Chapter 11

Roy was quick to notice the reddish hue rushing into his son's face. This was just what they had talked about in the hall before coming into the room. "It's one of the test's they're doing on Chris, it tells them how well his kidneys and bladder are working by checking his urine." Roy quickly explained while holding his daughter's hands back.

The red tint to his son's urine told the practiced medic why his son had a catheter in but he could tell that it wasn't bad enough to rush him to surgery it just indicated a need to watch him. Roy's real concerns were in another area as he made a mental note to ask the Doctor about possible complications in Chris providing him with grandchildren; several years from now of course.

"How is it stuck in him," the ever curious mind, as always, still wanted to know.

"Jenny my dear," Miss Marlow stepped into the conversation, "There are some things that it really is better if you wait a few years to learn."

Roy glanced back and forth between Miss Marlow and his wife with a slightly relaxed and grateful sigh he offered up a silent thank you to the intervener.

"I need to talk with your brother for a while before he falls asleep because of the medicines the doctor's have given him." Miss Marlow spoke straight to Jenny bending slightly at the waist in an effort to be more on the young girl's level. "Would you like to wait outside with your Daddy or your mommy while I talk to him?"

"I'll let her stay with me," Dixie McCall offered, "If that's alright with her parents." With a nearly hidden smile that started in her eyes. "Maybe I could teach her something else to get herself in trouble with."

"How come I have to go out side?" Jenny showed her dejection, "Are you afraid I can't take it in here?"

"No it's not that at all," Miss Marlow spoke to the young girl as if she were a grown up. "The reason I don't want you here while I talk with your brother is that I'm going to want to talk with you later and I want you to tell me what you remember not what you were reminded of by listening to your brother talk to me."

"I guess that sort of makes sense," Jenny conceded before taking a hold of Dixie's offered hand, as the two moved toward the door, Jenny asked her next desire. "Can we go to the doctor's lounge, sometimes when you listen to the doctors talk about a patient you can learn lots of really neat stuff."

"And don't you think that neat stuff might violate Doctor Patient Confidentiality?" Dixie offered as a reason why she wouldn't do as she was being requested.

"I'm sure not getting this confidentiality thing down very good am I?" Jenny cringed in confusion as she and Dixie left the room.

"You need to work on it just a little," Dixie answered as she walked out the door.

As the door swung closed Miss Marlow chuckled slightly and shook her head, "She's one of a kind that daughter of yours. I must admit though I'm not sure if we should clone her or break the mold."

"Same here," JoAnne calmed with the humor.

Seeing that Chris was fading fast Miss Marlow stepped up to the side of the bed opposite his parents and placed her hands on the bed rail after turning on a tape recorder. "May I call you Chris?" she asked.

Chris looked over to his parents to see what they would say and after seeing slight nods from each of them he turned and nod his sleepy head to the lady on the other side.

"Can you tell me what happened to you today?" Miss Marlow asked calmly, "I need all the little details and as much as you can remember."

Because he was sleepy and hurting and had to stop talking from time to time to catch his breath and hold his bruised and cracked ribs, it took over an hour to get Chris's statement. Both Roy and JoAnne cringed at some of the details that were given out but for the most part Chris's statement matched the story Tony had told him back at school.

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In the nurses station Dixie was working on her reports while talking with and answering questions from young Jenny. While her father wouldn't give her the details on the tests being done on her brother's pee, Dixie did explain how the Catheter was inserted and some of the reasons why and what they were watching for. When she understood what she wanted to know about her brother Jenny started pointing to the different patients walking down the hall and asking what she should do for them if she were the first responder.

Dixie marveled at the girl's eagerness to learn but felt her questions were getting way to close to crossing the confidentiality line.

When Dixie refused to answer the last two of Jenny's questions the young girl looked at the phone and asked one on a different line. "Could I call Uncle Johnny and talk to him? I don't think he's as busy as you and I think he'd like to know about Chris."

"That's a very good idea," Dixie smiled in relief, "just let me find his phone number."

