A/N: Next chapter! By the way, Foyet is not their foster father, he's the middle school principal. George Foyet is the middle school prinicipal, Rossi's the high school principal, Gideon's the mixed-class psychology teacher, Carolyn is a high school teacher, and Tara's the world languages teacher at the middle school. Oh, and Strauss is the 8th grade algebra teacher. That's all the teachers I think. Sorry for any confusion.
"Gideon."
"Hey Gideon, it's Carolyn." Her voice was grave.
"Carolyn, is something wrong?" He asked, concern flooding his words.
"You know those 2 middle school girls in your class, they're practically joined at the hip, Elle and Emily?" He knew exactly who she was talking about. They were 2 of his best students, despite being part of the middle school group. He had also suspected that there was a bit more than friendship between the pair. A profiler is always profiling.
"Of course I know them, I'm quite fond of them too. Why? What happened?"
"Come down to Dave's office. We'll go more in depth when you get here, but Jason, someone hurt them. Badly."
"I'll be down right away." He hung up the phone and was out the door in 5 seconds. He half-sprinted to the office. He burst into the office to find Tara and Carolyn sitting across from Rossi.
"What the hell happened?" He demanded.
"You might want to sit down for this." Rossi explained, in detail, everything he knew. "...and they're on their way to the hospital now," he finished with a grimace.
"I knew, I fucking knew there was bad things in between those kids. The very first time I met them, I noticed the anxiousness of their body language, and I did nothing. And now look what happened," he growled. They were all a bit shocked; Gideon hardly ever swore.
Tara spoke up, "Jason, you couldn't have known what was going to happen. This isn't your fault."
"I used to be a profiler for God's sake! I should be able to tell when students are dealing with harassment!"
"Jason, you of all people know that isn't true," Rossi told him. "We can't change what happened, but we can prevent it from happening again. What do we do about the offenders?"
"Well, in a perfect world we could expel them all, but they either have money themselves or are close with people who do," Tara sighed.
"Well, let's first get all of the names of who we're dealing with. Can we get the security camera footage from the alley?" Carolyn asked.
"I'll make some calls."
CMCMCM
"Really, guys, this is sweet and all but I really don't need to go to the hospital. I'm fine."
"Emily, this is not up for discussion. You and Elle are getting checked out at the hospital, and that's that!" Haley ordered from the front seat. Emily groaned and sat back in the carseat.
"Actually, I should probably call my mom and tell her what's going on," Elle said as she pulled out her phone. She hit a number and began speaking in rapid Spanish.
"Hola mamá. Estoy bien, pero no estaré en casa por unas horas, tengo que ir al hospital con mi amigo. Sí mamá, estoy bien. Puedo tomar el autobús a casa, no te preocupes. Asegúrese de que Annie haga su tarea y coma algo, por favor. Dale un abrazo a Annie por mí. Hablo contigo más tarde. Adiós." (Hi Mom. I'm fine, but I won't be home for a few hours, I have to go to the hospital with my friend. Yes mom, I'm fine. I can take the bus home, don't worry. Make sure Annie does her homework and eats something, please. Give Annie a hug for me. I'll talk to you later. Goodbye.)
"I didn't know you spoke Spanish," Emily said with a smile. "And I think my foster parents would be ok with taking you home, you don't have to take the bus."
"I could say the same for you Em. Since when do you understand Spanish? And don't worry about it, I've taken the bus home before."
"There's a lot you don't know about me Elle," she winked. They laughed a little, and Haley and Aaron made eye contact in the front seat. Oh yeah, there was something between them.
They pulled into the emergency room entrance and helped Elle and Emily out of the car. As they stumbled into the ER, they were immediately taken to an exam room due to the still open cuts on their heads.
"So, what brings you lovely ladies into the hospital today?" A kind nurse inquired as she hooked them both up to an IV while taking their temperatures.
"Kids can be real jerks sometimes," Elle grimaced in pain as another nurse prodded her head wound. The nurse nodded in understanding.
"I'm going to get a CT scan for both of you to make sure there wasn't any brain swelling," the first nurse said as she left the room. The second nurse, whose name was Allie, called in someone to help her check the two teenagers' injuries. A tall man who introduced him as Fred started cataloging Emily's wounds while Allie continued on Elle.
"This might hurt a little Emily," he warned just before he poured disinfectant on her cut. He was correct, she winced at the searing pain. He finished cleaning and bandaging her cuts and moved on to checking out her ribs.
"I don't think they're broken, but they might be cracked. I'm going to get an X-Ray to make sure." She sighed internally. She really hated hospitals. After getting pulled from her last home, she had to spend 2 days in the hospital as people poked and prodded and questioned her. It was not a pleasant memory. As he went to grab her chart from the end of her bed, he noticed her swollen ankle.
"Has your ankle been bothering you, Emily?"
"Yeah, but so's the rest of me. Why?"
"I think it's broken. I'm going to order another X-Ray to make sure. She rolled her eyes. Fred raised an eyebrow.
"Is something wrong?"
"It's nothing against you," she said hastily. "I just really hate hospitals."
"Is there a reason?"
"Many." He waited for her to continue. "If you're waiting for me to tell you why, you'll have to wait until we're alone." He nodded.
"Very well then. However, it is time to take you up to X-Ray. An elevator private enough for you?" She shrugged. "Let's go then." He helped her into the wheelchair while Allie continued to stitch up Elle's cuts. One of the guys who punched her had had a ring.
"Hey Allie, we're going up to X-Ray."
"I'll be here," she replied, not looking up from her focus on the wound. He wheeled her down the hall to the elevator, ignoring her protests that she could do it herself. He pressed the 7th floor button as the doors shut.
"So, do you want to tell me why you hate hospitals?"
"You're not going to take 'just because' as an answer, are you?"
"Nope."
"Fine, if you really must know, I'm a foster kid, and hospitals bring back some bad memories. I'm sure you can connect the dots. You've probably seen my file. Understand?" His eyes widened in understanding."
"Oh… I'm so sorry for prying."
"Don't be. You didn't know." They finished the elevator ride in silence and he dropped her off with the radiologist.
"I think she might have a broken ankle too, along with the ribs."
"Right… I'll check it out. Thanks Freddie." As Freddie left, she shifted her focus to Emily. "So, you must be Emily. I'm Dr. Jolie Greendale, head of radiology. Let's get these X-Rays, alright?" Her cheeriness was out of place in the bleak hospital.
"So, if you look at the X-Ray, you can see that the ribs are solid. They're bruised, but not broken. Your ankle, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. If you look closely, you can see this tiny crack. Hairline fracture. Up to Casting we go." They boarded the elevator once more and traveled up to the 11th floor.
"Hey Jenny, this is Emily, she's got a hairline fracture on her ankle. Can you cast it please?"
"Of course Jolie. I've got another girl with a fractured wrist and then I'll fix her right up."
"Thanks Jen," she called behind her, as she was already hurrying back to the elevator. Jenny the nurse took her back to a bed next to… Elle. What a coincidence.
"Hey Em. Apparently my wrist is broken. You?"
"Ankle. How do you want to explain this to Kate and Pen? You know we can't hide it from them. We'll both have casts and I'll probably have crutches. We've only got till Monday."
"That'll be fun. I guess we'll tell them the truth. They'll probably find out soon enough anyway. Can't imagine this sort of thing stays secret for very long."
"Good point. What color are you getting?"
"I'm thinking dark blue, you?"
"Same, but you might want to consider hot pink."