Disclaimer: I don't own Lizzie McGuire, people, places, etc…don't sue me. I do own characters you don't recognize…i.e. Brenna, Carissa, Ethan's family, Kate's family and all medical personnel mentioned in the articles. And I don't own Peter Weir.
keeponwritin – thanks so much! I'm glad you love it. I'm still not entirely sure what I think of it, but this is the closest I've ever come to finishing a story, so I like that part.
Johanna – Thanks for the review. I can't guarantee how soon I update, but I promise not to abandon this story.
TheRealXenocide – Yeah…the vaccines…I'm studying microbiology so vaccine requirements are something I have to know! Wow…I'm such a geek!
And to everyone else who reviewed…a great big Thanks!!! Keep reading!
Just a quick reminder…if you read the short version of Chapter 16, I thought it was pretty sucky so it's been revised.
Now Playing…Chapter 17!
Lizzie awoke to the phone ringing in her ear. Still half asleep, she grabbed it. "'lo?" she mumbled.
"Get dressed, I'm coming over." The sharp tone in Miranda's voice startled Lizzie. "Miranda? What's going-"
"Just get dressed." Miranda cut her short and hung up.
Lizzie rolled over and yawned. She had gone to bed early in hope of getting more sleep than she had been the past several weeks, but all the thoughts racing through her head kept her awake early into the morning. Her mind shifted into overdrive again, thoughts racing. She forcibly slowed them down and tried to organize them, arrange them into some sort of comprehensible order. She settled on the two most important ones: Ethan and Gordo.
The first wasn't so much Ethan himself, what bothered Lizzie more was his death and the circumstances surrounding it. Lizzie still couldn't believe the article she had read yesterday. Maybe she was just being silly and naïve, but she always thought that doctors knew what they were doing. Or if they didn't, they at least knew enough to make an educated guess and do everything in their power to help. She couldn't understand how anyone, much less a doctor, could push away someone's life like that. Which is essentially what happened, thought Lizzie. By using malfunctioning equipment, those technicians were saying, 'Well, if it works, it works; and if it doesn't, oh well. Maybe next time.' How could they do that? They're dealing with human lives. It's not like if someone dies, everyone can just shrug their shoulders and move on. They're playing with the basis of human emotion, the ability to love and care for another person and when that person dies, we can't just pretend they were never there, never a part of our lives- Lizzie stopped mid-thought and realized she was attempting to strangle her pillow. She almost laughed at herself for getting so worked up over the whole matter. Lizzie McGuire, Champion of the People, she thought, shaking her head.
Lizzie slowly sat up and backtracked her thoughts. She could do that, couldn't she? She could be like Dr. Blake from the newspaper, who started this whole investigation and had probably saved peoples lives in doing so. Was that such a crazy idea? Maybe a little, Lizzie admitted to herself. The whole concept sounded a little like a TV drama. Plus she had wanted to be a vet since she was eight years old.
Yet there was something that kept pulling her mind back to the idea. She liked the idea of really having an impact on people's lives and being able to help them. Now that she thought about it, Lizzie realized, she'd always be willing to help people. Sometimes it even bordered the obsessive side. She shook her head, recalling her day in seventh grade wearing a burlap dress. She'd never repeat that again.
"How'd I get off track?" Lizzie asked herself aloud, pulling her mind back. There was no question that she wanted to do this, but could she?
"I'd probably have to change my major, or at least my concentration." She mused. "I'd have to take pre-med courses instead. And probably some ethics classes too, since a lot of this is ethical…" Lizzie struggled out of bed and found the backpack she'd used as a carryon. "Please still be in here." she mumbled as she rummaged through her bag. A moment later she pulled the spring semester course catalog from the mess in her backpack. She sat on her floor and began paging through the catalog when she heard her mother's voice from the foot of the stairs.
"Lizzie, you up yet?" she called.
Lizzie grabbed several sheets of paper and a pencil from her backpack, stuffed them in the catalog and carried them with her downstairs.
"Yeah mom, I'm up." She answered as she came down the stairs.
"Come get some breakfast."
