Zach felt a lump form in his throat and he couldn't breathe. How in the world did this child end up in his suitcase? He stared at the sight before him a moment longer then pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed 911. It took every ounce of sheer will power to remain calm and in control. He told the operator that a child was in his suitcase, he found her, and she was dead. The dispatcher asked him was he positive that the child was not breathing, that there was no pulse.
He looked into the suitcase and closed his eyes. He told her she was dead, he looked at the cat, seeing the eyes still open with a sort of foggy looking film over them. He couldn't bring himself to touch the child.
Within 10 minutes of the phone call, a single police officer arrived and immediately contacted Chief Frye, who was there within minutes, accompanied by a forensics team. The medical examiner showed up a few minutes later because he wanted to make sure nothing was botched up-- after all, this was a dead child from another country and it was going to be hell explaining it.
When everyone arrived, Zach was still on his knees, staring into the suitcase. Someone asked Zach to step away from the suitcase, that Chief Frye wanted to speak with him.
Zach felt numb all over. He wished that he had stayed just one more day in Brazil, and then maybe that little girl would not be gone now. Then a little voice in his head asked what would have become of his own child and his wife had he stayed longer.
Zach didn't really hear anything that was being said around him. All he could hear was Ursula's tiny voice saying to him that he let her die. She needed someplace to run, someone to run to, and he wasn't there.
Suddenly there was a commotion that got his attention. He turned slowly, not actually hearing all of what was going on, but he did see the medical examiner take Ursula out of the suitcase quickly and lay her on the floor. He looked up at Chief Frye, who was now on the phone, calling for an ambulance.
An ambulance… ambulances are for people who are alive…
"Please, oh please…" he whispered.
"There was an accident on the freeway, and traffic is backed up for miles now," Chief Frye announced, "and the helicopter is about an hour away from here!" the man snapped his phone shut and cursed.
Zach stopped listening to everyone else around him and all the commotion going on, and touched Ursula's wrist. When he felt the thump of her pulse underneath his fingers he called her name. She didn't move. He called her name again, and still nothing.
Disregarding the child's physical state, he scooped her up in his arms and ran with her to the VIP suite, with the official's running after him. She was limp and warm in his arms. She was alive, and that was all that mattered.
He took her into the bathroom and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number, he called someone who owed him a favor, and who worked for the television station there in Pine Valley as an air traffic reporter. While he spoke on the phone to the reporter, he started removing the foul clothes from the child with the help of one of the technicians who came with Chief Frye. He laid her down in the tub and pulled the shower head down and started to rinse the filth away from her.
He knew it wasn't as important to clean her up as it was for her to get medical attention, but she was breathing, and she was alive, and he knew it would take a few minutes for the chopper to arrive.
He quickly cleaned Ursula from head to toe and another technician wrapped her in a towel while Zach changed his own clothes that were now covered in the same waste that had covered Ursula. Ten minutes later, his friend called to say he was directly over the hotel and going to land on the front lawn, where there was open space.
Zach wrapped Ursula in another one of his oversized bath towels and held her as he ran to the elevator, begging her to wake up.
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Zach looked around the pale green, white and yellow hospital room and cringed. The room was very ugly to him, and the bunnies and butterflies didn't help. Ursula was put in a crib. He thought she was too old for that. He figured maybe the staff was going by her size, or maybe there were just no regular beds to put her in… maybe they put all little kids in cribs if they could fit in them?
He let one of the rails down and sat in the big chair next to it, noting there was no large comfortable chair in Kendall's room when he was there to see her. He stared at the little girl inside the crib and took her hand in his. Fat little hands, with short chubby fingers…To match the very juicy face she had. He was glad that she was still plump; that she had not wasted away… she wasn't in there long enough.
The door to the room opened as Jamie entered pushing Kendall in a wheelchair. Kendall thanked Jamie then he left. She pushed herself closer to the crib and peered at the little girl inside. To Kendall she resembled the cherubs in the Sistine Madonna as she lay in the bed snoring softly. She smiled at the little girl then looked at Zach. "So, this is the young lady who stole my husband's heart in a single bound," Kendall said as she looked from Ursula to Zach. He nodded. "It's ok with me if you want to stay here with her, Zach, I'll understand."
