Participants:
| Scene Title | Life Isn't Fair |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Megan visits Brennan bearing bad news adn a request for help just before he needs to take off. |
| Date | March 11, 2010 |
Brennan Household
She didn't call. Megan sat outside on a stoop just down the block until she saw Michelle and the girls and the nanny — and an extra friend, it looked like — leave. And even then, she almost didn't get off the stairs. The sidewalks and streets are mostly clear, so people are walking about. She doesn't look that out of place. Finally she pushed herself off the stoop when the elderly man who lived there stepped out to ask if she needed help. He looked worried that she'd been there so long. Truth be told, the redhead doesn't know how long she sat there.
Trudging across to the brownstone where the Brennans live, Megan's not even entirely certain Dr. Harve Brennan will be there. He might be at the Center or at his practice, now that she thinks about it. Standing on his front porch, she reaches into her pocket to retrieve her phone and dials his cell.
Lights still remain on in the home, and he is indeed home, in the back of the building and cleaning the dishes from dinner while Melissa and the nanny set about to ensuring that Liette has appropriate winter clothing. After a couple days had passed, it was decided to go ahead and bite the bullet, buy her some warm clothing that wasn't tights and other necessities till whomever she insisted would find her, came to fetch her.
The cell vibrates in his back pocket and drying off a hand, Brennan flips the phone open after extracting it and answers. "Dr. Brennan speaking"
"Please tell me you're home and I'm not standing on your front porch for no reason?" Megan's first words aren't a polite greeting. She sounds… beyond exhausted. There's an odd tone to her query. "I should have called first. I'm sorry."
"Uh, yeah, Michelle just… left with the girls" There's footsteps heard through the door, the creak of floorboards restored when they first picked up the place and eventually the door opens. He closes his cellphone and frowns at the Nurse. "Come in Megan. SHit, you're gonna freeze. Coffe or tea?"
When he opens the door, she looks up and forces a smile as she shoves the phone into her pocket. "I know… I saw them go a while ago," Megan admits softly. "Whatever you have made would be fine." She steps into the hall and slips the knitted hat off her copper hair, leaving it a staticky mess. Her hands fumble with her gloves, though. She's definitely more than a little chilled. She's gone beyond the shivers — those won't kick in for another few minutes, most likely.
"I have tea, from dinner, get in" Taking coat and noticing the tinge of white, up's the heat a few degrees since Michelle has left the house. "What's wrong to bring you out here?'
Standing in the front hall of the house, Megan looks around absently as he takes her coat, as if she's not really seeing the hall. "I need you … to call the Hangar for me." She doesn't look at him; it's too hard. "I need a … disposal team, and I just can't…" She can't make the call herself. Harkness has already come down on her for being too emotional. And in this case, she absolutely is too emotional. "I don't know … how they will handle this, I'm sure Harkness has a contingency, though."
One of the kids. One of the kids with the evo flu didn't make it/ Brennan's lips pull inward and he nods, gesturing for the woman to follow him into the kitchen where it's decidedly warmer. "Have you isolated the child's body? Informed the parents of what's happened yet?" He's digging up a sheet somewhere with a sticky note attached that has the hangar's number on it.
There's a faint nod, and Megan follows him obediently. "It was Lila," she murmurs. Her throat closes around the name. One of the little three-year-old twin girls whose parents died at Beach Street and for whom the Ferry was working to find family or trying to find someone to take them. Megan's brought them to Harve before for simple ear infections, her attachment to the little girls very obvious. Lila and Lori Buchanan. "We've got… three other kids who've come down with it, but if it was the vaccination, it looks like most everyone else is in the clear by now."
"scott will need to be notified. I'm sure this won't be the first time they will have had to deal with the passing of someone and the legalities of a body" Brennan assures her though he's not sure. There's a lot of things about the Ferry that he's sure they've dealt with before and have ways around them. Brennan gestures for her to take a seat while he fetches the water and fill up a cup, teabag plopped in with little fanfare before being brought to the nurse. "How are the others?"
She's finally starting to shiver. How long she was sitting outside even Megan couldn't tell him, honestly. She puts her chilled hands around the teacup after lowering herself into the chair at the table. "Lori's… I don't even know. She wasn't as sick as Lila, she seems to be holding stable. Jimmy's not doing well. Hannah's holding her own. Lila just… " She reaches up and rubs her forehead, struggling with the emotions. Sorrow. Rage. The sense of failure. "I think her kidneys gave out in the night. She was okay when I laid down with her. Weak, tired, but alert. A couple hours later, she woke me thrashing about a bit, and she was burning up. And she was already septic. The whites of her eyes were yellow." She bites her lip. "If I'd thought she had any chance at all…. but she was seizing. That's what woke me. I was…" She trails off, biting back the self-recrimination.
