Chapter 7

Dr Brackett asked at the desk where Jenny Desoto was but the nurse there was new and had been assigned to another doctor so all she could tell him was the rooms for the three children.

He walked into the first of the three rooms to see Joe Early calming a mildly sedated boy while a police officer took pictures of every mark on him. Joe called the nurse over and headed for his colleague gently pushing him into the hall way and shutting the door behind him. "How's the mother doing?"

"She's still hanging in there, she had undiagnosed peptic and gastric ulcers, the aspirin she was told to take for a shoulder injury sure didn't do them any good, then she was diagnosed with a blood clot in her calf. They didn't have her records from her previous accident and just went ahead and treated her with Heparin, and they gave her a bag full of sample bottles so not even the pharmacist was able to pick up on something wrong. We were able to get her stabilized and off to surgery to stop the bleeding but she's going to have to stay with us for a while so we can monitor things till that blood clot is taken care of."

"I'm sure the social worker is already making plans but if the mother is as sick as you say she is I can't believe she's the one who's left those marks on her son." Joe offered his medical opinion.

"Well we do have one witness who agrees with you." Kell clenched his jaw tight and moved on to the next room. There the nurse was gently rubbing a young girls shoulders as she clutched a Doll Kell recognized as being from the abused children's' closet.

Dr. Varner gave him a nod then quietly got up and joined him in the hall way. "She's not seriously injured not nearly as bad as her brother but she does have multiple bruises at different stages of healing across her shoulders, back and down her legs. Someone has been repeatedly hitting that girl with something hard and narrow. No sign of sexual assault just the bruises."

Kell again clenched his jaw a little tighter and after telling Dr. Varner to keep up the good work, he moved to the last of the three rooms to find a nurse helping Jenny Desoto get her clothes back on while she questioned Dr. Morton on what he looked for when he was checking pupils and requesting a training session in the emergency room.

Her constant chatter and persistent requests brought a smile to the head of ER's face as he stood in the doorway listening in.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to talk to the head of Emergency about that Miss DeSoto." Dr. Morton commented having seen the good doctor in his peripheral vision he added a pointing gesture with the pen he was trying to write his notes with.

"Can I Dr. Brackett?" Jenny requested once again with all the enthusiasm a seven year old could muster.

Kell snickered, "Well I didn't hear everything you requested but as far as training in the ER, there is an age requirement and you still have a few birthdays to go before you meet that." Kell pushed the rest of the way into the examination room as Jenny disappointedly snapped her fingers in defeat. Kell knew she would try again the next time she saw anyone from the hospital, he'd have to look onto some kind of a program for kids her age that would take them on a tour and offer them the chance to see things the normal kids never wanted to see.

Once he was all the way in the room Dr. Brackett noticed Miss Marlow in the corner behind the door with a note book in her hand and actively writing.

"How's every thing going in here Mike?" Kell asked as he leaned on the bed with a smile for his fast growing favorite first responder.

"NO visible signs of bruises or injuries, I'm just waiting for the lab results that Miss Marlow requested," Mike Morton reported, "But I don't anticipate any problems there either."

"Well her parents are in the waiting room worrying so I agreed to come and make sure she was alright." Dr. Brackett stated as he looked over Dr. Morton's shoulder to see what kinds of lab work were being requested by the social worker.

"Are my Mom and Dad really mad at me?" Jenny asked but the social worker was again surprised by her lack of fear.

"I think they're more worried that mad right now. I'm sure the three of you will be sitting down and discussing a different way to deal with similar situations in the future." Dr. Brackett choose his words carefully for the benefit of Miss Marlow who was taking notes.

"How are Tracy and Allen and their mommy?" Jenny asked again, "Tracy was really really scared."

"Well nurse McCall is with her, and I think we're going to find a nice room for them to stay in together tonight and then they'll know how their mom is doing and we'll go from there." Dr Brackett answered the young girls question and then before she could ask more that he wasn't ready to answer, "I better go tell your Mom and Dad that they'll be able to see you real soon and that you're okay."

