Hey! So, I've watched a little bit more of my ER season fifteen DVD and this idea just sorta sprung up. Simon has had to deal with his fair share of sick children, and he took it with a grain of salt. But, when it's his own kid, he has to work harder to do the right thing.
I don't own ER, Alphas, or any characters here. I'm just merely borrowing them to keep myself sane since my shows keep getting dropped.
A Moment Like This
Skylar Adams-Brenner absolutely hated hospitals. She needed to keep herself and her daughter hidden from anyone that might bring harm to them if word got out about them being Alphas—a superhuman that could be used for all of the wrong reasons, if the government ever got a hold of them. Skylar had run away from home when she was ten for that very reason. For years, she stayed away from hospitals and just people in general. Her alpha ability was that she could create anything from scratch, even complex things like medical tools. Little did she know that, later on, she would be inventing new implants for the human body to live on. When she was younger, however, she was getting by in life with these inventions. She would visit junkyards and pick up scraps that she could use in the future. The ten-year-old spent six years on her own, and then she met Simon.
Sky had long, greasy brunette hair when she and her future husband met. He took her under his wing and helped her clean up, all while trying to figure out why a sixteen-year-old girl was running around unattended. The two of them bonded immediately. For Skylar, Simon wasn't just some hunky teenage boy to look at. He was the only one to take care of her, and to show affection towards her. It took some getting used to, but she finally did fall in love with him, just as he had with her. They started sleeping together and, shortly afterwards, she got pregnant with their daughter. He even brought her back to Australia with him, where they talked about marriage and raising a family together. But then Simon ruined it all and told her to stay away before she or their baby got hurt.
Now their baby was being tucked into a hospital bed. She was admitted for rheumatic fever a few minutes ago, and Skylar could barely even breathe anymore. The elder alpha watched her husband as he hooked their daughter up to an EKG.
"How long is she going to be in here for, Sy?" Skylar asked, her voice thick and dry. She had her arms crossed over her chest. This mother despised hospitals, even if her husband was a surgeon himself.
"It's too soon to tell, baby. We're going to get her started on an antibiotic. Right now, the fever is in its very early stages. But she won't get any better if we don't keep her here for a little while, okay?" Simon told his wife, looking over at her from where he kneeled by his daughter's side. He had seen the other doctors being torn up over having to deal with their loved ones being in the ER, but he never knew that it would be so damn hard! Not to mention the fact that his wife was trying not to fall apart for both of their sakes. Brenner knew that that meant that she wasn't going to eat, or sleep. God forbid she ended up in a bed next to their daughter on the count of her passing out over this.
"But… if she only needs an antibiotic, then why is she being kept in bed? Simon, we can keep her home from school and on bed rest there. Not," Skylar glanced around the room, "not here."
"Just an overnight evaluation," the Australian doctor began, leaving their sleeping daughter's side long enough to bring his wife over to the bed. "I want to make sure that she won't have any complications arise with her heart. It's weak already, Sky. Remember how premature she was?"
"And even then, I refused to get medical attention. She's fine, Simon," his wife's voice dropped to a whisper, "we're different than normal humans. We heal faster; much faster than you think."
Simon sighed and wrapped his arms around Skylar. "Do you know what I would do if something ever happened to the either of you?" He gave her a gentle kiss and then glanced down at their daughter. "Please, I promise that this hospital is safe. I'll bury her chart deep once she's dispatched. No one is going to come get her."
The brunette mother whimpered as her husband folded a lock of brown hair behind her ear and gave her another kiss. "I'm sorry. You—you know what I've been through, Sy."
"That was because I wasn't there. Well, guess what? I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere," Simon told her, sliding a chair over. He took a seat and guided his wife into his lap. "I love you, Sky."
Skylar gave him a tiny smile, tossing her shoulder-length brown hair over her shoulder. She still missed her choppy haircut, but she was trying to convince herself that mothers didn't have their hair cut like that, or have tattoos. All of her tattoos that she had done over the years were hidden to the normal human eye. She could bring them back if she wanted to. Still, though, she changed her appearance for her daughter. The elder alpha would do anything for Zoe. "Yeah, I love you too," she murmured, still sporting that tiny smile that drove her husband wild.
