Chapter 25- "Clarify"

"You have to sleep."

"No I don't."

"I think so."

"So?"

"So, I am a doctor."

"And I'm not tired."

"You look it."

Caleb just shakes his head. "Then you're a terrible doctor, sir."

His body leaned against a desk, hands thrust deep into his pants pocket- he did not even pause to look up at the one of many doctors who had entered the room. His gaze was transfixed on Keera, laying unconscious behind the one way looking glass. As other doctors busied themselves in looking at her test and other medical information for the morning, that one came and stood beside Caleb.

"I am the best doctor of my expertise." He remarks, his arms crossing over his chest in a relaxed pose- as he too looked up at Keera.

Despite Caleb's claim, his exhaustion was obvious. From the purple bruise like etches under his eyes to the his twitching agitated leg. "What exactly would that be?"

"Obstetricians."

Caleb for the second let his eyes lift to the man- they were hazy. "A.. what?"

"I specialize in the medicine concerning pregnancies, labor, and that of an infants first few weeks." He clarifies- staring wistfully at Keera. And Caleb stared at him, his tired mind took minutes to process this and all he managed to mutter next was..

"You're a man?"

The doctor laughs at this, that is not the first time he has received that comment.

"Yes, yes I am a man. I'm fifty-nine, and you won't find any doctor who knows more then me."

Caleb's eyes wondered over this mans kind face, his laugh lines- the startling grayish blue of his eyes. His peppery starch white hair. Then he murmurs. "Well then what do you know of tired people? I'm not tired."

The man chuckles deeper- and Caleb turns away, staring at Keera.

"Can you tell me about her?" Caleb whispers, below the doctors mutterings. "I know what they are saying- but I just don't understand it. All those big words, I'm smart.. but I'm no doctor. I talked to these two men, her main doctors- and Peeta's- they were called a Neurologist and Physiologist..." A almost painfully confused expression crossed in Caleb's face, as he turned to the man. "I have no idea what they are telling me."

The man purses his lips. Then sighs. "I'm the baby's doctor."

"But you have to know about Keera!" Caleb whispers desperation. "You have to know the mothers health before the child's... they are l-like one. That's what I've been told."

Caleb continues to stare at the man- then flicker his eyes every so often to Keera. But the doctor refuses to look at him.

"You don't want to tell me.."

There was enough horror into his slurring voice, that it cracked too- his form sagged against the table, and his hands that had curled into fist released. "She's dying isn't she.."

"No."

"Then what! Is the baby dying?"

"Not at the moment."

Caleb let out a sound of intense frustration. Three days without sleep does that to people.

"Will she just never remember? Is that it?" There is no reply. "Why won't you tell me what you guys collected?" He brings up that night just after the one where she had a seizure- four days ago. That one night he had not spent in her presence. They learned something, they questioned her, they gathered piles of notes.

After a breath taking moment, finally the doctor managed to say. "Some doctors fear... permanent damage- to her brain. From that episode. The brain was starved of oxygen for longer then what you saw. She had multiple more after you left..."

"But you don't think so." Caleb hisses, he still knows people- and there is disbelief in this mans eyes.

"She's as smart as any of us." Is his reply.

"Then what do you fear?"

"For the baby."

Caleb bit his cheek- an internal war- but his love, his passion over took it in a leap. "Keera health comes before the baby."

The doctor finally looks at Caleb, in the eyes, his face grave and serious for once. "Don't you start thinking like that. They are equal."

"Yet both can go on living, even if one dies- so when things come down to it.. Keera lives before the-"

"Now you hold on just one minute." Snapped the doctor. Scolding Caleb, who glared back. "You are going to choose her over this child, that is a product of both of you? Have you stopped to think- that maybe Keera can't go on living after loosing it? How do you know how attached to it she is? Do you know how many woman I have saved over a baby- and they end up killing themselves after wards, a depression they can't bear."

"Keera would neve-"

"Her mother died giving birth to her, Mr. Clarke. Did you know that? Her father committed suicide, only a while after- Keera's medical history, leaves her prone to bad labor and impending depression. What I fear is that one wrong move, and she will be lost to us. I fear the end of her pregnancy."

Caleb is silenced for a moment, but the doctor continued on, in a softer tone.

"The child and Keera are perfectly healthy- everything is in working condition. Just not Keera's memory. We don't know what causes the seizures, we think it is a possible brain hemorrhage. But scans show clear. She cries out with head aches... and the drugs do nothing to dual them." His voice turns thoughtful. "We've been discussing it, and the pain must be imaginary."

"How's that possible?"

"The human body is made to live, Mr. Clarke. It is instinctively self preservative. It does not die as easily as we seem to think. There are a series of stages, steps, and brain functions that lead up to it."

Caleb sighs, lifting his hand and running it through his hair. "I'm not understanding. Or following."

"What I'm saying is, her mind may be blocking off her memories from herself. She is not hijacked like Peeta. But her brain suffered trauma before the Capitol took her, then we believe her heart failed- it had to. The damage shows so, and her mind was deprived of even more oxygen, so was the baby.. they have been through a lot. Plus all those surgeries the Capitol must of conducted! None of those doctors even considering the baby.." The doctors voice ended in a fretful way.

Then Caleb whispers. "Why would her mind keep her from the memories?"

"I've no idea." He barks in reply. "But maybe you are lucky.. if she hadn't of forgotten- she would probably as drugged up as Peeta right now."

"She isn't." Caleb says. And then the doctor digs through his papers, until he locates something he must a share.

"We had a meeting earlier. Some want to do a surgery, I disallowed this- with her baby? I don't want to risk it. But I also there was a call to have her and Peeta together, a group thing. I don't like it. But I may be overruled. I've done tests on the baby..."

"What?" Caleb asks, almost fearfully. Truthfully he is reluctant to know anything of it. His decision to choose Keera over it would wan the more he knew, the more he cared for it.

"Maybe you would want to know what she knows first... hmm?"

Caleb glances at the man. He had glasses on now, as he peered down at the scrawl Caleb couldn't even dream of reading himself. He doesn't reply to the man, but the doctor begins reading anyway.

"Appears to with drawl, at mention of anything not Capitol related. Takes unkindly to every drug we have used. Morphine especially. Rejects food- but caves under the pressure of harming her baby. Signs of intense migraines..."

"But what does she know, sir?" Caleb interrupts.

The gray eyes flash up, then back down, his thick bushy eyebrows furrow. "She believes, that she is a devoted Capitol victor. She believes herself a general, a rebel hater, and that Snow is a generous man. She claims that we are only trying to trick her. While she shows signs of understanding at times, at the facts we mention or ask. She... believes herself married and in love with a Peacekeeper, Ashton. As well as that the baby is his."

Caleb grimaced. "Gale told me.."

"It is true. The boy is gone and we have no hope in having him help us recover whatever damage he may have helped inflict." Then he quickly murmurs, in a calm tone. "The baby is in fact yours, Mr. Clarke. To insure all honesty of the matter."

Caleb does not even have the energy to get angry at the implying statement. "Is there any hope?"

"I think so." The doctor says. "Do you want to know about your child? I know little, but it is all I have to offer to you."

Caleb is silent- for a long time, and it seems like he had chosen to ignore the mans question as his eyes were only for Keera. But slowly- he shakes his head, stands tall and whispers. "I'm.. tired." His voice is hard, and hesitant. "I should be going.."

And with that he left.

A/N: Short, short, short. BUT I have homework -.- Sorry. PLEASE review! I love you guys. Sorry if this bore you. Thanks for reading. -Taryn(: