Wanted: Someone to Love Us

Tears were welling up in her eyes as the flourescent red sign loomed in front of her. Just a couple days before, this sign had brought relief for her because inside those sliding glass doors were doctors and nurses trained to successfully treat her sisters stab wound. But tonight the sign brought dread. The long walk from the bar to the emergency room had not been long enough for her to compose herself. The emotional side of her father was a side she hadn't seen, until tonight.

She stopped and gazed into the sign. The doors opened before her. Sighing, she clutched the signed papers to her chest as she stepped through the doors into the bright, busy environment inside.

~*~*~*~*~

Luka looked up when he heard the doors zoom to the sides. He breathed a sigh of relief to see Alexandria walking through. She looked weary, but she had made it back.

He stood up just as she got to the desk. Her knuckles were white, she was gripping the papers so hard. The edges were crinkled in her grip. She looked up at him and the light glinted off the tears brimming beneath her eyelids.

"What's wrong? Did he not sign them?" Luka asked, fearing that he was right.

"No, he signed them." Alexandria said, quickly swiping her eyes before any of the tears spilled over.

"Then what's wrong?" he whispered.

Alexandria was silent, when she finally looked up she said, "He had tears in his eyes when he handed them back to me."

Luka pulled Alexandria to him in a hug. All she and her sister had ever wanted was a father – or anyone for that matter – to love them. And now Alexandria realized that her father had loved her, but it was too late. The twins would never be able to go back to their father. His anger had erupted too violently and he had almost killed his daughter.

Luka felt sorry not only for Mariana and Alexandria, but also for their father. This man seemed to love his children, though you wouldn't be able to guess it by how he treated them. His love was shown when he had visited Mariana, and now he had shown it in tears after he had signed the papers to give his daughters a better life. A safe life.

He pulled back from Alexandria and asked, "Would you like to show the papers to Mariana before we hand them over?"

Alexandria nodded and together they walked up to Mariana's room in ICU.

~*~*~*~*~

Mariana woke up when she felt someone shaking her gently. "Mariana." She heard the whispered voice say.

She opened her eyes and looked into her sister's face.

"Hi Alexandria. Did you get the signatures?" she asked, glad to hear that her voice was becoming normal again.

Alexandria nodded and gave the papers to Mariana. "Here they are."

Mariana looked at the bottom of the papers and saw her father's signature, Jack Watkins. She noticed a spot on the papers, a little clear stain, not made by beer.

"Alexandria?" Mariana asked.

"Yeah?"

"Did Dad cry when he signed the papers?" she asked.

"He had tears in his eyes, why?"

She pointed out the little stain and said, "Because there's a tearstain on the paper."

Smiling, Mariana handed the papers back to Alexandria and said, "I'm really tired. See you in the morning."

Luka and Alexandria stayed in the room a couple minutes until Mariana's heavy breathing told them that she was asleep. Alexandria walked out first and before Luka stepped out of the room into the hallway, he looked back at Mariana and saw that she had fallen asleep with a smile on her face. Her hand was lightly touching the card that her father had given her.

~*~*~*~*~

We gave the papers to Detective Morris and you two are now up for adoption." Luka told Mariana and Alexandria the next morning.

He watched their responses. Both of them looked happy, but sad as well.

There was a knock on the door and they all looked up to see Peter Benton enter the room.

"Hi Dr. Kovac." Benton said. Then he looked at the charts in his hands and looked at Mariana. "You must be Mariana Watkins."

Mariana nodded.

Luka quickly got off the chair he was sitting on and said, "That's Alexandria, Mariana's twin sister. Alexandria, Mariana, this Dr. Benton. He's a surgeon."

Dr. Benton smiled and looked at the chart again, "Let's see, you have a tear in your diaphragm. It's an operation I haven't had to perform very often, but it's an easy procedure. You should get it done as soon as possible. Let me go to my office and see what's on my schedule. I'll call your nurse with the time."

"Okay." Mariana said.

Benton shook Mariana and Alexandria's hand, then shook Luka's and left.

~*~*~*~*~

"Mariana, your surgery is scheduled for 1:30 this afternoon." Her nurse said as she poked her head in.

"Okay, thank you." Mariana called out, her voice breaking. It was getting better, but it was still hard to talk loudly. Most of the time she spoke just above a whisper.

"Careful." Alexandria scolded.

