Katie Smith

Katie Smith sat on a comfortable chair writing up the notes from her previous session. The notes were lent against a coffee table.  She could have moved to the desk where she could have sat with her back in a better position, but she was in a hurry.  She had been working in the Riverside Surgery (A standard General Practitioner's Surgery) for about six months now and had not come across a single case, not one she could progress herself and not a single one for referring on.  She was getting bored with the patients the Doctors referred to her and more importantly she felt like she was failing her assignment. Yes, she was a counsellor and usually enjoyed the more relaxed period of treating the un-turned humans, but the whole purpose of her placement was to find the newly turned.  She was starting to think that the whole placement was an utter waste of time.  Perhaps there were no Marginers in the area.  Marginers was the name that Katie's society had given to the turned, who prefer to live on the margins of society.  They were the ones responsible for the unsolicited and unsanctioned turnings.  They were criminals as it was illegal to turn anyone against their will and without it being sanctioned by the Registration Office.  There weren't many Marginers but enough for a separate team to have been set up to identify their victims before they themselves became possible Marginers.  Katie was one of the identifiers, her main purpose was to identify those newly turned and refer them onto the appropriate counsellor, if they didn't fit her specific speciality (The newly turned very rarely fitted Katie's speciality as she was a specialist is the young newly turned, 14 to 21 year old). Katie put her pen down, closed the file and stretched.  She rubbed her lower back, as she debated whether she would head home early.  It was then that her ears picked up on a conversation that was happening in the Doctor's Office next door.  Dr Chisholm a middle aged male doctor was talking to a young girl.  "So what can I do for you today Sarah?" Dr Chisholm said in a kindly manner.  "Well" said Sarah nervously, "I think I may be pregnant".  She paused for a little while, a little while that must have felt like a year to her before she launched into a story. "You see my boyfriend came to visit me as a surprise, he has been living far away and he was only here for the weekend and one thing lead to another." "Did you use protection?" asked the Dr Chisholm as he typed something into the computer, not really listening to her. "I think so, but I haven't had my period since" "Ok so what do you what to do?" "Well, I can't have a baby" "Mmm... Ok, hop up on the table and I will examine you".      As Katie listened to the story she could sense that Sarah was lying.  It could be just a regular girl who was hiding something, but there was something more to the story, Katie was sure of it.   Katie popped out of the counselling door just in time to see Sarah leave Dr Chisholm's room.  Katie knew straight away.  Sarah was not just a careless teen, she was newly turned.