Medical Kidnap Files 1-6, page 104
“Gabe. You are. Why are you lying to me?”
Renata could see his jaws clenching, teeth grinding. She tried to sort out what was wrong with him. He was so cold. They both knew that they had to keep their bodies running as efficiently as they could. The low level of energy that mitochondrial disease left them with had to be carefully nurtured and spent if they were to stay healthy. Gabriel’s cold skin meant that his body wasn’t heating properly, and that meant that his energy level was too low to support his bodily functions. That was why he was so hard to wake up. He literally had no energy left.
“I’m going to get you something to eat. And then we’ll find somewhere warm to sleep tonight.”
“No. I’m fine. I’ll eat something, but we don’t have to…”
If they slept outdoors when he no longer had the energy to keep his base body temperature up, he would freeze to death. Renata had no other option.
“I’ll be right back. You… hang in there. If they kick you out, wait for me at the front doors. You understand? Don’t go anywhere else. Stay at the front doors.”
His head nodded, but Renata was not at all sure that he understood. But there was no time to stay and drill it into him until she was sure he got it. She was wasting valuable time. She hurried away, thinking about the restaurants near them. She couldn’t go with discarded food or something from a convenience store. Gabriel needed hot food. Enough calories to get his furnace burning again. He was starving himself right in front of her eyes and she hadn’t even realized it. They needed more calories to combat the cold. She had increased her formula consumption to try to offset the effects of the cold, but she hadn’t been paying close enough attention to Gabriel to realize that he hadn’t even finished his morning coffee. He hadn’t taken a lunch break either. Renata had been so occupied with her research that she had not realized it. They had moved on to the reading chairs in the afternoon and she hadn’t realized Gabriel was fading.
She cursed him and cursed herself for not noticing as she took the elevator downstairs and walked across the lobby and out the doors at a sedate pace. As much as she wanted to hurry, she couldn’t afford to. Not only because she didn’t want to attract attention, but because she would burn through her own cellular stores too fast.
But she walked with purpose. No extra steps. No hesitations. She pulled on her hat and gloves and wrapped a scarf around her neck and face. She held her arms wrapped around her, keeping all of her body heat as close as she could. She hadn’t planned for extra heat expenditure during the afternoon and would have to boost her next formula feeding to compensate. But hopefully, it would take only a few minutes, she would not get sidetracked by anything else, and all would be well.
There was a burger place close by. Not normally what Gabriel would have gone for—he tried to avoid too much grease and keep as clean and healthy a diet as he could—but she needed to get a lot of calories into him as quickly as she could, in nice warm, substantial food, so it would have to do.
She crossed the street without waiting for the light to change. She would lose too much heat if she stood there waiting. Cars honked and skidded on the snow and ice. She walked slowly enough to be sure that they could see her and stop before she crossed in front of them, but just kept going and ignoring any shouts about how she was putting everyone’s life in danger by crossing the street against the lights when it was so slippery.
She reached the burger place and went inside, immediately enveloped by the comforting heat. Lots of warm air being pumped out by the furnace to keep the patrons who sat at tables in shirtsleeves warm.
Renata waited in line, her eyes swiveling back and forth, watching for anyone who might recognize her or be paying too much attention to her for one reason or another. One good thing about the cold was that it encouraged people to keep their heads down and get where they were going. People didn’t interfere with others’ lives as much they did in the hot, lazy days of the summer.
She looked at the menu. Normally, she didn’t have to read menus. She read the fine print on her formula cans to make sure that they hadn’t changed their ingredients. She lived in fear that one day they would add an ingredient that she couldn’t eat, and then there would be nothing available for her to eat. But she didn’t normally have to make sense of fast food boards. That was a joy reserved for Gabriel.
When the line moved forward, Renata gave her order quickly to the cashier. He tapped it in with slow deliberation. He advised that they had just opened a new package of burgers and she would have to wait for a few minutes while they were grilled. Renata rolled her eyes. “What do you have there that’s already made up?”
“You’ll have to wait, ma’am.”
“I can see burgers there that are ready. Just grab me one of those.”
“Those ones have already been out for too long. They need to be disposed of, and some fresh ones made.”
“Really. Just get me one of those. I don’t care.”
“Company policy, ma’am. Health regulations. I don’t have a choice. Once they’ve been out for a certain length of time, I’m not allowed to sell them anymore. It will only be five minutes.”
Renata tried again to protest, but he looked past her to the next person in line and started taking another order. Renata tried to tamp down her anger. Having a meltdown over a delay in cooking Gabriel’s burger would just burn up her energy too fast. She’d end up bonking, and would be no good to Gabriel. With neither of them able to take care of the other, they would both end up in the hospital. And that would not be a good situation. Even if the cops didn’t figure out who they were and find something to arrest them for, they still would be offline from the underground network and kids would suffer. They had to be available to keep things moving around. To make plans and see that they were implemented, even if they were not personally involved in each rescue.
She breathed in slowly, breathed out, and held her breath for a few seconds. Lots of oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. Good for energy conversion. Her heartbeat started to slow and she focused on just breathing in a perfectly regulated pattern until Gabriel’s food was ready.
