Abandoned

8

The group pull into the car park at the hospital and sit still, openly embracing the silence. The calm before the inevitable storm.

Canden is the one to break the serene atmosphere by turning in his seat and eyeing the deep scratch across Zareyas cheek before he speaks.
"How's the cheek?"

"Not too bad, I'm not worried about it." Zareya responds whilst not taking her attention off the child.

Sienna had been asleep the whole journey. The whole 4 and a half hours of the car ride she had been relaxed and seemed at ease whilst in the arms of the woman.

"I want to wake her before we leave the car. This was the last place she saw before she slept so I think it's a good idea that she sees her surroundings." The psychologist states as she suppresses a yawn.

She had stayed awake the whole time in order to keep the child at ease. The officers however had swapped out who would drive and who would sleep at the half way point.

Zareya gently changes the position the girl is in and begins whispering to her to wake her up.
"Hey pretty girl, think you can wake up now, hm?"
Slowly she brushed the tangled strands away from the girls face and continues with the gentle whispers.

When the girls eyes open she immediately whines and closes them to protect them from the harsh light that travels through the car.
Zareya uses the night gown to protect her eyes from the light and encourages her to open her eyes again.

The girl sits up and scans her surroundings being wary of everything. She notices her own tight grip on the silk night gown and brings it up to her face to comfort herself.
"Alright darling let's go inside now, Hm?" The psychologist states as she unbuckles herself and securely holds the young girl in her arms.

Canden is the first one out of the car and he proceeds to open the door for the woman. She nods in thanks and slowly steps out of the vehicle.
The cool air disrupts the child's calm state as she begins to panic once again.
"Shh shh my lovely." Zareya coos while she rocks the child as she makes her way to the doors of the hospital.

Marcus had ran ahead and managed to have a team of nurses waiting for the girls arrival.
Just as they made it inside the building the child became restless and again flailed her arms and made unsettling noises.
Trying her hardest to calm the child, Zareya sits on the floor with her and gave Sienna her bear and the new elephant teddy. Sienna liked having her things and gripped into them whilst making occasional upset noises.

The nurses were stunned at how the psychologist had managed to calm the child without sedation, which is what they would normally use in cases like these.

The group continue their journey to the private room that April had requested in Zareyas name. It was a basic room as they didn't want to overstimulate the child.

Upon entering the room Zareya approached the bed and made sure the door was shut before she released the child onto the soft surface. Sienna showed pure confusion at the softness and began to hit her hand down on it fascinated with how it would bounce up.

The psychologist needed to leave to room to speak with the main doctor on siennas case, Dr Waters. Just as she exited the door Sienna noticed her leaving and got visibly upset. Since the child had no knowledge of how to appropriately express herself she did it in the only way she knew how. She lashed out.

She began to scream and throw her head back hitting it on the soft surface. The confused nurses approached her ignoring Marcus' warning and tried to hold her down to stop her from hurting herself. This resulted in one of the nurses getting a deep bite mark on her wrist whilst another had several deep scratches on her chest and neck.

They decided against restraining the child and just lifted her onto the floor where she wouldn't be able to fall from anything.
Being given the freedom to move made sienna head straight to the door. She wanted the nice person.

The door was a pull door meaning sienna was not able to open it. Since the child was unable to stand, she couldn't reach the handle. Not that she understood how doors worked anyway.
She hit the door with her hand whilst screaming before she hit it with her head. The hit was hard and made her pause. She looked up and the first person she saw was Marcus. He did bad to her.

Silence overtook the room and sienna moved away from the bad person. Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her dirt laced cheeks as she brought her hand to her sore head.
"Did that hurt darling?" Canden asked as he approached her.
The little girl curled in on herself and whimpered.

This was the first time she had shown any emotional vulnerability. She was scared of these people. They were unpredictable.

Canden reached over onto the hospital bed and handed her the two teddies. Warily sienna took them and held them tightly to her chest.
At that moment the psychologist had walked back in after her lengthy discussion with the child's doctor discussing the best way to go about treatment for her.

The first thing she noticed was the child folded in on herself in a protective form and the glowing red bump on her head.

"What happened to her." She demanded protective of the small girl.
At hearing the soft voice Sienna immediately moved towards the nice person and wrapped herself around her legs whilst letting out a series of whines.

"she started thrashing about when you left and bit and scratched the nurses when they tried to stop her hurting herself. It didn't work obviously so they put her on the floor and she tried to open the door and head butted it instead." Marcus filled her in.

The girl was still clinging onto the psychologists legs so Zareya reached to pick her up and cuddle her. The child snuggled right into the woman's arms once again shocking the nurses.

"You can't just do things and expect her to be okay with it. She doesn't understand what's happening. She was clearly abused in multiple ways so it's important to build some trust before you jump into things with her or she'll hurt you." Zareya told them all, including the doctor who was now in the room.

Dr waters spoke up. "We've created a plan to begin the treatment and care process for Sienna. This plan relies heavily on Ms Von klene as she already has the girls trust. Nurses you can leave and get cleaned up, officers please change if you need to but I would like if you would stay and guard the room. This is a major case and if it is leaked that she has been found there will be chaos. I want to avoid that as much as possible."

After the doctor and nurses left it was up to Zareya to get the girl cleaned up. She had a plan but whether it would work would be up to sienna.

The child was still clinging onto Zareya and tightened her grip at every movement.
"Alright darling," she whispered to the child as she sat on the bed with her.

"Look, what's this?" The psychologist pulled bubbles out of her pocket and blew some. This captured the child's attention as she tried to grab them and became frustrated when they kept disappearing. "It's okay, look, pop pop pop the bubbles. There you go."

Zareya gently held onto siennas hand and moved her fingers to pop the bubbles. The child loved this and wanted more when they had all disappeared. When Zareya didn't blow anymore the girl open and closed her mouth mimicking the sound of the bubbles popping. It sounded similar to the 'p' sound.

Zareya was shocked to say the least. This was a fast amount of progress. "Good girl. Look at you. You're so smart." She smiled genuinely at the girl as she hugged her.

Sienna let out a hum of content as she relaxed into the psychologists hold, continuing to watch the bubbles floating around her.