Disclaimer: I do not own Chicago PD or any of the characters linked to the series. They belong to Dick Wolf and Matt Ormstead. I also do not own any of the Chicago Fire, Chicago Med or SVU Characters that might appear.

Gianna Marino - Rachael Taylor

Chapter Two: Attempted Manipulation.

Cherubic.

Absolutely adorable.

The little boy sat on the exam table between his mother and step-father, a smattering of auburn freckles virtually sparkling over rosy cheeks that Gianna wished she could just squeeze. Six-year-old aqua blue eyes regard her with shy curiosity and just a hint of mischief beneath long butterfly lashes as she smiled down at him while listening to his mother who was in near hysterics after bringing her son into the ED.

"He goes to his father's house for one day and comes home like this! Somebody should call the police!" the mother cried grabbing her son's arm and all but waving it in Gianna's face. They had barely seated the little boy on the exam table and Gianna felt like someone had punched her in the chest looking at both his hands and forearms, almost all the way to his elbow, entirely burned a blistering red. There is a line of clear demarcation, with splatter marks above. Everything is consistent with the classic "stocking glove" distribution often seen after a struggling child's limbs are intentionally submerged in scalding water as punishment.

Gianna could not imagine the terror the boy before her must have endured when this occurred, she stared at the little boy who appeared unruffled and virtually pain-free despite his injuries. He seems more concerned by his mother still excitedly waving his arm around all puppet-line while the game that he had been playing to distract in the waiting room bleeps neglected on his lap now. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Gianna knew what she needed to do and recalled her rotation on burn surgery; treat his burns, wash, dress his hands, and call for social work.

"Okay Teddy… I'm just going to treat those nasty burns on your arms," Gianna said softly, she was sure the trip to the ED had been scary enough even after what he might have suffered before that without taking into his mother's rants. The woman standing behind Gianna as she worked did not stop in her ranting nor her snide comments about her ex-husband that did little to ease Gianna's concerns. Working slowly so she did not frighten or hurt Teddy more than needed, Gianna talked with him quietly asking about his school, his favourite TV show, and other things to distract him from what she was doing.

"I need you both to step outside a moment," Gianna said turning back to the mother and stepfather once she had finished, Teddy's hands now safely bandaged up and his attention already returning to the game that he had been playing. Goodwin would no doubt be hovering nearby and Gianna would not have been surprised since the mother had ranted her way all the way to the treatment room about her son's injuries.

"What happened today at your dad's house?" Gianna asked once they were alone, she did not want mother or stepfather around so that they could led Teddy into telling her what they wanted him to say. She carefully coaxed the iPad from his bandaged fingertips and took a seat across from him, a kind smile on her face while she searched his adorable face for signs of distress. The sound of the door being opened made Gianna glance over her shoulder and she peered back to see Goodwin step into the room before she turned back to Teddy who was staring at the newcomer.

"This is my friend Ms Goodwin. We'd love to hear what did at your dad's house?" Gianna encouraged, she rested her arms on her knees while she waited to see what Teddy would say. Teddy made steady, polite eye contact with Gianna with the sort of assurance that is usually not found in abused children; the eager answer bubbles out of him as a smile formed on his face.

"Me and Daddy, we played Transformers, then we had pizza, and we built a fort and picked lemons and sold lemonade and I made four dollars!" Teddy explained with a smile, holding up his swollen digits for emphasis on how much money he had made. Gianna nodded at that and glanced back at Goodwin, either this kid was really good at lying and was not going to give his father up easily or perhaps they needed to turn their attention to the parent that had brought him in.

"And after that, did you maybe take a bath?" Gianna suggested trying to do this as gently as she could, she did not want to start throwing around accusations when they did not know for sure what had happened. They needed to establish what had happened, the last thing they wanted was to put a family through hell or accuse the wrong person and end up putting Teddy in the system while the innocent tried to get him back.

"Susan bought me a green and blue super-soaker to play with in the tub!" Teddy exclaimed with a large smile on his face, he loved the toy that she had bought him and he liked spending time at his father's house when he got the chance to do did not get to see his dad much, his mother said that he was too busy to spend time with him when he had asked but whenever he spent the day at his dad's he never seemed too busy to him.

"Susan?" Goodwin asked speaking for the first time, given that some doctors tended to jump the gun when it came to child abuse, she had thought it would be a good idea to see how Gianna handled it. So far, she was pleased to see that this calm talk with Teddy was wielding more than just talking with his mother who had not mentioned anyone but the father when she had made her accusation of abuse.

