DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, then I don't own it. That's all, cut and
dried.
So now, for the readers, we are on to chapter 6!!! This is where the plot starts to thicken... Read and enjoy, and don't forget to send your reviews later!
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SAVING GRACE—CHAPTER 6
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After filing the report with the police, Carter took a few more patients, none of whom turned out to be too dramatic. Before long, it was 10:00 pm, and Carter would get off of the shift at midnight. The ER had quieted down now, and Carter was crossing a patient off of the nearly-empty board when Holly came running down the hall, nearly overturning an empty gurney in the process.
She stopped in front of him and put her hands on her knees to try to catch her breath.
"Carter," she panted, gasping for air. "We need you up in peds." Carter frowned.
"Why, what's wrong?" Holly regained her breath, and stood up straight.
"It's that girl, your Jane Doe. She's woken up and she wants to see you. She is scared to death of everyone else," she told him. Carter understood. It had taken him a while to gain the girl's trust, and he could imagine what the pediatrics nurses were going through. Carter led the way to the elevator, Holly trotting along at his heels. They got into the elevator, and Carter jammed his finger on the 5 button.
"Is she throwing a fit or something?" he asked Holly. She shook her head.
"No, but she looks scared enough. She just sort of looked at me when she woke up and asked if you were around. That's all," she told him.
"That's all? That's what you came running to tell me?" Holly shrugged as the doors opened and they got off of the elevator.
"Well, you said you wanted me to tell you if she woke up again." They approached the room and went in.
The instant that she saw Carter, the little girl's face lit up. Carter smiled back at her, while Holly hovered in the background, filling in charts and stuff. The child was lying in her bed, hair tossed and over her pillow. Her hospital gown still on, IV's still in, but her face had a somewhat healthier glow to it.
"Hi, Grace," Carter said. She smiled politely at him.
"Good evening, Dr. Carter," she said as she tried to sit up. Carter stopped her.
"Hold on there, don't try sitting up too fast, or you'll pop your stitches like you almost did earlier," he said as he raised the back of the bed a little, so she was almost sitting up, back against the bed.
"Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome. So how are you feeling?" Carter asked as he pulled out his stethoscope and began to check her heart rate.
"I am feeling better than earlier, but my tummy still hurts a little if I move funny," she told Carter. Holly wrote these things down on the clipboard she was holding. Carter nodded.
"Anything else? Is your head hurting?"
"Not really."
"How about your leg?" Grace shook her head.
"No, it doesn't hurt at all. The skin on my back hurts a little bit, though."
"Yes, that's because of the road burn. That will heal on its own in a couple of days." Grace nodded.
"Okay," she said. Carter listened to her breathing.
"I need you to take a deep breath for me," he told her. She nodded, and did so. Her breathing sounds were good, and heart rate was within the normal range. Good signs of a fast recovery. He sat back and put the stethoscope back around his neck.
"You, my friend, are going to be just fine. Your body is healing itself very fast. You will be out of here in no time at all." Grace smiled.
"What about my leg?" she asked, indicating the cast on her lower leg. Carter let out a breath.
"That will take a little longer to heal. Maybe up to six weeks." Grace quickly drew in a breath and held it apprehensively. She bit her lower lip.
"Will I have to stay here in the hospital for six more weeks?" she asked, sounding both nervous and frightened. Carter laughed.
"Of course not, honey," she let out the breath, relieved.
"I'm glad. I don't like hospitals." Carter smiled at her as he finished recording her vitals.
"Well, missy, these charts look great for everything that you've been through. Is there anything that you would like?" Grace sat, thinking for a moment. She glanced at the clock, then at Carter.
"Um, is it too late to get something to eat?" she asked rather nervously. Carter grinned.
"Of course not," he told her, then turned to Holly. "Holly, would you please find a patient meal for Grace?" Holly smiled at Carter, then at Grace.
"I would be happy to go and find this young lady something to eat," she said as she turned and left the room.
"Thank you, Dr. Carter. Thank you for taking care of me," Grace said to Carter.
"You are welcome, that's my job," he replied. They sat in silence for a moment, until Grace spoke again quite suddenly, with a note of mild panic in her voice.
"Um, Dr. Carter, did they find my backpack after I got hit?" She seemed slightly panicked. Carter quickly spoke.
"Yes, they did. Was it a purple one?" Grace nodded. "It is here, safe and sound. Don't worry," he reassured her gently. A look of relief swept over her face.
