Ok, here we go, I'm very sorry I posted the wrong chapter yesterday, I've got a whole load of chapters chilling on one disk and they're all just numbered, and I uploaded the wrong number yesterday in my haste, so this is actually chapter 37! The one that I posted yesterday will be back in about two chapters time! I'm very sorry! As ever all reviews are very much appreciated!! Sorry and cheers again…K
"Abby." Sam started appearing next to Abby, getting her attention. Abby was tending to an obnoxious five year old who had gotten into some kind of brawl at school.
"Yeah." Abby replied looking up, thankful for the interruption.
"Do you know an Imogen Johnson?" Sam asked.
"Yeah." Abby frowned, standing up.
"She was asking for you she was involved in this." She said waving her hand in circles, indicating the two little boys being tended to.
"She Ok?" Abby frowned, as they walked out of the room leaving a somewhat bewildered Morris to handle the boys who were being placated by a teacher.
"Looks like a broken wrist." Sam said as they pushed their way into Exam two. Abby was met with the sight of three kids all sitting on the same gurney, Imogen with a cut on her cheek, cradling her wrist which Pratt was examining for her, and two little boys, one of whom had a bleeding nose, the other with a bloody hand.
"Looks like you broke your wrist there young lady." Pratt said looking at Imogen who nodded mutely having not noticed Abby standing by the door.
"What happened?" Abby asked frowning slightly as she looked over at Sam.
"She fell out of a tree apparently." Sam said.
"She didn't fall out of the tree, Wyatt threw a stick at her and then pulled her out of the tree." The little boy with the nosebleed told them stubbornly looking up and over at them, clearly having been listening. Imogen looked at him and then over at the people he was talking to. Her eyes widened as she saw Abby, she had a guilty look on her face.
"That's enough Charlie." A young woman standing behind the three of them said curtly.
"But he did." Charlie countered looking behind him
"Hi." Abby said smiling slightly at the three kids. "Can you take over for me in curtain one, I'll get this, you have the films?" She said to Pratt indicating Imogen, holding her hand out for the x-rays as she made her way over.
"I didn't mean to get into trouble again, can you tell Daddy that he doesn't need to be mad." She said looking wide-eyed at Abby.
"I'm sure he's not going to be mad." Abby smiled genuinely at her as she shook her head. "Sorry and you are?" She added looking up at the woman as Pratt handed her the films, surprisingly congenially.
"Class teacher." She said to Abby, who nodded her response as she ran her hand over Imogen's head.
"Ok, lets check this out." Abby said bending down to look at Imogen's cheek. Imogen was refusing to meet her eyes. "And what happened to you?" She asked turning her attention to the little boy holding an ice pack over his nose.
"Toby hit me." Charlie told her.
"Ok, here, let me just have a look." She said picking the ice pack off his face and softly checking along his cheekbones. "That hurt?" She asked as he shook his head. "And what happened to you?" She asked turning to the third child.
"I hit Wyatt after he hit Imogen." He told her sheepishly.
"What all of you guys just decided to have a fight?" Sam asked, her tone a little playfull as she cleaned some of the blood from around Charlie's nose. All three of them remained silent.
"Are their parents on the way?" Abby asked looking over at the teacher as she stood up, crossing her arms.
"Yes, Charlie and Oliver's mothers' are coming." She said matter of factly.
"What about her?" Sam asked frowning at the teacher.
"I've got her." Abby said sitting down in front of Imogen, rubbing her leg lightly as she looked at her.
"Was Lauren not involved in all of this?" Abby asked her as she took hold of her face and began to clean what turned out to be nothing more than a graze, she was under the impression that whatever Imogen got into Lauren would have gotten into as well, and was mildly surprised by her absence.
"She wasn't at school today." Imogen told her quietly, Abby began to nod at her, smiling.
"You know Lauren?" The child with the bruised hand asked turning to look at Abby.
"I do know Lauren yes." Abby smiled at him.
"She's Lauren's auntie." Imogen told him, looking between them.
"Lauren's my girlfriend." Charlie told her nodding seriously.
"Is that right?" Abby said laughing slightly.
"Lauren doesn't think she is." Imogen told her equally seriously, Abby said nothing as she smiled looking at Imogen's arm, and Sam replaced the ice pack over Charlie's nose.
"So why were you all fighting?" Sam asked as she moved from Charlie to Oliver, to tend to his hand and the three of them fell silent again.
Abby was finishing casting Imogen's wrist with a nifty combination of pink and blue since Imogen had been unable to make up her mind, and the boy's had both told her that they didn't think she should get pink.
"All done." She said smiling at Imogen, "I'm going to go and see if I can talk to Dad ok, I'll be back." She assured her as she made her way out of the room followed by Sam who was heading to get them stuff to draw with.
