‘No, I didn’t know, Anna. I was fishing, yes. I was hoping to know just a tiny bit more before I reported it. Then I went ahead and reported it anyway, but these things go slowly, so – I’m just so sorry I didn’t get in early enough to prevent it –’

‘It was really bad. He actually attacked her, really badly.’ Geraldine gave my hand a squeeze. She nodded. She listened. ‘And then Danny attacked Hessel, and then the police were there . . .’

‘Danny?’ Geraldine stared at me for a moment. And then her shoulders slumped a little. ‘Poor Leonie,’ she said softly. ‘Poor Basil.’ And then she shook her head and was all professionalism itself. ‘Okay, I want you to listen to me, Anna, okay? Something terrible has happened, and that is not nothing. And you’ve seen it, and that’s not nothing either, and that is going to need some attention. But your mum is okay, and you are going to be okay, and right now I need you to just try to stay calm and be here with me, because you and I, Anna, as a team,’ Geraldine put a gentle hand on my shoulder, ‘we need to investigate this pregnancy and what’s been happening. Okay? Understand?’

I nodded. The slight pressure from Geraldine’s hand had grounded me. Brought me back to the room.

‘Okay?’ she repeated.

I nodded. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I had been thinking . . . I had thought, that with sharp pain like that, that maybe it could be ectopic.’

Geraldine smiled slightly and nodded. ‘Yes, that is the first thing we need to rule out –’

‘Because that’s a medical emergency,’ I said.

Geraldine smiled more fully. ‘Good knowledge, budding doctor. Go team.’

I breathed deeply and tried to be calm, to be present, to focus on the medical things in the room, to let myself be distracted by them. Geraldine put on rubber gloves and unscrewed the top of my specimen jar and tore the top off a small packet, dipped the thin cardboard strip in my wee, and laid it neatly back down on the empty packet. ‘Bit yellow,’ she said, offhandedly, gesturing to my specimen. ‘Drink more water.’

I said – I actually managed to say, ‘There were other things going on so staying hydrated fell down the priority list.’ The blood was returning to my limbs, the breath to my lungs.

Geraldine folded the top of my pants down away from my lower abdomen. ‘So, blood and pain. When was your last period?’

‘Um, well that’s the weird thing – I did have one about four weeks ago. But it was a light one – that sometimes happens when I’m stressed. And I was stressed.’

‘Where are we . . . July. You were stressed about the UCAT?’

I laughed and my laugh surprised me, and I relaxed some more. ‘Yes.’

‘I hated the UCAT, or the UMAT as it was then,’ said Geraldine. ‘Couldn’t do the bloody interpersonal competency questions.’