by
Operachick
"Luka!" Abby ran towards him, breathlessly asking, "Guess what?"
"Mmm... I don't know. What?"
"Conni asked me to switch her Tuesday shift with my Saturday shift, so now I have the whole week-end off! And you're off too, so I thought maybe we should get away for the weekend."
"Sounds like a good idea to me. Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know yet. I haven't thought that far ahead. It's just not very often that someone actually wants a Saturday shift, so I was so excited…"
"Why did she want to switch?"
"Oh, one of her kids has a concert at school during the day, and she wanted to go, and Saturday was the only day she could make it up on."
"It must be tough having to give up your weekend to go to your child's concert during the week," Luka mused.
"I would think so. " Abby had caught her breath, and although still excited about the prospect of spending an entire weekend alone with Luka, realized how her good fortune had come about. She felt a twinge of guilt over Conni's misfortune, but decided to let it go. After all, she shouldn't feel bad. It wasn't her fault that Conni's kid had a concert. But, she was grateful that Conni had switched with her. She'd be sure to bring something back for Conni from her weekend away.
"I'll make some calls, see if we can get a cabin up by the lake or something for the weekend. How does that sound?"
"It sounds wonderful. I'll see you in a bit-Weaver asked me to draw some blood on a patient, so I'd better go."
"Alright. I'll see you later, then."
*****************************************
"Luka, there's a multi-victim MVA coming in. One adult, major injuries, and a small child and an infant, minor injuries."
"Lydia, prep trauma one. Abby, go with Cleo, and take the children to Exam 2."
An ambulance pulled up in the bay, and Luka could hear another one following close behind. As the paramedics pulled the woman out of the rig, Luka had a sinking feeling that this woman wouldn't make it.
"On my count, one, two three..." The woman was transferred onto the table. Luka saw that there was gray mater all over the backboard where she had lain. "How long has she been down?"
"She wasn't breathing when we got there. We intubated her and put her on a mask when we arrived on the scene, but no response. Took us about 15 minutes to get there."
"Hold compressions. Time of death, 6:56PM." Luka looked down at the woman and sighed. He had to go talk to the children, let them know that their mother was gone, that they would never see her again. He would never get used to this part of the job.
"Luka," Abby came running into the trauma room. "I've been in with the kids, but Cleo's having a hard time assessing them. They don't speak English-I think that they're speaking Croatian."
"I'll go in. Their mother..." Luka's words trailed off. He went on to the exam room to see if he could talk to the children.
Luka entered the exam room. The older child, a boy of about five, was sitting on the bed, with an expression of terror on his face. A baby was seated in a car seat next to him, whom Cleo was examining.
"Where's mommy?" the little boy asked in Croatian.
Luka sat down in a chair in front of him, and spoke to him in his native language. "My name is Dr. Kovac, and I've been taking care of your mommy. What's your name?"
"Alen. And that's Kaja," he indicated the baby that Cleo was examining. "Where's mommy?"
"Your mommy is in the other room. We need to find your daddy, or another adult in your family. Do you know your phone number?"
"Daddy doesn't live with us. We just live with mommy."
"Is there an aunt or an uncle, or a grandparent that we could call?"
The little boy shook his head.
"One of your mommy's friends, or a neighbor?"
"There's a lady that lives next door to us, but she doesn't like us."
"I'm sorry." Luka looked up at Abby. "Can you call social services?"
"Right away." Abby left the room.
Cleo finally spoke up. "I've checked out the baby, she seems fine, other than a few bruises, and a scrape on her forehead. I tried to examine the little boy-he yelped when I touched his arm, but I can't understand what he's saying."
"Thank you, Cleo. I'll take over from here." He turned to Alen. "Dr. Finch tells me that your arm hurts. Does it hurt anywhere else?"
"My head hurts."
"It's all right, Alen." He felt the boy's arm, and again the boy yelped. He then started crying when Luka felt his head. "Alen, I'm going to send you to get an X-ray of your arm. Do you know what that is?"
The boy shook his head.