"She's cute." Sam smiled. "She your guy's daughter?" She asked.
"Yeah." Abby nodded breathing in deeply as she headed for admit and Sam continued on her quest for paper and pens. Abby picked up the phone at the desk and waited as his voicemail cut in. "Hi, Nick it's me, Imogen was brought to the ER from school, she's fine, but she's broken her wrist, I'm off at three so I'll take her home unless you can get here before then otherwise she can just hang out here, I'll talk to you later ok bye." She finished as she ran her hand through her hair and Malik procured her input as to how much Demerol she'd ordered for an earlier patient.
"Hi, sorry our sons were brought in, Charlie Bradley and Oliver Franks." A woman said leaning over the desk, followed by another woman lugging a car seat containing an infant.
"They were involved in some kind of fight at school." The second woman cut in.
"Unh, yeah, they…" Jerry started looking around. "Abby." He said, having glanced at the board and spied Abby. "Dr Lockhart treated them." He said as he got Abby's attention and turned back to the women.
"Hi, Abby Lockhart." Abby smiled extending her hand for them both to shake as she guided them away from admit, towards exam one.
"Are they ok?" One of the two women asked.
"Yeah, yeah, they're fine, we thought Charlie might have had a broken nose but he's fine, it was bleeding for a while but he's fine, and Oliver has a couple of cuts on his hand but apart from that he's fine as well." Abby smiled as she told them.
"And they had a fight?" The one of the pair with the baby asked.
"Not with each other, there were a couple of other kids involved." Abby said earnestly.
"Do you know how or why?" The second woman asked.
"That part is being kept under wraps I'm afraid." Abby told them raising her eyebrows.
"Do you know if a kid called Wyatt was involved?" One of them asked looking at her with narrowed, sceptical eyes.
"I think there was yeah." Abby nodded, looking curiously at her.
"Are there two little girls in there as well?" The other one asked.
"Only one." Abby said. It was clear that these two women knew the dynamics of their sons' social situation, neither one seemed particularly angry about the goings on, it was more like they were both resigned to their fate, and fairly sure that their kids were more or less in the right now they'd established that they were ok.
"All I've been able to find out is that Charlie was hit in the face by one of the other two kids involved and Oliver hit one of the other two in defence of one of his friends." Abby told them.
"Yeah, that sounds like them, gallant to the end." One of the women rolled her eyes.
"There are worse things." Abby mused, shrugging.
"True, they didn't start it as far as you know though." The other woman asked shaking her head.
"No, not as far as I know." Abby told them shaking her head back. "They both seem to think that they were in the right." She said her eyebrows raised, she wasn't entirely sure that this tradition of one kid hitting the next, whether in retaliation or attack was something that should be encouraged though. "Do you want to come and see them?" She asked indicating the exam room with her head and pushed open the door as they both nodded, exposing the three children all kneeling around a hospital table pushed over a gurney, busily colouring. All three of them looked up as they entered.
"Mom, Wyatt started it." Oliver imparted before he or Charlie even said hello.
"Did he, and you think that hitting another kid just because he hit someone else is the way to fix things?" The first woman asked her eyebrows raised as she looked at her son who looked slightly perplexed as his mother made her way towards him, setting the car seat and baby in her hand down, and Charlie's mother followed to inspect her sons slightly bruised nose.
"You look like you've come of the worst in all of this Imogen, what happened to you?" Oliver's mother said turning her attention from her son to Imogen's arm.
"It was my fault I started it, right?" She said quietly, turning her attention to her class teacher for confirmation, squinting slightly. She had a look on her face that said she'd been told that the whole thing was down to her but she wasn't quite sure why and it was something that she had to accept regardless of what she thought about it. Charlie cut in though in her defence, he quite clearly had the rights and wrongs clear in his head and was willing to make them known, regardless of authority figures.
"No, Wyatt throwed a stick at Imogen because she called him stupid and then when he said she had to get out of the tree and she wouldn't he pushed her out and breaked her arm and when Ollie pushed him he hitted Ollie and then Toby…" Charlie said obviously incensed by the situation.
"Ok, Charlie stop." His mother told him grasping his shoulders as Abby looked on and Imogen's eyes rested on the colouring pens in her hand, clearly she was uncomfortable with the situation and she wasn't around people she was willing to argue with. "Charlie, who started what isn't important." His mother started releasing his shoulders and standing up, crossing her arms as she looked down at the two boys who were looking up at her. "You two shouldn't hit other kids, it doesn't matter who hitted..." She paused rolling her eyes at herself, "Who hit who first." She said decisively.
