Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE
FIRE
When the call came in through dispatch, Paramedics Sylvie Brett and Emily Foster were sitting for the first time to finally have a super late breakfast-but-don’t-want-to-call-it-brunch-and-miss-out-on-an-actual-lunch of tacos and juice with a side of cold egg sandwiches when a call came in.
“Ambo 61, Young female, down in the street, suspected robbery victim, passerby called it in. Corner of Broad and Vine Avenue.”
Foster put down her taco as Brett sighed and placed her egg sandwich away, for the third time that day, and started the ambulance.
“Copy Main,” Foster radioed back. “Ambo 61 responding.”
“We’re going to need a response team of our own if we don’t get some food in us,” sighed Brett.
“Oh, I’m eating this taco,” Foster said as she took a big bite and started to chew quickly. “Drink your juice!” she insisted as Brett glanced at her.
As the ambulance pulled up to the corner, they could see a young woman limping away from the alley, another female seemingly trying to talk her to not leave.
“Looks like that’s our girl,” Brett said, stopping the vehicle as Foster nodded and they both hopped out.
Emily Foster moved to get the medical bag as Brett walked across the street to the limping girl.
“Hey! I’m a paramedic, can we stop walking for a minute so I can look you over?”
The young woman stopped long enough to glance over her shoulder and see Brett, but she went right on walking, limping forward.
“Did you see that?” Foster hurried beside her. “Was that a black eye?”
They headed forward and, with the young woman’s limping pace, were quickly able to get in front of her.
“Hey, you don’t look okay,” Brett stood right in front of her, and noticed that the young woman was quite young indeed. Mid teens at best. “We’re only here to help.”
“I didn’t call you,” she spoke. “You can leave.”
“Listen,” Foster insisted. “You’re not looking so great, and we – legally – we can’t leave if we see someone injured.”
“We’d get into so much trouble,” Brett agreed. “Please, just let us look you over.”
“You can’t really want to drag yourself around on a bad leg.”
“And, this isn’t exactly a great neighborhood to walk around in. Even in the middle of the day.”
“Please,” Foster reached out and placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders, loosening her hold when she noticed her grimace. “Let us help.”
The girl glanced over at both of the women, and down the street.
“I don’t need any hospital,” she insisted.
“We just want to help,” Foster repeated.
“Let’s go sit in the ambo and look you over, okay? We might not even have to go to the hospital,” Brett started to put her hand on the girl’s back, but at her flinch she removed her hand and stepped half a step back. “We just want to help.”
A few more glances, and the girl started to move back towards where they had parked the truck without a word, and the women stuck close to her.
At the back of the ambulance, Foster helped the girl to sit as Brett grabbed a stethoscope and prepared to look her over.
“You want to tell us what happened?”
“No,” the girl grimaced as Foster tilted her head to look at her eye.
“Is someone going to come after you? Should we leave this area? We can take you somewhere safer.”
The girl shook her head.
“They’re gone. I’m safe. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Listen,” Brett sighed. “There’s only so much that we can do as paramedics here – but if you’re feeling threatened, or you think you can’t talk because they’ll find –
“You’re not all that great at listening,” the girl groaned. “I said I am safe. I’m not scared. I’m not threatened. What I am is late, and bothered by all of this unnecessary commotion.”
Brett listened to the girl’s heartbeat and breathing, both showed indications of unrest – and taking the girl’s blood pressure proved enough as it was slightly elevated to a likely stressor.
Foster got her an ice pack and took a swipe at her forehead for a temperature – but she was otherwise just fine.
At the closer distance, they were able to note that the girl was very young, thin, and as far as they could decipher, either a runaway or homeless. Setting her free back into the streets didn’t feel like the right option. The women both shared a look; one that was slightly harder for the girl to see through her one good, non-covered eye.
“I really need to look at your leg, make sure it’s not bad off too bad,” Brett stated. “We should move into the van for a bit of privacy.”
“It’s fine,” the girl shook her head. “It’s not broken.”
“Sprains and bruises aren’t good for you either,” Brett told her.
“I’ll rest once I get home.”
“We’ll take you there. Finish looking you over,” Foster offered, ignoring the look Brett was shooting her.
“No.”
“We do need to finish see to your injuries. Please.”
