"All right, so Brad wants to shoot his part tomorrow during the pre-season opener, but other than that, all we have left to shoot is Kane," I said as I went over film work for the new campaign with Ayela, one of my coworkers.
"He just got here for practice, so we can probably hit him up real quick," she told me.
"Let's go then."
We made our way to the lower level, near the player locker room. Out in the hallway, we saw Patrick grabbing a stick.
"Mind if we borrow you for a quick second?" I asked him. He turned towards me, then smiled.
"No problem, how can I help?" he asked us.
"You've heard of the new Whats Your Goal campaign we're doing, right?" Ayela asked him.
"You mean the one Kat thought of?" Patrick said with a smirk towards me. "Of course, it's all anyone here can talk about because it's so brilliant."
I really hoped I wasn't blushing, please no.
"So, we were just wondering if we could film you real quick, is that okay?" I asked him.
"Of course," he smiled.
We grabbed the camera man, and Patrick did his thing.
"My goal," he said into the camera, before turning away to grab a stick and then back, "is to make every night showtime."
"And cut!" I said with a smile. "That was great, thanks so much."
"Not a problem," he told me, "make sure to tell the little kiddo that her look a like says hi."
"Will do," I told him as he walked away.
I expected to go straight back to our office, but Ayela was giving me a weird look.
"Can I help you?" I asked her.
"You've been working here only a month and you already got a player in love with you," she said, "I just can't believe it."
"Are you being serious?" I asked her. "The dude has a girlfriend, and we just met. He totally isn't in love with me."
"Patrick Kane hasn't been known for being the most fateful boyfriend," she told me, before turning around and walking back.
I shook my head and began following her, but stopped when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. Once I got it out, a wave of panic hit me.
It was Haley's school calling.
"Hello?" I answered nervously.
"Mrs. Stevens?" A female voice asked.
"Miss Stevens," I told her, "what's going on?"
"I'm Michelle Patacki, head nurse at Kennedy Elementary School," she explained. "Haley got into an accident outside during playtime and we had to take her to the emergency room."
"My six year old is in the emergency room!?"
"She got really hurt and we needed to act fast, she's at UIC and I alerted paramedics to be on the look for you."
"All right, thank you for your time."
After I hung up, I started calling Jamila while also sprinting to the parking lot.
"Yoooo," she said upon answering.
"Please tell me you're free," I pleaded.
"Whoa, what's wrong?" she asked me.
"Haley's school called, she got hurt during playtime and they're taking her to the ER."
"Where at?"
"UIC."
"I'll meet you there ASAP."
Once I got into my car, I called Chris to let him know of the situation; he was really understanding and told me to take all the time I need. The only people I didn't tell yet were Derick and Kristen, because I knew they'd want to come even though they couldn't afford to since Derick had practice and Kristen had a deadline for the tribune.
It was a ten minute drive to UIC because of the slight traffic, but luckily once I got out of my car, I saw Jammy rushing to the entrance along with me.
"Damn it, I really hoped you beat me," she told me as we hurried inside.
As we made our way to the front desk, I was thankful I didn't hear any screams; Haley was doing okay.
"How may I help you?" the lady at the front desk asked me.
"My name's Kat Stevens, my daughter Haley Stevens was brought here by her elementary school," I explained.
"Ah, yes," she said immediately, "she's over in the north of the ER unit, room 124."
"Thank you so much," I told her as Jammy and I took off running.
The ER was surprisingly filled up today, but I could care less about them all: Haley was the only one on my mind. We ran through the hallways as fast as we could until we got to her room, and we ended up bursting in, only to see Haley holding tight onto a fleece blanket with a nurse by her side.
"Mommy!" she shouted upon seeing me.
"Baby, what happened!?" I asked her as I ran over and kissed her forehead.
"I fell off the monkey bars outside," she explained before lifting up her blanket to show me her injured; I gasped.
"Holy shit," Jamila said upon seeing it.
Haley's bone in her right forearm broke through her skin, one of her bones was showing.
"We administered a dosage of Morphine orally once she got here," the nurse explained, "and right now, we have a pediatric surgeon as well as an Ortho surgeon going over the treatment plan."
"Thank you so much," I told the nurse as she got up to leave.
"No problem," she said with a smile, "she's one tough kid, but she's wonderful as well."
"I know," I said as I slowly ran my fingers through Haley's soft blonde hair.
The nurse was nice, and Haley liked her. Then again, nurses were never the problem.
"How you feeling, kiddo?" Jamila asked.
"My bone is out of my skin, how do you I'm feeling?" Haley asked rhetorically. The two of us both laughed at her sassiness. Then, two females with white cloaks came into the room. Upon seeing them, Haley started hiding her head behind me the best she could, all while using her left hand to hold onto me tight.
