Family Emergencies

[GiGi Cavallari]

It didn't take long for me to arrive back at the hospital after leaving Vino Vino since they were only walking distance apart. I took the elevator back up to the Pediatric floor and changed into my scrubs in the locker room before heading over to the nurses station. The head nurse handed me a chart and directed me to Exam room one. Flipping the chart open, I read through it as I made my way over to the room and knocked on the door before walking in.

There sat an adorable little blonde boy on the exam table and a frazzled woman who looked awfully upset about the boy's condition. I smiled softly and glanced at the chart again. His name was Van and he was four years old. I grabbed a chair and placed it in front of the exam table sitting down so that I was eye level with the kid. "Hi Van. My name is Dr. Cavallari, but you can call me Dr. C. So can you tell me what happened to you?"

[/i]

"Hi. I was playing monkey even though nanny told me not to and I fell. It hurts, Dr. C." His little tear stained face broke my heart and he pouted as he held up his little hand. It was obvious that he had dislocated his finger, but I couldn't be sure if there was also a break unless I got an x ray of it. Realizing he said nanny, I looked at the woman beside him and smiled slightly. "He'll be fine. I just have to call his parents and get him over to radiology for a x ray to see if any of the bones in that finger are broken."[/i]

Jotting that down in his chart, I smiled softly and looked at him. "Now Van, does anything else hurt other than your finger?"[/i] I watched as he shook his head no and I nodded my head jotting that down in his chart as well. "Alright, I'm just going to call your dad now and then we'll get you all fixed up. I promise."[/i] I assured the little boy and left the room. I headed over to the nurses station and picked up the phone calling the number that was listed in the chart. It went to voice mail so I left a message and hung up before putting in a call to radiology.[/blockquote]

[jeff]

Lara and I left the house. Only one thing I didn’t like about Venice and it was the one thing I loved the most. There were no roads. All roadways were waterways. I didn’t have my bike here. We couldn’t get to the hospital in an instant. Instead we had to take a water boat or run. Thankfully the hospital wasn’t that far from the villa. I was thankful Lara didn’t wear heels or I would have carried her over my shoulder like a caveman. I kept a tight hold onto her hand as I ran.

I hadn’t listened to all the message. I couldn’t. I knew I just had to see him to know for myself if he was ok or not. I ran with her into the emergency bay doors, running up to the first nurse. “Van Merlot. He’s my son. Where is he?”

[/b] If she couldn’t tell me, I’d have to find him on my own, and I knew I’d tear apart the hospital if I had to. She told me exactly where to find him and I pulled Lara with me into the room.

I saw Van sitting on the bed, flipping through the television channels. We didn’t have a TV at home, but I didn’t mind him watching. I just didn’t want him to become addicted to it. It was best to stay away from other more addicting behaviors, and the most I could save Van from that, the best I could. I pulled him into my arms, speaking in English to him. He was still having a few issues with the language, but we were working on it. “Van, are you ok?” He looked up at Lara and me, nodding. “Si, babbo! I have a really nice doctor lady! She speaks Italy and I spoke with her! Are you proud of me?” I nodded, pulling him against my chest, kissing the top of his head. “Yes, Van. I’m very proud of you!”[/blockquote]

[Lara MacCallister]

Jeff and I walked in to the hospital and he immediately took over. I held his hand and let him lead the way right to the nurses desk where he yelled in her face for his son. She looked like she might pee her pants, but I could also tell that she didn't blame him. Nurses and doctors had it rough, always having to tell people that their loved ones are injured, sick or even dead. Before the poor nurse could answer, we saw Van in a triage room. Jeff and I bolted for him, Jeff taking Van right up in to his arms. “Van, are you ok?” He looked up at Lara and me, nodding. “Si, babbo! I have a really nice doctor lady! She speaks Italy and I spoke with her! Are you proud of me?” I nodded, pulling him against my chest, kissing the top of his head. “Yes, Van. I’m very proud of you!”

I laid my head on Jeff's shoulder and wrapped an arm around Van. If you'd asked me six years ago or even six months ago, if I thought I'd ever have a kid, the answer would have been no. Nevermind asking me if I would be raising my best friends kid with her ex. "Baby, where is this nice doctor lady?" I asked him as I rubbed his back. I felt like I was his mom now, and I was happy to have the job.

