I Can't. I Won't. I Don't.

"It's great to get the CME's I need and then a buffet dinner and a band. I miss Noah, though. I wish he were here."

"God, you're really hooked, aren't you Ava? Are you going to dance any?"

"No, but you should. I think I'm just going to hit the rest room and head upstairs. And, yes, then I'm going to call Noah, Emily. He was acting all spooky about my going. He really wanted to come. Would that be OK?"

"Sure. Say hi for me. I will say though, you look pretty great in that dress. Hugs curves, but no skin. Womanly, but not slutty. I wish my clothes would fit like that."

"Nonsense. You look great. Say, who are those big guys with all the tattoos over there?"

"Don't know....Wait those are some of the guys that are ripping out the old bar here. They're all like 6'4'' and 250 or something. Built like offensive linemen. They are wrecking stuff as they rip out the old. Whoever is redesigning and rebuilding is gonna have a whole lot more work. I guess they're crashing the party."

"Linemen, eh? It's have been a few years back. I don't think those are muscles rolling over their belts." They both laughed.

"Hey there, pretty lady. Care to dance?"

"No thanks. I was just leaving. Emily might want to." Emily rolled her eyes.

"No way, Short Stuff. I wont take no for an answer. Just one dance." And with that he took her arm and dragged her to the floor. She resisted, but then decided what the heck. One dance, rather than start a ruckus.

"How short are you?"

"Five two. How tall are you?"

"Six five."

"This is just not going to work very well. I'm going to go ahead and leave. Thanks anyway."

"No way. No one turns me down. Do you know who I am?"

"Not a clue."

"I'm J.K. Oliver. Twice voted MVP. Leading scorer. All star team...."

"That's great. You must have been good. Now let me go!" He slid his long arms over her shoulders and pulled her in close and started dancing. She had her hands at his waist and resisted, but with no effect.

"I know you want me. Feel that monster in my pants? Why don't we go upstairs and I'll show you how a real man does it."

"Let me go or I'll start screaming and get you arrested for assault."

"No one in this town is going to arrest me. But OK."

There was a line at the ladies room, of course. So she headed for the single family one. As she entered, he bulled his way in behind her and locked the door. "Here's our chance, Girlie. He grabbed her hand and shoved it against his cock. She started to scream, but his huge hand covered her mouth and nose.

Not only could she not scream, but she couldn't breathe. "Looks like we have time to get busy. You're going to really like it." Fortunately, Emily had kept an eye on her and ran to the door and started banging on it.

"OPEN THIS DOOR! NOW! Or I'm calling the cops!"

"Dammit!" Hearing Emily, he released Ava, who gasped for air and walked out trying to catch her breath, straighten her hair and get her act together.

"You stay the hell away from her." Emily rushed in. "Ava. Are you OK?"

"I guess. He covered my mouth and put my hand against his junk."

"Damn! We have to go to the police. He can't get away with that. That's sexual assault"

"No! No, I can't. I've been through this before. In college with a football player. It came down to a he said, she said and you asked for it. Nope! Not doing that again! Please, just escort me to my room and double check to make sure the door is locked.

"I'm going to take a shower to relax, call Noah, and I think I'm just going to head back in the morning. I almost feel like going back tonight. I know we drove together, but could you just hitch a ride back with John or Jenny? I'd hate to have you miss a day."

"Sure thing, let's go."

Talking through the door, "The door's locked Ava. If I don't see you in the morning, have a safe trip. And if you leave tonight, let me know. And don't forget to say hi to Noah for me."

"Thanks, Em. Off to the shower."

That guy was such an asshole. 'Feel my anaconda. You know you want it.' Hell, no. I just want Noah's. It's almost nine o'clock. I told him I'd call him about then.

As she walked out in a towel, a huge hand covered her mouth and she was dragged to the bed. She knew instantly who it was and fought like a crazy woman to get away. Kicking, twisting around, clawing. Trying anything to escape. She couldn't breathe and was getting more frantic. Anything to break the hold.

Miles away, Noah stopped dead in his tracks. Something was wrong with Ava. He called her phone. Nothing. He called her room. Nothing. He called Emily. Nothing. Shit! I must be nuts. He sat in his chair and fretted.

"Oh, sugar. We are going to have so much fun. You will never be the same. I've probably fucked a thousand women and you will be begging me for more by the time we're done. Now if you promise not to scream, I'll let you get a breath."

