St. Ambrose Hospital
2:10PM

Charlotte turned around and sighed heavily as she headed towards the little girl's hospital room. She slowly opened the door and saw the small child curled up completely under the covers. She was still a little wary around children, even if she thought she was ready for one of her own.

She approached the bed slowly and though children still freaked her out, she was human after all, so the muffled sobs coming from under the white sheet, made her shiver, made her eyes tear up just a little, not enough for anyone to really notice the emotion, and figure out that Charlotte King was near tears, listening to this little girl cry, hearing her soft screams, seeing her outline shaking under the sheet. She sighed and quietly walked to the bed. She gently rested her hand on the child's foot.

The little girl jerked her foot away.

Charlotte sighed, leaving her hand on the mattress, "Hey, now…" She smiled when the little girl slowly uncovered her face and nervously glanced around the room. Charlotte sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the little girl's frightful expression.

"I'm Dr. King, and I bet you have a really pretty name. Can you tell me what it is?"

The little girl shook a little, clinging to the thin white blanket.

Charlotte nodded, letting out a soft, frustrated sigh when she got nothing. "Dr. Freedman told me you were hungry. How about we go to the cafeteria and find you somethin' to eat?"

She paused, watching the little girl's blue-grey-sometimes-brownish-green eyes look around the room, settling on Charlotte's nail polish. Charlotte smiled. "Has anyone ever painted your nails before?"

The little girl shook her head, keeping her eyes trained on Charlotte's red nails. "I have some nail polish in my office. I could paint your nails if you'd like. I'm pretty good."

The little girl looked at her, a little scared.

"I promise I don't bite." She held out her hand. "Let's get you a snack. I can hear your stomach rumblin' from here."

All she got in response was a nod. The little girl took Charlotte's hand, gripping it with her tiny hand, and with Charlotte's help, she got off the bed. She glanced up at her, quickly shifting her gaze somewhere else.

"I think Dr. Freedman went to check on your daddy."

The little girl took her hand away and shifted her weight, her feet shuffling on the tile floor.

Charlotte sighed and smoothed down the little girl's blonde hair. "Snack first, though." She smiled and the little girl took back Charlotte's hand. They walked out of the room, hand in hand.

Charlotte glanced down at the still nameless girl as they walked to the cafeteria. Nurses turned their heads when they passed, doctors quit their conversations, because to an outsider, it looked like the girl was Charlotte's—blonde hair, hazel eyes that changed depending on the light, though her facial structure was different. Charlotte just sighed, again. The kid's cheeks were red and tear stained and there were still a few spots of dried blood along her hairline from where Cooper had stitched her up.

The girl just walked beside her, her feet dragging along the tiled hallway, her hand gripping Charlotte's tight.

They finally reached the cafeteria, which was bustling with people, a lot of them were probably family members and friends from the accident. Charlotte looked down at the girl, "What can I get you?"

The child just shrugged her shoulders.

Mac and cheese and apple juice it is then. Charlotte thought to herself. When they finally got to the front of the line, Charlotte realized she hadn't eaten lunch yet and was starving, so she took this as an opportunity to get a bite to eat, since she had no idea how late she would be at the hospital.

Once she finally got the little girl settled with her food, she started to eat. She glanced around the cafeteria, hoping none of the doctors from the practice saw her there with a girl who looked to be about four. She smiled at the girl, who was sipping the juice box and picked up her fork again to take another bite of the pasta.

"I would really like it if you told me your name, so that way when your daddy gets out of surgery, we can tell him you're okay." Charlotte explains.

The little girl's hand trembled and she dropped the fork.

"I can keep a secret. What's your name?"

"I… I'm Zoe," she shyly replies.

Charlotte tried to hide the fact that her eyes widened when the girl said what her name was. She might have even spit out some of her salad, choking a little. She took a sip from her water bottle and looked at the small child, her brain working overtime. Cooper was supposed to meet his friend and his kid who he hadn't seen since she was a baby. She shook the thought from her head. There were tons of kids with the name of Zoe in California, right? There was no way this one could be Cooper's friend's daughter. She smiled, "I knew you had a pretty name. How old are you?"

The little girl held up four fingers on her good hand.

Charlotte kept smiling. She still thought the kid looked as scared as a cat in a dog pound, like she'd told Cooper earlier. At least the kid was eating. She had to be doing something right.

"Dr. Freedman told me about your dog. Do you have any other pets?" Charlotte asked, trying to get the kid to talk.

The little girl shook her head, "Just Buster. He's really big."

"What color is he?" Charlotte asked, trying to keep the girl's mind off of what was really going on.

"Yellow, and he has a blue collar, with white polka dots, and a bone that says his name," the girl told her.

Charlotte smiled and giggled a little as the girl described her dog. She had to get back to the serious stuff soon, or else they wouldn't be able to figure out who the girl really was. "Ya know what, I think the doctors are almost done with your daddy's stitches. There's a room we can go to that has some toys and a TV you can watch while we wait on him."

Zoe shuddered at the mention of her father. "Dr.—Dr. Freedman isn't gonna be there, is he?"

"No. He's tryin' to find out what the heck is goin' on with your daddy."

Zoe shuddered again.

Charlotte gave the girl a reassuring smile.

