The Hospital – Kirsten

A/N: I know, I know, and I'm not even going to bother…

On another note, this is from Kirsten's POV, and I hope you enjoy it. I'm really sorry, but this is going to be the only one in a looong time, and I'm sorry if any of you have been waiting to read an update, but this is pretty much fluff, and I'm not sure about whether or not there will be another update…

Enjoy :)

There was a time in every mother's life when they felt like they had no idea what they were doing. What direction their life was taking, how their children would grow up; the time that they started pondering how past decisions affected how things were now. Things like, what would have happened if I let the boys get a dog named Rover? What would have happened if I them watch that scary alien movie they wanted so badly? And how would things have been different if I had just let them come with me and my husband instead of leaving them with my much younger, defiantly-not experienced sister, while me and Sandy enjoyed a romantic getaway in Barbados?

Looking out of the kitchen window that day, I had no idea what we would come back to. Never had a kid looked so blissfully happy then Ryan did in that moment, hanging by his ankles over the swimming pool, Hailey laughing at his playful shrieks.

Never had I seen a child look so prominently disregardful of danger and risk then when Seth took those running leaps and jumped bum first into the crystal clear water of the backyard pool.

Ryan splashed into the water with a scream, him and Seth crawling onto the deck seconds later to drag their 'Auntie Hails' into the pool with them. It wasn't like I didn't warn her to wear a swimming suit; she was just so stubbornly stubborn, still believing that she would make it out of the encounter dry.

Hailey screamed, instantly reminding me of the days when the three of us, her, me, and Jimmy-next-door hug out in a similar pool, the both of them dragging me in by my hands just as Seth and Ryan were, jumping into the pool and leaving the other helpless.

A cool breath on my neck made me jump briefly, not necessarily scared, just… caught off guard. That was the right word. Caught off guard.

"Scared you?"

Sandy wrapped his arms around my waist, and I smiled into the window. They would be alright if I dropped my gaze for a second, wouldn't they?

"Not one bit," I muttered back, turning around into his arms. Only five hours. Five hours until we left for the airport and would have three glorious days all to ourselves… only five hours to…

"Ew! Mommy and Daddy are being icky!"

Ah, how precious the four-year old vocabulary was. 'Icky'. Along with 'Ew'. This had most likely been learned from a certain someone's daughters' best friend.

"Uh, Kirsten, don't panic but-"

I snapped my head around the instant I heard Hailey speaking those words. How often had I heard them since my own childhood? Those words usually led up to our parents yelling at us, a consequence of something stupid either me or Hails had done. Or broken.

Ryan's body was hoisted onto Hailey's hip, and his face was scrunched up in pain that looked like the worst he'd ever experienced in his short life.

"Hailey," I demand, I can tell my tone's scaring her, "What happened?"

I can't help it. I glare at her, my protective motherly nature taking over as I take Ryan's ever growing body and turn his face to mine. The poor kid has close to tears in his eyes, and his bottom lip is quivering. He's holding his left arm gingerly, careful not to bump it into anything.

"Don't panic, but we were playing in the pool, and Ryan got up on the deck and started running around."

Ryan's lip starts quivering harder at the mention of his actions, and he refuses to look at me while Hailey finishes, "And I think he ran into the table or something, but the next thing I knew he was on the ground and I think he may have…"

"He can't move his hand," Seth adds excitedly, beaming up at me. The poor kid thinks that information like that is going to calm me down. Too bad I'm already inches away from hyperventilating.

"Ryan, oh God, Ryan are you okay?" I ask franticly, setting him down on the table despite Hailey's consistent voice in the background saying that everything's fine, and nothings wrong. At least Sandy's on the right track, spouting off information; I'm not the only one who sees the growing bump on Ryan's arm as a impending problem.

"We'll take him to the hospital, get an x-ray, see if everything's alright," Sandy says, to no one in particular, because Seth can't drive, Hailey's choosing to ignore the facts, and I'm completely preoccupied with Ryan, who I've set on the table.

I look into his eyes, which have widened to the size of ping-pong's from all the attention-slash-mayhem his small accident has caused. Sandy mutters something else about hospitals and x-rays and doctors, and suddenly Ryan's feeling a hella-lot better.

Ever since my mothers death, he'd been strangely weary of hospitals, so there's no way I'm going to take his word for it. "Does this hurt honey?" I ask, taking his arm gently and running my palm over the bone. If he says 'ow' in any shape of form, it's straight to the hospital.

