(A/N: Warning: This chapter is inspired by the TV show "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", meaning this chapter is full of potentially touchy topics. Read at your own risk.
I apologize ahead of time if I get some things wrong or inaccurate, I am going off of what I know for the most part. Again, read at your own risk.)
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Several hours after the three 'freaks' were taken away, Ben, Gwen, and Max were waiting in the Rust Bucket for a phone call from the hospital. So far there was nothing, not even a voicemail.
Then, Max got a call on his cell phone and answered it, "Hello?"
"Hello, this is Janise Snyder, I'm a nurse calling on behalf of Dr. Nawrocki to inform you that your Jane Doe is awake," she said.
"Alright, thank you," he replied. "How is she?"
"That's not my place to say, I think it would be best to hear from the doctor himself," she said.
He was understandably a little suspicious why she can't say anything about her condition, but he had to consider that there were possibly some things that were found that cannot be disclosed to anyone. Confidentiality is often vital to some people who don't want their names to be known because they don't want to be judged or they don't want that information to be used in a case against them or people they may be trying to protect.
"How soon or how late can we visit?" he asked.
"You can come now if you want to, she will be here a little while because Dr. Nawrocki wants additional tests done," she replied.
"Alright, thanks again," he hung up. He turned to his grandchildren, who were listening in on the call, "She's awake and they're going to keep her there for a while for some testing."
"So, can we see her?" Gwen asked.
He nodded, "We can, but I'm not sure for how long."
He started up the Rust Bucket and drove in the direction of the hospital. On the way there, he suggested that they cook her a meal, but they fearfully declined saying that the hospital probably wouldn't let them at the risk of the patients.
They got out of the Rust Bucket and went inside of the hospital lobby. The decor looked to have an Asian inspiration and gave it almost a zen atmosphere.
Ben sniffed the air and commented, "Ugh! Why do hospitals always smell like pills and bleach?"
"Be respectful, you're the one who wants to visit," his cousin pointed out.
Just as Max was about to talk to one of the nurses, a doctor walked into the lobby with a clipboard, "Oh, you must be Max Tennyson."
"Huh? Yeah, I am," he replied.
They shook hands and he introduced himself, "I'm Dr. Nawrocki, I specialize in pediatrics and I'm also the primary physician for your Jane Doe."
"Will she be alright?" Gwen asked as she and Ben came up to them.
"These are my grandkids," he told him.
"Yes, of course, follow me," he said.
He led them to an elevator and they went up to the second floor. They went down the hallway to the last room at the end.
The doctor opened the door, but before Ben and Gwen could walk in, Dr. Nawrocki stopped them, "I need to talk to your grandfather in private." They walked inside and shut the door.
Max looked at the bed where she laid, she was asleep, although he could tell that it was likely not a very deep slumber. He also noticed that the bed she slept on was the only one in the room.
'They put her in isolation,' he thought. "So, what's her condition?" he asked.
"Not good," he answered. "She's severely dehydrated and deprived of much of her necessary nutrition. We also found deep bruising in many parts of her body. We even found dried blood in some areas as well as fractured bones."
That was a lot to take in and it was hard to swallow. "How severe was her dehydration?"
He took out four vials from his coat pocket, two of them were of blood and the other two were urine. One vial of blood was dark, unhealthily so, the urine in one of the vials was the same way.
He held up the blood vials, "The dark blood is her blood, taken just after she arrived. And this is the blood of another patient drawn hours earlier. Her blood is dark and practically sludge." He then held up the urine, "The dark urine is hers, the other was taken weeks earlier from a diabetic patient. The darker the urine is, the more severe the patient is dehydrated. This the darkest urine sample I've ever seen."
He swallowed sharply and decided to talk about something else, "Can you elaborate what you meant when you said she's deprived of her nutrition?"
He showed him his clipboard and he saw that it was a medical report of her with some very surprising results. Some of the things on it were more than just surprising, they were realistically impossible, especially for someone her size and age.
"These results have to be some kind of mistake," he stuttered slightly.
"No, what you're seeing is what was found when we evaluated her," he claimed. "She's low in nearly every nutrient and mineral that's vital for anyone. She's even low calcium, which is found in every bone and organ. I have to tell you, this is very terrifying. I've been doing this for over twenty years, this is the most severe case of deprivation I've ever seen."
