Fina stared at the boy, glared was probably a better term. Her posture was stiff, every muscle in her six year-old body coiled like a spring, ready to convert potential to kinetic energy and do some serious damage. Behind her stood Caleb Carter, the newest addition to their first grade class. His hair was longer than a typical New York boy's, hitting his shoulder with a slightly feminine outward flip. He wore glasses that constantly slid down on his nose and a slight allergy problem kept his sinuses a little blocked, lending a nasal twinge to his high voice. To Vinnie Posetti these were all invitations to tease Caleb, not that Vinnie really ever needed an invitation to tease anyone. Before today it had been verbal, taunting, making jokes, but Vinnie had just crossed a line with Caleb. Dangling from his pudgy hand was Caleb's treasured journal. Vinnie had read excerpts aloud to the gathering crowd and was now standing above a mud puddle.
"Give it back, Vinnie," Fina growled.
"What are you going to do about it, Angelface?" Vinnie asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" she spat back at him. It was a phrase she had picked up from her father and uncle, and it did the job of intimidating quite well. But Vinnie would not be dissuaded. Instead, he tossed the journal, luckily clear of the mud, and swung at Fina. She easily blocked the blow. Caleb scurried to rescue the journal, but the crowd wouldn't let him. Vinnie swung again and was blocked again. Micah pushed his way to the front row of spectators. Fina and Vinnie circled, and Micah saw her strategy. She bent down to pick up the journal which was now at her feet. What she didn't see was Vinnie's foot headed in her direction. It connected with a sting of pain. When the foot pulled back to strike again, Micah jumped in the way. While he recovered, Fina saw red. she surged forward and delivered a few well placed hits to Vinnie's legs, causing him to fall, hard, but not before pulling her on top of him. Her chin connected with his mouth, knocking loose his front two teeth, which had only just come in. By this time they'd attracted the attention of the recess monitors, who hurried over to break them up. The three aides each took ahold of one child. Micah and Fina calmed and went compliantly, and Vinnie was too hurt to really fight much.
Vinnie was rushed straight to the nurses office, and Fina was handed a bunch of tissues to stem the bleeding of her chin. They sat and waited while the principal made phone calls. Fina's chin continued to drip blood, so a towel was brought from the nurses office along with an ice pack. She still hadn't shed a tear, something she'd picked up from her older brother. He still had stiches from a simliar chin injury he'd sustained falling up the front stairs of their house.
--
Danny was in his office working on paperwork and trying not to worry about his wife, stuck at home with their twin toddlers, who both currently had ear infections, and their year-old daughter who was getting into everything these days. He got a page from Adam and pushed back his chair, heading for the lab. He met up with Stella on his way. Adam was in the middle of explaining just exactly where he'd pulled the trace from when Danny's phone rang.
"Messer," he said.
"Mr. Messer, this is Therese Regent, I'm your daughter Serafina's principal. I need you to come down immediately."
"What happened?" he asked, "Is Fina okay?" At the mention of her goddaughter, Stella's head shot up.
"Physically she seems alright, though she does have a small laceration on her chin. But she's in trouble Mr. Messer and I need you to come down and meet with me right away."
"I'll be right there," he said. He hung up the phone.
"Is she alright?" Stella asked.
"Sounds like she split open her chin, but-" Danny began, but stopped when Stella's phone rang. She had a very similar conversation before turning back to Danny.
"Do you want to carpool? It'll save gas."
--
Danny entered the school and headed straight for the nurses office, expecting to find Fina on the cot. Instead he was directed toward the office, where his daughter sat, a towel wrapped icepack against her chin. He knelt down in front of her.
"Lemme see, Angel Girl," he cooed, gently coaxing the ice pack away. He had the distinct impression he should be taking crime scene photos of the chin, as the only other place he'd seen a laceration that deep was on victims.
"You always have to one-up your big brother, doncha?" Danny teased, guiding the ice pack back into place. Just then, a tall African American woman entered the room.
"Mr. Messer, Mrs. Flack, if you would please step into my office. Micah and Serafina should come as well." Her voice was strict and no-nonsense. Danny looked down at his daughter in amazement, it seemed like she'd been able to get into more trouble in her first six years than he had in all his first six grades. Mrs. Regent motioned for the two dectectives to take a seat.
"Your children were involved on a fight this morning at recess. It resulted in another child nearly loosing his two front teeth. I will have to suspend your children for the rest of this week." Danny and Stella stared at the principal, then at their children and then at each other. Micah was furious.
"HE started it!" the boy yelled, "He stole Caleb's journal and read it out loud to everybody. and then he was gonna throw it in the mud but-"
"Micah James Flack," Stella said firmly, "That is not an excuse. Let's go get your things."
