Owen, DeLuca, some nurses and Travis all run into Brooklyn's room where they see her having a seizure.
'Push lorazepam!' Owen orders as he puts Brooklyn on her side. DeLuca nods, rummages through the drug cart and gets a syringe of lorazepam out. He connects it to Brooklyn's cannula and pushes it through. 'Do you know if she hit her head or not?' Owen asks, looking at Travis.
'No.' Travis shakes his head.
'Is she on any medication?' DeLuca queries.
'Not that I know of.' Travis shakes his head once more. Brooklyn stops seizing and DeLuca puts an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth.
'Let's get her for a stat head CT scan and page Dr Shepherd.' Owen says to DeLuca. DeLuca nods and walks out. Owen turns to Travis. 'Are you allowed to make decisions on her behalf?'
'What are you saying?' Travis raises an eyebrow. 'She may need surgery?'
'It's possible.' Owen nods.
'I should be able to.' Travis smiles. 'Just do whatever you need to do. Her foster parents would say the same.' DeLuca walks back in.
'CT are ready.' He informs Owen. Owen nods and raises the side of the bed whilst DeLuca raises the other side. One nurse stands behind the head of the bed and unclamps it before taking Brooklyn to the CT scanner with DeLuca close behind them.
'You can wait in the waiting area. Someone will come and find you when we're done.' Owen tells Travis. 'Or do you need to go back to work?'
'My captain has given me the rest of the shift off.' Travis tells him. 'I'll wait with her until her foster parents.'
'If you go to the ER waiting room, I will come and find you once we're done.' Owen replies. 'I've got to go and catch up with them but I will come and find you once we've got the results of her CT scan.'
'Thank you.' Travis nods. Owen smiles and walks away. After a few minutes, Travis walks to the ER waiting room, sits down in a chair and puts his head in his hands.
Meanwhile, in the radiology department, Amelia Shepherd is reviewing Brooklyn's head CT with Owen and DeLuca.
'This girl wasn't brought in for a head injury?' Amelia asks.
'No.' DeLuca shakes her head.
'Strange.' Amelia states.
'Why?' Owen looks at her.
'She has minor swelling on her brain and what looks like multiple contusions. She also has a fracture at the base of her skull.' Amelia points at the areas of the scan she's talking about.
'I'll call CPS.' Owen stands up.
'Woah, woah, woah!' Amelia stops him. 'We shouldn't rush to conclusions.'
'I'm not.' Owen shakes his head. 'She's already in the system. Her foster parents are on her way. I don't want to send her back with them until I know that they're not abusing her.' He's about to walk out of the room when the machines Brooklyn is hooked up to start blaring again. The three doctors run into the scanner room and pull her out.
'SATs are 85.' DeLuca tells them. '84.'
'Chest expansion is uneven.' Amelia points out. Owen listens to her chest.
'Massively reduced breath sounds on the right.' Owen says.
'Pneumothorax.' They state together.
'I'll get a chest tube tray.' DeLuca runs out of the room and a couple of minutes later, he returns. Amelia is intubating Brooklyn.
'SATs dropped to 74.' Owen tells him. Owen and DeLuca gown up for the insertion of the test tube, puts the gloves on and preps Brooklyn. By now, Amelia has intubated Brooklyn.
'SATs have improved to 79 and holding.' Amelia tells them.
'Not ideal.' Owen shakes his head. 'This has got to be one massive pneumo.'
.
Half an hour later, Owen walks back to the ER waiting room with Amelia. As soon as Travis sees him, he stands up and walks over to him.
'Travis, this is Dr Amelia Shepherd, she's out chief of neurosurgery.'
'What took so long?' Travis questions.
'There was a complication.' Owen states.
'What complication?' Travis asks, worried.
'Brooklyn has a pneumothorax which is most likely why she felt pain in her chest earlier.' Owen replies. 'We've put in a chest tube but we've had to sedate and intubate her as her oxygen levels got down to 75.'
'What did the CT scan say?'
'Brooklyn has some minor brain swelling which has caused increased intracranial pressure.' Amelia starts. 'It also looks like she has multiple brain contusions. She also has a fracture at the base of her skull.'
'What?' Travis gasps, not being able to believe what he's just heard.
'The injuries weren't caused when she passed out.' Owen shakes his head.
'We've put Brooklyn into a hypothermic state to try and relieve the swelling.' Amelia informs Travis. 'Dr Hunt mentioned that your sister is in the foster care system.'
'Yeah.' Travis nods. 'Her foster parents are still about an hour away so I've left a message for her social worker.'
'We're going to have to bring up concerns of abuse.' Owen informs him.