"Liver. Whites of the eyes go yellow, Liver" Brennan quietly adds on. "Nothing you could have done Megan. It's an unknown virus, Is suppose we could try and get our hands on some anti-virals and see if that helps lessen the severity. She is not the first to be taken by this and if the news is any indication or Doctor Chesterfields power point, she will not be the last.
Meg simply nods. Does it matter whether it was her liver or her kidneys? She doubts it. Was there anything she could have done beforehand. Not really… the child had been keeping fluids down, which was always the main concern in fever. "I know," she replies quietly. "I know. I just… Lori's a wreck. I'm a wreck." She looks up at him, tears merely a shimmer in her blue eyes, and says quietly, "And if I have to be the one to tell Scott, I'm probably going to lose it, Harve. I don't need him questioning my ability to handle this mess."
"They're kids. They're sick kids and if you think Scott's going get unhappy with you because you're reacting in a normal fashion to the death of a child, then you're mistaken. He's not stone cold, I'm sure of it. He'll understand. They're your kids, you cared for them. I'll call scott and i'll let him know, i'll help take care of it Megan."
Brennan reaches over, elbows on the table and squeezing her hand around the cup gently.
Megan looks at the doctor and forces a little bit of a smile. "This is why I never did Pediatrics, you know," she says softly. "This shit…. just kills me." She makes no move to stop the tears that well up, but she's cried so much already this morning, she has little left to trickle right now. "I helped get them out of Humanis First's attack, only to lose one of them to the flu. I'm so damn mad right now, I can't even see straight. I want to…. break things. And scream. And hit someone." Her expression crumples and she looks down. "I am so damn tired of burying people."
"Life isn't fair Megan. Life is about navigating shark filled waters and emerging on the other side with about as much of you intact as possible. Tell me this. Lila. The time spent in your care, after the Humanis First attack and right till the end. Was she happy? Did she get love and attention and was she lonely?"
She laughs softly. "I like to think so," Megan replies about the love and attention. And certainly whenever Harve saw the girls, they seemed well cared for and very much attached to the nurse too. Looking up, she shakes her head. "I'll be all right. I just… don't want to make the call, Harve. It's a cowardly thing to do, but I don't want to talk to any of them. I don't want pragmatism right now. We're both professionals — you know I'll pull it together and deal with it. But I just need a few minutes to sit here and hate it. If that's okay?"
"rail against the world Megan, i'll go make the call. Then I can get you a cab to take you back to the den, and you can sublimainate your pain and throw yourself into trying to keep the others alive. This is good. This girl, this child, she needs someone to grieve for her since her parents can't"
Megan nods, and she turns her hand so that she can squeeze his in return. "Thanks. I know I could have just called them. Or called you to ask you to call. But I needed…. to just sit. In a room with someone else who gets it." You lose patients. It happens all the time. And sometimes, it requires other people who just flat get it to let you pull yourself together.
Brennan doens't loose patients, not much anymore. Oversea's in places with no equiptment, no drugs or outdated drugs past their dates for use, he lost them. But there wans't such an emotional attachment to them as there would be to the children in the ferry's care. "I understand. Take your time megan. I'll go to the study and make the call.
There's a nod as Meg sits back in the chair to drink the hot tea in front of her. By the time he gets back from the call, she's composed and quiet. The sad part? That doesn't really go away, it just gets easier eventually. She glances up at him and smiles a little. "Thanks, Harve. Really."
Brennan gets out of the chair, heading towards the kitchen exit so that she can be by herself in the house and warm up. Stairs creek and somewhere in the second floor, Brennan's notifying the hangar that one of the children was lost to what is suspected to be the evolved flu at the Den. Whatever measure they take to report the death needing to be taken.
Eventually Brennan returns with his jacket and gloves, hat. "You're welcome Megan. They're on it, Taxi is on it's way, I told Michelle I might be a few minutes late"
Moving to stand, she says quietly, "You don't have to come with me. I don't want to expose any of you to this. Especially not your girls." Megan moves to take a last swallow of her tea and sets the cup down. "I'll be ready when the taxi gets here."
You say, "I have a car Megan, I'll be taking it. Taxi is for you. But I'm not going to make you wait alone and not out in the cold there" A gesture to the door. "we'll just sit tight until the car comes" He inserts a bit of authority into his voice, to express to her that he's not about to budge on this topic. And he does. Stay that is until the yellow of the taxi is outside and he see's her to it."
Megan looks puzzled. "All right." As she walks to the door, she asks, "What are you going to go do?"
"I gotta go catch up with my wife. i stayed behind to wash dishes Megan. We have a guest with us for a bit, Michelle's getting her appropriate clothes for winter since she's staying longer than expected" He offers up a smile.
"Ah!" Megan smiles. "Tell Michelle I said hello." She picks up her jacket on the way to the door. "Enjoy shopping with a slew of women." There's even a faint twinkle at that. Poor man.