Zoe woke up to see her parents staring back at each other. They were smiling, something that made her smile just the same. The seven-year-old rubbed her tiny eyes frowning at the IV sticking into her vein. And, just like any other child would do, she just stunk her tongue out at it.
Skylar was the first to notice their daughter stirring. She was up in half a second and at Zoe's bed. "Didge, how are you feeling?"
"I'm okay. My chest just hurts, mommy. It hurts to breathe," Zoe whined to her mother, reaching out for her hand. "Why does it hurt? Daddy's gonna make it stop, right?"
The brunette's eyes began to well up with tears. "Of course your daddy is going to make it stop," she swallowed her pride and kept going, "daddy always makes everything better."
Simon smiled sadly at his daughter as he came around to the other side of the bed. "It's just the inflammation that's making your chest hurt. 'member what dad told ya about inflammation, li'l joey?"
"Mmm. That it was swelling to protect whatever it was that was infected. Right daddy?" Zoe began, sounding proud that she remembered all of that.
"Right! There's me girl," the doctor ruffled his daughter's hair, much to her annoyance. "We're just keeping you here overnight so that we know your heart is going to respond well to the medicine that we're gonna give you, okay?"
Skylar watched her husband and their seven-year-old carefully. Simon loved Z and would do whatever he could for her. The elder alpha couldn't express how happy that that made her.
"Now, I think some princesses need to get back to sleep. You can't get better if you're not resting. Mum and me are going down to the café to get a bite to eat. We'll have a plate for you when you wake up," Simon bent his head to kiss his daughter's warm forehead. "If you need anything, like you're starting to feel worse, use this," he added, pointing to a switch on the table next to her bed.
Zoe nodded and blew her mom a kiss. Skylar, in turn, just smiled and gave her a kiss on her cheek. "Come back soon, 'kay mommy?"
"Don't worry. We won't be gone for more than twenty minutes," the brunette mother let her husband take her by the hand and lead her out of the room. Only then, they could the take deep breaths that they really need to take.
o—o—o
Skylar and Simon went down to the cafeteria to build up on much needed carbs and energy. The mother had always been skin and bones, especially when she and her daughter were out on their own for so many years. When Brenner met his wife, she suffered from anemia and malnutrition. And when he met her again six years later, she didn't look like she gained a pound since then. (Of course, he knew better. She had their daughter and that put weight on her bones, even though it was only temporary.) Skylar had taken care of Zoe, and Zoe only. If there was only one bed available at the halfway house they were staying at, Skylar would gladly take the floor. This was especially the case with food. One crumb of food left? It would go to her daughter in a heartbeat.
"Sky, you've gotta eat something, darling," Simon began as he slid his wife's chair in for her.
"You know that I don't eat when I'm stressed out," the mother drawled, tired brown eyes meeting blue.
"Yes, and I also know that you don't eat at all, unless all three of us are sitting down as a family. Skylar," her husband gave her a shy smile and reached across the table to take her hand in his own, "eat something for me, please? Or at least for Zoe? You know she hates it when you don't eat."
Skylar cracked a cocky smile, one that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I'm just worried about her. What if—what if someone finds out that she's healing too fast, and they have a higher-up look into it? They'd take my baby away from me, Simon!"
Simon squeezed his wife's hand and brought it up to his lips. "You're thinking into this too much. No one at this hospital will raise an eyebrow if a child—or anyone, for that matter—recovers quicker than anticipated. We've lost far too many in the past to care."
The brunette mother fiddled with the cap to her water bottle, refusing to make eye contact with her husband. "How long do you think she'll be in the hospital, really?"
"Well, if she continues to respond so well to the penicillin, it shouldn't be more than a few days. We'll take her home and keep her on bed rest. She'll only have to come back if the inflammation causes cardiac or respiratory issues."