He looked at her and guilt suddenly consumed him. He saw her condition when they first saw her with the other three 'freaks' and thought nothing of it at the time. Now, he started to feel like it was his fault for not seeing it. He could have saved her then and didn't because he turned the blind eye.
He continued, "It's in my opinion, as well as the opinion of my colleagues, that she most likely wouldn't have made it another hour without urgent medical attention."
"Okay, so, if that's all the bad news, how about some good news?" he inquired.
"Alright then, we did an examination of her uterus to determine her approximate age. We checked to see if she had deposited any eggs, which would indicate a menstrual cycle," he explained. "We found blood on her inner thighs, it was from her menstrual period and it wasn't from just one. By our best estimation, she's likely had over thirty cycles."
"What does that have to do with her age?" he questioned.
"It means that she's been menstruating for at least two or three years. The menstrual cycle starts between eight and fifteen," he explained. "Most of my female patients started at ten. Based on that knowledge, she's likely to be thirteen years old."
He looked at her and commented, "She looks so much younger though."
"Keep in mind that we're still going to run some additional tests and remember how malnourished she is," he said.
She groaned and woke up, "What's... what's going on?"
"Nothing, sweetie," Dr. Nawrocki said. "You have visitors." He opened the door for Ben and Gwen and walked out.
When the two of them saw her, they thought they were looking at something out of a true-crime show. She had deep purple and reddish brown marks on her face, including an especially dark one around her right eye.
There were some slightly lighter marks on her arms, some of which had a yellowish discoloration, indicating that they were healing. It just showed how long she had been suffering.
She wore a light bluish white hospital gown with tiny red flowers that were smaller than flies. She was covered by a blanket similar in coloration to the gown.
In her right arm was an I.V. and on her left finger was an oximeter. There were tubes going through her nasal cavities with some kind of tape covering her nose.
"Hey, uh, how are you feeling?" Gwen asked sweetly.
"Fine," she answered quietly.
"Better than how you felt when you were with those freaks?" Ben asked, voice full of laughter.
She nodded as best she could with her head on a pillow. Her eyes then filled up with tears and streams flowed down her cheeks.
Gwen punched her cousin in the arm and apologized to her, "Sorry about him. He meant that you must be relieved that you'll never see them again."
"I'm glad that I won't have to worry about them anymore," she admitted, "but I'm not sure how I feel about them being in prison."
"Why?" Ben asked. "You don't have to worry about them anymore."
"I know. I just don't know how I feel," she uttered.
There was a sudden knock at the door and a nurse walked in with a tray of food. "Hello, I have your lunch," she said with a bright smile and spoke in what sounded like a combination of Spanish and Russian accents.
"Hi," she greeted the nurse as she managed to pull herself into a seated position.
She set the tray onto her lap and Max just couldn't help but to notice the quality of the food. The food consisted of lima beans coated in sesame seeds, peas, small round potatoes cut into halves and covered in a spinach sauce, grits, and macaroni and cheese.
"That food looks pretty high quality," Max commented.
"Farmed fresh," the nurse said. "No pesticides, nothing artificial, all natural. It's normally something given to elderly and disabled patients, but because she's so thin we made an exception."
She placed a plastic cup onto the tray and opened a large bottle of water. She poured water into the cup and set the bottle on the ground next to the bed.
"Enjoy your food," she said and walked out the door.
The second the nurse left, she started to dig into the food like a hungry dog. In only a few bites she was already almost halfway done.
"Woah, slow down, you don't want to choke," Max told her. She continued to eat anyway.
"Yeah, you don't want to stay here any longer than you need to," Ben remarked.
Gwen punched him again, "Ben!"
"Hey!" he rubbed his sore arm.
"Uh, why don't we go down to the cafeteria?" he suggested to his grandchildren.
"Okay," Ben nodded.
"Sounds good," Gwen agreed.
They left the room and went in search of the cafeteria to give her a little privacy. They went down to the main floor and found it in no time. Fortunately, it looks like they cater to both patients and visitors.
They got some food and sat down at a table. Although they serve a variety of healthy foods, most of it looks full of unhealthy fats. At least it can't be any worse than the strange food Max makes.