"Good morning. My name is Dr. Ramirez, head of Orthopedics," one explained to us.
"And I'm Dr. Capshaw, co-chair of the Pediatrics department," the other one explained.
"I'm Kat, Haley's mom, and that's Jamila, one of her aunts," I explained.
"Nice to meet you both," Dr. Ramirez said. "Well, we've been looking over this case quite extensively, and luckily, due to the area of the break, we believe that it should go back in on its own within the next two days as long as we immobilize it, and then we can cast it for six weeks just like any normal fracture."
"That's fantastic!" I said with a huge smile.
"However," Dr. Ramirez said, making my smile fade, "if by chance it doesn't go back in on its own, we will have to surgically repair it immediately."
Upon hearing that, Haley started whimpering and holding onto me tighter.
"Shhh, it's okay, baby," I cooed to her softly.
"We're writing her a note to have her stay home from school the next two days, and Saturday afternoon at 1 we want to see her again to see what our next step will be," Dr. Capshaw explained.
"She'll need a constant caregiver, especially for personal hygiene," Dr. Ramirez informed.
"I have fridays off, so I can take her then," Jammy told me.
"All right, a nurse will be in soon to immobilize her arm and then she'll be good to go," Dr. Capshaw told us, "we'll see you again Saturday afternoon."
"Thank you so much," I told them. As they left, Haley's grip on me loosened. "Don't worry, you'll be okay, I promise."
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"All right, we're gonna get you in bed, and then you'll get some ice cream," I told Haley as I helped her out of the car: her arm was absolutely immobilized, she couldn't even move it if she tried.
"Mint chocolate chip!?" Haley asked me.
"Whatever you want, sweetie," I told her as we walked through the door.
The first thing we saw as we walked in was Derick and Kristen sitting on the couch looking nervously, but they shot towards us as the door closed.
"Hi Uncle Derick and Aunt Krissie," Haley smiled as we walked in.
"Sweetheart, what happened to you!?" Derick asked as he and Kristen practically ran over.
"I fell at school," Haley told him.
"I'll fill you guys in once we get her settled," I told them.
"What can we do for you, sweetheart?" Kristen asked.
"Mommy told me I could get some ice cream!" she replied excitedly.
"I'll get it right now," Kristen told her as she walked over to the kitchen.
"Come on, sweets, let's get you up in bed," I told Haley as I helped her up stairs.
It took us about five minutes to get her fully situated, and once I was done Kristen joined us to give her ice cream.
"Thanks, aunt Krissie," Haley said with a smile.
"No problem, babe," Kristen told her, "just let me know if you need anything else."
As Haley nodded, I kissed her forehead. "We'll be right down stairs if you need anything," I said before we walked out. "Thanks," I told Kristen once we were out of the room.
She ignored me and walked straight downstairs. It caught me slightly off guard at first, but I shrugged it off and followed her to see her and Derick sitting together on the couch.
"She fell off the money bars at school and got a compound fracture," I started explaining, "I'm with her all day tomorrow and Jammy has her friday since the doctors are optimistic that it'll heal on its own. We go back Saturday afternoon and if it doesn't, then she'll need surgery."
They both looked at each other for a moment, then Derick sighed. "Thanks for letting us know."
"No problem."
"Though, we would have prefered you to tell us when it actually happened, though."
I fucking knew it.
I turned around and sighed. "Well, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, mom and dad. Oh wait, you guys aren't her parents, are you?"
"Kat, come on," Kristen sighed.
"No, she's my kid, I'm the one who's supposed to take off when she gets hurt, not you guys," I told them.
"You still should have told us," Derick said.
"She's our fucking niece, the only one we got," Kristen spoke, "if something's wrong with her, we gotta know."
"And you do know," I said.
"Yeah, like a million hours later," she said.
"Way to be dramatic," I rolled my eyes, "but be honest: if I told you about it after I got the call, you would have dropped everything to come be with her."
"Well duh."
"See, that's the thing, that shouldn't happen! I'm her mom, and when something goes wrong with Hales, I need to be the one dropping everything. I don't need you two getting in trouble at work because of a child that isn't even yours."
Derick looked like he was going to say something, but got inturupted by Haley.
"Mommy!" she shouted from her room. I sighed.
"Be right up, love," I shouted back to her. "Id you guys are free Saturday, then I want you at the appointment. There's a boundary between aunt, uncle and guardian, and I need her to have a different relationship with you guys than me."
With that, I left them and went upstairs to Haley.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kristen lay her head on Derick's shoulder, thinking about everything Kat had told them.
"We just want what's best for the two of them," she thought out loud.
Derick slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, but right now, I think this is just something that needs to be dealt with without us and within their little, incomplete family."
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