Chapter 16.

Ellie packed up the baby's things and said good-bye to her father.

"We'll come see you at the hospital," Pat Cleary said, hugging her before she picked up the baby in his carrier.

We stopped in town so that Ellie could tell her mother we were taking the baby to PPTH. Her mother seemed to realize that it was necessary, but she wasn't happy about it. After another stop at Boomer's to let Jake know that Ellie had to take a couple of days off, and having him reassure her she'd still have her job when she returned, we finally got on the road.

We arrived at the hospital, and I arranged to admit both mother and child and put them in the same room. I sent Chase and Thirteen to tell Foreman and Taub that we had a patient, rather, two. But once Ellie and Christopher were in their room, I left to join my team.

Unfortunately, I encountered Cuddy on the way. "Where have you been?" she demanded.

"I told you. I had a patient in Dorsey."

"Had?"

"The patient is now here in the hospital," I said. "You said I should have him admitted, so I'm sure that makes you happier." I didn't mean to sound sarcastic. It just came out that way.

Cuddy's eyes narrowed. She hadn't really believed I had a patient.

"We're going to do some genetic testing on Christopher, and his mother, too," I told her. "Unfortunately, we think he might have Hunter Syndrome."

The look on her face changed to one of horror. "Oh! Poor kid!"

"So, now can I get back to work?" I asked. For once I had the high moral ground, and I milked it for all it was worth.

"Yes, of course." She walked off shaking her head.

When I finally joined the team, Chase told me, "We finally got the initial genetic results for Christopher from the blood you took before today."

"And?"

"Inconclusive for Hunter Syndrome," he said. "We'll need the more thorough genotyping to be sure, of course. I'll take more samples from the baby and Ellie after we get the next set of results."

I nodded, then looked at Foreman and Taub. "We're still open to other suggestions."

Taub shook his head. "We agree with your diagnosis. It fits."

"Foreman?" I was hoping that his need to have his own say, to refute whatever Chase and I'd come up with, would give him the incentive to suggest an alternative diagnosis.

"If you're sure it's a genetic problem, I'd go with 14q+ syndrome or 1q deletion," he said. "But I really think it's Degenerative Central Nervous System Disease."

Those weren't bad ideas, actually. "We'll check the first two when we get the gene sequence results," I said. "And I guess it can't hurt to test for CNS degenerative disease, too."

"I'll scan his brain and spine," Foreman said, rising to do that immediately.

"He and his mother are just settling in," I said. "Give them a little while, maybe half an hour or so."

He looked at me, surprised by my concern for the comfort of the patient and his mother. "I'll schedule the scans for an hour from now," Foreman said.

I nodded. In some ways it was good that we'd brought them to PPTH. We had access to facilities at the hospital that we couldn't tap in Dorsey. I knew Ellie would be uncomfortable and just hoped we'd be able to come up with a result that wasn't completely devastating for her.

–

Over the rest of the day, we did several more tests on both patients. I was surprised by Taub's reaction when he saw them for the first time, true compassion and a determination to prove one way or the other what was wrong with Christopher.

I began to think about the suggestions that Foreman made. They seemed less likely than Hunter Syndrome, but couldn't be ruled out, not yet. But if it was one of the other genetic diseases, we were back to needing to examine his father and/or grandfather. What had Jess said about Petey? Something about amusement parks. Maybe I should have pursued it.

I needed to talk to Jess again, but that meant going back to Dorsey to find her. I didn't have her phone number and couldn't find it either in the phone book or online. The opportunity to talk to her again came out of the blue when she showed up that evening to see Christopher and visit his mother.

I'd gone to their room to make sure Ellie had everything she and her son needed before I left for the day, and there was Jess, sitting in the visitor's chair, chatting with Ellie.

"Just the person I wanted to see," I said, sliding the door open and stepping into the room.

"Me?" Jess asked in surprise.

"Yes. When you two finish with your gabfest, meet me outside," I told her.

She shrugged and went right back to asking Ellie if there was anything she could bring her. I could see she'd already brought a stuffed animal for Christopher and a bunch of flowers for his mother. I knew none of my staff had them gotten those.

I stood outside watching through the glass wall. Jess had Ellie laughing about something. I think it was the first time I'd ever seen her laugh. Jess wasn't rushing to end her conversation even though she must have been curious about what I wanted. Finally, twenty minutes after I'd asked to talk to her, she exited the room. Before she slid the door closed, I heard her promise to return the next day.

Then she turned to me. "So, what was so important? What did you want to talk to me about?"

"You said that Petey liked amusement parks," I reminded her. "Which was his favorite?"

"Well, we spent a lot of time at Great Adventure when we were younger, mainly because it's not that far away," she replied. "But I thought you didn't really need to find him anymore."

"Aside from being curious as to where he's gone off to, there's still a possibility that whatever's causing Christopher's problems is something that he inherited from his father," I explained.

"You have my blood and Nina's. Won't that tell you what you need to know?"

"Possibly. But if it's something passed down through the male line, your DNA won't show it."

She nodded. "Something to do with what's associated with the X or Y chromosomes," she mused. "I get it."

"We have one diagnosis that seems likely, but haven't been able to prove it," I told her, since she seemed to have more of a grasp of what was going on than anyone else. "One of my team thinks it might be one of two other genetic diseases, and even if their improbable, they haven't been ruled out, either. We can test Christopher's DNA but the results might not be definitive."

Jess thought about it for a full minute. "Petey always wanted to go to Orlando, to Disney and Universal," she finally said. "I wonder if he finally did."