He gives a half-shrug as if it's not that big of a deal, though his eyes are very obviously watering up. "Doesn't hurt that bad; we don't have to go to the hospital," he insists. He isn't wailing, which is doing wonders for my nerves. One way or another though, he'll end up in that Emergency Room within due time. I still don't believe that it doesn't hurt.

"Uh huh, I'm sure it doesn't."

"It doesn't!" he insists again, and I nod my head knowingly. Right now Ryan and Seth have been going through a phase (when I say Ryan and Seth it's because what Ryan does Seth does as well), where they will flatly refuse to do something if it's not within their comfort zone, or if they feel they're feeling forced into it. Something or another about their independence.

"Mommy knows that Ryan, honey, but," this was a surefire way to get him to agree to anything, him and Seth both. It worked like a golden charm, "But do you think you could maybe do this for me and Daddy? You know, as a favor? Just to show us how big and brave you are again?"

Sandy shakes his head at me over the table, getting ice from the fridge. He knows I can't resist adding in the 'again'.

"But I don't have to go!" he insists again, and I disregard every word he's saying, lifting him up off the counter and holding him close to me. My little baby's hurt and thinks that he's alright. Kids were odd now-a-days.

I kiss his nose and he pulls away stubbornly. "Please?" I plead again, "For Mommy and Daddy?"

Sandy comes up behind me, Seth trapped between the two of us for some reason. He hands me the icepack from the fridge, random splashes of green, purple and gold covering it from a finger-painting episode a while back. "And we'll let you have some ice cream if you do this for us," Sandy smiles, and I'm grateful that he's here with me. I would have dragged Ryan into the car kicking and screaming before I thought of bribing him with something everyone knew he would evidently get.

Ryan winces as I put the icepack on his arm, pouting. "But only because you and Daddy want me to," he says, making sure that we don't forget about that fact. I don't think he realizes that he's still my little baby, and that it doesn't matter what gets him to the hospital as long as it gets him there within the next half hour.

Hailey's still chatting away about how he's fine, and how kids have some weird rebound thing in their systems that make them more resilient to injuries, and I still don't believe a word that she's saying as I strap both Ryan, and Seth who's decided to come along, into their car seats.

Sandy gets in the drivers seat, and I into the passengers, Hailey waving us goodbye, promising us that we'd come back empty handed.

In the car going 40 miles an hour and I thank God that Seth has the ability to consistently chatter. Most of it I don't understand, things that sound like foreign objects rolling off Seth's tongue like 'Candy'. I can tell through the rearview mirror, the passenger side side-view mirror and my numerous looks back at Ryan that he's progressively getting worse. He's face is starting to turn red, which could be either from the pain or his breathless laughing at a joke or comment that Seth made.

At least he isn't crying.

I'd be ten times more frantic and hysterical if he was crying.

And I do find it rather sad that I know that I would be.

Sandy takes a left, and we pull up to the hospital, Ryan once again assuring us that 'I'm fine.' I once again reassure he's probably right, and to stop complaining because it's not going to change my mind.

With Ryan in Sandy's arms, and Seth holding my hand, we walk confidently into the ER, looking for a place to check in.

"Excuse me!" I call in a panicked voice to a nurse that's about the turn the corner down the hall. She stops and it takes all of my energy to remember that we're in a hospital, and that running would surely be frowned upon. Ryan's turned white by this moment in time, and the nurse is a little shocked while I ask,

"Can you help us? My baby slipped and hit a table, and I'm worried he's broken something in his arm! We need a doctor and x-rays, and-"

"The ER check-in is that'da way," she drawls before I can say anything more, giving my family a once over trying to locate the 'baby' of question, her eyes finally coming to a rest on Ryan's huddled form. I can tell she's skeptical about the nature and seriousness of this 'injury.'

I imagine her checking off a mental list in her mind;

One injured toddler and a tag along, check.

One quiet, calm, supportive husband, check.

One deranged panic struck, overprotective mother, double double check.

Pushing past her and dragging Seth behind me, I head in the direction that the nurse pointed. Only there's a hallway with two forking halls. I head down the left one as confidently as possible, stopping when I come to another T intersection.

"Mommy, are you lost?" Seth asks curiously, tugging lightly on my hand. I smile down at him, laughing at his question.

