- - -
cancer is a biological bully, always picking a fight. and it'll sneak up on you. it'll wait until the body feels safe, until it feels healthy and strong.
- - -
lia furrows her brow as she walks towards the hospital through the ambulance bay, where there is a truck unloading multiple bags of sand, and owen is ordering around several workers.
"what is all this?" lia asks owen.
"weather report says a massive storm is coming," he explains. "hurricane force winds and heavy rain."
"you're kidding, right?" lia raises a brow. "another storm."
"they say this one's only about a day out, so we don't have as much time to prepare as we did for the last one," owen tells her.
"eh, could be worse," lia shrugs. "i could be in labor during yet another storm."
- - -
that's when cancer will move on in and get bigger and bigger. the body never even saw it coming because cancer is the master of surprises.
- - -
"what's goin' on?" deluca asks when a paramedic runs into the e.r, and places a tiny, bundled up baby down on one of the empty gurneys.
"premature newborn found in a trash can at turner prep school," the paramedic informs him. "the umbilical cord's still attached."
"you didn't start an i.v?" deluca furrows his brow. "he's dehydrated."
"we couldn't find a vein," the paramedic explains.
"i need to get an i.v access. get me an i.o needle. and i need a neonatal intubation kit," deluca orders kate, the nurse, who is stood watching, but she doesn't move. "olivia, go! move. now."
"deluca, how old's that baby?" kate asks him as he begins to pick the baby back up. "wait, wait, wait. what are you doing? he has to be admitted. you can't just take him."
"just page alivia webber!" deluca shouts, ignoring her. "page alivia webber. tell her to meet me in the nicu."
■ ■ ■
"deluca," lia greets when she enters the patient room of the nicu that deluca had begun treating the baby in.
"premature newborn male with petechiae," deluca tells her.
"what's his platelet count?" lia asks as she looks over the baby's chart.
"seventeen thousand."
"seventeen thousand?" lia looks up to him. "did you transfuse platelets?"
"yes, but it didn't help," deluca sighs.
"where's the mother?" lia's brow creases.
"i don't know," deluca shrugs his shoulders.
"dr. deluca... i'm not asking you where the mother is for my health," lia snaps slightly. "i expect you to use your brain. where is the mother?"
"i don't know!" deluca insists. "the baby was found in a trash can at a high school."
"they left him in a trash can," lia shakes her head.
"he's got some inner abdominal bleeding on c.t. you want to run some more tests?" deluca asks, but lia doesn't respond, and her eyes remain fixed on the baby. "dr. webber?"
"i need a stat ultrasound and for you the infuse two grams of i.v.i.g. if there is no cranial bleeding," lia instructs. "then find out where the mother is. i need to test for maternal platelet antibodies."
"can't you just do surgery to fix the abdominal bleeding?" deluca furrows his brow.
"if i wanted to kill him, i could do that. damn it," lia frowns. "who does this?"
"dr. webber, there are some people here about the baby," nurse kate informs her from the doorway.
■ ■ ■
there are four schoolgirls, lisa, shannon, sara, and karen sat in the lobby, each accompanied by a parent, regarding the abandoned baby.
"so what, my daughter gets a b in maths, and suddenly she's birthing babies in toilet stalls?" lisa's father argues as lia approaches.
"i'm dr. webber. i'm treating the newborn," lia introduces herself, and the four parents stand. "he has an emergent blood condition. i need to know whose baby it is i'm dealing with."
"yeah, we'd all like to know that," sara's mom retorts. "sara... talk."
"i don't know anything about any baby, mom," sara insists.
"none of us do," lisa adds.
"well, one of you must know something, otherwise you and your parents wouldn't be here," lia tells them.
"our girls- the principal said that they were the last people in the bathroom before that baby was found," shannon's mom informs lia. "so we just thought, before the police show up..."
"one of you knows, and you better confess," lisa's dad points to the girls. "i don't want my lisa messed up in this."
"look, the police will be here soon," karen's mom turns to lia. "can't you just do some sort of d.n.a test so that the rest of us can get out of here?"
"d.n.a results take days, and frankly, i'm not concerned with getting the rest of you 'out of here'," lia assures them. "if this baby isn't treated he's going to die. now i can do vaginal exams on each of the girls-"
"my daughter is fourteen years old. she's not sexually active," karen's mom protests. "and i won't have you violating her body."
"you won't have it 'cause you know it's your kid," lisa's dad argues. "i tell you what, you have my consent to do whatever it takes to prove my lisa's innocent."
