June 8, 2007

It's just after midnight when Mark gets paged to the emergency room for an infant with a head laceration and burns...exactly twenty minutes after he'd stumbled into the on-call room, fallen into a bed, and passed out after a long, unusually hectic day. He shuffles into a bustling exam room and is still stifling one last yawn as he grabs the chart a nurse hands him, but the name on that chart has him instantly wide awake. Phoebe Montgomery.

Montgomery.

Well, it's not exactly an uncommon name. And Addison would never name her daughter Phoebe.

Then he spots the date of birth: 5/31/2006. Impossible. It's one of only a handful of dates he'll never forget, and when he closes his eyes he can still see it, circled in red Sharpie. It's one he will forever associate with a tiny Yankees onesie and the happiest moment of his life.

Of course, his happiest moment was followed, just weeks later, by the saddest. No more date circled in red, no more pinstriped onesie, no more Addison.

As he approaches the gurney and weaves his way through a crowd of nurses and doctors - there's the trauma attending, a neuro attending, and a peds attending plus a handful of residents - his ears are assaulted by shrill wails, no doubt fueled by a combination of pain and fear.

Finally he gets a good look at the patient. Even matted with blood, it's clear that this squalling girl's hair is red. A soft red-gold, not Addison's fiery red, but it's enough to erase any doubts from his mind. But if her child - their child - is here, where is she? How is she? Was she injured too?

Answers will have to wait. Right now, whether he wants to or not, he needs to treat the baby. Phoebe. As soon as neuro verifies that there aren't any pressing brain or spinal cord injuries and the trauma attending finds no signs of internal bleeding he proceeds with his exam. The head lac is oozing blood, as head wounds will, but it's not too deep and when he's done working his magic, there won't even be a scar to show for it. The more urgent concern is the burns covering the baby's torso, arms, and thighs. For the most part, they're second degree burns - painful and at risk of infection, but they'll heal in a few weeks. A few spots, however, are third degree burns, and will require skin grafts.

Soon transport arrives to bring Phoebe to the burn unit. He heads off to prepare for the procedure that will follow, and by the time he gets to her room the baby is rendered unconscious by sedatives and painkillers - both necessary for what's to come. She's intubated and he's debriding the burns when the door is slides open and Addison rushes in. "Oh, Phoebe, I'm here, sweet-...Mark." She comes to a halt when he turns around, but quickly regains her composure and pushes past the nurses to the other side of the baby's bed. "Is she okay? Oh my God, those burns look awful." She looks up at him with watery, red-rimmed eyes, but he just fixes her with an icy stare.

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

"Not now, Mark."

"Addison-"

"Damn it, Mark, how is she?"

He huffs and carries on with his work, needing a few deep breaths before he regains his composure enough to speak calmly. By the time he's ready to talk the other resident - who, along with a nurse, is helping him debride and dress the burns - has filled her in on reports from the other specialties. Finally he glances up from his work, and as much as he wants to be angry...he can't. Not when she's standing across from him looking sadder and more worried than he's ever seen her.

"They're mostly second degree burns, and should heal with minimal scarring in two to three weeks. This part here, though…" he points to an area the size of his fist on the baby's chest and shakes his head, "that's gonna need a skin graft. And that bit on her arm, and probably this spot on her leg. Luckily the burns are confined to the front of her body, so we should be able to get plenty of good skin from her back, and the backs of her thighs if we need to. I'll do the graft in a few days, and we'll keep her sedated until then so she can...rest. And heal." So she won't feel any pain from the entire layer of skin that burned off.

Addison doesn't respond, just nods and lets out a shaky sigh before smoothing back Phoebe's sticky, matted hair and leaning forward to kiss her forehead. "It's okay, baby girl, you're gonna be okay," she whispers in one tiny seashell ear. "I'm so sorry this happened, but we're gonna take good care of you, I promise."

He lets her have a moment, waits for her to straighten up before interrogating her. "How did this happen?" he demands to know, his tone icy.

"They were on their way back from the airport-"

"Who was?"

"Phoebe. And-"

"Who was she with?" Who is raising my daughter?

She sees right past his question. "She's not yours, Mark!"

"Like hell she isn't! I saw her date of birth on her chart-"

"She's not yours-"

"Really? Wow, well, I guess you didn't waste any time moving on, then, huh? Well, you know what they say: once a whore, always a whore."

He doesn't mean it, not really, and regrets it as soon as the words are out of his mouth and he sees the hurt that flashes across her face. But somehow she pulls herself together and looks him square in the eye before adding another piece to the puzzle, one that leaves him temporarily speechless.

"She's not my kid."

He sputters and looks back and forth between Addison and the baby for a minute before he manages to speak. "But...but she has your red hair! And your last name!"

She lets out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, and she also has a father who's a bigger manwhore than you."

Okay, I admit it, I am the absolute worst. I haven't written anything since I started Rewriting History which was...March? I dunno. I don't have any good excuses, just haven't felt like writing. But you poor souls deserve something, and this has been on my phone since...well, I'm not totally sure when, but I started it before Rewriting History. Maybe even before the last chapter of Life Ain't Always Beautiful. Anyway, I thought maybe I'd post it and the reviews from my amazing, loyal readers would motivate me to get back into writing again...let's see if it works, shall we? A good chunk of the next chapter is already written (I actually wrote that before this) so show me some love and I'll try to get that up on Wednesday.