He let go and she immediately took a gulp of air and started to scream and he punched her in the side of the head. "See? No marks. I've already asked you five times if you wanted it and you said 'yes'. So let's get it on!"

He dragged her stumbling to the bed. She couldn't focus her eyes. She was so stunned she barely knew what was happening. "Now let's get that towel off. My goodness. You look incredible with no clothes. My, my. OK, now let's get you on all fours." He lifted her like she weighed nothing. "Now, remember. No screaming!"

She became aware of severe pain. She felt like she was ripping. What? NO! She shook her head and took a breath and yelled. "NO! GET OFF ME! LET ME GO! LET! ME! Go!" She started to scream again.

WHAM! He punched the back of her head and she lost awareness. "Oh, Sweetie. We could have had the best time. Now it's just going to be just me having the fun."

Just then the door opened and another man came in. "You ass! You started without me. Damn! She is the whitest person I've ever seen. That white skin, red hair, big boobs. Holy shit. How's she liking it?"

"Not sure. She's been kind of quiet since I used some persuasion. Let's get busy. Where do you want to start?"

"I'll start up here." She gagged and vomited. Since her mouth was full, it went out her nose. She gagged again and erupted around him.

Pain. Pain was her only awareness. But growing...I can't breathe! I can't breathe! But her arms wouldn't work and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Dammit, Reggie! It stinks in here! What'd you do that for?"

Forty-five minutes later, the door opened again and a third tall, muscular man walked in. "Holy shit, man? What are you guys doing? STOP! Get the fuck off her! Why are you doing this?"

"She pissed me off. Didn't want to dance with me. I knew she wanted it."

"No one wants you, asshole. But...Look how blue she is....And all the blood! You morons! You've killed her. Shit, she's not breathing! JK, you have to give her mouth to mouth. See if we can get her going again."

"I ain't going anywhere near that mouth."

"Then push on her chest or something. Do that CPR shit. She must have sucked down that puke." Nothing. "Push harder, dumb ass, hurry up!"

They heard some cracks from her ribs, but she took a gasping breath. And the another. "OK. We gotta call 911."

"No fucking way. Maybe we should just bundle her up and dump her in the river or something."

"That's murder! You can't do that!"

"Fine. Get the tequila. We have to pour it down her throat. Make her look drunk and get the hell out of here."

"Jesus! I can't fucking believe you two morons. I leave you alone for a few minutes...."

They opened her mouth and poured the liquor in. She swallowed, but being a non drinker she barfed again. "Pour some more in, but not so fast.

"Let's get the hell out of here!"

"Emily? I finally got you. Hi. This is Noah. Ava was going to call me at nine, but it's almost eleven and she's not answering her phone and she doesn't answer her room phone. I usually don't worry...but. Is she with you?"

"Oh. Shit, Noah. I hope she's not in trouble. This big ugly guy harassed her and she went to her room to take a shower and call you. Let me run to her room."

Emily ran to the elevator. It seemed to take forever. Made to the sixth floor and started pounding furiously. "AVA! AVA! OPEN THE DOOR! ARE YOU OK?" She continued. She made so much noise that folks came into the hall to see what was going on.

"YOU! Call the front desk and tell security that there is a crazy lady up here threatening violence and they have to get here right away. Hurry! I feel like something awful has happened to her."

Within minutes security had arrived. There was now quite a crowd. "OK. What the heck is going on?"

"My friend is in there and I think something terrible has happened to her!"

"Why do you think that? Maybe she's just asleep or had too much to drink...."

"She was assaulted by one of those demolition workmen. He pushed his way into the restroom with her. She's not answering her phone or room phone. PLEASE! JUST OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR! If I'm wrong you can kick me out or whatever you want. PLEASE!"

He called the room number. No answer. Used his key and opened the door. "HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE?" He picked up his phone and dialed 911.

"This is security at the Hotel. There's a woman in 623. It looks like she's been assaulted. There's blood all over the place. I don't know if she's even alive. Hurry! And send the police!"

Emily pushed her way past. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" She ran in. Looked at her face. Blood from numerous cuts on her moth and lips as well as tears in her palate. Vomit filling her mouth, nose, and all over her face. "Holy shit! Holy shit!" She rolled her onto her side. Good she's at least breathing. A little.

Her pulse is weak and thready, but then she looked lower. Blood filled the sheets. A big puddle. She ran and grabbed a towel and shoved it between her legs and closed her thighs on it. "You! Hold pressure on this! NOW!"