Lizzie followed her mom's voice to the kitchen. She sat down at the counter and again began paging through the course catalog, making sides notes on the paper.
"Honey, I've got to run some errands so I'll be gone for a little while. Do you need anything while I'm out?" Jo looked expectantly at her daughter.
"Mhmm." Lizzie muttered absentmindedly, not taking her eyes off her paper. Jo smiled, shaking her head, and headed for the door, where she met Miranda.
Miranda waved to Jo and headed to the kitchen. As expected, she found Lizzie sitting at the counter, mumbling to herself.
"Hey Lizzie, what's up?" Miranda asked, sitting down next to her.
Lizzie held up a hand. "Give me two seconds." She said without looking up.
Miranda shrugged and waited. After a few moments Lizzie scratched something out on her paper and looked up, a aggravated expression on her face. "Hey Miranda." she replied distractedly.
"What's up?" Miranda asked again, wondering what was worrying her friend.
Lizzie frowned. "Have you been reading the articles about Ethan in the paper?" she asked.
Miranda shook her head in surprise. "I didn't know there were any." She confessed.
Lizzie quickly recapped the articles for Miranda, who wore an expression of astonishment after Lizzie finished. "Wow…" she said quietly, almost at a loss for words.
"I know." Lizzie agreed. "And what's worse, that could have been going on for a long time. No one would have known if Ethan hadn't died and that Dr. Blake hadn't noticed something odd. That hospital would still have been using faulty machines and even more people could have died as a result."
Miranda shook her head, still speechless.
"So I had this idea." Lizzie continued, a little quieter, not sure of what Miranda would think. "You know how I always want to help people? Even if it was something little like helping Kate or someone? That's how I feel right here. What's happening at that hospital is so unfair, and I want to be able to help all the people that it hurt. So here's what I'm thinking. It would help if I could talk to my academic advisor at school, but from what I can tell, there's not a huge difference between the pre-vet program and the pre-med program, and-"
"Wait a minute, Lizzie. What are you talking about?" Miranda interrupted her.
"I'm saying I want to be a doctor. I want to be able to help people like that Dr. Blake did. If faulty equipment is being used in more hospitals…I don't even want to think about it."
"But what about being a vet? You've wanted to do that almost forever."
"I know." Lizzie sighed. "Part of me still wants to be a vet. But the only reason I really have for doing that is that I like animals. But when I heard about all this stupid stuff that going on at this hospital and people are losing their lives for no reason, it's so unfair and I get so mad I want to kick someone!" Lizzie smiled at that image. "But since that's not an option, I just want to make sure that doesn't happen to anymore people. Understand?" she asked, hoping Miranda would.
Miranda was silent for a moment. "Yeah,' she said finally, "I think I do understand." She smiled. "And it's so you! I don't know how we didn't see this before, but it fits you perfectly." She grinned even wider. "You're gonna be a doctor!"
"Whoa, slow down." Lizzie told her. "I think I should talk to my parents about this first. They are paying for my tuition and I think they'd like to know what I'm planning to do with my life. Plus I want to know what my mom thinks about this."
Miranda nodded. "That's probably a good idea. So what are you going to have to do to be pre-med now? Are you going to have to change majors or anything?"
"I'm not really sure." Lizzie frowned at the papers in front of her. "I'll definitely have to talk to my advisor about that. But as far as classes go, I think most of them will be pretty similar or the same. I've already figured out how to change my schedule for next semester. I think I can take Human Gross Anatomy instead of Animal Anatomy and Physiology even though it's at a different time…I just need to take biostatistics at a different time. But otherwise, the rest of the classes I'm taking, I think, are needed for pre-med. But after this semester, I'm not sure."
"Even so, that's great you have this semester figured out, considering it starts in a week and a half." Miranda pointed out.
"Very true." Lizzie agreed.
"Hey girls," Lizzie's mom greeted them as she walked into the kitchen, laden with bags of groceries. "What's true?"
"The semester starts in a week and a half." Lizzie answered. "And Mom, I actually have to talk to you about it."
Jo nodded, and Miranda stood up. "Give me a call when you're done." she told Lizzie, not forgetting the reason she had come over.