My heart rate quickened. That complete asshole was putting his daughter in a cage during a dogfight!?

"That's my kid you're talking to." Growled a male voice that made my blood go cold.

I spun around and faced the man. He was bald except for a disgusting scruffy beard, a greasy white cut-off t-shirt, and ragged jeans. Nothing about him said that this was a father to a little girl. Everything about him screamed, 'criminal!'. And the way he looked at Emma... it was like she was a burden, like her getting mauled by a dog was such a damn inconvenience to him.

I fought to keep my voice calm as he walked towards Emma's bed. "Sir, you're going to need to come with me. Your daughter was badly injured_"

The man sneered as I moved closer to the bed. "I don't care. She's fixed now, they found her, picked her up, and now I'm here to take her home. Let's go, you four-year-old brat."

Before I could stop him, he grabbed Emma and turned to run. She screamed in pain as the IV was ripped out of her good arm and her idiot father jostled her recently reattached left arm.

"CALL SECURITY!" I yelled to no one in particular as I sprinted after him. Just as he was reaching the stairs, a fist shot out of nowhere and clocked him in the side of the throat. He dropped Emma and grabbed his throat as a second punch nailed him in the side of the head, instantly knocking him out cold. Just before he would have landed on Emma, I snatched her up, careful of her bad arm, but still I held her as tightly as I could. She buried her face in my shoulder and started crying.

"Hey, pretty girl, it's okay. You're okay. Everything is going to be okay," I tried to sooth her, but my voice was cracking with the stress.

"Are you alright?" I just noticed- someone had their hand on my back.

I looked up to see James- he was the one who had punched out Emma's dad- and then realized two security guys snapping handcuffs on Emma's dad's limp form. "Yeah, but I need to get her back into bed."

"Do you need anything?" James asked as we walked back towards her room. "She's probably hungry, she can't have eaten anything all day, and breakfast is still about seven hours away for her. Besides, hospital food stinks. I think she could use some ice cream." I felt Emma's head shift and look at James warily. "Do you want some ice cream?" James asked as he leaned down so Emma was looking down at him, not the other way around. I felt her nod. "Okay then, pretty little girl, I'll go find Dr. Robbins and tell her what happened, and that you were such a good girl and to see if you can have some ice cream, okay? Do you want chocolate?" She shook her head. "Strawberry?" Nothing, and then she nodded. James smiled. "Strawberry is my favorite too. I'll be back soon, okay?"

She turned her face back into my shoulder. I smiled at James and mouthed, 'Thank you'. He grinned and nodded back.

I took Emma back to her room, gave her a new IV, which she didn't like but didn't cry, either. After reattaching her heart monitor, I gave her a smile. "Okay, Emma, I need to look at your arm and head, okay? I want to make sure it's still as awesome as the rest of you." She nodded. I was starting to get a little worried that she wasn't talking.

I had paged Dr. Torres and Dr. Shepherd to make sure her father's brutal handling of her hadn't messed anything up, but from what I saw, everything was okay. Both of them and Dr. Robbins burst in just as I finished reapplying bandages. They all checked her over, declared her completely fine, and were trying to get her to talk just as James came back with a cup of coffee and strawberry ice cream.

"Dr. Eckerton brought you some ice cream!" said Dr. Robbins with a huge smile that Emma hesitantly returned. "Do you think we could take Dr. Tate and talk to her outside for a few minutes while you eat it? Dr. Eckerton will be right here the whole time," said, her smiling starting to fade a little as Emma began to shake her head.

"Hey hey hey, It's okay Emma," I said quickly. "Dr. Eckerton is awesome, almost as awesome as you. And I'll be right outside, you can see me through the window! That'll be okay, right?"

After a second of thinking about it, she nodded. James gave her the ice cream, and I followed the three attendings outside.

"What the hell happened, Tate?" Demanded Torres.

I took a deep breath. "I was talking to her, trying to get her to open up. I found out her name, it's Emma. Her mom died of a heart problem, her dad told her it was because Emma was 'such a bad girl, her mom's heart stopped'," I said, barely able to keep the anger out of my voice. "She was talking about how she hurt her arm when he came in. Apparently, she was being a 'referee' in a freaking dog fight." I spit out the last two words. Shepherd, Torres, and Robbins all looked at me with horror in their eyes. "That was when he came in, informed me I was talking to his daughter, said he didn't care she was hurt, and he was taking her home. Her IV was ripped out_"

"I'm going to go check it, hang on," interjected Dr. Robbins quickly. I watched as she rolled into Emma's room on her Heelys and examined the IV site. She wasn't long at all, and she rolled back out, looking impressed. "Was that the first time you started an IV on a tiny human?" she asked. I nodded, feeling slightly scared. "That was a great IV. Beginners luck maybe, but great work. I'm sorry, continue."