"I have it," Jenny called out as she reached into her well loved 'Emergency First Responder Bag' and pulled out her little wallet before finding the card that had all of the phone numbers her parents could thing of on one side and dimes seated in openings on the other side."

Dixie dialed the number and handed the phone to Jenny, "Unca Johnny," the girl nearly cried showing emotions she didn't feel safe showing with Dixie, "Chris is hurt really bad, they got all kinds of tubes inside of him and he has to stay in the hospital because he might have to have a operation in a mergency."

When Chris was being moved to his room, JoAnne and Roy were at the side of the gurney keeping some kind of physical touch with their sedated child as he was moved toward the elevator. Since they were moving slow Roy had a chance to look toward the nurses desk, when he noticed Dixie working on some kind of paperwork and no Jenny around I grew a bit concerned but then Dixie looked up and made eye contact with Roy and pointed toward the waiting room where John was sitting with his right foot on his left knee and Jenny was in his lap listening very carefully to what her Uncle Johnny was telling her.

The gurney stopped at the elevator and Roy could tell by the speed in which it was coming from the top floor that he had time get Johnny and Jenny to come with them. After telling Jo what he was going to do Roy hurried over and walked up behind Johnny as he talked with his daughter.

"…. the boy parts are very tender and can get hurt really easy," Roy over heard his partner telling he daughter things he wasn't sure he wanted her to know. He could tell by the tone of his voice that he was uncomfortable with the topic of conversation but he was telling her how it was and Roy liked the approach Miss Marlow took much better, "and their on the out side of the body so if they get bumped they can really hurt a lot, Even grown men will often not be able to do anything but to lay on their side and hold very tight until the pain goes away and sometime that can take kind of a long time."

Roy stopped the conversation by placing his hand on his partners shoulder and speaking quickly, "We're taking Chris up to his room now." He said with a nod in the direction of the elevator.

Johnny quickly got to his feet with Jennifer on his hip and grabbing his jacket he followed Roy. By the time the reached the gurney the elevator door was opening so they just followed the gurney inside and once the door closed Johnny got his first good look and the young boy he truly cared for as if he were his nephew.

He noticed the evident pain in his facial expressions and the mild flinching with every jolt and bump of the elevator. He was clearly medicated for the pain and sleeping but not yet comfortably. Once on the floor the visitors and parents were asked to wait until they had him settled into his bed before they came into the room.

John relinquished his hold on Jennifer so that JoAnne could take her to the bathroom and Roy filled Johnny in on as many details as he could cram into the short time that they had. As he retold the story Roy's rage grew and it was a good thing that Mr. Bunker was not there at the moment because if he had been Roy would have attempted to send him to the morgue in the basement with out the aid of the elevator.

For his part, John's actions would have been to get in the way of anyone who would try to stop him.

Jenny and JoAnne came back just at the gurney was rolled from the room and the four of them nervously fiddled around I the hall waiting for the nurse to finish collecting a fresh set of vitals. Both Roy and JoAnne were adamant that their son would have some one at his side through out the night and Johnny agreed, volunteering to take a shift at the boy's bedside himself.

They had just entered the room to find a nasal cannula had been placed on Chris along with a few other monitors.

"Because of the sedatives and pain meds in addition to the chest injuries the doctor thought it would be best to put him on oxygen at least through the night." The nurse explained only calming the adults in the room minimally.

The three adults were trying to decide who was going to take the first shift with Chris when three was a knock at the door and Miss Marlow stuck her head in. "Could I please speak with you Mr. DeSoto?"

Roy nod his head and when Miss Marlow stepped back into the hall way Roy wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and followed her.

Roy was led to a quiet nook filled with chairs were the patients often rested and looked out the window when they were walking about the hall. Once he was seated Miss Marlow sat down also with an empty chair between them.

"I've been talking to the Lawyer who is putting together all the evidence we've been gathering in regards to Mr. Bunker." Roy could tell by the look on her face he was not going to like what she had to say to him but he reminded himself not to shoot the messenger. "We are seeing a pattern emerging from the records and everything else that we have collected but not enough proof to file charges."

