Daria: Winter Is Coming Hospital: Part Two
DISCLAIMER: I do not own either Daria or A Song of Ice and Fire. This story is written for my own amusement not for profit.
Daria: Winter Is Coming*Daria: Winter Is Coming*Daria: Winter Is Coming
Cedars of Lawndale
Lawndale, Maryland
Ben Morgendorffer's POV
Light. There was light shining in his eyes. He didn't think he was dead. If he was, he didn't think he'd be lying down. He opened his eyes, blinked to clear them, and focused. So where was he? He was still in a hospital bed. Then he remembered: he'd gone to Temple the day before with Rikka, he'd fainted during services, and that the EMTs had taken him to the local hospital.
He felt a moment of fear for Rikka, then remembered that his brother came by that morning and told him that his niece had contacted him and his wife and that they'd presumably picked both of the girls up and taken them home. He then remembered that he'd talked to Jakey about getting temporary custody for Rikka and that he didn't want his step-daughter to go to Breeze.
He looked out the window. The shadows looked longer than they would have been at mid-day. He guessed that is was sometime in the mid-afternoon. He wondered if Jakey and his wife come back and if they'd bring Rikka. He hoped so.
A nurse came in a few minutes later. She was medium-height, red headed, and looked to be somewhere in her thirties.
"Oh, Mr. Morgendorffer, you're awake," she said. She smiled. Ben decided that he liked her smile.
"So what happened?" said Ben.
The nurse picked up the notes on a clipboard at the foot of his bed.
"Dr. Struthers wants to talk to you later," she said.
"You weren't here this morning, were you?" said Ben.
"I was on-shift," said the nurse. "Your brother came by and visited this morning. You and he talked for a while, then I told him that you needed your rest and he left. He left you this note, by the way."
"Could I have it please?" said Ben.
The nurse handed it to him. Ben picked it up. It wasn't what he was taught was a proper letter. His brother had written him a note on legal paper, folded the pages, and left it on the table next to his bed.
"Ben," it started. "The nurse asked me to take off for a while. I'll try and come back this evening with Rikka and with Helen. I called her at her office before I left and asked her to see about getting a petition for temporary custody of Rikka with the state courts. She said she'd get on it.
"Hope to see you later.
-Jake."
He sighed. Damn it, Jakey, stop shillyshallying and get busy.
In the meantime, he was stuck in the hospital with nothing to read and nobody to talk to. He went looking for the television remote, found it, and started looking over the controls.
There was a knock at the door while he was trying to puzzle it out.
He could hear a familiar voice from the hallway ask "Is he awake?".
"He is," said the nurse.
"Ben?"
"Jakey," said Ben.
"Dad!" said a much younger voice.
"Hey, cutie," said Ben. "How are you doing?"
"Better," said Rikka. "You scared me last night."
"I didn't think it would happen," said Ben.
"Uncle Ben?" said another girl's voice.
"Daria?" said Ben. "Thanks for coming by. And thanks for coming over and staying with Rikka."
"You're welcome," said Daria. "I didn't want to lose the warrior princess here. I find that I'm growing fond of her." Ben smiled.
"Hi," said another voice. Jake's younger daughter, thought Ben.
"Sorry about last night," said Jake.
"No sweat, Jakey," Ben replied. "You and Daria made sure that Rikka got home safe. What's past is past. We try to learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them."
"We've got a family meeting scheduled for this evening," said Jake. "We'll be talking about how to avoid a repeat."
"Did you talk to Helen?" asked Ben.
"I called her right after the nurse chased me out of your ward," said Jake. "She sounded skeptical but she said that she'd get right on it."
"Good," said Ben. He felt tired. Restless but tired.
"Do you remember how it was with the old man when he was in the hospital?" said Ben. The Mad Dog had only gone into the hospital for the last week or so before he'd died.
"No," said Jake. "Helen and I were over in Iowa and Dad had practically read us out of the family. I didn't find out that he'd died until Evie called me." Ben took the implied rebuke silently.
"I was there," said Ben. "That was after May had moved out and I was at loose ends. Mom and Rachel were practically in hysterics. Her husband and I were the only rational ones there. That was while Evie and Dad weren't talking."
"Excuse me," said Daria. "But who was Rachel?"
"Dad's younger sister," said Ben. "I don't think you know her."
No, I don't, thought Daria. She wondered if Aunt Rachel, no, Great Aunt Rachel was still alive.
"I wish I'd had more of a chance to look around Lawndale," said Ben. "This looks like a good town. If I was healthier, I'd stay put and try to give Rikka something stable instead of moving around every few months like Breeze did."
