Chapter 3
From Daniel and Barbara's point of view, finding the kids.
Leaving the hospital Daniel drove both adults processing what had happened. For Barbara she had been finishing the last of her charts waiting for Daniel to collect her. As a proper gentleman he always insisted on driving her home from work after night duty, scared that she might crash if she got too tired. She had seen a small child enter the ER alone, a very unusual sight, and had felt drawn to help him, his evasive answers only raising alarm bells, enough she had decided to follow him home. Just to check everything was okay.
Daniel had just parked up and seen his wife leaving the ER, confused when she had turned away from the car and appeared to be following a child. She saw him and waved, relieved to have her husband as back up, but continued walking away her eyes focused on the figure in front scared she might lose him. Suddenly she had darted into the bushes and had pulled out a small boy, he had ran over at her request and watched as she'd extracted a small girl who was white as a sheet, limp and pale in her arms. Barbara had run into the ER finding Mabel the Peds surgeon charting, at the desk,
"Help" she had cried running into the empty trauma 1. Inside they had quickly cut off the young girl's clothes finding bruise after bruise.
"Obvious fractured ulnar, radius, displaced, I need x-rays of the left arm, chest, and a full trauma CT" Mabel had listed, "Let's get an IV, and draw up 2.5mg morphine, Barbara what's the story?" she asked confused, hadn't she been standing at the desk only 2 minutes previously.
"I have no idea, her brother, I guess, came in asking for medical supplies I followed him out and found her like this" Barbara recited, her hand stroking her bruised cheek, "And we are awake, hey hun" she greeted the crystal blue open eye that reminded her so much of her husband's. "What's your name?"
"Want Timmy" the little girl said, her eye watering, this was scary waking up with strangers and lots of noise. Her other eye was swollen shut,
"I know, he came to tell us you were hurt, he is just outside, can you tell me your name?" Barbara repeated patiently, guessing Timmy was the old boy that was with her,
"Zona" the little girl said, "What's your name?" She asked
"I'm Barbara and this is my friend Dr Mabel. We are going to get you feeling better. Dr Mabel has very special magic medicine she can use, but to use it we need you to tell me what hurts?" Barbara asked,
"My arm and my tummy, can I see the magic now please" Zona said politely
"Sure, you see this bag, this is where the magic dust lives" she held up the Morphine syringe, injecting it watching as the pain relief worked and the little girl relaxed slightly.
"I'm hungry" she moaned, "I feel funny, floaty"
"I bet, I can hear your tummy grumbling it sounds like your being attacked by a monster" Barbara teased,
"It does not" Zona giggled, "You're silly"
Barbara and Mabel smiled, the fluids and morphine had helped the child recover her pulse decreasing and her blood pressure increasing but there was a long way to go. Children often bounced back before crashing if their problems weren't fixed.
"Okay we are going to take some pictures. Can you stay still?" Barbara asked, Zona nodded. She played this game with Timmy all the time. Stay still and quiet so daddy couldn't find you. She was really good at it.
"Great, you did super, now we are going to our magic camera, this one can see inside you Barbara told her. The little girl reached out her hand, Barbara took it giving it a very gently squeeze, aware of all the cuts and fractures.
"Can you come?" she whispered unused to verbalising her wants but she felt safe, with the kind nurse.
"Of course, Zona, I'd love to" Barbara replied, her heart melting. In CT the full extent of the little girls' injuries were revealed, old fractures, new fractures and a ruptured spleen.
"We need to operate now before she bleeds out" Mabel decided looking at the scans, "Stay with her, I'll book and OR and call Ortho"
Barbara entered the CT scanner,
"How is my brave girl?" she asked as they began wheeling her to the OR, Zona shrugged. This was all very daunting, "tell you what have if you continue to be as brave as you are being now, I'll smuggle you in some chocolate" Barbara promised, the little girls eye went wide, the other was swollen shut.
"Chocolate, I've always wanted to try that" she whispered in amazement. Barbara felt her heart break and made herself a promise once the surgery was done there would be a lot of sweet treats smuggled in.
