Lost Bird

Chapter six

The ride to the hospital was very quiet.  Uncle had an oldies channel playing quietly, and the van buzzed with unspoken questions.  When they got there, a petite red head waiting at the entrance took them back to an examination room bypassing the waiting room.  "My name's Mary, and I will be assisting Dr. Roberts today.  He will be here in a moment, but in the meanwhile, please let me get started with your vitals."

Mary had Tabitha sit on the bench, and roll up her shirt, when she saw Tabitha's arm, she went for the pediatric cuff.  "Oh, sweetie," Mary said when Tabitha's hands came in view.  Tabitha's blood pressure was a little low, and her temperature was a little high.  When Mary was finished, Tabitha looked up and saw an old man with white hair and age spots. His eyes were warm, and concerned.

"You must be Tabitha,  I'm Dr. Roberts.  This gentleman says your hands have chemicals," he said, gesturing to Uncle.  Mary handed Dr. Roberts Tabitha's chart, and moved to the other side of the bench.  "Well, I can see you're underweight, are you starving yourself?"  

"No!  We just don't have lots of food in the house!"  Tabitha exclaimed. 

"She's going to start working for me whenever you give your approval, Dr. Roberts.  I'll make sure she eats,"  Uncle declared.  

"Good to hear.  OK, your numbers are a little off, so lets get some blood work done, while I look at your hands.  My goodness!  What chemical were you using?" asked Dr. Roberts.

"I must have put too much bleach in the dish water."  Tabitha explained.  "Ok," Dr Roberts said.  "First, no more bleach in dish water.  It doesn't combine well with dish soap.  Second, if you did it accidentally, provided that you have no nerve damage in your hands, you would have stopped washing before the burns were this bad.  Did someone make you use the bleach?"

"Mother wasn't thinking.  She hates germs, and wanted the dishes sterilized, and she told me to use the bleach.  She hates complaining, and I would have gotten in trouble if I hadn't completed the task.  Mother hasn't been feeling well, and she just isn't acting like herself.  It's not her fault."  Tabitha said as Mary started putting ointment on her hands.

"Wrap the gauze loosely,  Mary. we want to protect her hands, but tight wrappings would make things worse for you."  Dr. Roberts got up, and prepared a shot.  "Now I'm going to give you some antibiotics.  We can't let your mother keep hurting you!  If she's sick, then she needs treatment, but her behavior is wrong, and it isn't your fault.  Do you have somewhere you can go when she is having an episode, or someone to call?"

"She can come to the diner," Uncle said, as Simon said, "she can call me.  I think she also lives near Alex."  

"Fine," Dr. Roberts, said.  "Now you should be able to do light work at the diner in three days, but no waiting tables for at least a month.  If I see you in here with more injuries, I will have to call someone for your own safety, Ok?"

"What do I owe you?" asked Tabitha.  "Don't worry about it, I'll take a little out of your first paycheck.  You can start eating today.  If you aren't healthy, you won't be able to do your work as well," answered Uncle. 

"Can I come back tonight?  I'll get in trouble if I'm not home soon."  Tabitha said worriedly.

"Sure,  I want you to check in several times a day too," Uncle says.  "Do you have the number?"

"I don't really have a phone....  Anytime I can get away, I'll just pop in for a minute.  Ok?" Tabitha asked as she visibly grew more anxious.  Simon and Paul talked over each other promising to fix the phone situation, but Tabitha was more stubborn in her determination to take care of it herself after she got paid.  "I can get one of those pay as you go phones or something, those aren't too expensive are they?"

"Let me guess Tabby, the corner near your house?" asked Paul.

"Yes thank you, but please don't call me Tabby, it makes me sound like a cat!"

"Ok, little one," Uncle said firmly, "I won't let the guys just buy you a phone, but we do have a company discount for diner employees.  I will also look into refurbished phones, and other less expensive options for you, and I will let you pay for it yourself.  Now in the meantime, for our peace of mind, can we get one you can borrow until you have your own tonight?"

"I guess that's ok,  I don't want to be a burden though.  You have already gone to so much trouble for me.  Thank you."  They pulled over at the corner, and Tabitha jumped out and dashed up the street.

                                                                               A report

"Shit, we need to just yank her out of there!!  Even the little we know is horrible, but how much don't we know?  Fuck!" Paul exploded.

"We can't and you know it," Uncle said sadly.  "She doesn't trust us yet at all.  Why should she?  She just met me tonight, and how often has she interacted with you?  It was only her desperation that let us get this much done."

"Your right...."sighed Simon.  "You can see how proud she is, and she was begging for the job - a job we set up just for her, no less - and was asking for only a meal in payment.  Things have to be really bad.  I'm not even sure she will actually let us know if something happens, Honey."  Simon told Paul.

"Correct, Simon."  Uncle stated sadly.  "it is going to be hard to get her to accept the help she desperately needs, but when you go to free a wild creature from a trap, you have to make friends with it first, or it will fight  you as you try to free it, and hurt itself."  

"Raven would be a good guy to handle the phone "sale".  He is pretty intimidating, but Alex can be there when he comes by with the phones.  She is probably most comfortable with him - she did sleep with him in the same room....." Simon pondered.

"Ok, lets get Luke and Vic to set up cameras all over her house.  Luke is sneaky enough to get the layout, and Vic is great with technology.  She probably won't leave home today until everyone's asleep, so they can take care of that when she comes to eat tonight."  Paul had perked up again.

"Hold on a minute boys, y 'all forgot that the Blackbourne team is on assignment in Greece this year to look in on Silas's family and investigate a trafficking ring."  Uncle explained.  "Corey, on the Toma team is definitely tech savvy enough, and Kayli is good at casing a situation now that she's had training from Luke, so they can set up the cameras."  Uncle continued.  "There's nothing else we can really do until we have those cameras up."