"What happened here?" the doctor touched the bruise on the side of my mouth. It was now dark green instead of purple.
"Oh, I, uh-" I stared down at my hands and felt my face get red, "My, uh, when I told my parents, they were...unhappy, and my—my step-father, he-"
"It's all right," the nurse stepped forward and put her hand on my arm, "We see that a lot."
"Does your step-father do that often?" Dr. Smith asked.
"Uh, no, I mean, well, he—slaps me sometimes-" I felt tears come to my eyes.
"We'll get you an appointment with the counselor," the nurse said.
"Counselor?" I took the tissue she handed me.
"Yes, it's helpful to talk about your family situation with a licensed counselor," Dr. Smith said smoothly.
"Well, I don't- I don't have a family situation any more, they, uh, my step-father kicked me out."
"It's still good to talk to someone," the nurse smiled at me, "Are you ready to have some blood drawn?"
She led me over to a chair and pulled a tray in front of me. "I need you to make a fist," she said, tying a piece of rubber tubing to my arm.
I turned my head away and closed my eyes so I didn't see what she was doing.
I had cried myself to sleep last night after Sister Mary Margaret had shown me a couple of rooms- the kitchen, the Great Room, and a couple of classrooms. I had a room-mate, but she was asleep in her bed when I was shown into the room.
After I had a medical exam in the morning, I was taken to an office-like room and had to talk to a woman who introduced herself as Mrs. Brown, the director of education. I took a written test to figure out where I was academically, and that took a couple of hours. She took me to the cafeteria after that, and I ate by myself. Another woman came over to me while I was finishing, and she told me her name was Miss Sharp. She was young and bubbly. She told me that she was one of the 'house mothers' who dealt with keeping things running. She took me on another tour, and then we sat down and she explained how they did things here.
Once they got my academic scores back, I'd be placed in a class. I'd attend class every weekday, and then have chores at the end of the day. We were expected to do chores on the weekend, and attend church, but we'd have some free time. They also had individual and group therapy for people who needed it, and different support groups for things like if you wanted to give your baby up for adoption. And every week you'd get a checkup. We had to be weighed and have our vitals checked every day, and record what we were eating too. They also offered classes for things like cooking and sewing and gardening on the weekends.
By the time dinner was over, I was exhausted, and my head was swimming with all the information I'd been told. I went straight to bed afterwards, and as I fell asleep, I realized that I hadn't even had time to think about Dean or wonder what he was doing.
~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn~ ~
I sat down in the small booth, dialed the phone number and listened to it ring.
"Hello?"
"Dean?" I asked, uncertain if it was him.
"Yeah? Who's this?" he asked suspiciously.
"It—it's me, Jane," I said.
"Oh! Jane! What's—how are you?" his voice changed from suspicious to happy, and in my mind's eye I could see him smiling.
"I—I-" I started to cry just then, realizing how lonely I'd felt this past week, and how I'd longed to hear a familiar voice.
"Aww, what's wrong, baby?" he sounded concerned.
"I just—I miss, you know, ev—everything, it's so dif-different," I tried to explain how I felt, "and I- m-mis you."
"Aww, geez...well, I, uh, I—I can see how you'd be feelin' that way," he said.
I felt a little disappointed, I'd been hoping he'd say that he missed me too.
"What have you been doing?" I asked, clearing my throat.
"Uh, we're, uh, staying at my Uncle Bobby's place for a few."
"Where is that?"
"Uh, it's uh, South Dakota," I heard rustling on his end of the line, "What's it like there?"
"They keep us busy," I said, "I have classes every day, and we have chores, and there are things to do on the weekends too. And I have to see a doctor every week. I get to make a phone call every Friday, they have a little phone booth for privacy."
"Oh...how are you feelin'?"
"I still get nauseous sometimes. They gave me some medicine to help with that." I looked out the window, there was a girl standing next to the booth now.
"That's good."
We were both quiet for a long moment, then I said, "Oh, I—I saw the baby!"
"You what? How?" Dean was shocked.
"They did an ultrasound, you know?"
"Oh. What'd it, what'd it look like?"
I laughed. "Tiny. I'm almost 8 weeks. They said the baby's the size of a kidney bean!"
Dean chuckled. "A kidney bean, huh? Wow, that's..." he trailed off.
"Dean?" I wanted to tell him how it had felt when I had seen the black and white image on the screen, knowing that that was my baby—our baby- growing inside of me. How I suddenly felt like I wanted to have this baby and keep it and raise it, how I wanted him with me.
"Yeah?"
"I—I wish—I wish you could be here with me," I felt embarrassed for some reason.
"Well, I don't think I'd fit in there very well, with a bunch of pregnant girls," he joked.
"No, I mean, I wish—that we were, you know, together," I swallowed, feeling tears come to my eyes. I wanted to feel the same closeness that I'd felt when we were together in the back of his car.