Miss Marlow gave him a scowl at that statement but Kell knew enough about the law to know it was on his and the DeSoto's side.

Kell left the treatment room and headed straight for his friend and off duty paramedic. "Okay I don't have the time to fill you all the way in so you're going to have to trust me. Where is your son?"

"Hank took him I need to call him as soon as I know how Jenny is," Roy responded.

"Your daughter is fine. Dr. Morton wasn't able to find even as much as a bruise on her. The social worker asked him to run a series of blood tests to make sure she's being well fed and not given any kind of drugs. Both I and Dr. Morton are sure the test will come back clear. But your daughter has seen some things and because of her age there's not much of a chance that things with stand up in court. Can you get a hold of who ever is watching your son and get them to find out what he know about the interactions of Allen and Tracy Baldwin and a Mr. Bunker."

"Mr. Bunker?" JoAnne responded in stunned surprise. "He's the teacher that called just before we learned that Jenny was missing. He wants us to meet with him in the morning something about Jenny disobeying him and running away from him."

"I'm afraid I'm the one who told her to stay away from him and to keep as many kids around her and the girl she was protecting as possible."

"The girl wouldn't by any chance be this Tracy girl whose mother she helped?" Roy questioned as he tried with all his thinking to understand just what was going on. "Mr. Bunker is one of the teachers at the school."

"I thought you knew what was going on," Dr. Brackett spoke, "I mean JoAnne came on the phone when after she told me what she'd seen. I thought that she'd told you and you didn't believe her."

"She hasn't told me anything," JoAnne defended herself, "She kept telling me something about confidentiality and how she couldn't tell me because I wasn't the one taking care of the patients. Roy and Captain Stanley were going to talk with her and try and straighten her out when she got home from school."

"Are you telling me that it's a teacher who's hurting those kids?" Roy was finally making connections with all that he was being told.

"Can you please find out what your son knows?" Kell hurried to say as he saw the two Baldwin children being moved to a room where they could rest and wait for news of their mother before it was decided where they would be cared for. As soon as they were settled in there was going to be a meeting in his office and he needed them all to listen to Jenny as she told them what she had seen. Most of all the other two children needed the people in power to believe what this girl had to say and the more information he could gather from as many sources as he could find the better those chances were.

"I need to get ready for a meeting in my office in about ten minutes and I'll need you two to be there." Kell said and then left to meet with two members of the child protection agency.

Roy gave his wife a quick hug and then headed for the phone to do as Dr. Brackett had asked of him. Hank told him where he could find his son and why he had taken him to Johnny's. Roy quickly called his partner and was surprised when a woman answered the phone. It seemed that Johnny had a date and after he had explained the situation she was more than willing to help him calm the young boy down. The three of them were watching a movie in TV and eating popcorn with Chris in the middle of the dating couple. Roy choose not to ask what the movie was.

Dr. Bracket, Dr. Morton, Dr. Early and Dr. Varner all gathered in Dr. Brackett's office along with an assignment of Law enforcement, and several social workers to compare notes and organized the information that they had. When all was said all they could really prove was that the mother most likely had not beat her children but clearly some one had. There was a statement made by one witness who was underage and the statement had been made to a Doctor and then repeated to the lead social worker. Because of her age it had been given very little attention but now it was certain that the little girl held the answers to their mystery whether they liked it or not.

Dr. Brackett picked up his phone and notified the nurses desk to first send in Mr. and Mrs. DeSoto and then to bring their daughter in.

Roy and JoAnne were encouraged to make themselves comfortable and offered coffee or a drink, "The reason you're here," Dr. Brackett began to explain, "is that we believe your daughter knows some thing that can explain the injuries to the two other children she was brought in with. Since she is a minor you as her parents are entitled to be present as she is questioned, would you like to take advantage of that right?"

"Absolutely," Roy quickly answered, "Both her mother and I have known that something was bothering her and we want to know what's going on."

