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Sydney was just finishing up his daily log on the Trahern project when Broots came flying into his office.

“Is she here yet, Broots?” Sydney asked looking up at the flustered man standing in his doorway.

“Syd...” Broots began, but trailed off his voice catching. His eyes filled up and he blinked hard to clear his blurred vision. Sydney jumped up out of his chair, scared by the look on Broots’ face. He gripped the littler man by his shoulders and looked him hard in his eyes.

“Broots, what is it? What happened?”

“There was an accident, Syd.” Broots finally choked out. “A truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and hit the driver’s side of the car. He wasn’t hurt, but they just finished pulling Miss Parker and Catie out of the car a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, God. Catie was in the car too?” Sydney cried picturing the happy little girl and then picturing...

Sydney shook his head to clear out the gruesome image

“Miss Parker was hit head on, but since Catie was in the back passenger side, she only has a few cuts and bruises. They took them to Saint Hope’s Hospital.” Broots said already halfway out the door.

“Broots, how badly hurt is Miss Parker?” Syd asked as he grabbed his jacket off the back off his chair and flicked off his office light.

When Broots didn’t answer him, he grabbed the man’s arm and whirled him about to face him. Broots wouldn’t meet his gaze and Syd felt his heart tighten.

“How bad is she?” he asked again enunciating each word. Broots just looked at him and shook his head. That was all it took for Sydney to take the lead in the race to get to the elevator and over to Saint Hope’s Hospital. **********************************************************************
Sydney paced the hospital waiting room twice before a nurse came in again.

“Dr. Greene?” she said cautiously when she noticed the man looked like a caged lion.

“Yes? Is the doctor ready to see me?” Sydney asked the nervous looking woman.

“Uh, he’ll be in shortly, but first I believe you signed a release form for a certain someone?” The nurse smiled and motioned behind her.

Catie appeared behind the nurse, looking small and lost with her thumb in her mouth and her other hand in a nervous fist. She looked up and caught sight of Sydney standing in front of her and her eyes widened in relief.

“Pop-Pop!” she cried out and ran into his open arms. She sobbed into his neck as he tried in vain to calm her down.

“Pop-Pop, she wouldn’t wake up. I called to her and called to her, but she wouldn’t wake up.” she sobbed out and he knew she was talking about Miss Parker.

A man in green scrubs came into the room and caught Sydney’s eye. Thankfully at the same time, Broots hurried in from his run to get coffee and let out a sigh of relief when he saw Catie in Sydney's arms.

“Catherine,” Sydney said pulling the little girl back to look him in the eye. “I want you to go with Uncle Broots, while I talk to your mama’s doctor, okay? He’ll get you some hot chocolate and maybe something to eat too.”

She nodded and he handed her over to Broots who stood still long enough to hold the tiny child close to him before carrying her out to the cafeteria.

“I'm Doctor Smythe, the resident neurosurgeon.” The man was tall with a thick mustache and friendly eyes. Sydney liked him immediately and took the man’s extended hand in his own.

“I'm Dr. Greene.” Sydney looked at the exhausted doctor and clasped his hands in front of him. Wanting it straight Sydney asked, “How bad is she? No euphemisms, please.”

“I won’t lie to you, Dr. Green. It doesn’t look good. The driver hit her straight on and crushed her to the steering wheel. She has four broken ribs and her right arm was also broken. Unfortunately one of her ribs punctured her lungs. She arrived unconscious and when we got her into the room for surgery, her heartbeat fluctuated. We think the lack of oxygen inadvertently caused her heart to fail and for a while we weren’t positive we were going to be able to revive her.”

Sydney looked at him and sucked in his breath hard.

“But you did revive her?” he asked sure his heart would stop if the answer was no.

“Yes, we were able to bring her back, but she is in a coma and the outcome doesn’t look good.” the doctor said. “I’ll let you know if there is any change.”

“Thank you. Can we sit with her?” Sydney asked quietly, his strength running low.

“We need to settle her in her room first, then you are welcome to be with her. It may help.” Dr. Smythe said. He nodded and then left the room.