"Of course I'm not sweetie," I mutter sweetly, running my hand through his dark curly brown hair.

"Only, cause, you sort of look like you are," Seth persists, and I'm finding it hard not to agree with him. A gurney rolls past us, two people pushing it, another sitting on top of the ill patient, pressing a red rag down on the patient's chest, yelling words that could only be medical. They wheel past us, not giving us a second look, and I decide they aren't the best people to be asking directions from.

"I'm not lost Seth," I smile down at him, "I just went the wrong direction. See, we just have to follow the green arrows." Seth nods, his faith in my sense of direction restored, but I find that it's not the same case for Sandy who's trying to cover up his laughter with an incredulously fake cough.

A doctor who happens to be walking by stops to see if Sandy's alright as I start to tug Seth away.

"Are you alright, sir?" he asks in a polite manner. Sandy stops his coughing instantly, nodding.

"I'm fine, it's just that me and my wife got lost. My son, Ryan, he has a…"

The doctor takes the hand that Ryan's so kindly extended and looks at the bump. "Ah, I see," he says knowledgably, and I rush back to Sandy's side, picking Seth up into my arms. He isn't too heavy, and he's only slowing me down anyways.

"What's wrong with it?" I ask franticly, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately. "Does he need a cast? Tensor bandage? Medication? An X-Ray?" The doctor looks at me with wide eyes, and I gasp, despair filling my heart. "Don't tell me my poor Ryan need surgery!" I don't know what I would do if Ryan needed surgery. It would be hell on Earth! He's such a small kid, Seth is small, but not in the same way. "When Ryan was a baby," I start before I even know I'm speaking, "He had malnourishment issues, and he was always small as a kid, even now he's a bit small for his age. He has bad asthma, but it's been getting better lately. I mean, the last attack he's had was about a year ago, so-"

"MISS!" the doctor yells, and I realize he's been trying to cut me off. "Miss, I assure you, from what I see so far, your son will not need to have surgery or anything that serious. If you'll just go check-in, I'll be glad to examine him further."

This time it's Seth who decides to insert his helpful bit of information, "We were heading there," he says, playing with my hair, "But mommy got lost along the way."

"I didn't get lost-" I start, but am cut off by the doctor, who's grinning,

"And what's your name big guy?" he asks, and Seth giggles.

"Seth," he says shyly, and reaches for the doctors Stethoscope as he comes closer. I don't know how many times I've told the boy to not grab things from strangers, but the doctor seems alright with it. In fact, he picks it up and hands Seth the button looking thing at the end.

"Seth? What a cool name!" I back away slightly, but Seth squirms. This guys enthusiasm is starting to creep me out a bit, but Seth seems to like the attention and won't let me leave. "So Seth, do you know what this is for?" he asks, and Seth shakes his head shyly.

"It's called a stethoscope, and I use it to listen to your lungs and heart." Seth nods intuitively, and I'm slightly worried that the doctor has the wrong kid. Shouldn't he be worried about Ryan, who was half-asleep on Sandy's shoulder? "Isn't that cool?" he asks, and Seth nods his head harder, putting one of his fingernails in his mouth.

"It is," he adds after a second with a smile.

"Hey, do you know how your brother got his ouchy?" – and I finally understand what he's doing.

It's all the prompting that Seth needed to send him off on the tangent of the afternoon, "Me and Ry were playing in the pool, and when Auntie Hailey came out- Auntie Hails is the best, she's gonna be babysitting us while Mommy and Daddy go off to the Bar for a couple days cause they said they needed a couple days off- but Auntie Hailey's gonna take care of us, and she came out to the pool and we all started playing, and then Ryan said that we should try and pull her into the pool cause it'd be funny, cause she didn't want to get wet, and so we got up and grabbed her hands and pulled her into the pool, which is in our backyard, and its usually warm, but we aren't allowed to go and play in it when no ones watching us and there's always a cover over it when we don't use it so we don't fall in accidentally, but it's really, really cool; when we lived back home, we didn't have a pool and hardly ever went swimming but me and Ry knew how to swim, and we moved here because Grandma was sick, and home's here now, but I really miss Nana, but it's okay, cause we get to see Auntie Hailey a lot more, and Mommy and Daddy like it here, even though Daddy always complains about how much it's not like back home, but I think deep down inside he really likes it… I like it here, but the pool isn't that awesome, cause sometimes when we play in it, water gets on floor beside it, and sometime we slip on it when we run, which is what happened to Ryan, he was running on the deck, and me and Auntie Hailey jumped into the pool, and then Ryan was lying on the ground crying, holding his hand like this!" Seth demonstrated, holding his arm up awkwardly, and there was silence.