She went back to her mouth, slid the hotel pen between her back teeth and tried to scoop out blood and vomit. Scared to death that Ava would spasm or something and take her finger off even with the pen in place.

"Do you have oxygen around? We need the AED in case she stops. Hurry see if we can get those." He complied.

But before he returned the rescue squad arrived. "Everyone out! Now. Except you, Miss. Do you know her?"

"Yes, we're friends. We work together."

"What the hell happened here?"

"I don't know. She wouldn't answer her phone...I think she's been sexually assaulted.. You should see between her legs...." And Emily started to lose it and fall apart.

"Please, Miss, we need your help. I need you to answer some questions while we work." He looked in her mouth. "Damn, we need to intubate her, start some oxygen. Make sure she doesn't suck more of that blood and vomit down. Felix start an IV and open it up. God, look at all the blood on the sheets.

"It smells like alcohol in here has she.....?"

"She doesn't drink at all. Her parents were alcoholics and druggies until they got sober. So she has never had any alcohol, drugs, cigarettes or anything. It scares her to death."

"OK. Well at least she's breathing and her heart is beating. Let's get her on the stretcher and get her to the hospital. I don't know if we're still in the Golden Hour or not, but I think she's going to suddenly tank on us. Let's go. Miss. Will you come with us? Security close and lock the door. This is a crime scene. Good, here're the police, now. They'll take care of the rest.

"Miss. Is she married? Do you know the next of kin?"

"She's engaged. Noah can get hold of them. Maybe. They're on some sort of trekking trip in South America. I'll call him on the way. We live a couple of hours from here. We came for a conference. So you'll have to get telephone permissions if you need them. I guess from him.....Or me."

"Doesn't matter. It's an emergency. Let's go!"

She called Noah. The hardest call she ever made. Ava was her best friend. They'd gone to school together and both worked at the hospital as PharmD's. And Noah! He was like a brother to her.

"Noah...There's been an accident. Well, not an accident. It looks like Ava's been.... assaulted. And..." she burst into tears and started sobbing.

"Assaulted! Emily! Em! What's going on?"

"She's unconscious and she's all ripped up, and she's barely breathing and...Oh, Noah! We're in the ED. She's in the back now! And they're checking her out. It's awful. You need to get here. Dillard General. Now! Hurry!

"Maybe I'll know more when you get here. Please don't drive like an idiot, though. I couldn't stand to have you hurt too!"

"I'm on my way. I'll try to call her parents, but they were to be in places with no service most of the week."

Arriving at the hospital, they directed him to the surgical waiting room. "Emily! What...."

She ran to Noah. Clutched him to herself and gave an anguished cry. Between sobs, "Noah. It's awful. She's all ripped and they hurt her. Bad! She's in surgery now. They said it would be a while....I"

"How did this happen?"

"I don't know! This guy harassed her at the dinner and so I escorted her to her room. She was going to take a shower and call you. And then....and then...you called. I went up there and she didn't answer the door. I got security and....Noah! There was blood all over....Everywhere! She was barely breathing. I....I...."

"Excuse me, Miss. I'm detective Scanlon. Are you Emily?" She nodded. "I need to find out what happened. Who are you?"

"Noah. Uh, Noah Grimes. fiancé. But I just got here. Sorry I can't help much I don't think."

"OK, Emily let's start at the beginning......"

"So you left her at the room.... There's no way the guy could have gotten in without a key. Did she give him her key? We found one on the desk, but not the other one."

"NO! No way! She was scared to death. She was shaking. She was going to skip the conference and go home. That's how bad it was. She was thinking of going home tonight even though it was late. No way would she let anyone in. And I...." Reaching into her purse. "Here's her other key. I forgot I had it. She's had a habit of leaving hers in the room by mistake so she gave it to me. Just in case."

"Well, he, or they got in somehow. We're getting the tapes now. Who was the guy downstairs at the buffet?"

"I don't know. He was one of the workmen. There were three, no four of them that came into our banquet. And one of the guys forced her to dance with him and then forced his way into the restroom with her. Scared her to death."

In shock, the detective said, "one of the workmen?"

"I guess so. There's a crew of men ripping out the old bar. He was huge!....And she is so tiny...." And she burst into tears again. Noah put an arm around her and hugged her closely.

"Well, that's all I need right now. Can you two hang around for a few days?"

Noah responded. "Sure detective. We'll be here as long as she's in the hospital at least."