"Good," she said. Carter nodded.
"Yes," he said. "You are a very lucky young lady." Grace played with a strand of her blond hair, avoiding Carter's eyes.
"That is what everybody keeps on telling me." She looked up out the window. "I don't know."
"But you're here, you're alive." she shook her head.
"That's the problem. I'm here. I shouldn't have come at all." She continued to look out the window. Carter didn't know what to do, so it was rather lucky when Holly came knocking on the door with a patient dinner in her hand. She pushed through the door.
"Here we go, Grace," Holly said, smiling. "We have macaroni and cheese, green beans, apple juice and, for desert, some lovely hospital jell-o." She opened up a table from the gurney and set the tray down onto it. Grace looked back at her.
"Thank you very much," she said politely, still avoiding Carter's eyes. It was as if she didn't want to tell him something, as if she had said something that she knew she shouldn't have said.
"I've got to go tend to another patient. I'll be back to see you later," she told the child. Grace looked at her and smiled.
"Okay," she said as Holly left the room again. She picked up the packet, wrapped in plastic, containing a fork, knife, and napkin. Opening it, she spread the napkin neatly on her lap and picked up the fork. She looked back at Carter.
"I'm sorry," she said, lowering her head again and forking a macaroni noodle. Carter looked at her. He chose to ignore her apology.
"You have very good manners," he told her. With the compliment, things seemed forgiven. She looked at him and beamed. She set the fork down.
"Thank you, Dr. Carter. My grandma taught me manners, and I learn them at my school, too." Carter smiled. He really wanted to know about her, so that he could help to find her family. He needed to choose his questions carefully.
"What school is that?" he asked her. Not even flinching, she took up her fork again.
"I go to the South Suburban Montessori School. It's great. All of my teachers are nice." she said, eating a small bit of macaroni. Carter nodded. He had never heard of this school before. He wondered where it was.
"Is the school far from your house?" he asked. Grace shook her head.
"No, it is only about 15 minutes away. I live in Richfield, and the school is in Brecksville."
"I've never heard of those places before," Carter told her honestly. She speared two more macaroni noodles with her fork.
"It's far away from here," Grace said nonchalantly. "I'm not surprised that you don't know where it is."
"So you don't live in Illinois?" Carter asked the child. Fork still in hand, she looked up at him.
"No, silly, Richfield isn't in Illinois. It's in Ohio." Carter stopped. Ohio? This girl had crossed two state lines to come to Chicago? He tried to calm his shock.
"Ohio, wow. It must have taken you a long time to come here," He commented as Grace took a sip of her juice. She shrugged.
"Not really," she said nonchalantly. "It only took two days." Carter felt his mouth drop. This girl was lucky that she survived! Where had she slept? It was lucky that she had avoided criminals at all! What Carter really wanted to know, though, was why on God's green earth a 5-year-old child would leave Ohio to travel hundreds of miles to a place that she didn't even know.
"Grace, why did leave your family in Ohio?" The little girl was silent for a moment. She looked up at Carter. He noticed, for the first time, that she had blue eyes.
"The people that I left were not my family. I don't have a family, only a father. I have lived with foster parents nearly the whole summer," she said rather quickly. She picked at the green beans on her dinner tray.
"What about your grandmother?" Carter asked her, remembering that the girl had mentioned a grandmother.
"She's dead," Grace said sadly. Carter nodded slowly.
"I'm sorry. So your grandmother raised you? What about your mother and father?"
"Yes, my grandmother took care of me. I lived with her after--." she stopped short at this. Carter was stunned. The child was only 5 years old, and she had already been through so much.
"Oh," was all that Carter could manage to say. Grace took another bite of macaroni.
"Yes. Grandma died a couple of months ago. She was in a bad car accident. The driver of the car that hit her was drunk. After that, the child services place put me in a foster family. I liked them, but I wanted my own family. I've never met my father, but I'm going to find him. He used to live in Chicago. My grandmother told me." She said all of this with the air of one who was uncomfortable telling the information to a stranger. Carter was writing these things down in the margins of Grace's chart.
"Maybe we can help you find your father," Carter suggested. Immediately, the girl's face lit up. She put down her fork, looking very excited.
"You could do that? You would?" Grace's happiness was contagious, and Carter couldn't help but smile.
"Sure I would. What is your father's name?" Carter asked her, pen and paper ready. As suddenly as her face had brightened, it fell at the mention of a name. She turned back to her pudding.