Ben started to wolf down the large sum of food he got, much to Gwen's disgust. She always wondered if he belonged in a pig sty, the mess he made pretty much proves it.
"Seriously, can't you ever eat with your mouth closed?" she gibed.
"C'mon, when was the last time we ate something that didn't look like it was still half-alive?" he remarked pointedly and playfully.
"Good point," she replied.
"Hey, I didn't hear any complaints about my ground earthworm croquettes or the bitterroot iced tea a few nights ago," their grandfather laughed.
"That's because they glued our mouths shut. You really think Ben can say quiet for more than five minutes?" she pointed out.
"Hey!" he interjected. "So says the dweeb that can't keep her mouth shut every time she sees something."
She crossed her arms, "Doofus."
He did the same thing, "Freak."
"Hey, we're back," Gwen greeted as they walked back into her room.
She beamed when she saw them, "Great."
"I got you a chocolate milk from the cafeteria," Ben held up a flask-shaped brown plastic bottle.
She took it when he handed it to her, "Thanks." She unscrewed the cap and drank the smooth, sweet tasting drink.
Suddenly, she leaned over and held her stomach in agonizing pain. She dropped the bottle and it spilled into a large light brown puddle onto the floor.
Max and Gwen immediately try to comfort her and try to carefully help her get onto her back. Max pressed the call button for the nurses as they got her to lay down.
Ben panicked and tried to figure out what to do and glanced at the Omnitrix. He started to play with it and searched through his aliens.
"Ben! Now's not a good time to go hero!" his cousin remarked.
He ignored her and hit the device, disappearing into the light. When it faded, he was transformed into Grey Matter, his smartest alien.
"To the contrary, now is a perfect time to go hero!" he claimed as he jumped onto the bed.
He picked up the remote for the bed and pressed a button. The bed elevated slightly at the center, lifting her into almost a seated position.
He then leaped onto her stomach and began to feel around, lightly applying pressure to some areas and looking up to see her reaction. She gave no reaction for the most part, so he applied a little more pressure.
"Ben, what are you doing?" his grandfather asked.
"Attempting to locate the origin of her unexpected abdominal distress," he answered, applying pressure to another area. "If I can find it, maybe I can stop it."
He continued to do this for a little while before he finally found a spot right above her navel. He knew it was the right spot because of the sharp shriek she let out.
He applied more pressure to that area, much to her distress. He continued with that until she no longer felt pain there.
"Better?" he asked.
She nodded, "Yes, it feels much better."
He cracked a smile and jumped down just as the Omnitrix timed out. He turned back into Ben just as his feet touched the floor.
Dr. Nawrocki rushed into the room with a couple of nurses, "What happened? What's the matter?"
"False alarm, it was just a little stomach ache," Max told him. She looked up at him and he winked.
He nodded and said to her, "Try not to eat so fast. You don't want another one." He left the room along with the nurses.
Gwen glared at her cousin, "Nice going, Ben. Are you trying to keep her in this place?"
"How was I supposed to know that chocolate milk would give her a stomach ache?" he retorted. "And who was the one who stopped it? That's right, me!"
She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Whatever."
When she pulled away from her, something bizarre happened. A purple spark suddenly came from her hand when she lifted her hand from her shoulder.
She held her hand, while she rubbed her shoulder, "Ow!"
"Whoa, what happened?" Ben asked.
"I don't know. A purple energy suddenly shocked me when I lifted my hand," his cousin replied.
"I wasn't talking to you," he gibed.
She scowled and asked their grandfather, "Grandpa, what do you think happened?"
"I'm not sure," he answered. "It's as if some kind of electricity was conducted through one of you or both of you and got stronger as long as you two were in contact with each other."
"So, Gwen's a Megawatt?" Ben questioned.
"No, but you're a megadweeb," she shot. He stuck his tongue out at her.
For the next couple of hours they chatted with her and told stories, watched TV, and many other activities. Max even told all three of them the story of how he and an old partner tracked down and captured a crabdozer, a large, ferocious animal from Pyros, the home world of Pyronites, Heatblast's species.
