Two girls crouched together, keeping as close to each other as they possibly could sharing all of their body heat. The oldest looked horrified, her long auburn hair blowing in the wind. She looked as though she were about to faint, though you could see that she was much too strong for that. The youngest huddled next to her sister, wondering what could have made her brave sister so frightened.

The eldest looked over her shoulder, making sure that she had found them both a safe place to stay that night. They were hidden behind a dumpster in a dark alley way, it wasn't the most pleasent of places but at least it kept them hidden.

Both girls looked at each other before huddling closer, gripping onto the thin blanket that they had with them, using their bags as pillows. Eventually they fell asleep, both hungry and cold.

"No fair! Morris your cheating." Susan laughed as Morris scooped all of the jelly beans from the middle of the table toward him.

"You snooze you loose Doc!" Morris said filling up his pockets with the jelly beans he won. "Okay I have patients too see." He said as he left the lounge.

"That guy is such an idiot." Abby said giving him a look of confusion as he left.

"Tell me about it! He totally cheated, I so coulda won that." Susan said throwing her cards onto the table and sitting back in her chair and pouting her lips.

Abby laughed. "You were playing 'Go Fish'."

"What can I say? I'm competitive, I like to win." Susan laughed collecting the cards up and putting them back in the box. "Plus, Morris now has all the candy, and we have none."

Abby pulled the same pouting expression that Susan pulled before and laughed. "We'll get him back at recess."

Susan closed her eyes and poked her tongue out at Abby as Carter walked in.

"I'm sorry was it play time?" Carter asked as he opened the door.

Susan held in her laughter and composed herself. "We were just discussing how we thought that Morris cheated in a card game we just had."

"Cool what were you playing? Playing for money?" Carter asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"We were playing 'Go Fish'." Susan said quietly. "And we were playing for jelly beans."

"Cute huh!" Abby said. "You should have been here for hide and go seek."

Susan playfully hit Abby on the arm. "We did not play hide and go seek. Anyway I have to get back to work!"Susan laughed to herself as she left the room. leaving Abby and Carter on their own.

Abby and Carter had both been on tenterhooks since last week, when they almost did - but they didn't, neither one really knowing what to say when left alone in each others company.

"Yeah...I'd better get ba..." Abby started to say as she headed towards the door, but was stopped half way by Carter.

"We really need to talk, this is just getting too awkward." Carter said releasing his grip on Abby's arm.

Not knowing what to say Abby just stood there and looked at the floor, knowing perfectly well that if she was to look up her cheeks would be bright red. She didn't understand how Carter still got to her like that, like she was 13 and the cutest guy in school had told her he liked her new hair cut. "I know we need to talk, but not here. What time are you off?"

"8pm. Meet at Ikes?"

"Yeah sure." Abby lifted her head slightly and smiled at him before leaving the room.

Abby made her way over to the board and looked at all the names, 'Where do all these people come from this early in the morning?' Abby wondered to herself. Her eyes wondered over to the waiting area beyond the glass doors, where she noticed two little girls sat in a corner on their own. Abby decided to go over and check them out, they didn't look all that old and extremely thin and dirty.

"Hey there." She said cautiously, not want to startle them. "Are you two ok there?"

The youngest girl just sat there and clung ever tighter onto her sister, staring at Abby with her eyes wide open in fear. The eldest looked scared but had to stay strong for her little sister. "We're fine thank you." She said forcing a little smile.

Abby took a seat next to them. "Well you can't be perfectly fine, because you must have come to the ER for a reason." Her tone very soothing and motherly. The eldest could sense her kindness.

"It's my sister, she has a fever." The elder girl said forcing her sister to sit up and face Abby.

Abby leant closer to feel the little girls forehead, as she got closer the smell that radiated from them was malodorous. Abby placed the palm of her hand across the girls head and instantly pulled it back.

"Well you were right she does have a fever, a very high one too by the looks of it." Abby tilted her head to the side slightly and smiled. "Do you want to come through and I'll see if I can make her better?"

"Yes please."

Abby got up and the two girls follwed, Aby lead them into exam 3 picking up two charts on her way in. She lifted both of the girls up onto the gurney they weighed practically nothing, and all she could feel were their bones.

"Okay well to start with I'm going to need to know your names."

The youngest girl looked up at Abby then back to her sister, who was shaking her head.

"It's okay I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."

Both girls just sat there staring back and forth from Abby then to each other.

"Okay well I'll leave you two to think about it, I just have to pop out for something but i'll be right back, so just stay here. You'll be safe."

Abby put the two charts down on the gurney and made her way over to admit, sighing she rested her hands on her hips. "Frank have you seen Wendall about anywhere today?"

"Yeah she was around here earlier, but she said something about being rushed off her feet, so if you wanna add to that you can tell her yourself."

"Okay well if you see her again, could you ask her to see me when she has time?"

"Will do."

"Thanks." Abby replied making her way back over to exam 3. Upon opening the door, she knew that the girls had been talking as the silence that greeted her was deafening. She smiled at them as she took a seat next to the gurney picking up the charts and resting them on her lap.

"I'm Opal and thats my little sister Ruby." The eldest suddenly blurted out.

Abby smiled. "I'm Abby. They're very pretty names you two have there." She said writing them down. "Now is it only a fever you have there Ruby or is there anything else aswell?"

"Well she has a fever and a really bad cough. She has asthma but this time it seems worse." Opal said. "She doesn't talk to strangers."

"Thats very wise. Okay I need to listen to your chest with my stethescope okay, so i'm just going to place it on your chest." Abby slowly advanced towards Ruby with her stethescope, her little heart was pounding so fast all Abby could hear was drumming in her ears. She moved the stethescope around to her back. "Okay Ruby I need to you to take a big deep breath in...and out...and in...and out." Abby paused for a second. "You were right to bring her in here, she has whats known as bronchitis, its not serious, its kind of like a chest infection, so I'm going to give her some cough syrup and a bronchodilator, which is just like her inhaler for her asthma. So she just needs to keep warm and drink lots and lots of water and she'll be better in no time."

Opal gave Abby a half smile, Abby could tell that there was something that she wasn't telling her. Well she knew what it was but she didn't want to just blurt it out and scare them. She was working on building their trust.

"Do you have any other clothes that you can change in to?" Abby asked looking over to the two filthy bags that they had brought in with them.

"Yeah, yeah we have some at home." Opal replied quickly. "We had better get going now though, because my Mom will be wondering where we are. Won't she Ruby, she gets really mad if we stay out to long." Opal jumped down from the gurney and helped her little sister too.

"Well we need to see your Mom, we can't give you the meds without her consent. How old are you?" Abby asked.

"I'm 11 and she's 9. But you can't see our Mom you see. Cuz, cuz she works a lot. And when she's not working shes sleeping. She works loads to look after us."

Abby took in a deep breath. "Well if you just give me a number then I can call her and ask. Okay?"

"555 438-9865"

Abby scribbled the number down on her hand. "Okay wait there just a sec and i'll be right back." Abby left the girls alone and went over to admit.

She dialled the number on the phone.

"Hello." A voice answered.

"Hi, I'm looking for Opal and Ruby's Mom. This is Doctor Abby Lockhart from County General ER." Abby said kicking herself after she realized she hadn't asked for their last names.

"Uh, I think you have the wrong number." The woman on the other end replied slightly confused.

"This is 555 438-9865 isn't it?" Abby said reading off of her hand.

"Yeah this is that number but I have no idea who you are looking for. I'm terribly sorry."

"Okay I'm sorry for troubling you ma'am." Abby hung up the phone. Abby knew then that when she was to go back into that room both girls would be gone.