted to say somethin, but the words just wouldn't come out.  She didn't know why, but she was terrified.  More scared than when she had fallen out of the tree as a child.  Finally finding her voice she said in a low voice, "No, he would never hurt you sweet heart."  But would he hurt me?  That she didn't know.
         Recognizing what was going on, Dr. Peterson said in a calming voice, Angel, why don't you hold her hand while I examine her and talk to her, it might make her feel better.
         "Ok Daddy." She replied as she took a hold of the womans hand.
         The woman was tense as he examined what was left of her wounds and bruses.  "Looking very good," he said to his daughter.  "Now that we know you are on your way to good physical health, lets start working on everything else.", he told the woman.
         "Can you tell me your name?  No?, Well, how about how you got here? No answer? Well-"
         "Daddy, she told me to call her Joe.", Angel told her dad.
         "Can I leave?  You said I was healthy. When can I leave?", Joe said, as she spoke for the first time to Dr. Peterson.  She needed to get out. Before they came for her.  Before they hurt someone else trying to help her.
         Angel realised that Joe no longer needed her to lhold her hand and climbed from the bed to stand by her father.  "I said you were on your way to good physical health, not that you were healthy.  You need a few more days rest before we can even think of releasing you."
         "I'm healthy enough, I'm leaving.  You can't force me to stay."
         "No, I can't force you to stay, but I can press charges against you for attacking me.  So can a few others.  But I will make a deal with you, you stay for one more week and I will make sure noone does."
         "You bastard!!  How dare you blackmail me.  I will be gone before you can call the cops."
         Pushing his daughter behind him he said, "Try me."
         She ran at him.  Punching him in the chest and calling him a bastard over and over untill she ran out of energy and collasped against him.  "See." he said as he carried her back to the bed.
         "Please," she sobbed, "please let me go, don't you see, I'm not safe here."
         "Ok, ok" he said gently, "If you agree to do one thing, I'll let you leave the hostpital today."
         "What?", she whispered.
         "If you come stay with me, where noone will find you, you can leave today."