"Sorry." Mariana said.

Alexandria nervously swallowed and said, "Uh, Mariana, I'm going to go to church tomorrow."

Before the nurse had come in, they had been talking about their church. The people there didn't seem to care that these two teenagers came in every Sunday without a parent along. They had stopped going a month before. If the church didn't care about them, then obviously God didn't. And now with the stabbing, they were even more convinced that he didn't care.

"Why?" Mariana cried in obvious disgust.

"Because…I don't know!" Alexandria stammered. "I just feel like…like…like they'll actually care now."

"Fine. Go." Mariana said. She didn't sound angry at all, but Alexandria didn't think she approved.

~*~*~*~*~

A woman ran into the ER and looked around. She quickly ran up to the desk. Luka looked up. "May I help you?"

"Yes. I'm looking for Mariana Watkins." The woman told him.

Luka studied her. "Who are you?"

"Anita Owens. I'm her choir teacher." The woman told him.

"Hold on." He said and picked up the phone. He dialed the extension to reach Mariana's room. "Mariana? Hi. It's Dr. Kovac. You're choir teacher, Ms. Owens is here. Can I bring her up?" he paused for awhile, listening to her answer. "All right." He hung up the phone.

"Can I see her?" Ms. Owens asked.

"Yes. I'll take you up to her room." He walked to the elevator with Ms. Owens right behind him. He punched the button and the elevator immediately opened. They stepped in and he punched the button for the ICU floor. "You can stay for a half-hour. She's going into surgery at 1:30 and they have to start preparing her for it at 1:00."

"That's fine." Ms. Owens replied. "I just need to see her."

Luka studied the woman until the door opened. She really cared about Mariana. He was glad to see that.

He quickly walked to Mariana's room, with Ms. Owens right behind him. He knocked and heard Alexandria call out, "Come in!"

He opened the door and stepped inside, then pushed the door farther out so that Ms. Owens could follow.

"All right. I am going to go back down to the ER. I'll be back at one when they start getting you ready for surgery." He told Mariana.

She smiled at him as he left. He walked back to the elevator and, clicking on the button, waited for the elevator to arrive.

He turned around and stared at the closed door of Mariana's room. He wanted to see her happy, to see her safe, to see her loved. He wanted to see Alexandria happy, to see her safe and to see her loved. He made a promise to himself that no matter what, he would make sure that the twins were adopted into a loving home.

~*~*~*~*~

His shift was over and Luka was waiting with Alexandria in the Surgery Waiting Room. Both were extremely anxious. The surgery was supposed to have been over a half-hour ago.

The phone on the wall rang and the changing staff answered it and told waiting family and friends that their loved ones were out of surgery and that the doctor would be in. But not once did the phone ring for Alexandria.

The phone on the wall rang and the volunteer sitting at the desk answered it.

She talked on the phone quickly and hung up. Looking out to the room she called out, "Alexandria Watkins! Your sister is out of surgery. The doctor will be in shortly."

Just a couple minutes later, Dr. Benton walked in. Alexandria quickly wandered over.

"Sorry it took so long. She started bleeding more than expected and we had to take care of that before we could go on with the surgery." Dr. Benton told her.

Alexandria's eyes widened in fear and she opened her mouth to say something but Benton cut her off. "She's fine now. Everything else went smoothly and she should be waking up soon. I'll be in the room in about thirty minutes to make sure everything is okay before they take back to her room."

"Thank you, Dr. Benton." Alexandria said.

"You're welcome." He smiled and then left.

~*~*~*~*~

Luka had waited until Mariana was safe in her room before he left to go home. Once he got there, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the card with the contact information of the detective assigned to Mariana's case.

He picked up the phone and dialed the number. The phone rang for a while before someone picked it up.

"Detective Morris."

"Hi, Detective. This is Dr. Kovac from Cook County General Hospital. I was the doctor that worked on Mariana Watkins when she was brought in."

"Oh yes." She said. Luka could tell by the tone of her voice that she was not happy to hear from him. "You're the one who insisted that we send Alexandria out to their abusive father to get a signature to put two sixteen-year-olds up for adoption!"

Luka closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them and said, "Yes. I was wondering how the adoption process is going? Is anyone interested yet?"

"Of course not! They're sixteen, Dr. Kovac!" the woman shouted.

Luka sighed again. "I will do whatever it takes to make sure that these two girls are adopted Detective Morris."