"Her IV and heart monitor became detached, and he ran with her towards the stairs. James punched him in the throat, causing him to drop Emma. James punched him again to knock him out, and then I picked up Emma. I told a nurse to page you guys, security came, I calmed Emma down, and took her back to her room, reattached the heart monitor, started an IV, checked her shoulder and head for bleeding, and now you're here."

They all looked at me. "Holy crap, that's probably the first time an intern didn't panic, followed hospital protocol to a key, and made the right decisions," said Dr. Torres. "Good job." Dr. Shepherd echoed the sentiments and then the two of them left.

Dr. Robbins took a deep breath. "Thank you, so much, for everything tonight. Just remember not to get too attached, okay? Child services will be down in the morning. Emma isn't out of the woods yet, so you're going to stay here tonight. Monitor her." She took another deep breath and continued, "Emma has multiple signs of child abuse. On her scans, she had badly healed fractures only a few months old and old bruising on her body. This poor girl is your patient now, all right? She's your responsibility. If she codes, if she dies, it's on you. So you make sure you're paying attention," she snapped. I was surprised, what indication did I give that I wasn't going to pay attention? But I guess she was used to dealing with stupid interns. "Tomorrow, I want you on my service, and I'm really going to test your medical skills," she said adamantly. "Good night, Dr. Tate."

I entered Emma's room, where she and James were talking animatedly about candy. I had to smile. Emma was telling James how Ring Pops were the 'best ever'. With a laugh, I told her, "Emma, if you're a good girl, tomorrow after dinner I'll bring you one. How's that?"

She nodded and smiled sleepily, her half-eaten ice cream abandoned on the side table.

James handed me the Styrofoam coffee cup. "Here, I brought you this. The rest of us are crashing. Adam and Raegen passed out on some gurneys in a storage area. It's a cappuccino, sorry, I didn't know what type you liked."

"A cappuccino is fine, thanks," I smiled and dropped my voice to a whisper. "Thanks for punching out Emma's dad."

"Anytime," he said. "If you need anything, food or whatever, just send me a text. I'm guessing you're staying in her room tonight."

"You guessed right. Here, give me your phone." I put my number in it and text myself. "There you go. Go get some sleep, you look like you're about to pass out."

"It is nearly two in the morning," he said tiredly.

"Oh, dang, wow. I'm going to try to get Emma to sleep. See you tomorrow."

I turned back toward Emma. I could tell she was sleeping, but she was fighting it. "Dr. Tate?" she asked. "Is my daddy going to come back and take me away?"

My heart broke at the fear in her voice. No one should be afraid of their parents. "You're safe here," I told her earnestly. "No one can hurt you in this hospital, okay?" I started to stroke her soft blonde hair a little bit. It seemed to calm her down.

"Okay," she mumbled, and finally the fatigue and painkillers pulled her under. I couldn't even attempt to keep the sad look off of my face now. That poor kid. To be so young, and to be so hurt and mistrusting... I was going to make sure this kid went to a stellar foster family.

I woke up a few hours later to the sound of whimpering. It took me a few seconds to realize where I was, but once I did, I jumped up from the arm chair and ran to Emma's bedside. I realized she was having a nightmare. Gently, I shook her awake. The first thing she did while awake was scream.

"Shhh, it's okay, it's just a bad dream, you're here, you're safe." I grabbed her hand, but she pulled it away from me and started crying.

"I don't want to go back to sleep," she sobbed. "I hurt everywhere. My daddy's going to hurt me more because I'm a bad girl. I don't want to go to sleep. I don't want to be awake. Why doesn't God love me?"

"It's okay. I'm right here," I promised as I hit the call button. I didn't try to touch her again; she was too worked up now. I wasn't really the religious type, but I knew that if there was a God out there, he loved this little girl. "Emma, God loves you so much. That's why he sent you to this hospital, where Dr. Robbins, Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Torres and I are going to make you feel a lot better," I said just as Emma's night nurse ran into the room.

"Dr. Tate, what do you need, what's wrong?"

"Emma had a nightmare and is in pain right now, is there anything...?"

"Of course, right away."

A few minutes later, the nurse returned with a syringe filled with a sedative, and I pushed it into the IV.

Emma fought sleep for a few minutes, but soon, the painkillers won. I stroked the hair out of her face.

"You're different from the other surgeons," the nurse said.