[GiGi Cavallari]

After getting one of the x ray machines down in radiology set up for my young patient, I returned to his room only to see two adults surrounding him. It was obvious that they were his parents so I knocked on the door lightly and smiled softly when I heard the kid's voice. "There she is. That's the nice doctor lady." I jotted something down in Van's chart and then approached them checking on Van's finger. It had already started to swell which was normal for a dislocated finger. I handed him a cloth covered ice pack and smiled softly at the young boy.

"Just hold carefully against your finger alright?" I instructed him and ruffled his hair lightly. "Van here fell and hurt his finger. It appears to be dislocated, but I won't know for certain until we get it x rayed. If it is, I'll have to put it back into place then have another x ray done to make sure the bones in his finger are correctly aligned and check for any broken bones." I explained carefully and froze when I looked at Van's father. He almost looked like an older version of Freddie, but..he couldn't be. Snapping out of it after a moment, I shook my head and smiled softly, "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself didn't I? I'm Dr. Cavallari."

[jeff]

Lara rested her head against my shoulder and hugged Van with me. "Baby, where is this nice doctor lady?" We heard a knock on the door and stepped back to look to see who was intruding on our family time. "There she is. That's the nice doctor lady." I blinked a few hundred times, looking the doctor up and down. There was no mistaking it. I knew her. But I couldn’t place where I knew her from. Being back here in Italy, Dr. Milani told me I would begin to remember people and places. I hadn’t believed him, but the more I looked at her, the more I was sure I knew her. She was a doctor, so it was highly likely that we went to school together, or something. I just couldn’t place my finger on that something.

"Just hold carefully against your finger alright?" She ran her fingers through his hair and a vision of a girl younger than me as a child, or at least I assumed he was me. I felt as though I was connected to that kid. He looked like Van, but it was more than that. "Van here fell and hurt his finger. It appears to be dislocated, but I won't know for certain until we get it x rayed. If it is, I'll have to put it back into place then have another x ray done to make sure the bones in his finger are correctly aligned and check for any broken bones."

I nodded, blinking more than a few times. I couldn’t believe it. I had to check my wallet to make sure, but there was no mistaking it. She looked at me just as weirdly as I felt before shaking her head and smiling up at me. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself didn't I? I'm Dr. Cavallari." I swallowed hard, instantly pulling my wallet from my back pocket, opening it to the picture I kept of my sister, holding it out to her. “GiGi?” I was sure it was her. Sure, I’d look like a crazy man if she wasn’t, but I never did anything I wasn’t 100% sure of.

[Lara MacCallister]

"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself didn't I? I'm Dr. Cavallari." Cavallari? I looked at Jeff and all the blood had drained from his face. He struggled to get in to his back pocket, so I took Van from him and the little boy went willingly. “GiGi?” Jeff muttered as he pulled a tattered picture out of his wallet. I glanced down at it and even though I'd seen it a dozen or so times, I still had to look twice. It was her. "Mac, whose GiGi?" Van asked me as he twirled a piece of my hair between his fingers. The small movement had helped him sleep for weeks when we'd first arrived in Italy. Now, I was pretty sure that it calmed me more than it calmed him. "Umm.." It was all I could get out. This wasn't my story to explain, and from the look of things, it would a little while before Jeff could tell him.

[GiGi Cavallari]

I watched Van's father pull his wallet out and I could feel the color in my face drain as he flipped the wallet open to a tattered photograph of, well, me. It just..it couldn't be. It wasn't possible or was it? "GiGi?" My breath caught in my throat as I heard him say my name. There was no doubt in my mind that my big brother was truly standing in front of me at the moment. I simply nodded my head unable to find the words to speak at the moment.

I had thought that there was something familiar about Van, but I never would of guessed in a million years that he was actually my nephew. I snapped out of it and looked at my brother in awe. "Freddie?" My hand shook as I set the chart down on the exam table and then threw my arms around Freddie hugging him tightly. I fought back the happy tears that were threatening to spill and smiled brightly.

I pulled back and cupped his face in my hands staring at him. "Dio Mio, It really is you." Letting go of his face, I hugged him again still in shock that he was alive after all this time that I thought he wasn't.