"Oh. Well..."
A banging on the door of the booth startled me. I looked out the window again. The girl stood there with her arms crossed, and she pointed at her wrist.
"Dean, I have to go, other people need to use the phone."
"Oh, okay."
"Well...it was good to hear you."
"Yeah," he cleared his throat, "You too."
"Take care, Dean."
"Yeah, you, uh, you too."
"Bye."
He hung up. I placed the receiver in the cradle and stood up, wiping my eyes.
~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~
Two weeks later, I had settled in. My room-mate, Lori, was a quiet girl who was hugely pregnant. She was going to give her baby up for adoption and then go back to her family. She didn't really have any friends or talk much to anyone, and trying to get anything out of her was like pulling teeth, so I didn't interact with her very much.
My teacher, Miss Rachel, had taken me under her wing. She was impressed with my academic scores and chatted with me almost every day after class. Most of the girls who were in my class were nice, and helpful when I had questions.
There were a few different nurses on rotation, who took our vitals every day, and I had become close with one who was an older woman. Nurse Margie was a grandmother 8 times over and a great-grandmother three times over and she loved babies. She was very encouraging to all the girls who lived in the home. She worked about every third day and sometimes did the night shift.
I placed my arm on the desk and Nurse Margie wrapped the blood pressure cuff around it, and slid the end of the stethoscope under the cuff.
"You going to call that boy of yours this Friday?" she asked as she inflated the cuff.
"Yeah...I just hope he'll talk to me," I waited quietly as she took the reading and then removed the cuff and looped the stethoscope around her neck.
I had confided in her about Dean, that he and I had dated, and I was feeling like I had feelings for him but I didn't know if it was just because I missed home, or I really felt something for him. She had told me that that was a common thing that happened when girls were separated from their families.
The last time I had talked to Dean, he had seemed distracted and like he didn't really want to talk to me. I was afraid that he was losing interest in me.
"I'm sure he will. Any teen-age boy has a lot on his mind, and he's got more going on than the average, probably worrying about you," she picked up a pen and wrote some numbers on my chart.
"You think so?" I asked hopefully.
"Yes. He'll talk to you, and everything will work out, you'll see,"she smiled at me, "Your BP looks great, temp is normal, and you've gained a few ounces. Everything looks good, sweetie," she patted my hand.
"Thanks, Margie," I stood up and picked up my backpack to go to class.
When I went to my room after dinner, it looked different. I couldn't figure out why at first, and then I realized it was because my room-mate's side of the room was empty. The framed photos of Lori's family were not on her nightstand, and the basket of barrettes and hair elastics was not on her dresser.
I walked out to the desk at the end of the hallway, near the Great Room, where a staff member hung out in the evenings. There was a woman sitting behind the desk that I'd never seen before.
"Hi, um, my room-mate, her stuff is gone from the room. Do you know what happened?" I asked hesitantly.
She was looking through a large three-ring binder, and she raised her head and looked at me. I felt a momentary shock. She was very pale, her skin was porcelain white, and her eyes were a very pale blue. The fact that she had very dark hair and was wearing dark red lipstick accentuated her paleness. "Who are you referring to?" she asked, and her voice seemed cold.
"Um, Lori Haverty, in room 208."
She continued to look at me. "She went into labor," she said, and lowered her head again to continue reading.
"Oh," I said, and the woman ignored me.
I walked over into the Great Room, which was like a living room and meeting area. There were a couple of sofas and a t.v. on one side, and on the other was a set of chairs in a circle, for meetings, and then towards the back was a ping-pong table and another table where people could sit and play cards or put together jigsaw puzzles.
I went over to where there were a couple of girls watching tv. "Hey, did any of you hear about Lori?"
Jasmine glanced up at me. "No, what?"
"That she went into labor?"
"No, when?" Alicia sat forward, her face curious.
"I don't know, her side of the room is empty, and that new nurse at the desk said she went into labor, but that's all she told me."
"Oh. Huh."
"None of you have heard anything?"
"Nope," there were head shakes all around.
I walked back to my room, frowning. A girl had gone into labor about 10 days ago, and apparently when that happened, everyone got excited. The news spread through the building quickly, with everyone talking about it and speculating on the details, but this time it was quiet. No one seemed to have heard anything about Lori. It seemed odd.
I got a towel and went to take a shower, and then joined the other girls in the Great Room afterwards. Tomorrow was Friday, and I'd be able to call Dean in the evening.
The t.v. was turned off at 9 PM, and we all had to go to our rooms for Quiet Time. The girls who took medication in the evenings lined up at the desk.
As I walked to my room, the woman from before stopped me. "You're Jane Lewis?" she asked.
"Uh, yes," I said. I stopped, thinking she was going to say something else to me.
She looked at me, and then nodded, and turned away to go back to the desk.