With a groan, the girl turned to glare at Brett. “You’re really persistent, you know that?”
“She is,” Foster added.
“Yeah, well it’s annoying.”
“We’re just trying to help. I’m Sylvie, by the way; and this is my partner, Emily.”
“Hi,” the girl raised the ice back to her face.
“What’s your name?”
“Not interested,” was her reply.
“Well, parents sure are getting more creative with the names nowadays,” Foster joked, though neither Brett nor the girl seemed amused.
“We’re just trying to –
“Help. Yeah, you keep saying,” the girl interrupted. “But what are you helping, when I don’t need it? I wasn’t the one that called you.”
“The call said that you were passed out on the streets,” Brett told her sternly. “And we can’t know that you – particularly your head – are okay unless we look you over.”
“Head injuries are very serious,” added Foster. “Sometimes you can even feel completely okay – and then things can go bad, real fast.”
“We’re not just trying to scare you, please let us get you to the hospital so that you can get all checked out. We don’t want to have to come back here in a few hours and find your body.”
The girl cringed at that comment, and while it was a tad harsher than what the two medics would normally say, they also weren’t lying. There was only so much that Brett and Foster could do.
They took a look into the girl’s eyes, noted that it seemed she had a bit of a concussion, and again offered to look at her leg, but the girl still refused.
“I’ll just take an aspirin and-
“Okay,” Foster interrupted her. “Let me stop you right there. Aspirin isn’t the way to go with this. You’re too young to have it.”
“It’s Baby aspirin.”
“No,” Brett shook her head. “That just means it’s a lower dosage, not that it’s intended for babies. Please, never take aspirin or any medication unless a doctor tells you it’s okay.”
“It’s over the counter stuff,” the girl rolled her eyes.
“Which is why it’s so dangerous,” Brett insisted. “People use it without thinking.”
“And with a head injury, you can make things worse for yourself. You could be thinning out your blood and cause yourself to bleed internally.”
The girl shook her head and started to stand. “You’re hassling me unnecessarily,” she said. “I’m fine. And I’m not scared.”
But when she took a step, and maybe from thinking about all of this head injury nonsense, the girl started to waver, and on her already unsteady stance, she started to tip over. If not for the quick hands of Brett, she would have hit pavement.
“Easy now,” Sylvie helped the girl back to sitting.
“No, we have to take you in.” Foster insisted, her face becoming stern. “I’m not taking no for an answer. I’ll radio in a patrol assistance if I have to.”
Sylvie held a hand up to her friend and colleague. It had been quite a hard, harboring week. There had been three big fires in the past five days and at least one casualty in each. They were still trying to not so actively listen in on the conditions of the other victims and it looked like two sisters from the second fire weren’t going to make it.
It was hard for most of the members of Firehouse 51 to find some good sleep those days.
The thought of letting this girl just wander off; of all of the possibilities that could amount to her – it was more than either woman was willing to entertain.
“That can really happen?” the girl asked before Brett could refute Foster’s claims. “With the aspirin?”
“It’s a possibility,” Brett nodded. “Especially if there’s a secondary injury. There’s so much that could happen, so much we don’t even know. But, I promise we’re not just talking to scare you.”
“I’m sure they’ll have you in and out, two hours tops,” Foster insisted.
“Best case scenario,” Brett added quickly.
The girl frowned.
“It’s better safe than sorry,” Brett continued, with a softer tone and a smile. “Right?”
The ride over to the hospital was uneventful, but the light was clearly making the girl’s headache worse as she sat, cringing and finally ducked her head into her jacket by the time they arrived at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center.
Foster pulled to a stop at the ambulance bay, and Brett started to ready the trolley bed to get down as Foster hopped out.
“I can walk,” the girl insisted, dismissing Brett’s actions.
“It’s protocol,” Brett started to explain.
“I will walk,” the girl insisted. “I already question whether you’re telling the truth about the aspirin and the head-injuries, but we both know that if I’m capable of walking, there are no laws that state I should procure any resources beyond those necessary. Or do you get some kind of quota to fulfill on how much useless stuff you get to charge people with?”
“We’re not trying to manipulate you, kid,” Foster insisted, having shown up now with a wheelchair. “And we’re not lying. Misleading you would actually be against the law. So, yes aspirin can be dangerous and deadly, and head injuries should be taken extremely seriously. Now, let’s go.”
