Chapter 2: This Can't be Happening
Reid pulled up outside the emergency entrance of the nearest hospital, then jumped out of the car, scooped Evina out of the backseat and almost ran toward the doors, as Conan trailed behind at his father's heels.
"Help! Someone help me!" Reid yelled as he entered the building.
Two doctors came rushing over to them, one dragging a gurney behind him.
"What happened?" One of them asked.
"My daughter, she got sick at her after-school tennis practice and by the time I got there to pick her up she could barely move or respond," Reid replied as the other doctor helped him lay her gently on the gurney.
Reid followed, with Conan right behind him, as they wheeled Evina down the hallway.
"How old is she?" the one who brought the gurney asked, as he shined a tiny flashlight in Evina's eyes.
"She's thirteen," Reid replied.
"Any vomiting?"
"Yes, once, at practice," Reid answered, remembering what her coach had told him.
"Twice." Conan piped up. "She threw up in the girls' bathroom earlier, between fourth and fifth period, less than an hour after lunch." Conan piped up.
"Who is this?" the doctor asked, looking at Conan.
"He's my son, her twin brother," Reid replied.
As they made their way down the hall, Evina rode, laying on her side, curled up in the fetal position, hugging her abdomen with every bit of strength she had left, moaning in pain every time the gurney hit a bump.
Finally, after the longest ninety seconds of all of their lives, they reached the actual emergency room, where two more doctors came to join them. Reid tried to make a note of their names and faces but nothing would register, instead, his mind reeled, desperately trying to figure out what on earth was wrong with his daughter.
"What have we got?" One of the new arrivals, a short woman with long, kinky golden hair asked the one who had met them at the door with the gurney.
"Caucasian adolescent female, thirteen years old, vomited at least twice in the past twenty-four hours, high fever, abdominal pain…"
"Alright, let's start by getting a CT of her abdomen and some blood work, let's see if we can figure out what's causing the problem." He replied.
Then they wheeled Evina passed the double doors and left Reid and Conan standing in the waiting room.
Father and son spent the agonizingly slow hour that followed, waiting. Conan tried to keep himself busy by doing his homework, but it wasn't much of a distraction. He couldn't focus on anything except the present situation.
He and Evi had always been tight, maybe because they were twins. Sure, she drove him nuts sometimes, and he'd drive her nuts right back. They'd bicker, they'd fight, they'd each do things just to annoy the other one; but at the end of the day, none of that mattered. At the end of the day, she was his best friend in the entire world, and he hoped he was hers.
He'd known something was wrong with her all week, she'd hardly eaten anything since Sunday night, picking at her meals just enough not to alarm their parents. Then, earlier that day, when she'd thrown up after lunch, she'd sworn him to secrecy and refused to go see the school nurse. Conan had no idea why Evina could never admit when something was wrong, why she always felt the need to be the strong one.
Reid could hardly wrap his head around it. This couldn't really be happening, could it? He hadn't just plucked his little girl off the concrete and carried her to his car like a limp doll, had he?
The minutes seemed to drag on and on for an eternity, surely the doctors would have figured out something by now, they must have…
Having Conan with him was surprisingly helpful, it provided a reason to make himself at least appear outwardly calm, even though on the inside his mind raced even faster than usual, swimming with possible causes for what had happened. When he looked over at his son, he could tell that he was putting on the same brave face he was. He was sitting there, trying to focus on homework, trying not to give away how worried he must have been about his sister; but Spencer knew better than that. Conan''s eyes darted around the room, his left hand was clenched in a fist, and his corroded pulsated visibly in his neck.
Spencer tried to think of something reassuring to say to him, but he knew that in his present state, nothing he said along those lines would sound convincing, so instead, he put a gentle hand on his son's shoulder and let the gesture speak for itself.
