A/N: Flashback time. Flashback to where? Late June of '68.
Week 15 - UDC 4 - Late June of '68... with the Hunter-Whittington Clan...
71. Restrained
He'd wanted to surprise her, to bring dinner to her because she was on overnights again, and wasn't disappointed when she didn't even look up from the chart she was writing in at the nurse's station. "Jane?"
"Just a sec," she told him, still not looking up. "Almost done."
"We're here to bring you dinner," his step-son told her with that bored tone that always got her attention and sure enough, she looked up at them, startled. "Long couple hours?"
"Hi." Jane studied Ryan and then shifted her attention to him with an amused frown. "Did you leave Charlotte to babysit?"
Aaron shrugged. "She's twelve now, Jane. One would think she'd be fine for an hour or so." A voice not speaking English sounded from... was that coming from the desk? "Are you listening to a language tape, recorded by a child?"
She shook her head as she set the pen down and pushed out a little, looking down speculatively. Then she beckoned him to join her and he rounded the desk to find a little boy, maybe seven years old, possibly younger, sleeping at her feet. "When his grandfather was here for treatment and then hospice care, he was learning German from him."
Aaron stared, then nudged her shoulder. "And why is a kid sleeping at your feet on the floor?"
Jane winced. "As far as I know, his father is deployed. As for his mother..." She motioned down the hall. "She's admitted. He's with us because it's here or we let Social Services take him and he's got no other family in the area. He knows us, so..."
72. Controlled
Aaron glanced down the hall with a frown. Admitted AND no other family? "Jane?"
"Hmmm?" Before he could say anything else, a pained whine escaped the kid, startling them both, and Jane reached down. She shook him awake and then pulled him into her arms. "Come on, Pete. Wake up for me."
"Momma?"
The panic and the emotion as Jane held him struck a chord and Aaron nodded to himself. "We'll take him home for the night. Ry? Break room fridge." He watched the boy go and do as he was told, then really looked at the little one, who was staring back at him in confusion. "Hi there. Pete, is it?"
"Uh-huh," Pete answered, tears free-flowing down his cheeks. "Wanna see Momma, Jane."
"Can't do that," Jane told him carefully. "Not until the doctors say we can. This is my husband Aaron."
"Hi."
Aaron gently lifted him out of Jane's arms carefully, tried to smile. "Jane, why don't you go tell his mother that I'm taking him home, okay? If she's awake, that is. I know you can't break protocol, but..." Jane stood up and disappeared quickly down the hall, and he turned his attention back to Pete. "Do you have anyone, other than your mother?"
Pete shook his head. "Dad's... MIA? I think that's what they said? And neighbors."
73. Defined
That wasn't something he'd expected to hear tonight and Aaron couldn't help but stare at him for a moment too long. "MIA? Oh, kid..."
"Dad?" Ryan asked, and Aaron jumped. "Sorry."
"No, Ry. Don't be sorry."
Pete looked at him funny, then peered at Ryan suspiciously. "Where'd you come from?"
"The break room," Ryan told him humorously. "You were just waking up when Dad told me to put Mom's dinner in the fridge."
"Oh."
A faint shout from the opposite direction to where Jane had gone sounded and the three of them froze before Aaron chuckled. "Guess you were right, Ry. Busy couple of hours. That sounded like it was from L&D."
"Explains where the other three nurses are, too," Ryan observed. "Aside from doing rounds."
74. Resolved
They saw her coming back and Aaron smiled. "Well?"
Jane paused as she rounded the desk, then shrugged and handed him a piece of paper that had a phone number written on it. "That's the phone number for the neighbors, and Mrs. Mitchell didn't realize he was still here. Take him home, then call them in the morning." She eyed Pete, then nodded. "We should have clothes that fit him for tonight."
Aaron nodded. "There, kiddo. You see. Your mother knows where you'll be."
"Still want to see her."
"And I," Jane told him sincerely, "...would love nothing more than to let you into her room, Pete. I can't, but if I could, you'd be in there with her. As tired and sick as she is, she also wants to see you."
"Ryan?"
"Yeah?" He blinked when he suddenly had an armful of seven-year-old. "Um... hi?"
"Take him to the cafeteria and wait for me."
Ryan frowned at him, then looked at his mother, and she nodded. "Right."
Aaron watched them go, then looked at Jane seriously. "Did you know his father was MIA?"
Jane shook her head. "No. That must have happened recently."
"And his mother? How is she really?" For that matter, why was she here instead of the regular MedSurg floor?
"Honestly? We'll know when the antibiotics really start working, Aaron. Until then, it's touch and go and because of the infection protocol, I can't let her son in."
That didn't answer all of his questions, but it would have to do.
75. Unlimited
In the morning, after an interesting night where his oldest daughter had taken it upon herself to look after their visitor with the help of the next youngest and Ryan, Aaron called the number Jane had given to him from Mrs. Mitchell. Within twenty minutes, there was a red-headed woman at their door, asking after Pete. Aaron stared at her. "And you would be Miss Lowell?"
She smiled genuinely as she stepped inside. "I would. Now where is the troublemaker?"
Oh, he liked her already. "In the living room, being entertained."
Miss Lowell followed him and he shouldn't have been surprised when Pete ran to her immediately. "Have a good time?"
"Want Mom," he told her. "Can we go see her?"
"We'll see what they say today, all right?"
Aaron had the suspicion that it'd be a while, but didn't want to voice that and upset the kid more than he already was.