"Excuse me. Are you with Ava?"

"Yes, Doctor. I'm her fiancé and this is her good friend. The one that called 911."

"I'm Dr. Hernandez. A Trauma Surgeon. I'll be coordinating her care.

"Well, hell! I don't even know where to start. If someone was trying to do everything they could without actually killing her....they came damn close. I guess I'll start at the top. She got hit in the head. At least twice. Hard. She has a significant concussion and it'll take a while for her to get over it.

"She's got all kinds of cuts on the lips, palate and throat. The Otolaryngologist sewed those up. But she also had damage to her voice box and cords. Looks like someone was cramming something big in there. Hard. She won't be able to speak until they heal so the ENT did a trach on her." Noah gave him a blank look.

"Sorry. The ENT made an incision on her neck, below her voice box and we put a tube in there. She'll have to keep it until everything heals.

"She sucked down all sorts of vomit, blood, and liquor into her lungs. Her chest X-ray looks awful. So Pulmonary bronched her. Sorry. They put a tube into her lungs and sucked out as much stuff as possible. She's still going to get pneumonia, guaranteed, from the vomit and the alcohol sort of burnt her lungs some too. The pneumonia is likely to be our biggest problem. It could turn into a bad thing. It could even be....well, it could be really bad."

"Oh, no!...."

"But we got to her early and she's very healthy. And she'll be in the ICU...."

"But, Dr. Hernandez. There was so much blood....down there."

"Yes. We gave her a couple units of blood. It's a mess down there. It's like she just had a 20 lb. kid or something. Gynecology closed up the tear that connected her rectum and vagina. It was kind of like an episiotomy that they do for childbirth, but worse.

Her sphincter was ripped so I repaired that. I think we can keep the uterus for now. There were tears in her back wall and her cervix was all beat up. We'll see. Something pretty big was in there. Too big for her tiny..."

"She had a tear in her urethra so she'll need a catheter for a few weeks. And Urology scoped her bladder. Bruises and bleeding, but no holes. Should be OK."

"Doc. I'm detective Scanlon. Does it look like she resisted at all? I mean did she fight it or did things just kinda get out of hand?"

"Hell. It looks like she fought like a tiger! All her nails are broken off, her knuckles are all cut up and she has two broken fingers. And a broken toe. I think she fought like hell 'til she was clobbered."

"Clobbered?"

"Yea. She has some big swollen areas on her scalp. She was hit real hard with something more than once. I doubt she even knew what was going on let alone consent."

"What about alcohol?"

"Her blood alcohol was.04, but she had alcohol in her lungs. I'm not a forensic expert, but I would guess someone poured it down her throat while she was out. Or almost out. She swallowed some and sucked some into her lungs."

"Thanks, Doc."

"Sure. And we sent a rape kit. She had what looked like semen mixed with the blood and feces in her mouth and down there. She also had some tissue on her teeth. Maybe skin. We saved that for DNA and identification. I have to get back to her. Any questions?"

They shook their heads. "Just do everything you can, Dr. Hernandez."

"We will. She has a big team working on her. As the trauma doc, I coordinate it all. If you need something. I'm the guy you get hold of. But the ICU nurses will know what's going on as well.

"....And there are Counselors available to help you two. And she will need support and counseling as well. We can fix her body, I hope. But her mind...We'll have to see."

"When can we see her?"

"Why don't you go get something to eat or whatever. Then go to the ICU waiting area on the second floor. The Trauma ICU. The folks at the desk can direct you. Once she's squared away the nurses will get you. We're going to keep her asleep....And breathe for her. At least for tonight. It'll depend on her lungs."

On day 3 here lungs had cleared enough that they took her off the ventilator and let her wake up. Noah was at her bedside in the ICU. "Hey sleepy head. Good to have you back. Do you need anything?" No smile. Just a blank look at him.

He went to take her hand and she jerked hers away. He leaned over to kiss her forehead and she turned her head and pushed him away. He tried to hide the hurt and pain he was feeling inside. He sat back down. "Do you want me to fill you in on what they fixed?" She nodded.

"Well, today is the third day since you got injured. Tuesday. You got a concussion so you may get headaches and feel groggy and stuff. Your vocal cords were hurt so that's why you have that tracheostomy thing. The ENT guy said it's like the singers can get so no talking for six weeks or so. The worst thing was your lungs. You got some stuff in them and got pneumonia so you're on steroids and antibiotics and things.