"She's a fighter, Simon. I know she is," Skylar began, finally picking at the sandwich she had picked for her dinner.
"I know," Simon let go of her hand after giving it another gentle squeeze. "Still, not only as her father, but as a doctor as well, I just can't send her home without making sure that there won't be any complications. You know as well as I do how weak that little girl's heart is."
The elder alpha nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. She went to respond, but several on-call doctors came rushing towards the couple with nothing but panic in their eyes. Neither parent had a good feeling about this.
"What's up?" Brenner asked once. Before he got an answer, however, he was on his feet and whisking his wife away, not even bothering to pick up their half-eaten food. It felt like it took forever to get to their daughter's room. Skylar could only think the worst and Simon didn't even know what to think. When they came up to the hallway, Brenner could hear the spiking EKG. But they had only been gone for all of five minutes!
Skylar took in a sharp gasp as she saw her baby's chest being pulled up and down by the defibrillator. The other doctors and nurses that surrounded her were all talking at a fast clip; the mother couldn't even keep up with them, even if they weren't speaking in medical lingo.
"Again!" Sam snapped towards an intern, who quickly turned the machine up a notch more.
Simon squeezed himself in between the other doctors and shooed Sam out of the way. He grabbed the paddles and pressed them against his daughter's chest, refusing the urge to wince as the electric shock traveled to her heart again, seizing her body upright once more.
"Doctor Brenner—what are you doing?" Dubenko asked, sending him a wary look.
"I'm saving me kid, what does it look like?" Simon retorted, glancing back down at his daughter again, murmuring something under his breath as the defibrillator charged for its next shock. His wife was watching him with wide brown eyes. She leaned against the wall to keep herself upright. The brunette mother yelped as her husband shoved the paddles away from him and began chest compressions. This was not looking good.
Maybe this was some bad dream. Skylar would wake up to the fresh smell of coffee and blueberry pancakes. She would hear her daughter giggling at her favorite cartoons. And she would be able to kiss her husband good morning and not have to worry about a thing in the world.
The ER staff all felt their hearts drop to the floor when the EKG started beeping properly again. Simon leant over his daughter as he tried to regain his proper breathing. Zoe started to stir; her eyes grew wide, telling Simon that he needed to get the crowd away from her.
"Thanks, everyone, for the help. I just… I think Zoe here needs some more rest," Brenner began for everyone to hear. They began to file out, all except for Sam, who was gauging the family carefully.
"Is there anything that I can do?" the nurse asked, smiling down at the little girl that was reaching for her father.
"No, Sam, we're just going to spend some more time with her until she falls back asleep," Simon brushed the light brown hair out of his daughter's face and motioned for his wife to come over towards the bed. Sam just nodded and left the room as Brenner wrapped an arm around Skylar and kissed her temple. She seemed to have relaxed some from the moment her husband laid eyes on her.
o—o—o
Zoe Adams-Brenner was in the hospital for a few more days after going into cardiac arrest. Her mother never left her side, and her father surely didn't for very long. She usually had visitors, whether it was from nurse Sam or her daddy's friend Morris. Heck, even Banfield came in to check on the seven-year-old every once in a while.
When the Brenners could finally fill out those dispatch forms, they never felt so relieved. To think that they could have lost their daughter a few days ago was just far too much to bear. But, thankfully, her fever wasn't as high, and her heart rate was slowing down once again. It was a blessing, really. Neither parent had been very religious, but they swore that they would start attending every Sunday that they could. This wasn't just luck that kept their very sick daughter from dying of a heart attack. Simon knew he had a long way to go to get God on his side again, but it was worth it. As long as his girls were safe.
Skylar eventually got the courage to tell her husband that she was pregnant again. She expected him to grow quiet, not really knowing what to say. But when he gave her a big ol' grin and scooped her up into his arms, it was quite a huge surprise. Perhaps seven years really could make a difference of how someone took news like that. Of course, the mother of two wasn't going to complain any. Especially since she got extra attention after Zoe started convalescing.
And that's where I'll end that. Ya'll know what to do!