Zach looked at her and started to speak when she cut him off, "She is child, Zach." Kendall said, "And your baby and I are both going to be ok."
"Kendall, I don't want to leave you alone-"
"I know you don't, Zach," Kendall said as she stood and rubbed the back of her fingers against the child's cheek, "but this beautiful little dumpling has no one, and you are the only person she knows."
"But-"
"What if she wakes up?" Kendall asked, "What if she wakes up and she is frightened."
Zach thought for a moment, "This is a strange place for her. She doesn't understand a whole lot of English… She won't know what's going on…"
"It's settled, you'll stay here," she said and leaned over to kiss Zach's lips. She sat back in the wheelchair. "So, what's going to happen to her?" Kendall asked as she rubbed her hands over her protruding belly.
"I don't know," Zach said then looked down at Ursula's hand in his, "I mean, I guess immigration will arrange for her to go back to Rio de Janeiro when she is better."
Kendall looked at Zach and stated, "I thought you said her parents were dead, that she and her father were all the other had."
Zach nodded, "So she will be sent to an orphanage or a foster home…"
Kendall grabbed Zach's arm quickly, "No!" she said, her voice getting slightly louder.
Zach looked at Kendall in surprise. She just said 'no,' and he didn't understand. "So, where else will she go?" he asked her, keeping his voice even and quiet, hoping it would cue her to stay quiet. "She can't stay here-"
"She should stay here, Zach, with us. We have to keep her. We can't let her go back there… What kind of life would she have? It's enough that her father is dead, but to send her back to the place he was killed?" Kendall looked at Zach and waited for an answer.
"Kendall, it's not up to us, we can't keep her-"
"NO!" she said louder, with more passion, "I won't let you let them send her back there!" Kendall said then stood up, and then grabbed the handles of the wheelchair. "You fix it! Fix it Zach! I want her. So you fix it and make it happen!" And she pushed the wheelchair out of the room, leaving Zach in a daze as to where all that came from.
Zach sat back in the easy chair, and massaged his temples. He decided that Kendall's reaction to this child she had just met was due to hormones gone awry. He decided that he would give her a few days and she would come to her senses.
That's what Zach thought.
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Kendall headed back to her room, fuming. She had threatened to smack one of the nursing assistants who offered to help her back to her room. She got to the nursing station and those flowers Greenlee kept sending were all over the place, saturating the air with the smell. Kendall started grabbing the vases of flowers off the nurses' station and throwing them into the trash, all while she tried to keep from throwing up.
The nurses all looked at Kendall as if she had lost her mind. One nurse opened Kendall's chart to see if she was on any medications that would make her act this way, and if there was something she could possibly give her to calm her down. The nurse decided to attempt to communicate with Kendall when she ran out of room in the trash for the rest of the flowers.
Kendall jumped up, ready to strike whom ever it was that disturbed her with the empty vase. When she saw the kind face of the nurse, she put the vase down and hung her shoulders in defeat. The nurse coaxed Kendall into the wheelchair and took her back to her room. When they got there, she asked Kendall if she wanted to get back in bed. Kendall wanted to stay in the wheelchair. The nurse then pushed Kendall closer to the bed and then took a seat in the chair and waited.
"He's going to let them send her back…" Kendall said quietly. The nurse said nothing. "She's just a baby, and he won't fight for her. He fights for everyone else. He goes out of his way to protect perfect strangers, but he won't help her." Kendall took a deep breath and looked at the nurse.
"Who won't help---?"
"My husband. The Brazilian girl, Ursula," She said and straightened up in the chair. "She is on the next floor. He's in there with her. He says that immigration will arrange for her to go back to where she came from… But she has no family there… She will be an orphan…"
The nurse nodded in understanding. "Well, perhaps, if you feel so strongly about it, you could speak to someone from social services about the matter, or perhaps your husband can do it. Maybe they will be able to help or to explain the situation," The nurse said with a small smile.
"You're right," Kendall said with renewed energy. "I think I'm ready to get back into bed now," she said. The nurse helped her up and assisted her into the bed, then handed her the call light.
"You buzz if you need me to come back, Mrs. Slater," the nurse said as she left the room.
Kendall grabbed the telephone off the table and started dialing. She was not going to let that little girl go back to Brazil without a fight.