"I don't know," she said miserably, playing with her food. "Grandma knew it. She never told me, though." Carter sighed. He really didn't want to disappoint this girl. He tried to think of something else to do.
"What about your mother? She must know your dad's name," Carter suggested, trying to be helpful. Rather than making Grace perk up, however, it seemed to make her more upset. She put her fork down, and lay her hands in her lap, staring at them. "What's wrong?" Carter asked.
"My mother is dead," she said, her voice quivering. She kept her head down. Carter didn't know what to do. He scooted his chair nearer to her, and rubbed her back in a comforting manner. He waited a moment to say anything.
"I'm sorry," he said. She looked up.
"It's okay. She died when I was a baby," she told him. He nodded.
"Oh," Carter said sympathetically. Grace nodded a little.
"I remember her though, a little bit," she said this as if she wanted to get it off of her chest, to tell someone what she was feeling. Carter nodded, encouraging her to speak.
"What was she like?" Grace smiled at the memory, her clear eyes clouding over a little bit.
"Well," she started, "She was really nice, and kind, and she loved people. She loved me a lot. Grandma told me that I was the best thing in her life. I was her baby, and she loved me. She was like an angel. She was beautiful like one, too. She had blonde hair, and blue eyes, like me," she finished, looking at Carter.
"She sounds like she was a great person," Carter said. Grace nodded sadly. She looked like she was thinking about something. She snapped out of her thoughts, and she smiled.
"Could I have my backpack, please? There's a picture of her in there, if you want to see it." Carter nodded.
"Sure you can. Let me grab it for you..." Carter scooted his chair down near the wall and grabbed the child's belongings bag. He pulled out the familiar purple backpack and handed it to her. She smiled as he handed her the bag. She pushed the food tray aside as she rummaged through the bag. She pulled out the box and undid the rubber bands, shuffling through the papers and photos in the box. Smiling, she pulled out a photo.
"Here it is. Be careful. That's the only one I've got of her," Grace said, handing him the photo. He took it carefully from her and looked at it.
His expression changed to shock.
It was Lucy.
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All for chapter 6! Chapter seven will be up shortly, hopefully by the end of next week. If you want to encourage me to write faster, review, or e- mail me.
Ta-ta for now!
Snapdragon (
So now, for the readers, we are on to chapter 6!!! This is where the plot starts to thicken... Read and enjoy, and don't forget to send your reviews later!
***********************************************
SAVING GRACE—CHAPTER 6
***********************************************
After filing the report with the police, Carter took a few more patients, none of whom turned out to be too dramatic. Before long, it was 10:00 pm, and Carter would get off of the shift at midnight. The ER had quieted down now, and Carter was crossing a patient off of the nearly-empty board when Holly came running down the hall, nearly overturning an empty gurney in the process.
She stopped in front of him and put her hands on her knees to try to catch her breath.
"Carter," she panted, gasping for air. "We need you up in peds." Carter frowned.
"Why, what's wrong?" Holly regained her breath, and stood up straight.
"It's that girl, your Jane Doe. She's woken up and she wants to see you. She is scared to death of everyone else," she told him. Carter understood. It had taken him a while to gain the girl's trust, and he could imagine what the pediatrics nurses were going through. Carter led the way to the elevator, Holly trotting along at his heels. They got into the elevator, and Carter jammed his finger on the 5 button.
"Is she throwing a fit or something?" he asked Holly. She shook her head.
"No, but she looks scared enough. She just sort of looked at me when she woke up and asked if you were around. That's all," she told him.
"That's all? That's what you came running to tell me?" Holly shrugged as the doors opened and they got off of the elevator.
"Well, you said you wanted me to tell you if she woke up again." They approached the room and went in.
The instant that she saw Carter, the little girl's face lit up. Carter smiled back at her, while Holly hovered in the background, filling in charts and stuff. The child was lying in her bed, hair tossed and over her pillow. Her hospital gown still on, IV's still in, but her face had a somewhat healthier glow to it.
"Hi, Grace," Carter said. She smiled politely at him.
"Good evening, Dr. Carter," she said as she tried to sit up. Carter stopped her.
"Hold on there, don't try sitting up too fast, or you'll pop your stitches like you almost did earlier," he said as he raised the back of the bed a little, so she was almost sitting up, back against the bed.
"Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome. So how are you feeling?" Carter asked as he pulled out his stethoscope and began to check her heart rate.