[jeff]

All I could see was my little sister standing in front of me, the little girl who I couldn’t believe that I remembered, but I did. She was my sister, and I knew it. I didn’t need an old, worn out picture to tell me so. "Freddie?" She then placed the medical chart she was looking at down on the exam table Lara had just picked Van up from and my heart leapt in my throat. She threw her arms around me and I could barely move let alone speak. I slowly wrapped my arms around her, holding her to me. I never cried. Well, not that often. The last time I cried had been when I found the letter from Leni. I had just found out I had a son. Now I was crying because I just found the sister, whom I had told had gone missing, was alive and well and wrapped in my arms.

But no only did I just get her back, I could remember her. I could remember things about her my 6-year-old memory couldn’t even fathom. She was my sister and nothing had mattered to me like she had back then. She was my best friend, my partner in crime, and most often, my accomplice. She was everything a guy could have wanted in his brother that I had in my sister. I loved her and I knew it from the moment she walked in the door. I could feel the connection we had between us. It was love. The type of love only a brother and a sister could have for each other and I felt it from the moment she walked into the room.

She pulled back from our embrace only enough to move her hands to hold my face. "Dio Mio, It really is you." She released my face from her hands, pulling me back into her arms. I wrapped my arms around her more, holding her to me, breathing her into me. She still had that smell that was all her own, but it was so much different. She was all grown up, but she was still the GiGi I remembered. I pulled back to be the one to look at her this time, not believing I was actually holding her in my arms. “I never thought I’d find you. When Goffreda told me about you, I felt connected to you more than I could anyone in our family.”

[/b] She didn’t know about my accident. Or did she? Had she been home and they not told me? Not that I’d kept in touch with them, but I didn’t know what she knew about me and I didn’t know anything about her. But I wanted to know everything I didn’t know anything about her life after I left Italy, except for the few letters we’d exchanged, but after my accident, I don’t know anything and I wanted to know everything.[/blockquote]

[GiGi Cavallari]

"I never thought I'd find you. When Goffreda told me about you, I felt connected to you more than I could anyone in our family." I nodded my head in understanding and smiled softly at my brother. "Well we always were close, Freddie."

[/i] I paused and then sighed softly, "I remember now, somewhat. You stopped contacting me and I knew that something had to be wrong even though our parents disagreed with me. I moved to New York even though my first semester at Juillard didn't start for another five months. I heard about your accident once I got to New York and I made arrangements to go see you. I don't remember anything after that except for waking up in a hospital a few months later."[/i] I stopped abruptly realizing this probably wasn't appropriate for Van to overhear and smiled softly at him.

"Um, hold that thought. I have a finger to fix, don't I?"[/i] I ruffled his hair again and led them to radiology. While his x ray was being done, I turned and looked at my brother knowing Van couldn't hear me. "I was told that you were dead. Mom and Dad brought me home to Italy after I was in a coma for a few months. They said that you and I had gotten into a car accident together. That you died saving my life. I was devastated, but I never wanted to believe them."[/i] I paused and bit my lip in thought. "I barely lasted long there with them though. I moved out and paid my own way through college since I couldn't get a scholarship."[/i]

I paused again as Van was finished and smiled softly as I led them back to the exam room. I got the x rays a few moments later and saw that he did indeed dislocate his finger. "Alright, so I'm just going to give Van here some children's aspirin for the pain and some local anesthetic to numb his finger so I can pop it back into place."[/i] After getting him to take the aspirin, I got the local anesthetic prepared and noticed my nephew's eyes widen in fear. I made myself eye level with him and smiled reassuringly at him. "Is that gonna hurt a lot?" I shook my head and gestured to the needle. "This thing? Nah, It only looks scary. It won't hurt at all. You'll just feel a little pinch. I promise."[/i]

Once I was certain he was ready, I carefully injected the local anesthetic into his finger. I waited until I was sure that his finger was numb and popped it back into place. "There we go. Now we just need to go get some more pictures taken of it to make sure nothing is broken."[/i] I walked back with them to radiology and as Van was getting more x rays done, I looked at Freddie and smiled brightly. "Look at you, my big brother, a dad! That's just..wow!"[/i][/blockquote]

[jeff]

"Well we always were close, Freddie." She said it again. My name. The name I remembered only she called me. There were a few others, like Dante’s wife, whom I apparently knew from before as well, but when GiGi said it, it was different. It didn’t hold near the same contention coming from her. Coming from her, it sounded right, it sounded as though she had always called me that. But, then again, she has always called me that, and hearing her say those words again, fills me with something I can’t remember feeling, for now, until years ago.

