From part 4…
"I was just taking off his shoes, after you went through to the phone in the bedroom," Harm told her, "And he just kept on pulling stuff off. First it was just his socks, but then it was his sweater, his t-shirt and his pants…Luckily, he stopped there!"
"Otherwise we'd be seeing that little six!" Mac playfully lay the boy across her knee and swatted his behind.
Calum roared with laughter while she did so, then scrambled from Mac to Harm with gleeful, childish excitement. For a good few minutes, Mac pretended to go for him, again and again, while Calum would scream with delight and pull his legs in out of her way.
"Okay, that's enough, now," Mac finally decided, "We'd better start dinner. You wanna stay, Harm?"
"Yeah, sure," Harm nodded, "If you'll have me…"
"Hmmm," Mac thought to herself, making her way towards the kitchen, "Would I ever?"
Part 5…
Mac woke up that night as Calum was wriggling about beside her in bed.
"Mmm," she sighed, "Calum? What're you doing?"
The little boy only mumbled in discontent, but continued to thrash about.
"What's wrong?" Mac asked, again.
Calum now started to groan and cry.
This quickly woke Mac up completely, because in the couple of days that the boy had been staying with her, he had almost never cried at all.
"Calum," she reached out to him then nearly pulled her hands away in shock, "Oh, Calum!"
The little boy was flushed with fever, it was a wonder that she had not felt it radiating off him before now.
"It's okay, sweetie," she comforted him, "I'm here, we'll have you feeling better in no time…"
Trying not to get too flustered and panicky, Mac tried to think what she should do. First of all, she pulled the duvet off of him, so he wasn't sweltering. Then she went into the bathroom to get a cold flannel. Looking through her medicine cabinet, she quickly ascertained that none of the medication was suitable for Calum, he was far too young. So she went back through to the bedroom. She was worried further when she found that Calum had now begun to shiver.
"If he has a fever, then I should keep him cool…but if he has a chill, then surely I should keep him warm…This is all so confusing!" Mac's thoughts all conflicted.
"Okay!" she finally snapped out of her panicked state, "You are a United States Marine, you can handle this! Think logically…"
Calum's pyjamas were soaked through with sweat. She stripped him of those and dried him off, before she put him in new ones, which were all-in-one and warm enough to keep him snug, without overheating him, either. After this, she wrapped him in a thin blanket and put the folded, cold flannel on his forehead. She found that he was congested in his chest, so she settled him sitting up in her arms, so that he'd have an easier time breathing.
"Okay…" she murmured to herself, "…now what do we do?"
It was clear that Calum needed something to take down his temperature. But the all-night chemist was down the block. It was once again snowing outside, so taking Calum outside was out of the question. But she couldn't leave him here on his own, either. How was she going to get some medication for him?"
Mac looked over to the clock. It was past two in the morning. She wondered who she could call at this time. She didn't want to call Bud and Harriet this late. The twins were just starting to sleep properly through the night…And they were so far away.
"Harm," she suddenly said to herself.
He'd be asleep, but it wouldn't take him too long to get here and he still had his SUV, so the drive through the snow wouldn't be too bad for him either.
With that decision made, Mac shifted Calum into one arm, reached for the telephone receiver with the other, nestled it between her ear and her shoulder and reached back to dial. It rang a few times before Harm's answer phone picked up. She sighed as the message played and once the tone sounded, spoke up.
"Harm, it's me…Can you pick up if you're there?"
Just a few seconds later, Harm's voice spoke up.
"Mac! Is everything alright? Is it Calum?"
He was breathless and he sounded as if he had run to the phone.
"Yeah," she told him, "Harm, he's sick. I think he's coming down with a cold. He's feverish, he's grizzly and congested, he's shivery but I've got nothing to give him. Harm, none of my medication is meant for children…"
"Okay," Harm stopped her, "Give me 25 minutes, I can be there and I'll stop off at a chemist's on the way."
"Thank you, Harm."
"It's no problem at all."
Mac gave Harm a load of information about Calum's age, the symptoms that he was showing and what sort of medications they were looking for.
After hanging up, Mac remembered something. If Calum was sweating so much, he'd be getting dehydrated, so Mac took him through to the kitchen to get him some juice, to boost his fluids. By the time that Harm got there, Mac was settled in an armchair, with Calum in her arms, the boy drinking from his sippy-cup. She had purposely unlocked the door, so that Harm could just let himself in.