"Probably because I'm an intern," I said. "I'm not actually a surgeon yet."

"You helped Dr. Torres, Robbins, and Shepherd operate on this beautiful little girl today. You're a surgeon. But most interns are blood thirsty. You aren't. Also, you're polite to nurses. That's a good difference."

"Maybe I'm not cut out for a surgeon, then, if I'm so different." I closed my eyes. I was so tired. It was almost five in the morning.

"Dr. Tate... It's a good difference."

"Call me Ally, please."

"My name is Kim Chase. You're going to be a good doctor. You'll see." she clapped me on the back and left.

The next morning went by fairly quickly. Emma woke up, ate some breakfast, and was contentedly watching cartoons before I left. I rounded on Dr. Robbins' patients; after Kim had left, I had gotten their charts and memorized the while making sure Emma slept soundly. There were four patients that I would be helping Dr. Robbins with over the next few days. They were her short term patients; apparently, Dr. Robbins only wanted me around long enough until Emma was discharged into foster care. That was fine by me; PEDs was interesting and intense.

The patients that I were assisting with was Ross, a twelve year old boy with appendicitis; he would need an appendectomy. Paige, a thirteen-year-old with a shattered femur. Hailey, an infant with a chiari malformation, and Riley, an eight-year-old who needed her tonsils out.

I ran blood cultures, tissue samples, and basically did scut for Dr. Robbins all morning, but it was different than I thought it would be. Instead of being meaningless, boring grunt work like it was supposed to be, I knew it was helping my patients. The tiny humans.

After rounds and scut work, Dr. Robbins seemed pleased with me. "You are really something else for an intern, you know that? You act more like a second-year resident."

"I've spent a lot of time in hospitals, Dr. Robbins. I kinda learned how to do a bunch of procedures as a kid. Sister had Leukemia," I explained quickly. "She died when she was sixteen. I don't want to get into it."

"Understandable. But since you've done such a phenomenal job so far, how would you feel like doing your first solo surgery?"

My head snapped up. "What?"

She laughed. "Ross needs an appendectomy, you've done an incredible job so far. You can have your intern friend scrub in with you. You and Eckerton saved Emma from being abused more than she was. I don't doubt her father would have killed her, had he gotten Emma off hospital grounds. Congratulations, Dr. Tate." She smiled and wheeled off on her Heelys. I ran to find James.

I found him, surprisingly, with Emma. He had two wrapped sandwiches, a six-pack of Cokes, and a bag of chips. Emma was eating her lunch of mac n cheese, a fruit cup, carrots, and a sherbert cup. She and James were watching Scooby-Doo.

"Hey, Emma, how're we feeling?"

She turned to me and smiled. "Great! Me and Dr. James are watching Scooby-Dooby-Doo! Dr. James is eating lunch with me, but not exactly 'cause he wanted to wait for you."

James blushed a deep red. "I knew that you'd probably spend your lunch hour in here, and passing out wouldn't impress Robbins, so I brought you some food."

"Hey, thanks," I said earnestly. "I really need to start paying you for this."

James shook his head. "No, that's fine_"

"'Cause it's a date, right, Dr. James?" asked Emma with a huge grin. Man, that kid knew exactly how uncomfortable she was making the two of us feel.

"Dr. James? And It's not a date, because I am going to pay him, Emma_"

"Eckerton is kind of hard for her to say. And no, really, it's on me_"

"With a surgery." I grinned at James.

James stared at me. "What?"

"Robbins is giving me a solo surgery appendectomy. She said I can have you scrub in with me!"

"Oh my god, I love you!"

James and I stared at each other. Emma stared at the TV, laughing as Scooby stole Shaggy's sandwich. "Um..." He started to stutter.

I grinned. "How about we have a celebratory drink together, if the surgery goes off without a hitch?"

"Hey, I want in on a drink and a surgery!" I turned and laughed as Adam and Raegen walked into the room, holding a bunch of balloons and a few sandwiches. "How're you feeling, Emma?"

"Good, you got me balloons?" Shrieked Emma happily.

Raegen, Adam, James, and I ate lunch with Emma and laughed at Scooby-Doo with her. We only had about fifteen minutes though, because Adam and Raegen were paged to the clinic and James and I had to prep for surgery.

We hit the books in the library hard. I knew how to do the surgery already, we had studied common procedures in med school, and this one was pretty easy, but I wanted to make sure I performed it flawlessly. James looked up the possible complications and how to fix them while I brushed up on the finer points and practiced stitches on a banana. By the time 15:00 (or 3:00 PM) rolled around, we were ready, standing in the OR, with the patient between us.

We were ready.