"That's where we take a picture of the inside of your arm, so we can see if anything is broken. I think before we do that though, we need to get you a head CT-that's where we take a picture of your head and look inside. We're going to make sure there are no rocks in there."
The little boy giggled though his tears. He then asked, "Can I see my mommy first?"
Luka sighed. He hadn't done yet what he had come in to do: to tell this little boy that his mother was gone. "Alen, when your mommy was in the accident, she hit her head very hard, much harder than you did, and she stopped breathing. When the ambulance came, they tried to make her breathe again, but they couldn't, so they brought her here, along with you and your sister. When we moved your mommy, I found that the reason she wasn't breathing was because she had hit her head so badly, and we couldn't fix it." The little boy looked at him with his big brown eyes, wide open, and full of tears. "Alen, I'm sorry, your mommy died. She's gone to heaven."
Alen started sobbing. Luka held the little boy in his arms, and rocked him back and forth.
*****************************************
Luka had decided to accompany Alen to radiology himself. Although there was a translator available, he didn't feel right about leaving the boy. Not only had he just lost his mother, but also he was in a country that wasn't familiar to him. The little boy was being as brave as he could, but Luka could tell that he was very frightened. He needed a familiar face around, even if it was only one that he had known for a couple of hours.
When Luka and Alen returned from radiology, Adele, from social services, was waiting for him. Luka brought Alen back into the exam room, where Abby was watching a sleeping Kaja. Luka picked Alen up, and laid him on the gurney, where Alen promptly fell asleep. Luka smiled at Abby, and then went out to talk to Adele.
"We were able to find the mother's name. Her driver's license was in her car-- she had just received it a couple of weeks ago. We haven't been able to locate any family yet, though. The only person who seemed to know them at all was the landlady, but she wasn't very helpful. I'm going to take them into custody for tonight, and try to place them with a foster family in the morning."
"Alen will need to stay here for awhile longer. I'm waiting for his X-ray to come back. It looks like he has a broken arm. No head injury, though."
"That's good. When do you expect the X-ray back?"
"Probably not for a couple hours. Will you be able to place them with a Croatian speaking family?"
"I don't think that we have any in the foster care system around here."
"Well, perhaps the children should stay here for the night, and I'll stay around so that Alen will have someone if he needs to talk?"
"I think that would be all right for tonight, but I'll have to place them tomorrow with a foster family."
"I understand. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."
"I will. Talk to you in the morning." With that, Adele left.
Abby poked her head out of the door, and saw that Adele had left. She stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her.
"What's happening?"
"The children will stay here for the night. I'm waiting on Alen's X-ray anyways. Adele will place them with a foster family in the morning. She doesn't think that she can place them with a Croatian speaking family, though." Luka looked down, with a sad expression on his face as he spoke.
"You've really gotten attached to that little boy, haven't you?"
"I suppose I have."
"You know Luka, sometimes family services will certify someone as a foster parent on an emergency basis."
"Mmm-hmm." Luka looked wearily at Abby, without quite comprehending what she had said.
"Luka, you could probably be certified. They would probably let you, because you speak their language."
"I couldn't take on two kids, even if it was just for a few days."
"I would do it with you."
Luka looked at Abby for a long time, without speaking a word.
"Really?" he softly questioned.
"Really."
"I think we'd have to miss our weekend away."
"Some things are more important."
*****************************************
The next morning, Adele came back as promised. A tired Luka went over to talk to her.
"How is Alen doing?"
"He slept though most of the night, but he woke up a couple of times crying. I set his arm-he'll need to wear the cast for about six weeks."
"That's not too bad. It could have been much worse, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, I've found a placement for the children. They don't speak Croatian-I tried, but I just couldn't find a family in the system who spoke it."
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that. I've heard that it's possible for someone to be certified as a foster parent on an emergency basis in cases like this."
"We have done that on rare occasion, but its not something that we take lightly. There are many stringent requirements for the process. Are you talking about taking the children in yourself?"
"Yes."