Eventually, he couldn't just sit there anymore, so he got up and started pacing around the room. It had been over an hour and there was still no news. He had a bad feeling about this. Evina had never been one to be sick often, so for her to get this sick, this quickly, it didn't make sense. It was enough of an anomaly that the FBI Agent in him, was deeply unnerved.
That's when Maeve finally joined them.
"Hey, anything yet?" She asked as she exited the elevator.
Spencer shook his head. "They took her back a little over an hour ago, there's still no news…"
"Nothing?"
"Nothing, no one's said a word since they took her back. They said they were going to do a CT and some blood work but nothing yet."
"Excuse me…" Said an unfamiliar voice.
They turned around to see one of the same doctors who had taken Evina upon their arrival.
"What happened?" Maeve asked.
"How is she?" Spencer added.
"Where's my sister?" Conan piped up.
"Let's start with the CT scan, according to the scan, her appendix ruptured, what appears to have happened is that something caused it to become swollen and inflamed and the blood-flow that would normally keep it alive was cut off. That's not unusual in someone her age. She needs surgery to remove what's left of it, but that procedure is fairly routine. It's her bloodwork that concerns me." He told them.
"Why? What did it show?" Reid asked.
"Her white blood cell count is through the roof, which indicates the very beginnings of sepsis, the ruptured appendix released a great deal of infectious material which is now spreading throughout her body. I ran all the standard pathogen and toxicology panels, what we found was a lot of bacteria which we expected given her cell counts, but the toxicology panels came up negative."
"Why is that concerning?" Maeve asked. "Isn't that a good thing?"
"Normally yes, but she's also showing jaundice. Normally, in a case like this, we'd suspect some liver damage from the sepsis, but despite clear inflammation of multiple tissues in her body, there's no evidence of organ damage. I don't know what's causing this."
Reid took all this in, in silence, waiting for the doctor to finish. He had a nagging suspicion, a hunch, about what this might mean. He hoped he was wrong, but… if he was right… that would explain it.
"Doctor, would it be possible to order additional blood work?" He asked.
"Well, sure but, what do you have in mind?" He asked.
"An IN1C6 panel."
"You do realize of course, that the compounds that panel tests for are extremely rare, most are either illegal or so new that they're only available in labs where they're being used for research." The doctor replied, staring dubiously at Reid.
"Yes, I know, but any one of several substances included in it could explain what's happening to her, could it not?"
"Well, that depends on the dose, but if it was high enough, and if she ingested it rather than exposure by injection, yes… it would not only explain the decrease in liver function but could also have acted as a catalyst for the inflammation that caused her appendix to rupture. Very well, I'll have them take another blood sample as they prep her for surgery." He replied.
Then he turned and went back to work, leaving Spencer, Maeve, and Conan with nothing to do but wait.
Spencer and Conan reclaimed their seats in the waiting room, and Maeve joined them on the other side of Spencer.
"Hey, Conan…"
"Yeah, Mom?" Conan asked.
"Why don't you, go get yourself a snack from the machine down the hall?" She asked, handing him a couple of one-dollar bills.
"O-k…" Conan replied, taking the money and heading down the hall toward the nearest vending machine. He knew full well she just wanted him out of the room for a few minutes. Why did they always try to protect him from what was going on? He wasn't a little kid anymore!
"So…" She began after they'd been sitting there for several minutes. "What exactly does this other blood panel that you suggested test for anyway?" She asked.
"It's another toxicology panel, it tests for inflammatory compounds specifically. A lot of them have been invented in the last five years and they're still pretty rare, but they can cause symptoms a lot like what's going on with Evi."
"Spencer, we don't know for sure that this was caused by anything. Sometimes things just happen." She replied.
"True, but it was actually the jaundice that made me suspicious. Normally, a ruptured appendix wouldn't cause that, and if it had been caused by the sepsis there should have been evidence of organ damage but there wasn't any. Which means there's something else in her body that it's having trouble processing; and any one of these compounds would explain the rest of her symptoms as well." He explained. Then he paused and looked down at the linoleum floor. "The truth is, I've had a bad feeling about this since I picked her up today. I hope I'm wrong about this, I really do, but I don't think I am."