"But they hitted, hit, Imogen and your not 'sposed to hit girls." Oliver said frowning, confused about what he was told in theory and what he was supposed to do in practice.
"Right, the two of you listen." Oliver's mother started, her hands on her hips. "I don't want to ever hear that you, either of you." She said looking between them, "I don't want to hear that you have ever hit anyone else again, hitting people is not something that you should do, if someone hits you or one of your friends it doesn't mean that you have to hit them back, do you understand me?" She said a clear authoritative tone in her voice as both of the boys began to nod at her sheepishly and Charlie's mother beckoned the teacher outside, Imogen looked up at Abby as Oliver's mother took a seat in front of them and continued to talk to the boys. She looked away again almost instantly when she realised Abby was watching her and her little forehead creased in confused concern. She began to slide herself off the gurney and moved around to the far side of Oliver's mother, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside the car seat out of Abby's view as she began to watch the baby.
"His name's Adam." Ollie told her as he slid down as well, leaving his somewhat frustrated mother looking at only one little boy, who was also making moves to see the baby.
After a couple of minutes Charlie's mother made her way back into the room, minus the teacher who she'd obviously sent away and turned her attention to Abby.
"They've apparently not been able to get hold of Imogen's father." She started as she looked at Abby. "I don't mind bringing her home with us or I think one of your colleagues has a daughter in their class and she takes Imogen…" She continued as the door opened behind her and Amelia entered wearing a suit and heals, a bunch of papers in one hand, and a carrot in the other that she was chewing on, she was obviously not about to embark on a day of work. "Well that's her so." Charlie's mother shrugged turning to look at Amelia.
"What are you doing here? I didn't think you were on, you look horribly administrative." Abby half frowned, looking her up and down as Amelia turned her attention towards Abby and Charlie's mother who she smiled at warmly, quickly.
"Meeting with Weaver and Anspaugh, I'm trying to keep my job, are they all ok?" Amelia asked frowning between the two mothers and Abby who all nodded. "I saw all their names on the board, thought I'd come and see what all the whoopla was about." She smiled taking another bite of carrot.
"Facial abrasion, nosebleed and bruising," Abby started, "Minor scrapes and cuts to the hand and broken wrist and facial laceration." She finished as Amelia peered around the room.
"Where are the other two?" She frowned, noticing that only Charlie was on the gurney. Abby pointed wordlessly to floor. "Hi Sarah." Amelia smiled at Oliver's mother, laying her hand on her back in a friendly manor for a second as she bent down to look into the car seat resting beside the chair.
"Hey, he's beautiful, how many is that now?" She asked with a smile.
"Four." Oliver's mother smiled.
"Brave." Amelia smiled back an, 'I'm impressed' look on her face.
"Or stupid." Sarah replied smiling back at her for a second before returning her eyes to the son that was causing the problems at the moment and Amelia looked to Imogen, inspecting her colourful arm.
"Hey cool cast." She said looking down at Imogen who smiled automatically up at her.
"I just had an incredibly pleasant conversation with Wyatt Jenson's mother." Amelia said smiling, her tone sarcastic as she looked at Oliver and Charlie's mothers' respectively, both of whom rolled their eyes.
"Abby, Nick on line one." Chuni said popping her head around the exam room door as Amelia engaged the two other women in the room in conversation and the three, now slightly tentative children returned to their seats and colouring.
"Hi." Abby started, a smile in her voice as she picked the receiver of the phone in exam one up and pushed the button that connected her with Nick.
"Hi, it's me, I just got your message and about seventeen hundred messages from the school, is she ok?" Nick asked as he heard Abby's voice.
"Yeah, yeah, she's ok." Abby said smiling slightly as she spoke.
"God Abby I'm sorry about all this." He said clear apology in his voice.
"Hey no, it's fine, don't worry about it." She told him honestly.
"I'm just on a break here, I can't actually leave court, do you want me to call a sitter to come and fetch her?" He asked, he was running his hand through his hair on the other end of the line.
"No, you know I've only got a couple of hours left, I'm off at three so if you don't mind her hanging out here then I can take her back to your place after that." Abby told him.
"If you don't mind then that's great, do you know what happened?" He asked.
"Not really, do you want to talk to her?" Abby asked, as she watched Imogen distance herself from the conversation the two boys were having with their mothers and Amelia.
"Yeah." Nick sighed, nodding as he spoke.
"Imogen." Abby said holding her hand over the receiver as she spoke, gaining Imogen's attention. "Do you want to talk to your Dad?" She asked, Imogen shook her head 'no' as she returned her eyes to her paper. "He's not mad Immo." She said shaking her head at Imogen reassuringly, bringing the receiver back to her ear. "Are you mad?" She asked smiling down the phone at Nick as he told her that he was. "He's not mad." Abby lied to her holding out the phone as Imogen looked up at her dubiously and Amelia helped her slide off the gurney and she made her way across the room to Abby and the phone, Nick was smiling at the other end as he heard Abby lie.