"My new step-mum," Teddy replied with a shrug of his shoulders, he did not remember his parents even being together but Susan seemed nice and she made his dad happy; that was all that mattered to him even if all his mother did was rant about it. His little legs swung back and forth on the table and he stared up at the nice doctor lady that had treated his arms; he missed the look that she passed back to the other woman in the room.

"And does Susan ever run really hot baths for you, or scrub you kinda hard, if you get really dirty, outside, building forts and making lemonade?" Gianna stated leading him slightly, she felt slightly uncomfortable about doing so but they needed answers for the burns on his arms before CPS showed up and things started to get messy. Someone had done this to Teddy and Gianna could not say for sure who she thought it could be, if the abuse were not on the father's side, then they would need to investigate the mother and that would be going into care for Teddy.

"Not really." Teddy replied with a shrug of his shoulders, his answer doing little to ease Gianna's mind and she sighed getting to her feet and moving towards Goodwin already knowing what the next move would be. Sanitising her hands before she stepped out of the room with a glance back at Teddy while she tried to work out why this case was bothering her so much.

"What did Teddy say? Will his father be arrested now?" the mother asked as soon as Gianna and Goodwin stepped out of the room, a glance thrown in the direction of her son while her husband nervously stood behind her. He was chewing on his finger nails while he stared into the exam room where Teddy is now playing on his iPad; his eyes not leaving the little boy even as his wife threw questions at the doctor.

"We'll update you shortly," Goodwin stated wanting to calm them down and get Gianna's opinion before they made the next step; cases like this were never easy and when she had heard that the little boy had been admitted she had worried. Leading Gianna away from the mother and stepfather, Goodwin could not help but wonder where to start with all of this especially with the mother demanding the father be arrested.

"What do you think?" Goodwin asked once they were a safe distance away, other doctors would have perhaps already started gunning at the parent accused or jumping to make sure that the little boy was protected no matter what the cost. Gianna's approach was refreshing, she was trying to gather all the facts before she made an opinion and started throwing around accusations that could be very damaging to all involved.

"I don't know. Everything says this a textbook case of abuse even if I can't point to who, but there's something nagging at my gut that tells me there's something I'm missing," Gianna replied with a frown. She did not know what it was but the feeling that she was missing something vital here stopped her from making a judgement; she chewed on her lip trying to work out just what she could have missed.

"Perhaps a second set of eyes on this might help," Goodwin suggested wanting to be entirely sure of things before they put that boy and his family through hell; she looked around before her eyes settled on Ethan and called him over. It would not take them much to get him up to speed and Goodwin knew that time was against them, the last thing they needed was for a mistake to be made here.

"Where is he? My son? I got a call saying he'd been brought in with burns," called a man interrupting the conversation that Gianna was having with Ethan, she turned to look at the couple that were now making their way into the ED. The father looked frazzled and his eyes searched the room looking for any sign of his boy, the woman behind him resting a hand on her growing stomach as she tried to keep up with her husband.

"Sir? Can I help you?" Gianna asked approaching him, she could see he was distressed and him shouting all over the ED no matter what was happening was not acceptable. They had other patients to consider and their recovery was just as important as whoever the man was looking for; she peered back at the woman with him and offered her a reassuring smile.

"Teddy Kirkwood? I'm his father, I got a call that his mother brought him in," the man stated making Gianna stare at him, this was her patient's father and she couldn't imagine what would happen now that he was here. Just from the look on the man's face told her how worried he was for his son, she almost felt bad for suspecting that he was capable of hurting the little boy but they still had no idea who had caused the burns. Before Gianna could say anything, the man before her was suddenly punched in the face by Teddy's mother who did not wait for him to recover as she launched herself at him hitting and punching as she went.

"You monster! How could you do this to him Gavin?" the woman screamed ignoring her own husband's calls for her to stop, that her actions would upset Teddy; she ignored him in favour of continuing to hit her ex-husband. Connor and Ethan quickly moving forward to pry her off Gavin, his face bleeding and Gianna would not have been surprised if he needed stitches; she watched in shock as the mother was dragged away to cool off.

"How about taking a look at yourself Justine?" Gavin shouted angrily unable to believe that she would attack him like that, yes, their divorce had been difficult but he did not see why he was not allowed to be happy especially when she had quickly remarried after their divorce. The stepfather did not linger, slinking off to check on his wife and calm her down while Gianna was left to inform the father about his son's treatment so far since there was no evidence to say he had done this.

"I honestly don't see the father doing this. He's been helpful, absolutely devastated by what's happened and he had quite a bit to say about the new stepfather," Connor said standing in Goodwin's office with Gianna and Ethan. He had been the one to stitch up the father after depositing the mother in an area where security could watch her calm down; her ranting had made it quite clear on what she thought had happened to her son.