"Hey…" Maeve said, putting her arm around her husband's shoulder. "She's gonna be alright, no matter what. They're going to fix this, and if you're right, if someone did this to her, you'll get them, you and the rest of the team, you'll keep her safe. I know you will." She assured him.
Conan rejoined them a few minutes later, having bought a soda and a small bag of cheddar-flavored snack mix for himself and coffee for each of his parents. For the next few hours anyway, there would be nothing to do but wait.
Sitting there, while the minutes dragged by, there was only one thing Spencer was sure of. He wasn't going home that night, nor work the next day. He wasn't leaving that hospital until Evina did, he wouldn't leave her side, or as close to it as he could get until his little girl was her old self again. That meant there was only one thing to do.
Not sure if he could keep in together, and not wanting Maeve and Conan to hear him break down if he failed to do so, he stepped out into the hallway, took out his cellphone, and called Emily.
Emily Prentis was out having dinner with Garcia at a local vegan restaurant. The two agents had just ordered their meals.
"Sheesh, that last case was a bad one," Garcia commented.
"Well, at least we managed to save the remaining victims, and we got back midday, I mean, we were all finished with the reports by four o'clock, that never happens! I don't know about you Penelope, but this one was a win in my book. Lives saved, and top of that, we actually get a little down time for once." Emily replied as she lifted a glass of red wine.
The two of them clinked glasses and took a sip of wine.
That's when Emily's phone started to ring.
Thinking it was their section chief bringing them a new case, they both sighed heavily.
"So much for downtime…" Garcia lamented.
"Yeah, that's the way it goes sometimes…oh, wait… hold on a sec, it's Reid." Prentiss replied, seeing the caller ID as she took her phone out to answer it.
"Emily…" He said when she answered. She knew instantly that this wasn't about work and wasn't a social call, he sounded like he was about to cry.
"Reid, what's wrong?"
"I…I need some personal time…"
"O-k… that's fine but are you gonna tell me what is this about?" She asked.
"Evina's sick. Her school called Maeve when she was picking up Isabel, I had to pick her up from tennis practice. My God she… I had to carry her to my car, she was so weak she was practically limp, she couldn't even hold her head up. Hell, I don't even know how aware she was that I was even there. So I took her to the ER."
"Oh, my God…" Emily replied. "Is she ok? Do they know yet what's wrong with her?" She asked.
"They said that her appendix ruptured, they just took her into surgery to remove what's left of it. We're still waiting on additional bloodwork to make sure that's all this is. Look, I'm gonna stay with her." He explained.
"As you should. Listen, Reid, take whatever time you need. Just, don't even worry about it. Your place is there right now. Just keep us posted and if you need anything… you know where to find us."
"Thanks, Emily," Reid said.
"You don't have to thank me."
"Bye." He replied, then he hung up.
"What was that all about?" Garcia asked in that rushed, worried, I know something's really wrong and I''m not gonna stop freaking out until I know what it is tone of hers.
"Evina's in the hospital. Reid called to ask for personal time to stay with her." Prentiss explained.
"Oh my God what? Is she ok? What happened?"
"He said that according to the hospital, her appendix ruptured. She's in surgery right now…"
As soon as Emily said those words, she knew exactly what Garcia would do with that information. She was already flagging down their waitress, which took a few minutes, but finally, she saw Garcia waving at her and came over.
"Ok, the food that my friend and I just ordered, we're gonna need you to make that to-go and put a rush on it. Also, bring us the bill."
"Garcia."
"What? I'm not just gonna sit here and chow down like nothing's wrong while one of our own has a major crisis on his hands. I'm going up there, to help however I can." She replied, having already taken out her tablet. While they waited for their food to arrive, so they could leave, Garcia was busily hacking hospital intake records to figure out exactly where her goddaughter had been admitted.