"How's he doing?" Harm asked her, as he came in.
"He's better than he was," Mac told him, "But I'll definitely feel better about his condition once he gets some medication."
"He still feels hot," Harm frowned, gently placing the back of his hand against Calum's head, "Okay, let's see what we've got here…"
Mac watched as Harm lifted out item after item from the brown, paper drug-store bag.
"These two are cough medicine," he explained pointing to two different coloured boxes, "I got chesty and dry, so that if this develops into something more, we'll be prepared. It should help with the congestion and it has parecetamol in it, so it should help with his other symptoms…I didn't know if he had any head pain, so I got this, too…"
Harm held up a small tube.
"It's a natural remedy for head pain," he explained, "It contains 100 eucalyptus oil…This is for his fever…"
Harm broke open a thin package, pulling out a sachet. He ripped this along the top and extracted a funny blue sheet. He put this on Calum's forehead. The little boy flinched and moaned a little, so Mac guessed that it must be cold.
"It's a sheet of gel that stays ultra-cold, so it'll take the edge off his fever."
Now, Harm lifted out two bottles of juice.
"This is black-current and this is apple. The pharmacist recommended them, because they're very gentle, even on the most delicate of stomachs. They're fortified with iron, vitamins, minerals and also contain important salts that are lost through sickness and diarrhoea. She said that children often react that way to a cold; the digestive system gets out of whack. This juice is recommended because it helps rebalance the system.I also got 'immodium' and 'pepto-bismol' for children and so that we can prevent him from getting sick again, I also got a bumper supply of children's chewable vitamins."
"Yeah," Mac commented, smiling, "you did…Thanks so much for all of this…and not just all of this medication, for coming all the way over here at three in the morning, in this atrocious weather."
"You and Calum are very welcome," Harm replied, "I like to help. So why don't we get some of this medicine into him? I got 'Vicks' as well, maybe you could put it on a cloth on your shoulder, so that he breathes it in. It will unblock his airways …"
In a short amount of time, they got Calum all dosed up and settled down on the couch.
"He seems more comfortable, now," Mac noted, as they both watched him, "His breathing is clearer."
"Mm-hm," Harm nodded in agreement, "You might want to take him to the bathroom before you go back to bed. He's had a cup of that juice."
Mac nodded, "I'll do that."
She looked out of the window and noted, "It's snowing pretty bad out there. Would you like to stay here, tonight? I can only offer the couch."
"Thanks," Harm responded, "But I should be getting home…unless you want somebody around, tomorrow, when social come? I could come back over, tomorrow morning…"
"That's okay," Mac shook her head, "We'll manage, it'll probably just be a preliminary assessment. He'll just want to know all of the details and all that. I'll make sure that it's kept short. Calum won't be up to much else."
"Okay," Harm conceded, "Just call me if you need anything. And don't let this social worker try to boss you around."
"Of course not," Mac smiled, "I've got a hard-ass jarhead image to uphold."
Harm just grinned and they made their way to the front door.
"Night Mac," Harm bid her good night, "Take care of him, I'll see
both soon…"
"Will do," Mac nodded, "See you soon, Harm."
Calum was still sitting in the living room in his pyjamas when the social services person came, the next day. He was a little early, but Mac was still completely prepared.
"Good, morning…Ms. MacKenzie?" he asked, once Mac had opened the door. He showed his social service id, so Mac let him in.
"I hope it's okay," she told the man, "I've left Calum in his pyjamas, today. He's not very well, he's coming down with a cold, so I thought he'd be more comfortable, that way."
"That's fine," the man nodded, adding, "Please, call me David."
"Okay, David," Mac showed him through to the living room, "Well, this is Calum."
She went over to the little boy, who was watching tv and crouched down to him.
"Calum, sweetie, this is David…He's come to meet you today and he'll be asking me some questions. Shall we turn the tv off and go sit together on the couch?"
Calum seemed amenable to this, so Mac did so lifting Calum onto her knee after she and David sat down. David asked her to recount the events, as they had happened, again. Then, he asked her to think about whether Calum had said anything that might give her an idea about where he was from.
"No," Mac thought, slowly, "To be honest, he doesn't say a lot at all. In fact, he's incredibly quiet."
"He's never mentioned his Mother?"
"No," Mac told him, truthfully.
"Mommy!" Calum spoke out, as if to call her a liar.