'I know.' Travis nods. 'It's just hard to believe that Karen and Mason, they're her foster parents, would do anything like this.' He adds. 'They're not her first foster family but they're the first foster family that has willingly let Brooklyn see me. Before them, I was always told that I had to go through her social worker and be supervised and I could only see her for a certain amount of time a week.'
'Thats got to have been hard.' Owen says. 'For both of you.'
'Yeah.' Travis nods.
'If you don't mind me asking, what's the reason being Brooklyn going into the system?' Amelia asks.
'Our parents died five years ago and given mine and my husband's jobs with the Fire Department, we weren't allowed to take her in.' Travis explains.
'Would you like someone to call youe husband? You shouldn't be here alone.' Owen queries.
'He died nearly two years ago.' Travis replies.
'I'm so sorry.' Owen sympathises. Travis smiles slightly. 'Is there anyone else we can call for you?'
'I'll call my partner.' Travis nods. 'When can I see Brooklyn?'
'We can take you now, actually.' Amelia says. 'Follow us.' Amelia and Owen turn around and lead Travis up to the ICU. They take her to Brooklyn's room. 'I'll be in to check on her in about an hour.'
'Thank you.' Travis smiles and nods. He walks into the room and sits down in the chair next to bed. He holds Brooklyn's hand. 'When you wake up, you need to tell me what happened. I need to know that this wasn't Karen and Mason.' Just then, Grant walks into the room.
'Oh my God!' He gasps. Travis looks up at him.
'How'd you know she was here?' Travis asks. Grant walks over to Travis and kisses him.
'Maya called me.' He replies as he sits in the chair next to him. 'I would have come sooner but I couldn't get away from work.'
'Thank you for coming.' Travis smiles at him.
'Hey.' Grant puts his hand on Travis' knee. 'She's your family. Your family is my family.' They kiss once more but are interrupted by Ryan clearing his throat. Travis and Grant look at him.
'Sorry to interrupt.' Ryan apologises.
'It's okay.' Travis smiles.
'The doctors have brought me up to speed.' He starts. 'I think I may know how she got the injuries.'
'How?' Travis asks. Ryan walks further into the room.
'I've been in contact with Brooklyn's school.' Ryan begins. 'She's been having trouble with a group of girls, and lads, for that matter. There have been a few incidents after school and before school. Members of the public called the school to say that they've witnessed this group beating Brooklyn. They've kicked her, punched her, slapped her, bashed her head against a brick wall.'
'How'd they know it was Brooklyn they were beating up?' Travis questions.
'One witness approached her after one of the incidents. Apparently Brooklyn insisted she was fine.'
'Sounds like her.' Travis laughs.
'She dropped her school ID.' Ryan continues. 'So she took it to the school and explained what she saw. After that, she told her neighbours to keep their eye out for anything like it happening again and word spread throughout that neighbourhood.'
'Can't you arrest these guys?' Grant asks.
'Unfortunately not.' Ryan shakes his head. 'PD have been involved before and Brooklyn has said that she doesn't want it to go any further. They're going to be kicked out of the school.' He adds, pissed off. 'I've read the reports and believe me, I wish I could arrest them.' He sees Travis boiling up with anger. 'Don't go and do anything stupid, Travis. I don't want to be arresting you too.' He then leaves. Grant looks at Travis.
'She didn't tell you about any of this?' Grant asks him.
'No.' Travis shakes his head.
.
A couple of hours have passed. Karen and Mason have arrived at the hospital and Travis and Grant have returned to work. Ryan and CPS have spoken to Karen and Mason and have come to the conclusion that they are not at fault for Brooklyn's injuries. Travis is in the workout room on the bike when Vic walks in. She gets on the other bike and cycles too.
'How's Brooklyn?' She asks him.
'I don't know. I haven't called her foster parents yet.' Travis says. 'But when I left she was going better.'
'You're angry.' She states. 'At her.' He stops cycling and looks at Vic. Vic also stops cycling.
'She was being beat up by this group from school and she didn't tell me.' Travis tells her. 'And now she has a skull fracture and brain injuries.'
'Travis, you gotta understand that she was probably scared and-'
'She tells me everything!' Travis exclaims. 'Everything! She's never hidden anything from me!' He gets off the bike and storms off, bumping into Sullivan on the way out.
'I thought I gave you the rest of the shift off.' Sullivan asks.
'I need to be here, Captain. I need something to do.' Travis responds.
'Your head isn't in the right place, Montgomery.' Sullivan shakes his head. 'Go home or go to the hospital and be with your sister.'
'Captain-' Travis starts to say but Sullivan cuts him off.
'That's an order, Montgomery!' Sullivan folds his arms.
'Fine.' Travis sighs and walks off.
~~
Here you go! Hope you enjoyed!
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