"I must advice you that for the sake of this interview it is very important that both of you remain silent and not try to coach her or influence what she is to say," A lawyer from the district attorney's office advised and a court reporter sat at his side typing everything that was being said. "Do you understand?"

"Yes Sir," Roy responded as he wife nod her head affirmatively, they were slightly frightened but they did understand that Jenny needed to be able to tell her story in her words.

With everything that needed to be said and understood the Lawyer nod his head toward Dr. Brackett and he got up and walked over to open his door. Standing on the other side was young Jenny holding the hand of her nurse.

"Jenny, my friend, come on in," Dr. Brackett invited and a special chair near the middle of the room was placed just for her. "Jenny how are you doing?" Dr. Brackett started casually.

"I'm fine, what's malnutrition?" Jenny fired back and Dr. Brackett welcomed her questions because he was sure she would once and for all lay to rest the claims that she was being exploited by her parents.

"That's the big name for when you don't eat all your vegetables." Dr. Early offered as an explanation.

"And you should be very happy to know that you don't have it," Dr. Morton added.

"Of course not," Jenny responded, "Mommy won't let me leave the table until I've eaten all my vegetables. Is that the only thing that causes malnutrition?"

"Well," Dr. Bracket thought his words over carefully, this girl was far too bright to be given such an incomplete answer as the one she had been given but she didn't need the medical school definition either. "Some times even if you eat your vegetables but don't get enough food to meet the needs of your growing body you can still get malnutrition," Dr. Bracket answered.

Do Allen and my friend Tracy have Malnutrition?" Jenny asked but before anyone in the room had a chance to answer Jenny replied, "Oh that's right you can't tell me because it would break the confidentiality because I didn't help work on them."

"Mrs. Baldwin is bleeding inside of her though isn't she?" Jenny moved right ahead asking information she felt she was entitled to because she did help work on that patient.

"What makes you say that?" Dr. Brackett asked surprised himself that this young girl had come to that conclusion on her own.

"Well she was in shock but she wasn't bleeding from any cuts or anything. Her tummy was hard not soft when I climbed up in the bed to rub her CPR bone like you told me to do and she had bloody lips but she didn't have any sores on them." Jenny laid out her findings slightly unconfident and questioning if she were right. "I know I didn't tell you all of that on the phone but I just remembered some of those things and wondered what they meant while I was waiting for my Malnutrition tests to get done."

Jenny was clearly still thinking about what she noticed and matching it with what she had learned by listening to her Dad and her Uncle Jonny as well as every question she had ever asked or any thing she had read but didn't fully understand as she turned her head to the side a little in deep contemplation, "Did Mr. Bunker hurt their mommy too?" She asked.

Every person in the room jumped to attention with surprised looks on their faces at the girl's conclusion. Noticing their looks Jenny's eyes flew open wide and she quickly slapped both hands across her mouth and mumbled in frightened tones through her hands. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to break the confidentiality."

Kell Brackett knew they had come to the point where they needed to tackle Jenny's misunderstandings about confidentiality and only hoped her respect for him as a Doctor would allow her to trust in his explanation and then searched his thoughts hard to find the right words for her situation.

"Jenny, you didn't break any confidentiality. Here in this room we're all doing just what you did, we're taking all the information that we have and trying to decide what it all means. And how to use that information to see that Allen and Tracy and their mother get all the help that they need." "In this room you can tell us everything you know and their will be no broken confidentiality."

"But some of these people are police people, and Mommy not a medical care person?" Jenny questioned and Kell smiled.

"There is more to taking care of people medically than just giving them medicine and the things we do here at the hospital. In this case, we also need to do what we can to help keep Allen and Tracy and their mother from getting hurt as often as they have been, that calls for the help of police people," he used her own word, "that's also where we think you can help the most right now. We think you know things that if you tell us we can stop them from getting hurt again." Kell explained then took a deep breath.

"As far as your mommy she is most certainly a very special medical care person she has taken care of you and your brother since before you were born. She had to know what to eat herself to make sure you got the vegetables you needed while you were growing in her tummy and then when you were born she was the one who took care of you and knew before anyone else did if you were getting sick and needed to be seen by the doctor, and then because you couldn't talk yet she had to tell the doctor what you were showing her by not eating or crying or pulling on your ears or anything else you did so that the doctor knew how to make you feel better."