"Don't you think that you're getting a little too involved in their case Dr. Kovac?"

"Excuse me?" he asked confused.

"Someone brings someone in, you fix them up if possible and then send them home. Isn't that what it says in your job description?" Detective Morris asked.

"Uh, sure." Luka responded, not quite knowing what to say.

"Where in your job description does it say, take over a detectives job by insisting that sixteen-year-olds be put up for adoption instead of foster care, the best choice?"

Luka rolled his eyes. "What are you saying Detective?"

"What I'm saying is that I think as a doctor you're getting a little too close. Do you want to adopt the girls or something? Because if you don't I think I'm going to put a restraining order on you."

~*~*~*~*~

It was Sunday morning and Alexandria nervously walked into church. The social worker hadn't been able to get their stuff yet, so Alexandria was still wearing the khakis and red shirt that she had since the attack.

"Alexandria!" she quickly looked up to find the voice that was calling her name.

The pastor of the church was walking towards her, smiling.

"Pastor Hart, hi!" she said.

He held out his hand and she shook it.

"I've missed you and your sister. Why did you two disappear?"

"Uh, well, we didn't feel very welcomed. So we decided to leave."

Pastor Hart frowned. "You didn't feel very welcomed? I have to do something about that!" he shook his head. He stopped and looked up, smiling this time. "Well, I'm glad you're back! Where's Mariana? Not ready to come back yet?"

Alexandria looked down at the floor, not answering. "Alexandria? Is everything okay?" He looked at her intensly and said, "What's wrong? You look tired and pale."

Alexandria looked back up at him. "How long do we have before the next service?"

"Forty-five minutes." He said looking at his watch.

"Can I talk to you privately?" Alexandria asked.

"Of course. Follow me." He said and led her into his office. Closing the door, he sat down behind his desk and motioned to the chairs in front of it. "Sit down."

Alexandria sat and sighing looked at him, ready to tell him what happened. "Two days ago Ana was admitted into Cook County General."

"What happened?" he asked, his eyes widening in concern.

"My Dad stabbed her. She had surgery yesterday to fix a tear in her diaphragm." Alexandria told her.

"Oh dear! Is she going to be okay?"

"Yes, she will be." Alexandria said. "She should be in the hospital for at least another week. She should be able to start breathing on her own soon, now that the tear is fixed. But, they were going to put us into foster care. The doctor that took care of her in the ER stepped in and had me go to my father to get him to sign some papers so that we could be put up for adoption. He signed."

Pastor Hart closed his eyes and then looked up at her. "No wonder you're tired! Let me see if I have this all down correctly. Two days ago, your father stabbed your sister. She was rushed to the hospital. She had a tear in her diaphragm that was fixed yesterday, and you two are up for adoption?"

Alexandria nodded her head.

"Can I put you two on the prayer list and come visit Mariana later this afternoon?" Pastor Hart asked.

Alexandria smiled. "Yes. Thank you so much!"

~*~*~*~*~

Luka's head was reeling. He had told Detective Morris that he'd call back as soon as he had a chance to think about it. Did he really want to adopt the twins? Is that why he had become so involved in their case?

He wanted to be a father again. But is this how? By adopting two teenagers whose father had abused them?

~*~*~*~*~

Mariana was flipping through the TV channels when the door opened.

"Mariana?" she looked over and saw Alexandria standing in the door.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I brought a visitor?" Alexandria said walking farther into the room.

"Who?"

"Pastor Hart." She said motioning for him to come in. Pastor Hart walked in the door and Mariana stared surprised. He quickly came over to the side of Mariana's bed and knelt down before her. The lights were off, so Alexandria quickly stepped forward and turned on the light above her bed.

"Hi, Pastor Hart." Mariana said.

"Hi Mariana." He looked at her. "Your voice doesn't sound too good? Were you on a ventilator?"

"Yes." Mariana replied.

"Mariana, I'm sorry you didn't feel welcomed at my church. I don't know why, but I'm going to make sure that it never happens again."

"Okay." Mariana said, somewhat stunned.

Pastor Hart was about to go on, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Alexandria walked over and opened it. Officer Inglebrit, Detective Morris and Dr. Kovac walked in.

"Hi." Mariana greeted them all surprised.

"Mariana, Alexandria," Detective Morris said looking at the twins. "We have found someone to adopt you two."