"I am feeling better than earlier, but my tummy still hurts a little if I move funny," she told Carter. Holly wrote these things down on the clipboard she was holding. Carter nodded.
"Anything else? Is your head hurting?"
"Not really."
"How about your leg?" Grace shook her head.
"No, it doesn't hurt at all. The skin on my back hurts a little bit, though."
"Yes, that's because of the road burn. That will heal on its own in a couple of days." Grace nodded.
"Okay," she said. Carter listened to her breathing.
"I need you to take a deep breath for me," he told her. She nodded, and did so. Her breathing sounds were good, and heart rate was within the normal range. Good signs of a fast recovery. He sat back and put the stethoscope back around his neck.
"You, my friend, are going to be just fine. Your body is healing itself very fast. You will be out of here in no time at all." Grace smiled.
"What about my leg?" she asked, indicating the cast on her lower leg. Carter let out a breath.
"That will take a little longer to heal. Maybe up to six weeks." Grace quickly drew in a breath and held it apprehensively. She bit her lower lip.
"Will I have to stay here in the hospital for six more weeks?" she asked, sounding both nervous and frightened. Carter laughed.
"Of course not, honey," she let out the breath, relieved.
"I'm glad. I don't like hospitals." Carter smiled at her as he finished recording her vitals.
"Well, missy, these charts look great for everything that you've been through. Is there anything that you would like?" Grace sat, thinking for a moment. She glanced at the clock, then at Carter.
"Um, is it too late to get something to eat?" she asked rather nervously. Carter grinned.
"Of course not," he told her, then turned to Holly. "Holly, would you please find a patient meal for Grace?" Holly smiled at Carter, then at Grace.
"I would be happy to go and find this young lady something to eat," she said as she turned and left the room.
"Thank you, Dr. Carter. Thank you for taking care of me," Grace said to Carter.
"You are welcome, that's my job," he replied. They sat in silence for a moment, until Grace spoke again quite suddenly, with a note of mild panic in her voice.
"Um, Dr. Carter, did they find my backpack after I got hit?" She seemed slightly panicked. Carter quickly spoke.
"Yes, they did. Was it a purple one?" Grace nodded. "It is here, safe and sound. Don't worry," he reassured her gently. A look of relief swept over her face.
"Good," she said. Carter nodded.
"Yes," he said. "You are a very lucky young lady." Grace played with a strand of her blond hair, avoiding Carter's eyes.
"That is what everybody keeps on telling me." She looked up out the window. "I don't know."
"But you're here, you're alive." she shook her head.
"That's the problem. I'm here. I shouldn't have come at all." She continued to look out the window. Carter didn't know what to do, so it was rather lucky when Holly came knocking on the door with a patient dinner in her hand. She pushed through the door.
"Here we go, Grace," Holly said, smiling. "We have macaroni and cheese, green beans, apple juice and, for desert, some lovely hospital jell-o." She opened up a table from the gurney and set the tray down onto it. Grace looked back at her.
"Thank you very much," she said politely, still avoiding Carter's eyes. It was as if she didn't want to tell him something, as if she had said something that she knew she shouldn't have said.
"I've got to go tend to another patient. I'll be back to see you later," she told the child. Grace looked at her and smiled.
"Okay," she said as Holly left the room again. She picked up the packet, wrapped in plastic, containing a fork, knife, and napkin. Opening it, she spread the napkin neatly on her lap and picked up the fork. She looked back at Carter.
"I'm sorry," she said, lowering her head again and forking a macaroni noodle. Carter looked at her. He chose to ignore her apology.
"You have very good manners," he told her. With the compliment, things seemed forgiven. She looked at him and beamed. She set the fork down.
"Thank you, Dr. Carter. My grandma taught me manners, and I learn them at my school, too." Carter smiled. He really wanted to know about her, so that he could help to find her family. He needed to choose his questions carefully.
"What school is that?" he asked her. Not even flinching, she took up her fork again.
"I go to the South Suburban Montessori School. It's great. All of my teachers are nice." she said, eating a small bit of macaroni. Carter nodded. He had never heard of this school before. He wondered where it was.
"Is the school far from your house?" he asked. Grace shook her head.
"No, it is only about 15 minutes away. I live in Richfield, and the school is in Brecksville."
"I've never heard of those places before," Carter told her honestly. She speared two more macaroni noodles with her fork.
"It's far away from here," Grace said nonchalantly. "I'm not surprised that you don't know where it is."
"So you don't live in Illinois?" Carter asked the child. Fork still in hand, she looked up at him.