"We don't usually hand children over to single people. Caring for children is a full time job, and it's not something that we feel that people can do alone, language advantages aside."
"I realize what a difficult job it is. I was married when I lived in Croatia, and my wife and I had two children, all of whom I lost in the war. But, I know I would not have been able to care for our children myself. If I took these children I would have help."
"Who do you have in mind?"
"Abby Lockhart. We've been seeing each other for a while, and she offered to help me if I took in the children."
"Again, this is something that we only do on rare occasion. But, I'll take it to my supervisor. I'll let you know within a couple of hours."
"Thank you, Adele."
Luka went back to the exam room. He was actually off the clock by this time, but Abby had just started the shift she had taken for Conni. She was checking on the children.
"Well?"
"Adele will talk to her supervisor. It's possible."
"That's wonderful, Luka." She smiled at him, and she smiled at the still sleeping children.
*****************************************
"Dr. Kovac, I have good news for you."
Luka turned around and looked at Adele hopefully.
"My supervisor is willing to certify you. I just need you and Ms. Lockhart to fill out these forms. We are actively looking for family, and as soon as we can locate their father or another relative, we will be handing the children over, but for now, they are yours to take care of."
"Thank you, Adele."
Luka was ecstatic. He hadn't realized how attached he had grown to Alen until Adele had said he might not be able to take the children. He could see that Abby was forming a bond with them, as well. Although she only knew a few phrases in Croatian, Abby seemed to be communicating with both children fairly well. He ran over to Abby.
"Abby, we can take the kids! We just have to get through this paperwork, and then they can come with us. I'm going to go to the lounge and fill out these papers, and then I'll take the children back to the apartment."
"Luka that's wonderful. Why don't I keep the kids here for a while, and you can go out and pick up everything we'll need? Mrs. Brazelton on the second floor has a portable crib that she keeps for when her granddaughter visits. We can probably borrow that for a few days. And you'll have to go to the store and get formula, and diapers."
"I'll do that. Then I'll be back. Abby, I'm so excited!" He leaned down and kissed her, right in the middle of the hallway. He didn't even blush when he realized he had kissed her in front of several coworkers. He started off to the lounge to do the paperwork, but Abby stopped him.
"Luka, you need to tell Alen. You might want to make sure that he's alright with coming with us."
"Of course." He went off to the exam room to talk to the little boy. When he returned, he was wearing an even larger grin than he had before. He finished his paperwork, and headed off to collect all of the supplies they would need for the next few days. Later that evening, when he and Abby brought Alen and Kaja to their apartment, he was as happy as he was on the day he had brought each of his own children home from the hospital. He felt like this would begin a new chapter in his life.
*****************************************
Social services had not had any luck with finding family members in the United States. They had begun to expand their search, and were working on locating the children's father or another family member in Croatia. Luka was beginning to hope that they never found the children's family. He knew he was being selfish, but he couldn't let go. He couldn't experience that kind of pain again.
After a couple of days, Luka and Abby had settled into a routine with the children. Luka had taken a couple of extra days off from the hospital so he could be home with Alen and Kaja. Abby had worked the day before, but was off today. It was a beautiful summer day. Luka had hoped that perhaps if he took Alen to the park, he could help him to feel a bit better. He knew it would be a long time before Alen would heal from the loss of his mother, but he hoped he could get the boy's mind off of his troubles for a day.
"Abby, are you ready to go?"
"Just a minute. Babies need a lot of things to go the park with."
Luka smiled, and looked down at Alen. Alen returned Luka's gaze, and reached his arms up, one still in its cast, to be held. He was crying.
"I want my mommy!"
"I'm so sorry Alen. Mommy's not coming back. She's up in heaven."
The little boy continued to whimper, but had a look of understanding on his face.
"Alen, do you want to go to the park? You and me, and Abby and Kaja?"
The boy was still crying, but nodded his head in agreement.
"Okay, we'll go. Maybe we can play soccer?"
The little boy again nodded his head in agreement.
Abby came out of the bedroom with Kaja, and the four left the building, looking like a real family, and went off to the park.