"I remember now, somewhat. You stopped contacting me and I knew that something had to be wrong even though our parents disagreed with me. I moved to New York even though my first semester at Juillard didn't start for another five months. I heard about your accident once I got to New York and I made arrangements to go see you. I don't remember anything after that except for waking up in a hospital a few months later." I had to know what happened. She woke up in a hospital months later. It was the same story I had. What had happened to her that she had a similar story to my own? She stopped speaking. And we both looked to Van. He was the patient and he needed to be taken care of first.

"Um, hold that thought. I have a finger to fix, don't I?" She helped the two of us take him down to radiology and while Van was in the room with the x-ray tech, she spoke with me silently. "I was told that you were dead.” I shook my head. I guess when I left, they over dramatized everything and because I had denounced all of them except for Goffreda, it was just as well that I was dead. “Mom and Dad brought me home to Italy after I was in a coma for a few months. They said that you and I had gotten into a car accident together. That you died saving my life. I was devastated, but I never wanted to believe them."

I couldn’t stand how much they had lied to her. I guess I had upset them quite enough that it was better for them to think that I was dead. I didn’t care that they thought I was dead, that I didn’t matter, because to me, they didn’t matter either. They were no longer my family. The only people that came from them that mattered were my sister and the only other person who mattered to me had hoped I would find her. "I barely lasted long there with them though. I moved out and paid my own way through college since I couldn't get a scholarship." I shook my head. I wish I would have known where she was. I wish I would have known she was alive and well. But they had told her that I was dead, and that was unforgivable.

Van came out of the x-ray room and GiGi took us back to the exam room. The tech brought the x-rays to GiGi and se looked them over. I pulled Lara into my arms, holding her close to me. I didn’t say anything. I don’t know what to say. I was just glad she was here for me. She had been here for me for me a more than anyone has since Lombardi, but with Lara it was different. With Lara, something between us has started growing and I liked it. I was in love with her. We were in love and I knew I wanted to be with her forever. I didn’t want her ever leaving my arms and my side.

"Alright, so I'm just going to give Van here some children's aspirin for the pain and some local anesthetic to numb his finger so I can pop it back into place." She helped him take some children’s Asprin and prepared an anesthetic for him. I stepped forward, keeping one arm wrapped around Lara, placing my hand on his back as he asked, "Is that gonna hurt a lot?" She shook her head and spoke to him reassuringly. "This thing? Nah, It only looks scary. It won't hurt at all. You'll just feel a little pinch. I promise."

He nodded and I rubbed his back softly. I didn’t know how to do this parenting thing. He was practically as old as me in intelligence. What was I supposed to offer him, but he was my son and he did need me. I wasn’t going to leave him without anyone. Leni was gone. I was all he had. GiGi gave him the shot, and it seemed to have worked immediately. She pulled the finger back into place. "There we go. Now we just need to go get some more pictures taken of it to make sure nothing is broken."

We all walked back to the x-ray lab and Van went inside with he tech. He was so brave. I guess he had to be if he was my son. GiGi turned to look at me, smiling up at me. "Look at you, my big brother, a dad! That's just..wow!" I shook my head, my arm wrapped around Lara’s waist. “It’s a long story,”

[/b] I told her, not really wanting to get into it right now. “Where’s Rosetta? His nanny. She was supposed to be with him. Where did she go?”[/b] Not that I was upset. Van had been left in the perfect care of my sister. There was no way I could be upset.

“We have so much to catch up on, GiGi,”[/b] I said, lifting my hand to rub her back. It seemed so natural, like something I’d done time before time before. “Tell me there’s a chance you might be able to come home with us, maybe have dinner with us.”[/b] I had so many things to worry about with the Russians in town, but that was not going to interfere with my reunion with my sister, and the fact that I could remember her. I couldn’t remember Goffreda, even after the few weeks I had spent with her, but I remembered my sister. I should have known I would. I knew the connection we had when Goffreda gave me GiGi’s picture. The connection had been there before and I had felt it then, and I felt it now. She was my sister and I had her back and that is all that mattered right now.[/blockquote]