The girl frowned at the wheelchair, and she even looked a bit puzzled at its appearance, a look that both paramedics noticed.
“Come on,” Brett nudged her gently towards the back of the ambulance and Foster’s awaiting ride. “You don’t want to make us look bad, do you? I mean, if word gets back to our boss, that we have a patient that is actually well and that we mistreated, we’re going to sound incompetent and negligent. And those are not good things.”
The girl rubbed at her eyes. “I doubt that very much, but I also note that I already agreed to come, and you’ve piqued my anxiety-driven curiosity, so,” she moved forward and her footing was shoddy, but with Brett’s guiding hand and Foster at the bottom to catch her, they soon had the girl on the wheelchair and Brett took the back of the chair to guide her in and Foster took the moment to ready their vehicle again, and call in their location.
MED
“And who do we have here?” Maggie smiled as she walked around the center desks and towards the approaching pair.
“We have a bit of an issue here, Maggie,” Brett told her with a bit of a tight face. “Maybe we can start the check-up before filing up the paper work?”
Maggie Lockwood, charge nurse extraordinaire, nodded along with Brett as if she did this sort of thing every day.
“How about room four, I’ll get doctor-
“Manning,” Brett insisted. “If she’s available?”
Maggie looked over at one of the other rooms, where the doctor was with another patient. She nodded and smiled along. “Monique!” She called out over her shoulder, and the younger blonde nurse appeared.
“Maggie?”
“Can you help these ladies over to four and get our friend here settled in?”
Monique looked over at the girl and instantly nodded with a smile.
“Sure thing,” Monique led Brett and the girl towards four while Maggie turned and headed to room seven.
Inside seven, Natalie Manning was telling a distraught mother about her young daughter’s condition, with a determined look to her.
“I know it sounds terrible,” Dr. Manning was saying, “but there’s so much medicine and information about this nowadays.”
“But she’s so little,” the mother cried. “She can’t watch what she eats, and checking her blood every day? She’s going to be in so much pain.”
“It’s not like that,” Dr. Manning insisted. “I know it all sounds overwhelming right now, believe me I have a four year old too. But, once you talk to a specialist, you and your family will have a plan in place and this will all just be one more part of your day. If you start thinking that it’s scary, Emily will think this is something scary. If you can show her how brave you are, then she will be brave too. It’s something new, and it will be a change, and you will have to be more careful, but you can show her how to go forward and take control of this and anything that comes her way.”
The mother looked over at her sleeping daughter, so tiny and yet so ill. She nodded and wiped at her eyes. She could be strong for her daughter. She could learn what she needed to learn and be on top of making sure that their family was informed and prepared for whatever the future had in store for them.
“Okay,” she sighed.
“Be brave, Momma,” Dr. Manning smiled at her.
Making a note in the girl’s chart, Natalie stood up and headed for the hall, spotting Maggie.
“Maggie,” Natalie sighed. “My heart is in a thousand pieces for that mom.”
“I heard you in there,” Maggie patted her shoulder. “You told her everything she needed to hear. It’s not an easy job, not for any doctor, or any mother.”
“You’re right,” she nodded. “You always know just what to say to me, Mags.”
“That’s because you’re smart enough to know to listen to me,” Maggie teased.
“Did you have something for me?”
“I did, in Four,” Maggie pointed out. “Sylvie Brett just brought in a girl, and she didn’t say much, but she asked if you could see her.”
“Sure,” Natalie nodded and they moved towards the room. “What happened?”
“She didn’t say anything, but the girl is pretty young. Looked banged up.”
The two women shared a look. This could be a case to go in so many ways. While they both were open to the most optimistic of situations, neither was willing to look away from a difficult case.
“Should we tag in DCFS?”
“I don’t know yet,” Maggie stopped at the door where they could see Monique finishing off with the girl’s vitals.
Natalie instantly saw the marks on the girl’s face. The black eye and the scrapes by her chin and neck. And that was from a few feet away.
“Maggie,” she sighed.
“Be brave, Momma,” Maggie griped at her arm before turning to leave.
With a deep breath, Dr. Manning stepped into the room, prepared to do her job – even if her heart was breaking into another piece yet again.