"No, silly, Richfield isn't in Illinois. It's in Ohio." Carter stopped. Ohio? This girl had crossed two state lines to come to Chicago? He tried to calm his shock.
"Ohio, wow. It must have taken you a long time to come here," He commented as Grace took a sip of her juice. She shrugged.
"Not really," she said nonchalantly. "It only took two days." Carter felt his mouth drop. This girl was lucky that she survived! Where had she slept? It was lucky that she had avoided criminals at all! What Carter really wanted to know, though, was why on God's green earth a 5-year-old child would leave Ohio to travel hundreds of miles to a place that she didn't even know.
"Grace, why did leave your family in Ohio?" The little girl was silent for a moment. She looked up at Carter. He noticed, for the first time, that she had blue eyes.
"The people that I left were not my family. I don't have a family, only a father. I have lived with foster parents nearly the whole summer," she said rather quickly. She picked at the green beans on her dinner tray.
"What about your grandmother?" Carter asked her, remembering that the girl had mentioned a grandmother.
"She's dead," Grace said sadly. Carter nodded slowly.
"I'm sorry. So your grandmother raised you? What about your mother and father?"
"Yes, my grandmother took care of me. I lived with her after--." she stopped short at this. Carter was stunned. The child was only 5 years old, and she had already been through so much.
"Oh," was all that Carter could manage to say. Grace took another bite of macaroni.
"Yes. Grandma died a couple of months ago. She was in a bad car accident. The driver of the car that hit her was drunk. After that, the child services place put me in a foster family. I liked them, but I wanted my own family. I've never met my father, but I'm going to find him. He used to live in Chicago. My grandmother told me." She said all of this with the air of one who was uncomfortable telling the information to a stranger. Carter was writing these things down in the margins of Grace's chart.
"Maybe we can help you find your father," Carter suggested. Immediately, the girl's face lit up. She put down her fork, looking very excited.
"You could do that? You would?" Grace's happiness was contagious, and Carter couldn't help but smile.
"Sure I would. What is your father's name?" Carter asked her, pen and paper ready. As suddenly as her face had brightened, it fell at the mention of a name. She turned back to her pudding.
"I don't know," she said miserably, playing with her food. "Grandma knew it. She never told me, though." Carter sighed. He really didn't want to disappoint this girl. He tried to think of something else to do.
"What about your mother? She must know your dad's name," Carter suggested, trying to be helpful. Rather than making Grace perk up, however, it seemed to make her more upset. She put her fork down, and lay her hands in her lap, staring at them. "What's wrong?" Carter asked.
"My mother is dead," she said, her voice quivering. She kept her head down. Carter didn't know what to do. He scooted his chair nearer to her, and rubbed her back in a comforting manner. He waited a moment to say anything.
"I'm sorry," he said. She looked up.
"It's okay. She died when I was a baby," she told him. He nodded.
"Oh," Carter said sympathetically. Grace nodded a little.
"I remember her though, a little bit," she said this as if she wanted to get it off of her chest, to tell someone what she was feeling. Carter nodded, encouraging her to speak.
"What was she like?" Grace smiled at the memory, her clear eyes clouding over a little bit.
"Well," she started, "She was really nice, and kind, and she loved people. She loved me a lot. Grandma told me that I was the best thing in her life. I was her baby, and she loved me. She was like an angel. She was beautiful like one, too. She had blonde hair, and blue eyes, like me," she finished, looking at Carter.
"She sounds like she was a great person," Carter said. Grace nodded sadly. She looked like she was thinking about something. She snapped out of her thoughts, and she smiled.
"Could I have my backpack, please? There's a picture of her in there, if you want to see it." Carter nodded.
"Sure you can. Let me grab it for you..." Carter scooted his chair down near the wall and grabbed the child's belongings bag. He pulled out the familiar purple backpack and handed it to her. She smiled as he handed her the bag. She pushed the food tray aside as she rummaged through the bag. She pulled out the box and undid the rubber bands, shuffling through the papers and photos in the box. Smiling, she pulled out a photo.
"Here it is. Be careful. That's the only one I've got of her," Grace said, handing him the photo. He took it carefully from her and looked at it.
His expression changed to shock.
It was Lucy.
*********************************
All for chapter 6! Chapter seven will be up shortly, hopefully by the end of next week. If you want to encourage me to write faster, review, or e- mail me.
Ta-ta for now!
Snapdragon (