I had trouble falling asleep that night, I'd gotten used to sleeping with someone else in the room, feeling their presence and hearing their breathing. I resolved to ask Nurse Margie if she'd heard anything, if she was on duty tomorrow.
My head was hurting, like something was pressing on my brain. I rolled over in bed, and winced as my head began to pound and my stomach did a slow flip. I opened my eyes and then shut them quickly- it was bright in the room. I wasn't in my room, it was different, more sterile. I could smell an antiseptic smell like a doctor's office. I didn't know what was happening or where I was. I tried to sit up, and a wave of dizziness washed over me. What was happening?
I don't know how long I laid there. I heard the squeak of door hinges, and footsteps, and opened my eyes the tiniest bit.
A woman wearing nurse's whites stood next to the bed with a small rolling cart next to her. "Oh, you're awake," she said, "time to take your vitals."
"Wh—what happened, where am I?" I asked hoarsely.
She lifted my wrist and circled it with her fingers, taking my pulse. Her hand was dry and cool.
"You don't remember? You got very sick after breakfast, and we brought you to the medical wing. There's a nasty flu going around, and we don't want any of the other girls catching it."
"No, I don't remember," I said, "My head really hurts, it's awful. Can I have something for it?"
"Do you get headaches often?" she questioned, as she lowered my hand back to the bed. She picked up a thermometer and stuck it in my ear. After a moment it beeped, and she glanced at it.
"Do I have a fever?" I asked, "Aren't fevers bad for an unborn baby?" I tried to sit up a little bit and winced again as my head throbbed. "Please, my head- it's really bad! I've never had a headache like this before! It feels like there's pressure inside, and it's pounding, and everything makes it worse-moving, and the light in the room-"
"Could be a migraine...you said you've never gotten one before?"
"No," I sank back into the pillow.
"I'll see what I can get for you. Let's check your blood pressure now," she placed the cuff around my arm and put the stethoscope in her ears.
"Where's Nurse Margie?" I asked, "is she on today?"
She didn't answer me, just took my blood pressure and then removed the cuff. The sound of the velcro ripping made my head hurt.
"Close your eyes, and rest. I'll be back with some medication," She turned on her heel and left the room.
I could hear talking in the hallway outside my door. I sat up slightly, my head spinning again. The nurse had given me some medication, and it had helped with the headache, but I still felt dizzy and out of it. My eyes still felt sensitive to light and I felt like my head was full of cotton balls.
I sat up slowly, and stood up, taking slow steps towards the door. I grabbed the doorjamb and opened the door. Two nurse stood in the hallway chatting, and they looked at me.
"What are you doing out of bed?" one of them asked.
"What day is it?" I rasped, "Can I- I need to call my—my friend, please-"
"Come on, back to bed," the second nurse said, "you don't need to be making any phone calls right now, you're sick."
"But- I'm not running a fever, I call him every Friday—please-"
"No, you need to be in bed and resting," she said firmly, walking me back to the room.
~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~
I laid in bed, listening to the nurse's footsteps walking away. Then I propped myself up on my elbow and spit the pills out into my palm. I stuffed them into the pillowcase, and then laid back down to wait.
Something strange was going on. The nurses in the medical wing would rarely answer my questions about anything, and I didn't recognize any of them. They kept telling me I had to rest because I was sick, and there was a flu going around, but there was no-one else here with me. There hadn't been any talk about a flu going around before I got sick, either. They wouldn't let me get out of bed, or have any visitors when I asked, or even call Dean. They gave me medication but wouldn't give me a direct answer about what it was. I had noticed that I would start to feel woozy after I took it, and I would sleep heavily for several hours, so I had resolved to fake taking it tonight so that I could possibly sneak out and talk to one of the other girls, or try and call Dean.
I had meant to stay awake, but I ended up falling asleep. I woke up when I heard the door hinges squeak. My room was dark, and there were two figures standing in the doorway, partially blocking the light from the hall.
"I can't believe our good fortune," one of them said.
"Yes...we'll be moving her soon," said the other voice quietly.
"Who would have thought that Winchester blood would just fall into our lap?" the first voice sounded like it was gloating.
"It should fetch a good price," the second voice said.
"I don't care about the market, I want some for myself!"
"Don't let him hear you say that, he won't like that you're thinking that way," the second voice warned.
"I know, the selfish bastard wants it all," the first voice snapped.
"Shh...let's leave her."
I heard the door gently click closed, and the room became completely dark. My mind was whirling. What did they mean? Were they talking about selling blood? Why did the one person say they wanted some for themselves?
And then I felt a shock, as it hit me- one of them had said, "Winchester blood". That wasn't me...they were talking about my baby! My baby would have Winchester blood in its veins. I began to feel scared. Who were these people?
And then I realized something else. They had said they were going to move me. Where were they going to take me? What would happen to me? Oh God, I had to call Dean, and tell him what I had overheard.