"Lawndale's a nice place," said Jake, ignoring Daria's frown of disagreement. "Helen and I talked it over before we moved here. It's much nicer than Highland was."
Doctor Struthers came in a minute or so later. "Oh, good, you're awake," he said.
"Mister Morgendorffer, could I talk to you in private?"
"No," said Ben. "I know I'm not healthy and I think my family needs to know my medical condition."
Dr. Struthers looked skeptically at Jake. "I'm his brother," said Jake.
"He's my brother," said Ben, "those teenaged girls are my nieces, this girl here is my adoptive daughter."
Dr. Struthers thought about giving up and coming back later. This was not how he discussed health matters with his patients.
"Mr. Morgendorffer, what I was going to say is was that you fainted because of exhaustion and because your body chemistry is off-balance. I have a prescription for you and if you stick to the regimen, I don't see why you can't go home tomorrow."
"Thank you," said Ben.
"Still, I'd suggest taking it easy and don't climb any stairs," said Dr. Struthers. He pulled out a prescription form and handed it to Ben. "Get a good night's rest, don't lose the form, and I'll tell the nurse supervising this floor that you can go home tomorrow."
"Thanks," said Ben.
"Hey, Ben, you're getting out! Way to go!" said Jake.
Ben withheld comment. He wondered if he should go back to Jakey's. He didn't feel that much better. He suspected that either the doc or the administrators wanted him out the door.
Helen came in a few minutes later.
"Hi, Jake, Ben!" she said. She looked around, said "Daria, Quinn. Good, you two girls got here."
"I picked them both up at school," said Jake.
"Well, now that we're all here, let's get to business," said Helen. "I had a talk this morning with Mr. Vitale, one of my law firm's senior partners. I told him about your situation with Myrcia. He told me that while our firm doesn't practice family law, we do work with Love, Troth and Kitchens, which does. They sent me a blank form for filing for temporary child custody. We can get it filled out this evening and have it ready to go should we need it. I called them later on and they suggested that you sign an affidavit stating that you want me and Jake to have custody of Rikka in case you are no longer to care for her."
-(((O-O)))-
Nice way to tiptoe around saying Uncle Ben dying, Mom, thought Daria. Last year she would have added a comment. However, even if Rikka was still technically a house-guest, she realized that she was starting to feel big sister feelings towards the kiddo.
Quinn's feelings were more mixed. She was having a hard enough time watching someone dying, even if it was an uncle that she'd never seen before until a couple of weeks ago. She also wasn't sure about how she felt about having someone she'd never seen before move in with them. She also wasn't really sure what it would be like to have Rikka as a sister and not as a house guest. Rikka had her moments, but she was loud, pushy, and often obnoxious. She knew that taking her in was the right thing to do, but she still worried. Would Rikka ruin her popularity? How would having a ten year-old sister interfere with her social life?
She suspected that she'd find herself pulling babysitting duty. Not all of her circle of friends lacked younger siblings: she knew that Sandi had two younger brothers and that she couldn't go out as often as other girls. She suspected that she'd find her social life similarly hobbled.
-(((O-O)))-
Meanwhile, Helen had produced the petition for temporary child custody. Ben read it over. Unlike his sister-in-law, he wasn't that good with legal documents: despite the fact that it was relatively straightforward, he read it over two or three times to make sure he liked it.
Finally, he nodded. "I can sign this," he said. It took a little bit of scrambling to find a pen; both Helen and Jake had forgotten to bring one. Luckily, his younger niece had one in her purse and watched as Uncle Ben signed a paper that meant a new chapter in her life.
"I'll get this document notarized and we'll file it with the court," said Helen. "I can also get that affidavit ready and bring it by tomorrow when the hospital says you're ready to check out."
-((O-O)))—
That night, after a family meeting, Daria had a strange dream. She found herself standing in a barren, rock-strewn wasteland under a dark and cloudy sky. There were no trees or grass, just a few dead bushes, their trunks and stems stripped bare.
She sensed someone else's presence and turned. A man was standing there. He was a big man, dark-haired, bearded and wearing a surcoat over chain-mail armor. Daria noted that he was unarmed. A part of her mind told her this was a dream, not real-life. She didn't think that the man represented a threat, but warily kept her distance.
She studied the man-at-arm's face and surcoat. Could it be, she thought. The surcoat badly needed cleaning and stitching, but it was yellow, and Daria could see its crowned stag emblem.
I know who that is, she thought. The armored man said nothing and stayed put. Daria realized that he was studying her; the thought made her uneasy. Finally, he looked her in the eye, then nodded.
She woke up with a start.