Unfortunately, their visitation time was gone too soon and they had to leave. Before they left, they promised to visit from time-to-time, much to her delight.
True to their word, they came back two days later. Max held colorful balloons, Gwen held a bouquet of various flowers, and Ben held a candy bar.
"How have you been?" Max asked.
"I can finally feel my stomach again for the first time in forever," she chuckled slightly.
He chuckled, "That's good."
"We got you flowers," Gwen handed her the bouquet.
She sniffed them, "They're pretty."
"I got you a candy bar from the vending machine," Ben told her, setting it down on the bed.
She smiled, "Thanks." She picked it up and started to open it.
"So, have the doctors said anything?" Max inquired.
"They said that if I continue to heal at this rate, I should be released from the hospital by next week," she responded.
She managed to unwrap the candy and saw that it was log-shaped and it was chocolate. She broke it into four pieces and when she did, she discovered that the inside had marshmallow and chocolate sauce. She offered three of the pieces to them.
Max declined by waving his hand, "No, that's your's. We got it for you."
She bit into one of them and placed the other three onto the wrapper. She placed them onto a small table next to the bed so that it wouldn't get everywhere.
"How is it?" Gwen asked.
"Really sweet," she replied. "I only ate candy once in my life."
"Really?" Ben inquired in disbelief. "You were in a travelling circus. In a circus, it's against the law not to have candy."
He meant it as a joke, but she looked visibly distraught and even started crying. Gwen pulled her into a hug and tried to calm her down as she clenched the chocolatey treat in her hand that was beginning to melt due to the warmth in her palm.
She glared at her cousin with gritted teeth, "Rule number one of talking to sensitive patients: never remind them of a trauma, dweeb!"
"What could she possibly be so sensitive about?!" he argued.
"How about everything she went through with those freaks?!" she shouted.
Their grandfather hushed them, "Keep your voices down. We're in a hospital, not at a rock concert."
"Sorry, grandpa," they replied in unison.
It took a couple of minutes, but she finally calmed down and the sticky, sweet mess was cleaned up. She was still a little agitated, but she was calm otherwise.
She grabbed another piece of the candy and started eating it. The marshmallows kept getting stuck in her teeth so she had to use her tongue to get it out.
"It's good, huh?" Ben grinned. She nodded. "It's my favorite. I thought you might like it."
He felt really bad that he gave her a stomach ache the other day. If that wasn't bad enough, he caused her to have an emotional breakdown.
He felt bad for her back at the school and urged his grandfather to call for an ambulance. Although, it seems he's just as big a threat to her as her former circus freaks.
He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and muttered sadly, "Look, I'm sorry for everything. I didn't mean to give you a stomach ache or to make you sad."
His cousin raised an eyebrow, "You're apologizing? Who are you and what have you done to my cousin?"
She accepted his apology, "I forgive you."
He was somewhat surprised by this, "You do?"
She nodded, "I know they were just accidents."
He was amazed by how forgiving she was, especially after all that time with Zombozo and his 'freaks.' Although, when he considers how she reacted just mere minutes ago, he had to figure that there were things a lot worse than his mistakes that they did to her.
Because of his lingering fear of clowns and overall hatred of circuses and those three bozos, he would rather not think about them. Perhaps that was for the best, for both him and her.
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(A/N: Yeah, I 'lied' to you guys. Turns out, some unforeseen circumstances caused Toy2711 and I to reschedule our one-shot. Which is fine, we're both pretty busy this upcoming week. Still, check out his stuff, he's pretty cool and he was chill about rescheduling.
Originally, I started this chapter as a little side-project. Something I could start before our project and finish later. But, obviously that didn't happen. I am happy that I was able to finish this because now it sets the stage for the true basis of the story and for what's to come in the future.
In case you guys didn't really pay attention, did any of you notice that my OC is referred to as 'she' and 'Enigma'? Stick around for the next chapter to find out why. ;) :)
I apologize if I got something inaccurate or if I unknowingly insulted someone. It's because of stories and chapters like this that I try to warn sensitive people as much as possible because I do care about the people who read my stuff. In spite of some of the things I might have said in the past.
One last thing, Happy Mother's Day! :) I hope none of you had to wake up at the crack of dawn like I did. :P Again, Happy Mother's Day!)