*****************************************
When they returned to the building, Alen was smiling. He had a fun time playing soccer with Luka, and was able to forget about his mother for an hour. Luka and Abby had had a fun time with the children, but their spirits sunk with they saw a familiar face standing in front of the apartment door.
"Luka, Abby. We've located the children's father."
"Where?" Luka asked.
"He is still in Croatia, but he'll be taking a flight out here tomorrow."
"Why was he not living with his family? Alen told me that they only lived with their mother."
"He had been planning on moving here to the US in a few months. He was going to be transferred to his company's Chicago office, and had sent his wife and children on ahead to get settled, so Alen would be able to start school in the fall."
Luka stood silent. Alen had already run into the apartment, and Abby had followed him with Kaja. He finally broke his silence. "So, the children will go back to their father tomorrow?"
"Yes. Luka, you and Abby have done a wonderful job with these two children, and have given them the love and support and care that they've needed. But they have to go back to their family. Their father loves them very much, and has been frantic for the last few days, not being able to get a hold of his wife. He wants his children very much."
"I see."
"This is what makes becoming an emergency foster parent so difficult-you're not prepared for what it's like when you have to give the children up. You've been wonderful, Luka. If you want, we have counselors that can help you when the children leave."
"Thank you, Adele."
"Will you let Alen know that his father will be here for him tomorrow?"
"I will."
"Thank you, Luka. You've been a great foster parent."
Luka was silent again, but spoke just before Adele left. "Thank you for letting me take the children. I've really enjoyed my time with them."
"You're welcome." She left.
Luka went into the apartment, and told Abby that the children would be leaving the next day. He then sat on the couch and took Alen into his lap, and began to speak to him in their native tongue.
"Alen, I have some good news for you. That lady, Adele, she found your daddy. He's going to be coming to get you and Kaja tomorrow."
Alen looked at him, and a smile spread across his face.
"My daddy? I'm going to go with my daddy? I've missed him!"
"Yes, your daddy will be here tomorrow."
"Will I have to go away?" the boy's face and voice suddenly became filled with concern.
"I think that your daddy will be taking you and your sister home to Croatia."
"I won't see you and Abby anymore?"
"Well, Abby and I have to stay here. But you'll be with your daddy. He's missed you very much, and he loves you very much."
"I'll miss you." the boy wrapped his good arm around Luka for a hug. "Can I come back and visit?"
"I would love it if you came back and visited, or maybe I can come and visit you. But it's really up to your daddy."
"Daddy will let you come visit us."
"I hope so. I'm going to miss you very much, too."
*****************************************
The next afternoon, Adele came and picked the children up from Abby and Luka. It usually worked best to say good-bye in the presence of the social worker, rather than in the presence of the natural family. For a long time after they left, Luka sat and stared off into space. Abby had left him alone for a while, but she finally came over and sat next to him.
"Hey" she said softly.
"Hey."
"Luka, you did a wonderful thing for that little boy. He needed someone, and you were there for him. That's a very important job."
"I know."
Abby was surprised that he had replied so quickly.
"Abby, I'm sad that they've left, but I'm happy for them. Families need to stay together."
"Luka, I know how painful this must be for you. I mean… I don't know, because I've never experienced what you've been though, but I can imagine how painful it must be…"
"It's okay Abby. I'm okay. Really. I'm going to miss the children very much, especially Alen, but I'll be okay."
"Are you sure?"
"I realized last night, while I watched them sleeping that they weren't mine to keep. They were here to help me as much as I was here to help them."
Abby looked puzzled.
"I mean, when I lost my family, I thought that I would never have a family again. I didn't think that I could handle it, and I didn't think that I deserved it. But caring for Alen and Kaja, I saw that I could do it. Children don't come with a guarantee that they'll be safe, and happy. All you can do is love them. I will miss Alen and Kaja just as much as I miss Jasna and Marko. But Alen and Kaja made me realize that I do deserve to have children again. I hope that I will one day."
Abby wrapped her arms around Luka. "I hope you will, too."
Finis