"And you can sweetie, but first we have to fix your arm and your tummy" Barbara explained, "Can we call your mommy or daddy, let them know where you are?" she asked, Zona shook her head.
"Mammy died" Zona looked sad, she didn't want to tell the nice lady what had happened, if Barbara knew she'd hate her too. Still lying was bad, but if Barbara knew about daddy, he'd get mad, she didn't know what to do.
"Don't worry, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to" Barbara told her reassuringly, she could see the indecision on her face. Zona nodded; she couldn't tell the nice lady about daddy. If daddy knew he'd be mad. They arrived at the OR, through the glass Barbara could see Mabel scrubbing in. "One thing I do really need to know and its important, is what is your favourite colour?"
"Pink," Zona replied,
"Okay Zona we are going to give you some special medicine now, it's going to make you really sleepy, but when you wake up, you're going to feel much better, and I'll be there, and we will go and see Timmy" Barbara promised watching as the anaesthetic put the small girl to sleep.
"You can go home," Mabel offered, "We got this" Barbara sighed sitting on the chair holding the non-fractured hand,
"I know, but there is something about these kids, I need to stay" Barbara revealed, "You won't even know I'm here" she promised. Mabel nodded, although Barbara was new to the team, she had become one of them, quickly fitting in like she had always been there.
The surgeries both went smoothly, Barbara insisting the cast was pink. These kids hadn't had many things in life so a pink cast was the least they could do.
In recovery she waited patiently for her to wake up, nearly falling asleep herself, her shift had finished over 6 hours ago, but she knew she wasn't going anywhere until both children were settled on the ward. She saw Zona start to stir.
"Mom?" the little girl whispered, before her eye opened wider, disappointment crossed her face, "Sorry, you looked really pretty" Zona apologised, wishing it had been her mom.
"It's okay sweetie" Barbara replied not revealing how much the comment had hurt. She'd been trying to have a baby with Daniel for 10 years. They'd been high school sweethearts marrying at 17 before Daniel enlisted. The moment he had returned from basic training they had tried, to no success. So, to hear anyone call her mom just reminded her of that dream.
"Did you bring the chocolate?" Zona asked, remembering the promise Barbara had made, Barbara laughed,
"Not yet sweetie, tomorrow I promise"
"Can I see Timmy?" Zona asked "Please"
"Sure, let's go to the ward" Barbara ordered. On the way she noticed Zona's eyes droop as she went back to sleep.
On the ward she was glad that they'd had placed both siblings in the same private room and to see her husband sat next to Timmy was the icing on the cake. They stayed for a little while before Daniel insisted, they went home and returned tomorrow. In the car Barbara sat, feeling something, she'd never felt before.
"Daniel, I know we filed for fostering, and we never really followed it up." Barbara started nervously, her hands twisting in her lap, they wanted children and they had discussed fostering with a view to adopt, but that was a baby, one baby, not abused 8- and 5-year-olds, that were going to require lots of extra time and care.
"But they feel like our kids, I know, is it bad I'm hoping they don't have any other family" Daniel chuckled nervously. Barbara sighed in relief; glad he was on the same page.
"No, Zona said her mom's dead, she refused to talk about her father"
"Timmy was amazed that food came warm" Daniel choked up; he'd hidden his emotions all day being the strong military man watching the abused boy try to act like a man.
"Zona has never had chocolate before" Barbara replied, crying. "What child has never had chocolate?"
"I'll ring my friend in the police and the judge, are you still friends with Susan from social service?" Daniel asked talking about his golfing friends. Barbara nodded. "We will do everything possible to get them, we are good people, and…." He paused trying to phrase it
"They feel like ours" she muttered again,
"I know" Daniel agreed, counting down the hours until they could return to the hospital already planning the pink princess palace and the little boy's room wondering if Timmy would like football theme or space or military even. One thing he was certain was every day they'd get a hot meal or 2, and nobody would ever lay a finger on them again.
I hope you like it, i'm currently waiting to go into surgery myself today, so hopefully i will update when i wake up,
Some reviews would be lovely to wake up too.