Right Time, Right Place

Part 12

Amelia's POV:

*Trigger warning: Talks about abuse

I wake up and look at my fiancé. He is sleeping so peacefully. I kiss his cheek and slip out of bed. I throw on one of his t shirts and walk downstairs. He should be waking up soon cause we do have to get to work, unfortunately. I make us some coffee and some waffles. I sit down and look at some neuroscience articles on my laptop.

"Good morning fiancee." He comes up behind me and kisses my neck. "Getting in some of your morning nerd reading?"

I laugh and hit his chest, "Rude. Give me those waffles you do not deserve them!"

Owen sticks his fork in and starts eating, "Nope too late"

I shake my head at him and shut my laptop, "Do you have anything interesting today?"

"I don't think so. Hopefully something cool comes into the ER"

"That would be nice. Hopefully it's something with a head trauma so we get to work together" I stand up and walk over to him and without hesitation he puts his arm around me.

I stand on my tip toes and kiss his cheek before going to the sink and washing the dishes.
——
I get paged to the ER by my intern and walk into the room and see a young girl.

I smile at her, "Hey! I'm Dr. Shepherd. What is your name?"

She doesn't look at me and I look at Stephanie Edwards. Edwards motions for me to come out of the room and we shut the door. "I found her here in the ambulance bay. I didn't know what to do, so I paged you. She has bruises all over her so I think she was uhm...you know."

My heart breaks and I sigh, "Thanks for paging me. We are going to need to call Child's services and get her into foster care I guess. Has she talked to anyone?"

Edwards shakes her head, "No. But she doesn't seem to be comfortable around men at all. So just be mindful of that."

I nod, "Alright. Well you can go get back to work. Have someone call Childs services though please. I will try and talk to her." I walk back into the room and pull over a chair to still maintain some boundaries.

I slowly reach my hand out and she takes it. I smile, "You can call me Amelia. I promise you are safe here, no one is going to hurt you. Especially me."

She lifts her head a bit and looks at me, "My name is Carmen."

"It's nice to meet you Carmen. How old are you?"

"14"

I smile at her and we sit there for a bit and I am able to get her to talk to me. The foster people walk in later and she jumps off the bed and hides behind a cart.

I stand up, "She is a little apprehensive about people. Can we only have one of you in here? There is no reason for 4 of you to be in here." They nod and only one girl stays in here with me.

I kneel down beside the cart, "Carmen, this woman here just needs to talk to you for a little bit. She is going to make sure you get a safe place to live. I can stay here with you if you'd like." Carmen nods and comes out and sits on the bed.

She gets Carmen to talk about the people she was with before. I find out that her birth parents died a long time ago, she has been in and out of foster care. She has yet to be placed with a good place.

I listen to Carmen talk, "I ran away from this home. I was abused by the father and the other brother. They would hit me and uhm force me to do things. I decided to come to the hospital cause I thought it would be the safest place."

I have to turn away because I start tearing up but then I look at her again, "You made a great choice coming here Carmen. I have to go to a meeting." I look at the social worker, "Would it be okay if I give Carmen my phone number. In case she needs to talk or needs help."

The social worker nods so I write my number down on a piece of paper and hand it to her. I smile at her once more than walk out of the room. We have a department meeting so I walk down towards a conference room and see Owen.

Owen's POV:

"Hey I haven't seen you all day" I smile at Amelia as she walks toward me.

"Yeah I have been tied up all day" She sighs and I can tell something is wrong.

"Did something happen?" I ask her starting to get worried about her. "I will talk to you after the meeting" She says before walking into the room. I sit down beside her and hope everything is alright.

The meeting ends and we walk out and go into an on call room. "So what's up?"

She wraps her arms around me in a hug and starts crying. I am rather surprised but hug her and rub her back, "What's wrong Mel?"

She starts talking, "A 14 year old girl came to the hospital today. Edwards paged me. Her parents died a long time ago, she has been in multiple different foster homes and her life is a living hell. The most recent home had an abusive father and older brother. She ran away and came to the hospital cause she thought it would be the safest place."

I sigh, "Wow. That is awful. What is going to happen to her now?"

Amelia steps back and looks at me, "She is going to get placed in another foster home. All she can do is be hopeful that this one won't be awful. It just isn't fair!" Amelia starts getting worked up, "These kids in these homes deserve the greatest parents. Some foster parents are great yes but there is also some others who are seriously messed up!"

I pull her into me again as she starts crying and I just hold her.

----

Few weeks later...

Amelia runs in the bedroom, "Owen! Carmen just texted me. She is living with a man and he is being really awful to her. She needs help."

I shut my closet door and look at her, "Amelia the only thing  we can do is call the social worker."

"But she won't do anything! They never do! Owen just listen to me. We need to do something."

I sigh, "We can't Amelia. It is sad I know but there is nothing we can do from the outside."

Amelia grabs a duffel bag and starts putting clothes in it. "Mel what are you doing?"

"I am going to get her. If no one else will help her, I will."