"Wow," David exclaimed, "Yes, that's right, Calum…Where is Mommy?"
Calum just looked around to Mac.
"Mommy," he murmured softly, settling back against her, contentedly.
"I was just about to explain that," Mac smiled, "I don't know where he's got the idea from, but Calum seems to be under the impression, somehow, that I'm his Mother. In fact, when I tried to get through to him that I wasn't, he got very upset. I just can't convince him."
"That's unusual," David commented, "By three years of age, children usually have very concrete ideas about who is in their immediate family and who isn't. In fact, you'd expect him to get upset when his care routine was taken over by someone who he didn't know…You were telling me over the phone that it could be possible that Calum's Mother had contact with you through your work…?"
"It is possible," Mac supposed, "But I'm sure that I've never seen Calum before. None of my clients really seem plausible. I know everything about their home and family lives. It's something else, too…"
She pondered for a minute.
"Calum's Mom just seemed to be very desperate to resort to this…I don't know, she seemed like she might be in trouble. But why not come see me in my work capacity?"
They brainstormed for several minutes, but didn't make any more progress along that thread, so turned to other matters.
"So, how do you feel that you are coping, so far, Ms. MacKenzie?"
"Apart from a bit of worry last night, when Calum fell sick, okay I suppose. I've got a really good network of support around me," Mac told him, "And Calum's a very good little boy. I never get any trouble from him."
Calum had demonstrated this by falling fast asleep.
"So you aren't encountering any particularly tough tasks?"
"No, I've got a Godchild who is a bit older than Calum, so I'm not coming to this a complete beginner. Plus my Godson's Mother has been giving me a lot of good advice."
"That's good, that's very good. Now, perhaps we can talk about arranging foster care for Calum…"
"Wait, wait," Mac halted him, "You mean that, if we don't find Calum's Mother, he wouldn't go straight into an adoptive family?"
"Well," David explained, "it may take some time to find his mother. If that's the case, he's going to have to spend some time in a foster home. Places are limited, but I'm sure that I can find something by mid-week…"
"No," Mac shook her head, firmly, "Calum will stay here, until we find his Mother. There's no point in unsettling him and moving him somewhere new."
"Ms. MacKenzie," David persisted, "I don't think that you understand how things work in cases like thi…"
"Oh, I know exactly how things work in cases like this," Mac cut him off, "I'm a lawyer, it's my job to know how things work in cases like this."
She immediately set out what her position on the matter was and how she had the law on her side. Finally, she finished up along the lines that he could like it or lump it. Mac knew that her ideas were definitely in Calum's best interests. David had no choice but to concede to her reasoning.
"Have you thought about anything as to day care for Calum?" David asked as he got up to leave, "I'm assuming that you will be returning to work, soon?"
Mac nodded, "I've done some thinking, but haven't made any concrete enquiries."
"Well, take this," he gave her a business card, "They provide free child care for families in certain circumstances, I could give you a letter of reference to give to them."
Mac nodded, "Thanks, that would be great."
Next, they collected the bagged note, clothing and blanket that Calum had arrived with and David took them with him.
"One last thing," he remembered and took back the card, jotting something down on the reverse side of it.
"This is the number of a child psychologist who works for us," he gave the card back, "I'd like it if you were able to bring Calum to see him, sometime soon. I'll get in touch with him, then his secretary will probably phone you to arrange an appointment."
Mac felt a bit concerned about this and David must have sensed it, as he explained, "It might reveal something about his upbringing, if we were to gage his stage of development. That way, we'll know best how to proceed…"
Okay," Mac still felt wary.
With her line of work, she sometimes found that nasty surprises tended to jump out at her, when 'experts' were brought into a situation.
"Are you heading out now?" Harm asked, approaching her as she was exiting her office. It was Thursday and Mac had secured early so that she could take Calum to the appointment with the psychologist. She was just leaving to pick him up from Harriet's. Luckily, Harriet had volunteered to look after Calum in the day while Mac was at work. Mac was enormously relieved to have Calum looked after by somebody she knew and trusted, rather than someone she didn't.
"Yep, do you have something you need to talk about?" Mac replied, "I could spare a minute…"
"No," Harm shook his head, "I just wanted to say 'good luck.' Not that Calum will need it. They're bound to see what a fantastic little boy he is."
"Thanks," Mac told him, "I'll give you a call when we get home, to tell you how it went."
"Okay," Harm nodded, "Great."
And with that, Mac left.