Family Matters

The smell of bleach and the color white, it was all Charlotte could process as she sat in the waiting room. It was practically empty just the secretary and her, which made Charlotte wonder where her sister's good for nothing husband was. The nurse still refused to tell Charlotte why she was here despite her constant pleading. Caroline better explain herself, and reimburse her rather expensive plane ticket.

Charlotte bounced her leg nervously debating going to the bathroom to freshen up. She still wore her disheveled sweats from the airplane and her hair was a tangled static filled mess. Just as she was about to get up a man entered the waiting room looking worried his white lab coat crumpled and full of suspicious looking stains. Charlotte went to stand but he held a hand for her to sit and collapsed into the seat next to her.

"Miss Jennings I presume?"

Charlotte gave a nod and from the look on his face was beginning to think this was more than just a broken bone.

"What's wrong with Caroline?"

"Well...."

"Why couldn't I get chocolate? Brendan got chocolate it isn't fair!" The loud whining of a child echoed through the near empty room.

A young couple and several children entered the room. The man looked sick and the woman carried a small squirming bundle but the children, other than the one holding the small chocolate ice cream cone, seemed to be unfazed. Charlotte went to shrug it off when she caught the gaze of the young girl and had to stifle a gasp as the girl sent her a glancing look. Standing the doctor gestured to the couple and Charlotte.

"Miss Jennings, Karen, Harry come with me. Alice please watch the children."

Karen gently placed the baby into the nurses arms who was mumbling about her waiting room being turned into a day care. Charlotte cautiously followed the couple through the hallway and into a small office. When gestured to sit she took a cautious perch on the arm of one of the large chairs. Taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes the doctor took a deep breath.

"As Caroline's next of kin and the Biederman's emergency contacts this information is for the three of you. But primarily for you Miss Jennings. Sean and Caroline were brought into us in bad condition. There was nothing we could do for Sean, he had already gone into organ failure. But the hard decision had to be made about Caroline and the baby. We asked Sean because Caroline wasn't conscious and he said to try and save the baby. We tried the best we could but we couldn't save the both of them Caroline had lost too much blood. We are sorry for your losses."

A small shaking sob came from the woman next to Charlotte as she grasped onto the man's arm tightly. Charlotte just sat in shock unsure what to feel. She couldn't bring herself to cry. How was she supposed to react to finding out she lost the rest of her family, even if she had refused to talk to Caroline for years. Taking a shaky breath she raised her hand to her mouth as she stood pacing several steps back and forth. She had assumed that the doctor said the news applied to her since she didn’t know her sister had had an accident in the first place but as she noted the three pairs of eyes on her she was beginning to think otherwise.

“We can take care of the kids for a while.” Harry directed the statement at the doctor as he folded back into the chair.

"I'm afraid Harry that the legal matters of this is that the children are in charge of the next of kin which is...." He trailed off as he looked at Charlotte expectantly causing her to realize he'd never actually asked her name.

"Charlotte." She offered.

"Charlotte, she's in charge of the children," He paused for a second giving Charlotte a glance, "unless she is unwilling and then they will be entered into the system."

"No!" Charlotte's outburst was louder than she had intended it to be and the others in the room turned to her.

"I'll take care of them." Her voice was calm but her mind was anything but.

She didn't know why she did it but the idea of sending Caroline's children through the same experience they'd been through felt like someone stabbed her in the chest. The loneliness, the fending for yourself, the feeling like you never belong, it was something that Charlotte could never intentionally send someone to.

"I'll do it." She said quietly.

Notes

Sorry that the chapter is a little short. The next one will be longer :)

Let me know what you think

-A