Love You Forever (2013 Wattys Finalist)

Chapter 20 - Shame and Betrayal

A/N:  Hello everyone. It's Katherine here.  I wanted to give you a heads up that the rest of Robert and Georgie's visit to the health clinic is in this chapter. I did a lot of research about what would happen during a visit to a G.U.M. Clinic, as they're called in the U.K., and everything I wrote is as accurate as I could make it.

Just to warn you what's coming, I have written questions by the nurse that are clinical (not graphic) descriptions of sex acts. Georgie's answers are referring to nonconsensual sex and may be difficult to read. You can skip the flashback entirely if you wish.

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Robert was standing on the pavement next to a park, feeling sick. He looked over and saw a bench close by. He staggered to it, almost falling on it when he sat down and slumped over, putting his head in his hands.

The words he'd shouted at her, 'You stabbed me in the back,' ran through his mind over and over again. Where the hell did that come from? Was that the source of the anger and bitterness that had been eating away at him? When she'd left him, he'd almost completely shut down, never really examining his feelings about what happened but it seemed obvious to him now, he did feel betrayed.

But what made him feel sick was the certain knowledge that he had no right to lash out at her the way he had. Not after what he'd done to her.

---Then---

While the nurse looked at her expectantly, Georgie was squeezing Robert's hand so tight it was painful. How could he have been so stupid? He'd thought they'd just request everything and get the tests. It never occurred to him they would ask questions. Georgie was in no way prepared for something like this, he thought desperately.

"Well, let's say over the last six months, how many sexual partners have you had other than Robert," the nurse asked, maybe thinking she would help by narrowing the window down from a year.

"One," Georgie said faintly.

Robert looked at her sharply, but she was looking straight ahead at the nurse and he couldn't see her expression. He wondered if she was going to cut off circulation to his fingers, she was squeezing them so tight.

"Was your other partner a male or female?" the nurse said gently.

"Male," she said almost in a whisper.

"Can you tell me what kinds of sex you had with him?" That's when Georgie turned in her chair to look at Robert.

What he saw horrified him. Georgie's eyes were wide with fear. She was looking at him like she couldn't believe he'd done this to her, that he'd betrayed her. She was silently begging him to do something, to save her from this. Before he could react, the nurse spoke again, drawing Georgie's attention back to her.

"I know this is a difficult question to answer, Georgie. But it's important information I need to know. Did you have vaginal sex with your other partner?" she asked gently.

Georgie hung her head, looking down at her hand that was squeezing his then slowly nodded. Robert couldn't believe this was happening. He had to figure out a way to stop this, to get them the hell out of there.

"Did he use condoms when you had sex?" the nurse continued.

Georgie shook her head.

That broke through Robert's racing thoughts, completely shocking him. How could she say that? She'd fucking told him the bastard was using them. He immediately thought back to the night when they'd had the conversation about them. As he remembered what she'd said, he realized she'd only said she knew what condoms were. He'd assumed it was because the bastard was using them – and then his stomach dropped. That was before he knew about the other men.