At that exact moment Sydney heard a shrill ringing and he looked around for a second, wondering what the noise was, until he realized it was his cell phone.

“Hello?” Sydney said into his phone, not understanding who could be calling him.

“Syd? What’s going on? I can’t get a hold of Parker or Broots.” Jarod’s voice floated out into Sydney’s ear.

“Oh God, Jarod.” Sydney sighed trying to figure out how to tell this man that part of his newfound family might be gone forever.

“Sydney, what’s wrong? Something is wrong. I can hear it in your voice. Where are you?” Jarod asked getting a queasy feeling in his stomach.

“Jarod, there’s been a car accident.” Sydney said slowly trying to form the words in his head before saying them.

“Is Catie okay? Miss Parker?” Jarod asked again frightened.

“Catie is fine, but Miss Parker...” Syd trailed off.

“Syd, what is it? How bad is she?” Jarod asked his mentor.

“Jarod, if you can find a way to get out here undetected, come.” Sydney said.

“Oh, my God.” Jarod said knowing that Sydney would never risk his safety unless it was life or death. That thought hit him hard and he got a chilling thought. “Syd, is she...?”

“Just hurry, Jarod.” Sydney said and hung up the phone, knowing the young man was already planning how to get here.

The waiting room doors swung open and Broots came in, trailed by a wide-eyed Catie. The little girl was still sucking her thumb and seemed to be in a trance-like state.

Sydney picked her up and settled into a chair with her on his lap. She sat stiffly, her back erect and stared straight ahead. Sydney recognized the signs of shock and whispered soothing words to her. She showed no signs of hearing him, until he noticed her thumb had slipped out of her mouth and she was saying something. He leaned closer and placed his ear by her lips to catch her words.

“It’s my fault. All my fault.” Catie chanted to herself and as she repeated it her voice got louder and louder until finally she was just screaming. Sydney called her name, but Catie continued to yell until he couldn’t take anymore and whirled her to face him.

He gripped her tiny arms and said into her face, “Catherine, it was not your fault.”

She stopped in an instant, startling Sydney and Broots with its abruptness. She blinked and her eyes focused on Sydney.

“Yes it is, Pop-Pop.” she said quietly and with an eerie calmness. “I was being bad and she got mad and yelled at me. I told her I hated her and wanted her to go away. Don’t you see that I made her go away? It’s my fault.”

Catie trembled and finally she broke down again into sobs.

“All my fault.” she cried into Sydney’s neck, wrapping her arms around his neck and clinging to him hard. Sydney met Broots’ gaze over her head and saw the man was crying himself. Broots backed out of the room and let them be alone.

“I didn’t mean it, Pop-Pop. I didn’t really want her to go away.” she said still crying.

“Shh, I know.” Sydney said and rocked the tiny child. Soon she cried herself to sleep and Sydney sighed in relief.

Mr. Parker burst in and caught sight of Sydney holding Catie. He motioned to her and asked, “Is she all right?”

Sydney nodded and unconsciously held Catie a little closer to him. Mr. Parker didn’t notice and continued. “Where is my daughter?”

“She is being settled into her room, Mr. Parker.” Sydney said his stomach turning at Mr. Parker’s use of the phrase “my daughter”.

The doctor came in and immediately Mr. Parker accosted him. “Doctor, the young woman who was in the car crash this morning, how is she?”

“Who are you?” Dr. Smythe asked puzzled.

“I'm her father.” Mr. Parker growled in annoyance.

“But I thought...” Dr. Smythe looked over at Sydney in confusion, and then shrugged it off. He turned back to Mr. Parker, saying, “If you’ll come with me sir, I can show you her room and explain her condition.”

The doctor left with Mr. Parker on his tail. Mr. Parker turned back to Sydney briefly, with a smug look on his face. He again motioned to Catie with his hand and smiled his ugly smile.

“Take care of my granddaughter while I am gone, Sydney.” he said and left the room, the waiting room doors swinging with his departure.

“My granddaughter.” Sydney said angrily at the still moving doors. He looked down at the sleeping Catie and hugged her closely. “My granddaughter.”









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