"Do you mind getting Fina's stuff too, Stel?" Danny asked, "We have to go get this chin stitched up."
"Sure, Danny."
--
"Doug, you've got a chin lac in suture," a nurse said, handing over the chart. "Crime Lab detective brought her in."
Doug Ross walked into the suture room and was surprised to see the Detective cradling the little girl.
"Detective... Messer, isn't it?" he asked.
"Yes, good memory, but you can call me Danny." Doug leaned down to look the little girl in the eye.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Fina," she said, trying hard not to move her chin, which was set in a hard line.
"Well, Fina, lets take a look at that chin of yours, shall we?" he asked. He helped her lie down on the bed and genlty removed the towel she was holding to her face. The depth of the lacerations concerned him, as did the fact that there were two distinct marks.
"Well, now, Miss Fina," he said as he used sterile saline to clean the wounds, "You are being really really brave about this." He felt her flinch as he injected the novacaine. Her grip on Danny's hand tightened as Doug stitched, but not a single tear escaped her big blue eyes. When Doug finished, he told her to stay there for a couple seconds while he talked to Danny. The Detective placed a kiss on her forehead and followed Doug into the hall.
"How did she get that lac?" he asked.
"In a fight at school, aparently, she and a friend knocked another kid's front teeth out. That's not like her at all, not her style," the last part was said more to himself than to Doug.
"I think she took them out with her chin," the doctor commented, "There are actually two distinct wounds on your daughter's chin, about the size of average teeth. And I don't think I have to tell you that those things are deep." Danny nodded. Maybe the other kid wasn't so innocent after all. He thanked Doug and then collected Fina. But as he helped her down from the bed with a hand on each side of her, she flinched, grabbing at her left side.
"Angel Girl, what's wrong?" Danny said, gently lifting her shirt. A great big bruise was already darkening at the base of her ribcage. Doug held back a gasp and knelt to examine her side.
"Let's get an X-ray just in case," he said, handing Danny a note for the radiation department.
--
As Danny paced the Radiation waiting room, his phone rang. Seeing the caller id he wanted to kick himself.
"Hey Montana," he said quickly, "Fina's with me." Lindsay's sigh of relief was instantaneous.
"Thank Heavens," she said, "Gio just got home and he's worried sick. Is she alright? Why is she with you?"
"The school called me. She got herself in a bit of a scuffle and scraped her chin. I'm having a friend look her over, just in case. She also got herself suspended for this little stunt."
"Suspended?" Lindsay exclaimed, "Danny, she's in first grade!"
"Yeah I know," Danny sighed.
"Let me talk to her," Lindsay said, catching Danny off guard.
"Uh, well, see, the thing is-" just then, Fina and the Radiologist came walking down the hall. Danny handed the phone to his daughter then turned to the technician, who motioned him over to a light board. She placed and x-ray film on the board and indicated to Danny where there was a hairline fracture on one of Fina's ribs. Danny reached down and lifted his little girl gently in his arms, suddenly scared. He pressed a kiss into her dark curls before following the technician to a curtained area.
Thirty minutes, a wrap bandage and pain killer perscription later, the pair were back in the car on their way home.
"Daddy," Fina said, breaking the silence, "Micah shouldn't be in trouble."
"What do you mean?" Danny asked, finally calm enough to hear her side of the story.
"All he did was get kicked so I wouldn't," she said, "He protected his family, just like you and Mommy and Auntie Stella and Uncle Flack are always tellng us to do."
"What did you do?" Danny asked.
"I just wanted him to give Caleb's journal back," she started, "So I asked nicely, then when he said no, I kinda acted like I was gonna hit him, but I wasn't really, honest. He threw the journal on the ground and I tried to pick it up, but he kicked me."
"Angel, where did he kick you?" Danny asked, already sure of the answer.
"Where I cracked my rib," she said, "He was gonna do it again, but Micah got in the way. I was really mad, so I kicked behind his knees, like I do with Gio, to make him fall down. But he grabbed me and I hit my chin."
"Who was this kid?" Danny asked.
"The meanest bully in school, Vinnie Posetti," she said, "He teases everybody." Danny remembered numerous times that Fina had come home crying because Vinnie Posetti said something nasty to her or one of her friends.
"You know, you were very brave today, and I believe you when you say that you didn't want this to get violent, but when you threaten someone, even if you aren't really going to hurt them, things get out of hand. Next time, you need to tell a teacher what's happening. That's why they have recess monitors at your school, kay?" he asked.
"Okay," she agreed.
"Now that we've got that lesson learned," Danny said, would you like a milkshake for being such a brave girl?"