She still glared at the cashier when her number was called and she went to pick up the bag of food, but he was taking someone else’s order and didn’t even glance in her direction. Renata shook her head and went back to the library, following her reverse course and again stepping out into traffic, making everyone honk and slide and yell at her. If they wanted to roll down their windows and get cold just to yell at her, that was their own choice. A stupid choice, and one that she wouldn’t have made.
Back into the library, up the elevator, and to the small grouping of chairs where Gabriel was sitting, again fast asleep, chin to chest.
“Gabe.” She shook him firmly and put the food in his lap. “Wake up. Time to eat.”
Gabriel moved slowly, robotically. The food was there, warm, with the hearty scents of greasy burger wafting up into his nose. Even if he wasn’t fully awake, his body knew what to do about that. Renata helped him to get the burger out and unwrap it, then watched as he sleep-ate the first few bites. He eventually started to look around, frowning.
“Keep eating,” Renata told him.
He looked down at the burger in his hand and took another bite. “Sorry. Fell asleep.”
Renata nodded. “Yeah, you did. What’s going on?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. Just extra tired today.”
“You didn’t drink your coffee this morning. You didn’t have any lunch.”
“Didn’t I?” He looked at the coffee cup and thought about it. “I don’t remember.”
“Put your coat on. You’re too cold. You need to get warm.”
Gabriel took a couple more bites of his burger. “In a minute.”
She nodded and watched him like a hawk. If they wore their coats for too long inside, they were likely to get kicked out, because they looked more like homeless people and less like students studying. But she needed him to get his core body temperature back up before they attempted to go outside.
“How long have you been sick?”
Gabriel stared down at his burger rather than looking at her. “It’s just mito.”
“I’m supposed to tell you if my symptoms are getting worse, and you’re supposed to tell me.”
He couldn’t argue with that. He continued to look down and eat the burger, though he was slowing. His meals were usually pretty small, living on spare change, handouts, and thrown-away food, so his stomach wasn’t used to eating much at a time.
“The cold. Having trouble sleeping. That’s all.”
“Are you getting pneumonia again?” He hadn’t been coughing, so she didn’t think that was it.
“No. Just… it’s just the cold.”
Renata nodded. She knew they were going to have to find somewhere warm to stay for a few days. Maybe more than a few days. Even once Gabriel had recovered, if they went right back to the same environment, he was just going to slide back to where he was.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Hannah pretended not to overhear LaRae talking on the phone with Filbert’s social worker as she drove Hannah to the clinic.
It wasn’t like she could avoid hearing LaRae when she was yelling right in her ear.
Well, maybe not yelling, but her voice was definitely raised over her normal speaking voice, and Hannah was sitting right next to her. If LaRae didn’t want Hannah to overhear, then she should have waited and made the call while Hannah was seeing the doctor.
“When have you arranged for Filbert to see Dezzie next?” LaRae demanded.
Hannah could make out only a few words of Mrs. Withers’s reply, but she didn’t need to hear much to follow the conversation.
“You can’t just cut them off from communication with each other. They’re brothers. Fil had a visitation appointment to see him. So what happened?”
LaRae listened to the answer. Her eyes flicked around as she navigated the traffic. Her expression was stony.
“That’s nothing new. Look at the home the boys came from. How are they supposed to learn new behavioral patterns in a few months? It’s going to take a long time to heal the damage and teach them new ways to communicate. That’s why we need to keep them seeing each other. So they can learn together. Start building a healthy relationship.”
LaRae braked for a red light and stared straight ahead.
“Why can’t they see each other? I thought their sibling relationship was a priority.”
Hannah looked out her side window, thinking about her own siblings. How long would it be before she was allowed to visit with them? How long before she was allowed to go back to her family again? If things worked out at the pain clinic, did that mean they’d let her go back home? If her episodes were managed, then there was no longer any reason for her to be away from Fae and her brother and sisters.
“What has changed?” LaRae repeated.
There was an answer from the social worker. LaRae gritted her teeth, waiting.
“Fil said that you met him at the school and told him that he wouldn’t be able to see Dezzie again. Did he misunderstand?”
Hannah was glad she wasn’t the social worker. She was going to be the target of LaRae’s ire even if she wasn’t the one who had made the decision.
“Why not?”
Hannah heard the answer clearly. “Because they want to adopt Dezzie.”
Hannah raised her eyebrows and looked at LaRae. LaRae’s dark complexion meant that she didn’t turn red, but if she’d been a cartoon character, her expression would have been spot on, and steam would have started to shoot out her ears.
“They can’t adopt Dezzie. We want to get the boys into a home where they can be together.”
The tinny words from the social worker were quieter again.
“It doesn’t matter what the foster parents want, unless they’re talking about adopting Filbert too. Are they going to adopt Filbert?”
But of course LaRae already knew the answer to that. DCFS wouldn’t be blocking the boys from visiting each other if the foster family was willing to take Filbert. They would have been making arrangements to transfer him to the same family.
