Destined For You

Chapter Three

Jennifer

As I walked into the hospital I couldn't help but feel someone's eyes on my back. I slowly looked up from rummaing in my purse for my bage and looked around. There was no one but me and few nurses in the parking lot. I shrugged and sighed in relief as I found my badge. I quickly walked in through the sliding glass doors feeling the harsh cold air rush toward me. It was a nice relief from the scorching Arizona sun.

I quickly scanned my badge and made my way to the fourth floor, the pediatric ward. As I stepped off the elevator, my attending was standing at the nurses station getting our cases ready for the day while checking in with the nurses.

"Good morning Jennifer, first one here again?" she mused.

"These kids are my life and you know it" I chuckled.

I was a first year resident in pediatric surgery, my dream job. It took me eight years of blood, sweat, and tears to finally make it into surgery. Starting medical school I was not sure what specialty I wanted to go into but as I worked more and more with kids I knew I wanted to do pediatric surgery. It's a hard but rewarding field. Kids are resilient and that's a big part of why I love my job so much. My attending handed me my case load for the day and I began making my rounds.

My first case of the day was a little boy admitted yesterday for gastrointestinal issues. The x-ray showed a blockage in the small intestine that looked a lot like cotton balls. The kid was 7 years old and it struck me as strange that a kid that old would eat something of that nature. I knocked on the door and entered slowly.

"Hi, my name is Dr. Ruiz but you can call me Jennifer. Can you tell me what's going on?" I said gently to the seven-year-old in front of me and his dad.

"Yes Doctor. He has been having stomach issues all night. I think hes faking but the doctors wanted to keep him overnight." his dad responded in a tone I couldn't quite place. However, after examining the dad closely I felt my skin crawl. He had a deep scar just above his left eye and was covered in tattoos, which in itself isn't inherently creepy. His hair was greasy and he smelled of alcohol and cigarettes. His clothes were a size or two too small, like he found these clothes in someone else's wardrobe. However, his eyes are what truly caught my attention. They were a dark brown color, almost black, and you could see the fake smiles and kindness clear as day in his eyes but what really made me doubt the truth to this mans word's is the little boys reaction to his voice. He flinched, ever so slightly, something only a person trained to spot abuse could identify.

"I see" I responded cautiously while turning toward the boy, "Miguel can you tell me what you ate yesterday?"

Before the boy could even respond, the man pretending to be his father replied "his mother made him breakfast and lunch and we came to the hospital before dinner" he said somewhat annoyed and gave the boy a look that could kill, thinking I was still looking at the boy. Listening to my intuition, I knew I needed to get Miguel away from this man as quick as possible.

"Okay well until I have all of the test results there is nothing I can do at the moment. I will consult my team about Miguels condition and we will go from there" I lied ending with a fake smile. After I exited the room I made my way as quickly as I could, without being suspicious, to the nurse's station and I could feel the man's eyes follow me as I left. I put Miguels chart back and picked up another patients chart pretending to read it.

"Don't look up at me and don't look around. I believe the man in room 511 to be abusing his son, if he is even his real dad. I need you to alert the police while I find my attending but do not make it suspicious" I said softly without looking up. I then looked down at my pager pretending to have an alert and made my way down the hall and out of the man's eyesight.