A New Reality
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine.
Chapter 4: Crisis
Zach started a little when the ringing of his cell phone pulled him out of his contemplation of his latest case, echoing off the walls of the otherwise-deserted bullpen. He glanced at the screen just long enough to note that the number was unfamiliar before pressing the button to answer it. "Nichols."
"Zach?"
The number might not have been familiar, but the voice was. "Andrea?" It had been a few weeks since the Grand Jury had handed down a nearly unanimous indictment of Vincent Thomas, and judging by the number of motions flying around, it was likely to be several months before they got to trial. He hadn't spoken to the girl since he'd given her the news that her testimony would most likely be needed again, and he couldn't imagine why she was calling him now. "Is something wrong?"
"You said I could call you if I got in any trouble," she replied, and he was instantly concerned at how weak she sounded. "I don't know if this counts, but -"
"Tell me," he urged gently.
"Something's wrong with me," she said finally.
"Wrong how?"
"I - I don't know," she stammered out. "I thought I was just sick, but I've never felt like this."
"You're sick?" He couldn't explain why that idea worried and upset him so much - but then, when it came to dealing with Andrea, he was getting used to feelings he didn't expect. "Where are your foster parents?"
"Out, somewhere, I don't know."
"They left you home alone while you're sick." That shouldn't have surprised him, he figured.
"I told Mrs. Barker I didn't feel good, but she told me it was probably just gas or something and to stop whining so much. Only - I don't think it is." There was that hesitance again, that reluctance to contradict authority.
"What are you feeling?" Zach knew he was no doctor, but he'd grown up with two MDs in the house and medical texts on the shelves - and the kitchen table - and he thought that if he could get Andrea to describe her symptoms, he might at least be able to get a fix on whether or not it was serious.
"It's my stomach. It hurts really bad. I've had stomachaches before, but they didn't hurt this much."
"Have you been throwing up?"
"Uh huh," she replied weakly.
"And you've been sick for how long?"
"Since, um, since Thursday at about lunchtime."
"It's Saturday night." He spoke the obvious statement out loud without really being aware of it. "You've been sick for more than two days?"
"Yes."
"And it hasn't gotten any better?"
"No. It's been getting worse the whole time."
"Andrea, this is important. Tell me exactly what happened each day."
"Okay. Um, on Thursday, my stomach started hurting. But my foster parents get mad if they have to come pick me up, so I didn't tell anyone. Even when I had to throw up, I just asked to go to the bathroom." Zach just barely bit back the curse on his lips as she continued. "I went home after school and just went to sleep. Friday I woke up feeling really cold, only the thermometer by the window said it wasn't that cold out. And my tummy was sort of puffy and it hurt if I touched it too hard."
"And today?" Zach prompted gently, feeling sick himself as he began mentally matching the symptoms with a likely cause.
"I woke up feeling like yesterday, but then it started hurting even more. Zach," she admitted in a whisper, "I'm scared."
"I know." He did know. He could hear it in her voice. "But it's going to be okay. I'm going to be there in a few minutes." Already, he was haphazardly piling up his paperwork with the hand he wasn't using to hold the phone. "I need you to do something for me, okay?"
"Okay."
"Go to the front door and unlock it. All the locks, so I can open it from the outside without a key."
He heard shuffling footsteps and a few clicks, and then Andrea's voice came back on the line. "Okay, I unlocked them."
"Good. Now go lie down and rest. I'll be there as soon as I can. It's going to be okay."
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Zach parked haphazardly in the Barkers' driveway, not even bothering to take down the flashing red light that had allowed him to speed the otherwise unmarked car through the streets of New York. He sprinted up the front steps and threw the door open. "Andrea?" he called out, his voice echoing in the large entryway. "Andrea?"
"Zach?" a weak voice called back.
He immediately ran towards the source of the voice, which turned out to be a tiny room off the dining room. Andrea lay on a bare mattress on the floor, shivering under a single, thin blanket. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a wooden chest that he thought might have been older than he was.
He dropped to his knees on the floor beside her, pressing a gentle hand to her forehead. She was burning hot to the touch. "Andrea?" he said softly. "Andrea, I'm here now. It's going to be okay."