“They need therapy. And they need time. I know they’re not ready to take Fil. That’s why we need to go slowly and not just jump into this. What’s the rush?”
LaRae shook her head at the answer.
“No. You’d better yank Dezzie out of there and put him somewhere else. If they’re pressuring for adoption that much, they’re sabotaging the boys being reunited. We need to do what is best for the children. Not their foster parents.”
LaRae punched the brake in the parking stall and shifted the car into park. Hannah bounced off of the seatbelt, thrown by the abrupt stop. LaRae put a hand on her knee in mute apology.
“Well, it’s not what’s best for Filbert.”
LaRae continued to talk to the social worker in the car. Hannah watched the clock on the dashboard anxiously, wondering whether she should go into the clinic without LaRae, so that they wouldn’t be late. She didn’t like being late for things. If she were late for a doctor, they might charge for the appointment anyway and go on to the next patient without seeing Hannah. It might be her only chance in months to get into the place, and LaRae was going to wreck it by yammering on the phone for so long.
But as the hour turned over on the dashboard clock, LaRae hung up on her call with the social worker and opened her door.
“Come on, Hannah. We don’t want to be late.”
Hannah hurried to get out, scraping her shin on the door. She grasped and held on to it, squeezing her eyes closed and swearing.
“What’s wrong?” LaRae walked around the car. “What happened, Hannah, are you okay?”
“I hurt my leg!” Hannah tried not to cry. She pulled her hands away from her injury with difficulty. It felt like her hands were stuck there with superglue, she was holding so tightly. She expected to see blood pouring down her leg, but there was only a light scrape.
“It’ll be okay,” LaRae said briskly. “Scrapes can hurt like the dickens, but it will pass quickly. Come on. Let’s get you checked in.”
Hannah went with her, limping. She tried to keep her hand over her shin, but it was impossible to walk and keep up with LaRae that way. She scrambled to keep up with her.
“It really hurts.”
“I know, Hannah. I hear you. But we don’t want to miss this appointment.”
“It could get infected. I’ve heard of cases where people lose their legs from something like this.”
“I don’t think so, hon’. Just stay calm about it. It will sting for a few minutes, and then it will go away.”
She didn’t understand how much it hurt. She thought Hannah had just gotten a minor scrape. She didn’t understand how badly Hannah had been injured. Hannah didn’t know why it wasn’t bleeding more, but that wasn’t the important part.
“LaRae! Wait!”
“If you can’t keep up, you’ll have to catch up. I need to let them know that we’re here so that they don’t cancel the appointment.”
LaRae hurried on ahead. Hannah nearly had to run to keep up with her. In a couple of minutes they were in the clinic reception area, Hannah puffing out of breath, angry about the way LaRae was treating her, and hurting from her injury. LaRae could have slowed down a little and waited for her, at least. It wasn’t Hannah’s fault that LaRae had talked for so long on the phone.
LaRae got a clipboard questionnaire from the receptionist. She glanced over it and handed it to Hannah. “You’re going to know the answers to these questions better than I will. I’ll fill in the address and contact information, but you’ll need to fill in medical and family history.”
Hannah looked at the fine printing and wrinkled her nose. She hated forms. She was pretty good at filling them out, and often had to help Fae to figure out the questions and what answers they should put, but that didn’t mean that Hannah liked them.
She watched LaRae fill in the address, then took over. LaRae kept an eye on her, but didn’t step in as Hannah puzzled through the questions and carefully filled in her answers. Who said that kids didn’t have the skills to fill out forms anymore?
“Good, you’re doing good,” LaRae told her.
It was a long time before a nurse came to take Hannah to the doctor’s exam room. The pretty nurse nodded to LaRae. “Give us an hour and half, then she’ll be ready for you.”
Hannah swallowed. An hour and a half? For an examination? Most of the doctors hardly looked at her for a minute and a half.
The nurse asked how Hannah was doing and made small talk while escorting her to the exam room. Only it wasn’t an exam room that she took Hannah to. It was an exercise room. There was a mirror on one wall of the room and various kinds of equipment scattered through it, as well as racks of free weights, both dumbbells and barbells. Hannah looked around.
“What’s all this?”
“It’s okay. You just relax here for a minute, and Zoe will be here to look after you in a minute.”
“Who’s Zoe?”
“Zoe is your therapist. She’ll help you to learn the exercises and your program. She’ll record your progress each week.” The nurse smiled. “She’s the one you need to impress.”
With that, she was gone. Hannah stared after her. She looked around at all of the equipment. Exercises? How were exercises supposed to help her with her pain? She wanted to tell the nurse that she wasn’t there for physical therapy, but it was too late. The woman had already left her there.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Hannah looked around for a few minutes before anyone showed up to talk to her. She looked at the various exercise machines, and eventually sat down on one of the weight benches and looked at her shin, which was still throbbing. She had enjoyed phys ed in the younger grades, where it had mostly involved playing games. But as she got older, they were more about being healthy and losing weight than they were about fun. The games that they used to play went by the wayside and, if they wanted to play anything, they had to join one of the organized teams.