Seth, who'd been playing with the stethoscope the whole time takes it off the flabbergasted doctor's neck and put the ear buds into his own ears. His small hands gripped the button thingy on it and he pressed the cool metal into my cheek.

"Seth, honey, that's cold," I mutter in protest, and he pouts.

The doctor finally seems to have regained his composure and swallows. "Oh-kay… Uh, I'll take you to the ER to check-in, and then we'll get some X-rays done on Ryan's arm. Does that sound good?" he asks, and I laugh at his face. I'm far too used to Seth's rambling to be shocked by it any longer. The doctor takes the stethoscope away from Seth gently, and Seth watches him while he walks us to the ER.

"Just stand here and the nurse will call you in," he says after we've taken the elevator three floors up, and maneuvered a labyrinth of hallways and doors. No wonder I couldn't find the stupid place.

"Mommy, what's OR mean?" Seth asks, looking around the bland room.

I turn to Sandy as the nurse calls for the next person. "Can you take Seth and go get a snack or something?" I ask, placing Seth on the floor and helping Sandy transfer Ryan into my arms.

"Mommy, what's OR mean?" Seth asks again, taking hold of Sandy's arm.

"Why don't you ask Daddy?" I suggest, walking over to the nurses station. The nurse looks at me and then at Ryan, pointing to the seat on the other side of the desk. "Ryan, honey, wake up," I whisper, and Ryan opens his tiny, groggy eyes.

"I dun wanna," he whines, and I hug him tightly. He's so tiny and fragile; I can't stress the fact that my little baby's been hurt enough.

"Can you place this around his arm?" the nurse asks me, and I unzip the sweater I've put on Ryan, tightening the thing that measures blood pressure… it's at this point that I realize I have no idea what all these gadgets and gizmo's are called, other then the names I give them.

Ryan starts crying as the machine turns on, "Mommy, it hurts!" he sobs, close to the point of hysteria. I hug him and try to calm him down as much as possible. I'm not sure whether he's just moody because he's tired, his arm is starting to hurt more, or the blood pressure machine thing is too tight.

"I know honey, but it won't for much longer," I whisper, kissing the top of his head. Ryan's beginning to cry and I can sense my calm beginning to slip. "How much longer is it going to take?" I ask the lady behind the desk, and she looks at me oddly.

"It hasn't even started yet madam," the nurse informs me, and now origin of the crying is between Ryan being moody and the machine scaring him or his arm starting to hurt more. "How did this happen?" she asks in a bored tone, and I adjust Ryan on my lap.

"He was running on the deck and he slipped and ran into a table I think. My sister was watching them, I'm not exactly sure what happened."

"His arm hurting?" she asks a bit more humanely, and the machines done its work. She pulls the thing off Ryan's small arm and takes his fever.

"Yes, and there's a big bump on it, and he said he couldn't move his hand. We ran into the doctor and he said something about an X-Ray…"

"Sounds good Madam. I'll just need his name and health care number and I'll get a band run off for you."

I pass the items of choice over the desk, and she types in something or another into a high-tech looking computer, and a second later I can hear the printer starting to run. The nurse gets up and crosses over to get the band for Ryan, and I take the opportunity to giver Ryan a quick once over. "How are you feeling honey?" I ask, and Ryan shrugs his little shoulders.

How adorable; he's still putting on the brave façade. "My arm hurts," he mutters quietly, collapsing into my arms, his eyes red from the tears, his face white from… well, I don't know, but the point is that Ryan looks completely and utterly exhausted.

"Just sit down in the waiting area Mame, it shouldn't take too long."

Shouldn't take too long my ass. By the time we were out of the hospital, a bright orange cast around Ryan's arm; the sun was already beginning to fade, and Sandy and I had long since missed our flight.

Oh well, I thought to myself as I put Ryan and Seth to sleep in their identical power ranger beds. My babies were all right and fine, and as much as I needed this vacation, nothing was ever going to be better then being with my munchkins.

And, on a side note, I was quite impressed with the way I conducted myself inside that hospital – not any of that crazy lady mother panic we mothers are usually stereo-typed with…