"you are a sick bastard, you know that?" karen's mom scrunches her nose at him with disgust.
"a child's life is in jeopardy here," lia stresses, before turning to the parents. "and it's not your consent that i need."
"we didn't do anything wrong," sara insists.
"yeah, just because we were in there doesn't mean it's our baby," karen shrugs.
"do we look like the kind of girls who get pregnant and throw their kids into the trash?" shannon raises her brow and lia exhales deeply.
■ ■ ■
lia is sat in the conference room across from the girls' parents, whilst bailey stands behind her, and deluca keeps an eye on the four girls sat outside.
"i'm giving you permission to do this thing. now what's the hang-up?" lisa's dad shouts.
"the 'hang-up', sir, is that if your daughter doesn't want to do it, i can't force her," lia explains.
"they're fourteen. they're minors," shannon's mom reminds her. "we still have a say."
"no, you don't," bailey shakes her head. "if someone doesn't want to submit to a vaginal exam, they don't have to. it's the law."
"alright. that's it," lisa's dad pulls his jacket on. "i'm taking lisa home."
"you do that, sir, and i will have you arrested before you hit the parking lot," bailey threatens, and he begins to shrug his jacket off again.
"the law isn't the only thing in play here," lia adds. "if i do a vaginal exam, and the girl is a virgin, there could be bleeding, undue trauma, not to mention emotional stress."
"well, if i had to take a guess as to whose kid won't have to worry about that-" shannon's mom nods her head towards karen's mom.
"what's that supposed to mean?" karen's mom challenges.
"it'd just be nice if karen had a curfew," shannon's mom shrugs.
"well, at least she's not a shoplifter," karen's mom retorts.
"oh, shannon stole one lipstick when she was nine," she rolls her eyes. "get over it."
"i know for a fact that my lisa is a virgin," her father insists.
"really?" karen's mom raises her brow. "and how do you know that?"
"because she's only fourteen years old!"
"they're all fourteen," the parents continue to argue as lia stares blankly, with her head in her hands.
■ ■ ■
"safe haven laws- all those girls would've had to do is drop that baby off at a fire station or a hospital," lia sighs to bailey. "now... it's a mess."
"what are our options here?" bailey asks.
"blood typing. we take a sample from each of the girls," lia explains. "the baby's blood type is double-o. if the girls are a or b, it means the baby's not theirs."
"do it," bailey nods.
■ ■ ■
"how do you not know your kid's pregnant?" deluca asks lia as they watch over the baby in the nicu.
"you love your kids. you want to see the best in them," lia explains.
"okay, then how do you have a baby and then throw it in a trash can?" deluca raises his brow.
"something happens, and you panic. you freeze, and you want to hide it and... pretend like it didn't happen," lia sighs. "and i get that. but what i don't get is what happens afterward. i don't get how... you go back to class and pretend like everything's fine. everything's not fine."
deluca nods as one of the nurses enters and hands him a piece of paper.
"oh, it's the blood results," he informs lia. "karen and lisa are not a match."
"and then there were two," lia stands up to leave.
■ ■ ■
"there he is. that's your son," lia tells shannon and sara, softly, as they stand over the baby's incubator. "i want you both to look at him... because it not true that you did nothing wrong. you both are wrong. you're wrong for covering this up. you're wrong for lying about it. you're wrong for letting this little baby, this sweet, innocent, beautiful little boy suffer like this. he's dying. and it's your fault. it's both of your fault. and the thing is, the truth will come out. in time, it will come out. it always does. it just... it just does. and when it does, this baby will be dead."
"shannon..." sara looks to her friend.
"don't tell my mom, okay?" shannon begins to cry, and lia sighs deeply.
"thank you," lia hugs the little girl. "thank you for telling the truth."
- - -
you can try to hide from a bully, but hiding won't work for long. there's really only one way to win. you have to fight back.
- - -
lia walks into an on call room that mark is already lying in, and shrugs off her lab coat before getting into the bed with mark, and resting her head on his chest.
"a fourteen year old girl dumped a baby in a trash can today. can you imagine?" lia sighs and mark strokes her hair as the sound of thunder cracking can be heard from outside. "was that the storm?"
"yeah, it's come early," mark confirms.
"we're staying again, right?" lia cranes her neck to look up at him.
"we're staying," mark nods. "hey, at least you're not in labor for this one."
"that's exactly what i said!"
- - -
and if you're lucky enough to get out alive, take just a moment to celebrate before you put your guard back up, ready to fight the next one.
- - -