Her eyes fluttered open. "You came."
"Of course I did. I told you I would, didn't I?" He couldn't help but wonder how many people had broken promises to her in her short life, to make such a young child so skeptical of a promise.
"Are you going to make me better?" she asked.
Tears pricked at his eyes at the hope in her voice. "Oh, Andrea, sweetheart, I would if I could. But you're very sick, you need a doctor, and I'm not one." He gently pushed her sweat-dampened hair back from her face. "I'm going to take you to a hospital, okay?"
"Okay." She pushed back the blanket and started to stand.
It was immediately clear to the detective how much she was struggling to stand. He quickly jumped to his feet and gathered the child up in his arms. She wrapped her own arms trustingly around his neck as he hurried out of the house, not even bothering to shut the door behind him. He placed her in the back seat and buckled her in before racing around to the driver's seat and drove away from the house just as quickly as he'd driven up to it.
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The worry in Zach's eyes almost stopped Serena in her tracks. She knew him well enough to know that he usually cared far more than he let on, but this level of concern, a level almost bordering on fear, was something she'd never seen from him before.
"How is she?" she asked as soon as she was close enough to be heard without shouting.
"In surgery," he replied. "They said she should be okay."
"Surgery? What the hell happened?"
"Ruptured appendix." An emergency room doctor had almost immediately confirmed Zach's suspicions about the girl's condition. "Probably happened about twelve hours ago."
"My God." Serena shook her head in disbelief. "She must've been showing symptoms days ago. How did no one notice?"
"This one's squarely on the foster parents." Zach quickly filled her in on what Andrea had told him about keeping her illness a secret to avoid the Barkers' wrath and being rebuffed when she'd tried to complain.
"My God," she said again. "I know we suspected some form of neglect, but for once, I was really hoping I was wrong."
"Yeah. So was I."
"They're mad as hell, by the way," Serena informed him. "They came home and their front door was wide open. Local precinct was just taking the report when I showed up off your call."
"You, uh, you explained?"
"Yeah. The cops backed off, the Barkers didn't. They're threatening to file a complaint against you."
"Let them," Zach replied dismissively. "They'll have to explain why they left a sick eight-year-old home alone."
"They'll have to explain that anyway," Serena assured him. "After you called me, I called Captain Hannah - I figured it was better he hear it from me than from someone calling in a complaint, and I knew the Barkers probably would. In any case, he's mad as hell too - and not at you, for once." This elicited a small smile from her partner. "He already left a message with ACS and he's, uh, strongly suggested we track down Andrea's caseworker first thing Monday morning."
"So this is our case?" Zach asked hopefully.
"Technically, it's no one's case at the moment," Serena corrected. "The Captain isn't sure if this is a case of criminal conduct - if it starts to look that way, we'll probably have to turn it over to SVU. For the moment, we're ensuring the safety of one of our witnesses."
"What do you mean, if?" Zach asked incredulously. "Andrea could have died because they were too self-absorbed to care."
"I'm on your side, Zach," she replied evenly. "But we both know it doesn't always work that way. Good news, though, is that the threshold to remove a child from a home, especially a foster home, is much lower than the standard for criminal behavior. There's a very good chance that we'll be able to get Andrea removed from the Barkers' custody permanently for this mess. If we push it, we might be able to get their foster license revoked too."
Zach nodded slowly. "I still don't get why they'd go so far out of their way to have one. It's so clear they don't care."
"Add it to the list of questions we need to investigate," she replied softly.
He glanced over at her. "Look, Serena, there's nothing we can do here tonight, and it sounds like the situation at the Barkers' is under control for the moment. I know you'd rather be with your daughter than standing in a hospital hallway."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. Go home. I'll call you when there's news."
"You're going to stay?"
He shrugged. "I don't have anywhere to be." It was the only reason he could put into words. He couldn't explain that other feeling, the one that compelled him to remain by the child's side, and he was grateful that his partner didn't press for details.
I know this doesn't seem like much given how long it's taken me, but this chapter was very difficult to get right.
Please review.
