Never Give Up

Amber

We got back to Cristina's house to grab our things. On the way out, I yelled to her mom. "Bye Moma!"

"Bye sweetie!" She yelled back.

I took Alex home first, but it turned out to be quite a long night.

We pulled up to the trailer and another car was sitting in the driveway, which wasn't unusual.  Amber brought a man home almost every night and left Alex to clean upthe mess the guy left when he ran out. 

"Looks like she's got another man." Alex said.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked.  He hated when we asked him that because I guess he saw it as we thought he couldn't handle his own, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth.

"Yeah, I'm fine. See you tomorrow."

We heard yelling and all of us ran inside where a big, tall, dark haired man was hitting Amber. Alex grabbed the man and somehow, threw him out of the door. "Get in your car and never come back!"

I ran to Amber whose face was bleeding. "Amber, are you okay?" She was crying.

Alex handed me a washcloth and I wiped her face. We knew the routine all too well. When Amber was off, and even if she wasn't, she went to the bar and brought home a guy who ended up hitting her or something of that nature and Alex had to help her. Sometimes we were there to help.

Her face looked pretty banged up. "We need to take you to the hospital." I told her.

Alex freaked out. "Mer, we can't do that. We have no money!"  Many nights ended like that.  They had no money, which meant they couldn't pay for insurance, so no hospital would take them.  

I thought for a minute.

"Fine. Hold this on her cheek. I'll be right back."

Alex held the cloth and I ran to my car. I always kept a first aid kit in my car. It was one of the perks of being a surgeons daughter I guess. I got back into the trailer and tried to stitch her up.  I wasn't my mother, but stitches werethe first thing she taught me to do; oneof the only things my mother did right. 

"You'll need to get that checked out.  I tried the best I could, butwithout the right equipment I can't do much." 

Amber shook her head, but I knew she wouldn't get it checked out.

"Amber, look at me."

She looked up and I saw the sadness in her dark brown eyes that she passed down to Alex.

"It could get infected and that could cause all sorts of problems. Promise me you'll get it looked at."

"I promise."

I shook my head and stood up. "Come on O'malley. We've gotta get you home."

George was in awe. He had probably never seen anything like that.  There seemed to be quite a few firsts when he started to hang out with us. 

We got in the car and I knew he would ask questions. How I would answer them, I did not know.