By Your Side (on hiatus)

Chapter Four

"Any big plans for when you get that thing off?" Zayn asked his patient as he pulled up their file on the computer. 

"Not really," the girl replied disinterestedly, glancing around the boring walls of the hospital room. Zayn nodded a couple of times, pulling up the recent X-rays of her arm, 

"Well, today's the day you'll be free from it. How about I cut you loose?" She nodded eagerly, holding her pink arm cast up in his direction. Before he could make any progress, though, someone knocked on the other side of the door, and a familiar head peeked in,

"Dr. Malik?" 

"Diana," he greeted, pausing his work and gesturing for her to enter. She quickly did, a clipboard in hand, 

"There's a situation Dr. Peters wants your opinion on." 

"Look," he replied, trying to sound patient, "I'm in the middle of something."

"He said it was urgent," she answered, standing her ground. Nurses these days, always so pushy. Zayn set his equipment back on the counter and sighed, following her to the door,

"Alright. But get someone else in here to finish this then." She nodded eagerly, eyes glued on her clipboard, 

"He's in room 253." 

"Great," he stated, now in a bad mood, realizing that room was across the hospital. He didn't complain though, knowing that there had to be a cause for it. 

He knocked on the door to the room just as Diana had to his, and opened it with a forced smile, unsure what was waiting for him. Dr. Peters, or Jude, as Zayn knew him, waved him in before gesturing vaguely to the little boy asleep in the bed in front of them. 
He looked like he could be two or three, but incredibly undernourished, judging by his hallow cheeks and twig-ish arms.

"You needed me?" he asked, slowly turning his gaze to his colleague. Jude nodded, giving him a dark look,

"This is Niall. I want you to tell me what he's got."

"What?" he frowned at the ludicrous suggestion, "I've been out of training for three years, Jude. Why-"

"Just do it," he huffed, annoyed as well. Zayn shook the irritation from his head, paused and looked at the boy in question. His lips had a greyish blue hue to them, inclining him to consider lung diseases,

"What are the symptoms?"

"Deep cough, runny nose, heavy congestion, fever of 103.4, even a febrile seizure."

"How long has he been showing symptoms?" He pressed, looking back at the child on the bed. He was impossibly small, just the sight of him made Zayn's heart squeeze.

"This morning." 

"That doesn't sound right," he stated, folding his arms over his chest, "it takes time for these symptoms to develop. What treatments has he been given?" He was getting fluids, the IV dripping next him answering that one for him. 

"Antibiotics and fluids."

"So it sounds like a severe case of pneumonia," he stated, realizing that Jude must have already figured that much out. His peer nodded deeply,

"Right."

"So?" Zayn pressed, becoming increasingly impatient.

"So, I want you to talk to him. Stage Two pneumonia doesn't show up overnight. Try to get him to talk to you about home life too. When I checked him over, I found a collection of nasty bruises. I think this could be a child negligence case." 

"Alright," Zayn whispered, fighting back a burst of emotion, "but why me?"

"Well, I just thought. . ." Jude's voice trailed off before he was able to reconnect eye contact, "With your husband's career and all, you'd be able to have a better inclination about these things. I just want the best for this kid." Zayn had to smile at the thought of Liam. He was a child psychologist, and a phenomenal one at that. Over the years, they had taken in several foster kids, and in recent days, they were looking into adoption. Jude had other patients to attend to, so Zayn found himself looking after Niall's charts and past documentation, flipping through printed pages of his file, frowning when he saw that he hadn't had any vaccinations for two years. He took a mental note to ask the boy's father about that. He also found that Niall was living with two half-brothers as well, and that they similarly were unvaccinated. Before he could do any more digging, he glanced up when he heard movement from the bed. There Niall was staring at him with unblinking blue eyes, watching him with a gleam of pure distrust.