"Why are you eating carrots?" Charlie asked turning his attention to Amelia bringing her out of her conversation with his mother, Abby looked over smiling, laughing slightly at the little boy as Imogen lent against her legs and she held her shoulder reassuringly as she spoke to her father.
"Because I'm having a competition with Lauren to see who can see in the dark first, but you guys cant tell her that I was eating carrots because I'm cheating." Amelia told them conspiratorially, smiling, taking another bite as Charlie and Oliver exchanged glances indicating that they were definitely going to tell Lauren the next time they saw her.
"How's she doing?" Charlie's mother asked, a smile on her face as she watched the boys whisper to each other.
"She's good." Amelia smiled back nodding. "She's upstairs actually for a check up but it's looking good." She smiled, more than satisfied buy her daughter's progress.
"That's who you are." Oliver's mother Sarah said quietly looking over at Abby. Abby looked at her questioningly for a second before she continued. "I knew I recognised you, you're Nick's girlfriend." She said as though she just discovered the meaning of life as she looked up at Abby for her to confirm her statement. Abby laughed slightly before answering.
"Amongst other things yeah I am." She nodded.
"He wants to talk to you again." Imogen interrupted holding the phone out for Abby, Abby took it from her and began to speak again as Imogen flopped against her thigh and she ran her hand through her hair and Pratt entered.
"Dr Mack, you on?" He asked looking at Amelia.
"No, no, no." Amelia said shaking her head, standing up.
"Can you cover me for a couple of hours?" He asked, good-naturedly, knowing the answer he was going to get.
"I've got a meeting in..." Amelia said checking her watch. "Ten minutes."
"Abby." He asked turning to her.
"Nick I've got to go, I'll see you later." Abby said her goodbyes quickly.
"Your guy in four is asking for you." He told her, exiting quickly.
"Abby we're going to need you out here, multi victim MVA two minutes out." Sam said poking her head around the door as soon as Pratt retreated.
"I'm coming," She nodded. "You need to sign a couple of things, talk to the guy at the desk and then you can get out of here." Abby smiled at Oliver and Charlie's mothers' as she headed to leave. "Can you sort her out?" Abby asked looking at Amelia.
"Day care?" Amelia suggested.
"No." Imogen said decisively shaking her head, it was the first decidedly confirmative answer she'd given since she arrived and Abby and Amelia exchanged glances having both looked down at her.
"You know Jerry's on the desk, I'm sure she can stay with him for a couple of hours, can you ask him?" Abby asked holding the door half open as she backed out of it, trying to get to the trauma.
"Sure." Amelia nodded as Imogen frowned up at her questioning why she couldn't go with Amelia or go and hang out with Lauren and Abby departed.
Abby had had an easy last hour after they'd dismissed their trauma which she'd been allowed to run with a successful outcome as they'd dispatched him with Elizabeth for surgery, Amelia had deposited Imogen with Jerry at the desk and asked him to keep an eye on her and wait for Abby to fetch her, when Abby finally finished she returned to the admit desk to find Imogen sitting on Jerry's lap answering phones with him.
"Your going to get yourself fired you know that?" She said to him, turning her attention to Imogen with a laughing smile on her face. "You ready to get out of here?" She asked, smiling as Imogen nodded and slid off Jerry's lap.
"Thank you." Imogen smiled as she turned to Jerry, smiling up at him.
"You're welcome." He grinned at her as they stood behind the desk, and she reached up for Abby's hand. "If you want to come and help out again then you're much better than him." He grinned at her pointing his thumb at Frank as he did, handing her a chupa-choop.
"I wouldn't let her eat that." Frank said derogatorily as he passed by a bunch of papers in his hand as Imogen ripped off the rapper and stuck it in her mouth, smiling still at Jerry.
"Thanks Jerry." Abby smiled, down at Imogen more than him, "You all set?" She asked as Imogen nodded again and they moved round the desk, towards the lounge. A trauma rolled by as they made their way round the desk and Abby felt Imogen's little cast ridden hand grasp her fingers tighter as the chaos swirled around them and she watched, her other hand holding her candy securely, Abby looked down and saw Imogen's eyes darting around, looking at everything going on, she waited for the trauma to pass, as much as it ever would and took her into the lounge.
Ok, let me know what you thought, I'm struggling with the whole Abby integration into family life but none the less let me know what you think.
Tracey – you were massively up there with the whole last bit happening to quickly, you really are paying attention!
Sorry for my bugger up yesterday, it was almost definitely due to my monster hangover!