As Jenny thought about what she was being told and looking at her mother in a new light Kell though of one more thing he could say that he hoped would put Roy and JoAnne in this girl's confidentiality circle for the rest of her life.

"Jenny, do you remember when you were telling me about Allen hurting his wrist and asked how you could get people to believe you?"

"Yeah," Jenny answered but was clearly confused and not sure where this conversation was leading to.

"Well not very many kids your age do know what they are talking about if they talk about first aid, lots of kids your age pretend and play act, using words they heard on TV or other places. I know that you know what you're talking about, so do Dr. Early and Dr Morton. And so do your Mom and Dad and a few other people. The facts are that their just isn't anyone else out there your age who knows this stuff like you do and no one expects you to know it either. There are a lot of people out there that you'll meet that will think you're just play acting, So I'm sorry to say that until you get to be as old and big as most people think you need to be to know what you're saying that you're going to have to tell the people that know you and just how smart you are and let them make sure that other people get the message.

What I'm trying to say is that your Mom and Dad are always safe to talk to and tell them about anything that you think is confidential and they can help you understand some of the things that you see and feel but don't really understand and they can help the other people listen to you."

The room remained silent but everyone in it could almost see the gears going in Jenny's head as she thought about and tried to fully understand what Dr. Brackett had just said.

"Soooo, I can tell every body here what I know, do they have to be in this room for me to talk to them?" Jenny thoughtfully asked for clarification.

"I don't think that's necessary, especially your parents, you can talk to them any where you are." Kell welcomed her questions and the understanding they gave him of what more she needed from him.

"But I still shouldn't talk to my brother or his friends or any of the kids at school about stuff to do with people that I help?"

"That would be a very good thing," Miss Marlow spoke up, "You could be telling things that aren't anyone else's business."

"Can I still tell Nurse Lilton at school when I think someone is hurt or I do some first aid on them?"

"That would be a very good idea," Miss Marlow answered again showing surprise in the young girl's questions. "It's her job to make sure that any one who is hurt at school gets all the treatment that they need and to do all the paper work. Do you always tell Nurse Lilton when you do first aid?"

"Yes Ma'am, every time even when I only hand someone a band aid and they put it on themselves." Jenny responded with such passion in her voice that no one questioned her. But Kell could see Miss Marlow rubbing the end of her pen at the side of her face and could tell that Jenny's answer held more for her than just the assurance that the seven year old in question wasn't running her own playground clinic.

"The first question I would like to ask you young lady is where did you learn about Confidentiality?" Miss Marlow started off.

"From Nurse Dixie McCall," Jenny answered matter of factly. "She explained that she couldn't tell me everything that was hurt on Allen because it would break the confidentiality. But I still didn't understand how it worked so I called my Daddy at work. He wasn't there though he was running in the Squad. So I asked Captain Stanley. He knows tons of stuff, he's almost as smart as a doctor but he's not as busy."

The doctors in the room hid their giggles at that remark any way they could but Roy made a mental note to make sure his Captain knew what his daughter had just said of him.

It took nearly two hours for Jenny to tell them everything she knew or suspected and to answer every ones questions to clarify the information she was giving them. Jenny wasn't able to give them dates but instead referred to the number of days before or after an event that she remembered. When she had told all that she knew she had given the police peoples more information that she ever realized that she knew. There was still the issue of her age that they had to deal with but they were much less worried about that than they had been.

Roy and JoAnne realized that their daughter had been in a war zone of sorts in a place where she should have been and felt safe. They were worried about what was yet to come.

Before the meeting came to a close Dr. Brackett and Miss Marlow asked permission to accompany the DeSoto's to their meeting with Mr. Bunker the next morning and they both were intent that this Teacher would leave it knowing Jenny had every right to run away from him and he was not to even as much as speak to this girl.