"What about what Jenny told you and those three boys at the school today? What about what Chris said." Roy pushed to his feet and stomped around before resting his hands on the window and looking out across the valley while trying to calm down.

Miss Marlow let him get his frustration out and sadly looked to the floor and licked her lips. "That all helps but it's not enough. The three boys you handed over to the police officer for protection, their parents won't let them make a statement."

"But why not?" Roy could understand the fear but not the unwillingness to try and stop what was happening.

"It seems that two of the three boys have older brothers who have dealt with this problem before." Miss Marlow filled in the paramedic, "According to them every effort to make them safer back fired and drew more harassment on the children. Their afraid of that now."

Roy turned his back on the social worker and started running his hands through his hair.

"Apparently this problem has gone on for several years." Miss Marlow spoke from her seated position.

"So you're saying that there is nothing we can do to protect my children. They're both targets now because they tried to help someone."

"NO that's not what I'm saying. WE have found some rather disturbing trends concerning several students at that school. We don't have enough evidence to go to a court of Law but we do have more than enough to go to the school board and insist on several changes being made. One Mr. Bunker should never be allowed to advice parents on seeking further medical treatment. He should not even be allowed in the school medical room. WE also have enough evidence to remove Mr. Bunker and his class to a secured facility away from other students."

Miss Marlow finally rose to her feet and walked over nearer Roy DeSoto. "We believe that this will improve the safety at that school enough to get other students and parents to come forth and give us enough evidence to convict all of those involved and completely understand what is going on.

It will take us a couple of days to get our meeting with the school board and the school officials I'm asking now that you keep both of your children out of school until that happens. Chris is already in a position to be excused and you will receive and aid to help him keep up with his studies. I've talked with Dr. Brackett and he as agreed to give you a written excuse for Jenny also stating that Chris's needs will not allow him to be left alone long enough to bring Jenny to school."

"I can see that working for someone like Mrs. Baldwin, or any other single parent but I can't picture them going for them from my family." Roy could see all kinds of wholes in this plan.

"Yes of course but I will be delivering the written excuse so it will get less of a challenge and by the time they decide to challenge it any way we should have the problem solved."

Roy turned and looked at Miss Marlow with his hands on his hips. "I really don't care how you do it, My daughter is not going back to that school as long as I feel that she is in danger."

"I'm glad to hear that," I promise you that I am on your side and as soon as we can get enough evidence…" Miss Marlow didn't finish her statement but Roy understood that she was going to hit this teacher with everything the law would allow and for that he felt grateful. Now if only they could get the evidence that they needed.

Roy stood with his hand on the door to his son's room for several minutes trying to decide what he was going to tell his wife when he entered. When he finally pushed the door open he saw his sleeping son with his best friend and daughter working together to comfort his loving wife.

"What's going on?" John looked up as the door quietly closed behind Roy.

Not prepared for the direct approach Roy chewed on his tongue for a minute the spoke very quietly. "It's going to take a few days for them to be ready to make their move, she thinks it will be best if we keep Jenny out of school until they do."

"But who's going to keep Mr. Bunker from hitting Tracy with his meter stick?" Jenny brought up one complication to that plan.

After whispering amongst them selves for a while trying not to wake Chris Roy decided to take Jenny home and pack an over night bag. He knew he needed to call Cap and let him know what was going on and his thought was to try and find a safe place away from home to place his family when he was at work.

John could see that Roy was at wits end and chose to drive him and Jenny home to get organized.

As Johnny drove in the Rover Roy sat in the passenger seat turned with his arm on the back of the seat looking at his daughter seat belted in the back. John was nervous at the silence as he looked back from the road to his passengers.

"Jenny honey," Roy broke the silence.

"Yes daddy,"

"What your uncle Johnny told you about boy parts, , , don't forget it. If any boys try to hurt you I want you to kick, hit or throw something at their boy parts as hard as you can and then run away as fast as you can till you find someone you trust who can keep you safe."