Chapter Ten

Note: I just watched Toy Story 3 again.

"Now remember what we talked about. Wake daddy at least once, twice if you can," Drew said, kissing baby Chase before he headed off for his shift on the emergency room.

Rick chuckled. "Oh, shut up. Behave yourself tonight."

Drew kissed him and passed over Chase.

"What fun would that be? It's a full-moon Saturday night.'

"Yes, you usually spend more cash trying to get Kenny or Molly to give you the craziest patient then what you win."

"Yeah, but he knows this week it's for the kids," Drew grinned.

Maddy stayed in the bubble bath until her fingertips wrinkled, her purple T-rex doubling as a "sea monster" to make her sailboats crash.

"C'mon, you're going to became a raisin if you got out of there," Rick said holding a towel.

Maddy looked her hands.

"I'm not purple," she said.

"No but you're getting wrinklier by the minute. Give me your dinosaur first, we can't leave him to drown."

"Daddy!" Maddy giggled.

New pajamas and a bowl of cheetos was enough to get Maddy out of the bathtub. Chase was asleep but would be awake for another feeding at ten.

There was no fun bets at the ER tonight.

Two siblings one a preschooler and the other infant came in with fever and vomiting. The older child had severed a seizure in a waiting room, his temperature was one hundred and one degrees. Drew suspected and spinal taps had confirmed both had meningitis. The parents explained they didn't believe in vaccinations.

Or the treatment Drew and TC were administering. They wanted the children discharged to treat them with herbs and prayer. Legally it was a slippery slop for the hospital but Topher was able to obtain an emergency order to treat the children despite the parents' objections. The older child, a boy was showing signs of brain damage. He'd likely been ill for several days. His younger sister was also dehydrated and malnourished, likely from being unable to keep food in her stomach. This enabled CPS to get involved, allowing the hospital to do further treatment after the emergency treatment order expired. Later that night it was learned the couple had had a teenage daughter who had died four years ago at home from "mysterious circumstances."

Both as a dad and as a doctor, Drew thought vaccinations should be mandatory. The "what if's" were dwarfed by the benefits. So far Texas hadn't agreed, citing parental rights and religious beliefs. Don't get either him or Rick started on this. When it came to a child's health—and very life, those should be "out the window." Like in cases like this, where the deadly illness was preventable.

Maddy was up-to-date on her shots. Her next set in September, before school. But she didn't know this yet. Chase didn't have his first round until next month.

Near the end of the night the father of the kids came back to the hospital after being escorted from the building. He had tried to attack a nurse tending to the youngest child. Kenny intervened before the man could do anything. Neither was allowed to see the kids since CPS became involved hours prior.

Both parents had been arrested.

"Ya all right, man?" Drew asked "I saw him take a swing at you."

"He didn't make contact," Kenny replied.

Kenny's girlfriend Gwen had asked him the same thing.

"You got reflexes, even if you don't have the fists."

"Very funny. How's the kids?"

"Great. Chase looks like me more every day."

"Poor, poor boy," Kenny said shaking his head.