"He served time and from what the father had to say… he's still on parole," Connor told them with a shrug of his shoulders, Gavin had not been able to tell him why the other man had been in prison but he was betting his money on Teddy's injuries being down to him. The man swore that his son had been completely fine when he had dropped him off at his mother's when he was meant to, other than the usually abuse that he got for remarrying in the last year nothing had seemed different to him.

Goodwin frowned at that, it was not something that the mother had mentioned but it would explain why the stepfather had looked so nervous since they had arrived here. Her eyes sweeping the three doctors while she thought about what their options were, she was still waiting to hear back from CPS and she was certain that it would not be much longer before they showed up.

"What's your next move?" Goodwin asked turning to look at Gianna, she could see the woman was still troubled by something and apparently a fresh set of eyes on the case had not helped her. If Gianna's gut were telling her that something was not right then she wanted her to run with that, especially if it could spare someone some hurt in the long run.

"I want to talk to someone in Burns… I just can't stop this nagging feeling that I'm missing something," Gianna replied ignoring the scoff that came from Ethan, he thought this was an open and shut case of abuse but that nagging feeling just wasn't going away. She wanted to run with this and if she did not turn anything up by speaking to the Burns unit then she would let it go and do what was needed to make sure that her patient was protected.

Explaining the case to Dr. Sparacino, Gianna sat across from the woman curious to see if she would be able to help in anyway; Connor having accompanied her to speak with the Burns doctor while Ethan had gone back to the ED. It was strange to think that she had worked anywhere else before coming here, Gianna had found herself fitting in nicely and she was relieved to find that she was making friends here.

"He had a lemonade stand. With fresh lemons, that he picked from the tree. Did he make the lemonade himself?" Dr. Sparacino asked leaning back in her chair, peering over the top of her glasses as she waited for Gianna to reply. It had surprised her when the two ED doctors had knocked on her door, she had been just on her way out to lunch when they had come to ask her a few questions.

"Yes, I think so, but how did you?" Gianna asked recalling Teddy's recount of his day with his father, she recalled he had said those things and she was not quite sure how any of it factored into what had happened to Teddy. She turned to look at Connor who looked just as confused as she did, he shrugged his shoulders and looked back to Dr. Sparacino who chuckled at their confused looks.

"We get three or four every year. Fresh lemon juice under the sun burns the skin. Kids stick their whole arms in it, squeezing and mixing. Looks just like scald burns but it is not. He'll be okay." Dr Sparacino stated, it was a rather common especially in the weather that they had been having as of late for this to happen.

It would not do any permanent damage even if the scalds looked bad, the little chap would make a fully recovery of that, she was sure. Her words making Gianna and Connor stare at one another, this was certainly going to be interesting; the accusations that the mother had thrown around would not be forgotten lightly that, they were sure.

Both parents looked dumbfounded when they were told what had caused Teddy's injuries, his father almost looking guilty at the fact that this had happened on his watch; a simple mistake that would not cause Teddy any lasting damage. The same could not be said for the mother and Gianna certainly did not miss the frown that was plastered on her face when the news was delivered that her claims of abuse had been disproven.

There was no utterance of an apology from her as she packed Teddy up and prepared to take him home with her husband, barely sparing a glance at her ex while he kissed Teddy and promised to see him soon. Teddy throwing his arms around his father and cuddling into him, his head burrowed into his neck as he held into his father squeezing with all his strength in his little arms.

The look that she shot Gavin clearly saying that would not be for a while, Gianna's heart almost broke for Teddy and she just wanted to wrap him up in a hug. Used as a weapon to hurt his father by his mother who clearly sort to punish Gavin for moving on like she had done, even if the punishment of keeping Teddy away from his father hurt Teddy as well.

Watching Teddy being all put dragged from the ED by his mother, Gianna stared after the little boy wondering if this would be the last time that something like this would happen or if it was even the first. His mother had been dead set on the father abusing Teddy that she had even gone as far as to attack the man in range of her son. A man that had looked more concerned about his son than anything else when he had walked into the ED compared to the mother's continued rants against the man that was the father of her only child.

"Mr Kirkwood?" Gianna called moving towards Teddy's father, an idea in her mind and she knew that she had to say something; she doubted her offer would mean much but she could see how much Teddy adored his father. Gavin and his wife stopped to look at Gianna as she approached them, the two of them almost looking nervous especially after being told how close it had gotten for CPS showing up and taking Teddy from them.

"If you ever need a character witness… give me a call," Gianna offered holding out her card, the look of pure gratitude on his sad face made her want to cry; it was times like these that she was reminded that sometimes the system in which they trusted in did not work as it should.

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