The little blonde eventually nodded and tried to help Charlotte clear off the table by grabbing her half eaten bowl of pasta.

Charlotte realized that the broken fingers were on her right hand, which must have been the one she used all the time because she was struggling to hold onto the Styrofoam bowl.

Before they could make it all the way to the trash can, which really wasn't that far away, Charlotte looked down to see orange pasta on the floor and little feet scampering out of the cafeteria.

Charlotte quickly picked up the bowl, leaving the pasta for the nearby custodian. She threw away the rest of the things and ran out of the cafeteria. The last thing she wanted was a four year old loose in her hospital. She could hear Cooper now. 'You wanted to have a baby and I gave you one thing to do and you go and lose the kid.' She let out a breath—she could find the kid before Cooper even found out. She had a long night ahead of her, so she wasn't in the mood to be yelled at by Cooper.

Charlotte stopped walking and turned her head to a nurse who was chatting with a patient nearby the door where Zoe ran out of. "You saw a girl run out these doors, right?"

The nurse turned her focus to Charlotte. "Little blonde girl?"

"Yes. Did you see her? You must have."

The nurse nodded. "I did, Dr. King."

"Well, tell me where she went. I didn't ask for my health."

"She went that way, Dr. King." The nurse pointed to the right.

"Thank you." She nodded towards the patient and walked in the direction the nurse had mentioned. Charlotte noticed a blonde curl turn a corner and she quickly followed the young girl.

When Charlotte got to the hallway, there were a few empty gurneys lined up. She started looking underneath them and as she inched along down the hall, she saw Zoe huddled up as close to the wall as humanly possible. Charlotte sighed, and kneeled down, "Zoe, it's okay."

The little girl picked her head up from her knees and fresh tears were falling, staining her cheeks.

"You're not in trouble. It's all cleaned up." She gave Zoe a smile, sitting next to her. "It's quiet here."

Zoe nodded.

"But we can't sit here forever." She paused. "I promised you I'd paint your nails, so let's go to my office and you can pick out the color you want."

"What colors do you have?"

"Red, deep purple, and light pink. You look like you'd be a light pink kinda gal. Am I right?"

Zoe nodded.

Charlotte smiled and got out from under the gurney.

Zoe slowly emerged and pushed herself up. She slid her hand around Charlotte's and looked up at her.

Charlotte gave Zoe's hand a gently squeeze and they walked down the hallway towards the elevator.

Charlotte was sitting on a chair in the OR waiting room with Zoe's legs outstretched onto hers. The bottle of light pink polish was resting on the armrest as she painted the little girl's toenails.

Zoe was distracted, watching the Disney princess movie one of the nurses had put on for a few of the other children in the room—Cinderella, old school VHS. She hadn't gotten around to updating some of the rooms yet. VCRs or DVD players wasn't high on her list of priorities.

Charlotte motioned for a nurse. "Can you drag that box of toys over here?"

The nurse nodded and few minutes later, she appeared at Charlotte's side, the box of toys by her feet. "Here, Dr. King."

"Thank you—you can get back to work now," she said, momentarily stopping the nail painting to dig through the box of toys. She smiled at the plastic horses, but ultimately grabbed a stuffed dog.

Zoe accepted the animal from her and smiled, "He looks like Buster."

"I thought he did too, that's why I picked him." Charlotte smiled, finishing up Zoe's right pinky toenail. She blew on the wet polish and finished with a coat of clear polish, fanning her hand over the finished product. "Now, Zoe, be careful. Your toes are wet, so don't go smudgin' them or bangin' them into anythin'."

Zoe nodded, hugging the dog and watching the movie.

Charlotte carefully lifted Zoe's legs and pushed a short distance away. She lowered Zoe's legs and moved the chair back to its original spot. She sank back into it and focused her attention to the small screen, which was now showing dancing mice and birds. She noticed Zoe seemed to relax once they got a few minutes into the movie, but her little heart hadn't settled down from the incident in the cafeteria. Her phone beeped with a text from Cooper asking if she was in the OR waiting room. She replied, confirming her location. A few minutes later, she smiled when her husband came into the room.

Cooper smiled when he noticed the little girl, clutching the dog with her eyes trained on the TV, and her little toes painted.

Charlotte quietly got up, walking behind the chairs, so Zoe wouldn't notice her moving. "How's the dad doin'?" She asked him.

"Not so good. The laceration on his abdomen was deeper than they thought and his brain keeps bleeding." Cooper said, glancing over at the little girl.

Charlotte sighed, "Have they contacted family?"

"Can't find any. He's not married—at least he's not wearing a ring. His picture is circulating, but there haven't been any hits yet."

"Well, the little girl's gotta go somewhere, Coop. She can't stay here and watch Disney movies all day," Charlotte said.

"I know." He paused before asking, "Did she tell you her name? That may help identify her father."

"Took a lot of teeth pullin', but she did. It's Zoe, and she's four years old. She told me a lot more about that dog too." Charlotte said, not wanting to devolve the little tidbit of information about her losing track of the girl for a short period of time. She glanced at Cooper, who was staring at the little girl, his eyes glazed over and his face as white as Charlotte's lab coat.

A/N: thanks to my reviewers, and my awesome cowriter/beta reader! There's still more Char/Coop drama to come. Follow me on twitter: gleeroxmysocks, and tumblr, emren10.