Chapter Text
Emery Walsh, a flight surgeon and future physician-astronaut for NASA was leaning against her car, her dark blue beat up truck she once found for sale on a site. She had restored it mostly herself and now it was her favourite car.
She could feel the cold February air touching her skin as she tapped her fingers against the metal.
Her eyes were fixed on the door, waiting for her brother to come out of the hospital he worked at. She had offered to drop him off for his rare day shift because instead of her, he always worked nights. She didn’t mind picking him up from his house and dropping him off at the hospital. She would drive by his house and the hospital on her way home from the site she had worked at the previous six nights anyway.
She reached into the back pocket of her dark blue pants, finding the phone with her hands and taking it out. She was about to text her brother, telling him he had left something in her car once again.
Her fingers hovered above the keyboard, her brain was debating if she was gonna be polite or change tactics and go younger sister mode in telling him he forgot his shit again.
After typing three words, her mind got distracted by the sound of a dog barking. She put her phone back in her pocket and her head turned towards the sound.
The dog barked again. Emery couldn’t hear any humans nearby so it must have been a stray dog that had found something.
On a normal day she would have ignored it, she would have texted Jack that he needed to pick up his stuff or she would drive home and crawl in bed. But today, something in her brain made her curious about what the dog had found so she started walking towards the sound.
She found the dog standing at what looked like a small brick wall.
What the hell is the dog barking at? There is nothing to see.
The dog barked again, this time he jumped up against the wall, his paws touching the bricks.
Emery walked closer, taking her phone out of her back pocket and using it as a flashlight.
She looked on the other side of the wall, pointing her flashlight at the ground.
She gasped when the light landed on a duffel bag. She almost ignored it, thinking it was just leftover food that the dog was reacting to
.
She was staring at it, not knowing why she couldn’t look away from it, when it moved. It didn’t move much, just the slightest bit but Emery caught it.
This is not left over food.
She placed her phone on the edge, the light still aimed at the bag when she jumped over the wall. She cursed when she felt plants penetrating her jeans and she knew that they were gonna leave a mark but she didn’t care.
She grabbed the bag and placed it on the wall before climbing over again.
She breathed in deeply before carefully unzipping the bag. A small scream was let out when her eyes landed on the baby, the barely responsive baby, swaddled into a blanket and stuffed in a duffle bag.
Her mind started racing with thoughts, her breathing became rapid but her hands stopped reaching inside as if she didn't know what to do.
Emery always knew what she was doing . She knew how to handle emergency situations. Emery went to the army where she had to make decisions that could be the difference between being alive or being dead in a matter of seconds she knew how to do that.
Emery worked for nasa and made once again important decisions and once again she knew how to do that.
She came out of the daze she was in. She took the baby and carefully placed it against her chest, she placed a finger in the baby's neck, feeling for a pulse.
Pulse check. It’s not what it is supposed to feel like but it is there.
She quickly scanned the bag, looking for any sign of the person that left the baby but there was none.
She grabbed her phone and called Jack through the speed dial while making her way towards the hospital ED.
Come on Jack! Pick up!
Emery heard the click of the phone before she heard her brother’s voice. “Emmy I am working. I saw your text, you can go home it’s fine,” Jack's voice sounded on the other side of the line.
Emery didn’t know if he would hear her with the sound of her feet hitting the ground every second.
“I found a fucking baby stuffed in a duffle bag!, I am heading to the ED now so please get a room ready, this baby needs care right now,” Emery said. Her breathing rapid.
She could hear Jack yelling orders. She could hear footsteps but had no idea if those were her own or if they came from her phone.
The line got disconnected and a minute later Emery reached the entrance of the ED. She could see a small group of doctors standing in front of the doors.
“We opened peds!” One of them said as they led Emery inside.
Once they arrived in the room, Emery carefully placed the baby into the little bassinet. “Unresponsive when I found the baby in a fucking duffle bag, her pulse was tachy when I found her and it still is not back to normal. Baby is breathing,” Emery rattled off.
“It’s a girl,” the attending, who had come in, said as she gave Emery a small smile.
Emery watched the doctor’s work, she watched the doctors put leads on the baby before connecting the wires to the monitors.
She stood there, with her back against the wall as she watched. She didn’t want to be in the way but she couldn’t leave either.
“I need oxygen!” The female attending said as Emery looked at the sats of the baby.
Oxygen is low. heart rate is still tachy.
It was a few minutes later when she felt a hand on her shoulder. When she looked up she looked into the familiar brown eyes of Dr. Samira Mohan, she knew who she was mostly due to her brother but also because she may have read the paper she wrote. She had read the paper multiple times and still thought it was amazing and the person that wrote it should reserve all the flowers she could get.
“The little girl is fighting, thanks to you she will have the best care,” Samira smiled as Emery nodded.
“We ordered some tests and Peds should be down here to examine her sometime,” Samira said as Emery nodded again before she opened her mouth.
“Can I stay with her? It may sound stupid since I just found her but I don’t want her to be alone longer than she already was,” Emery said as Samira nodded.
“Of course you can stay, I think it will be good for her to have someone with her,” Samira smiled as Emery nodded and walked over to the little bassinet.
She carefully stroked the baby’s cheek with her fingers. “You are gonna be okay baby, you are safe now,” she whispered as she sat down.
The baby reached her little hand to where Emery's hand was. Emery could feel the little hand being wrapped around her own pointer finger. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth when she watched.
I saved a life today. I am able to save people .
Slowly, while waiting for the peds consult she felt a feeling growing inside her. A feeling that told her that she should be the one to take the little baby home at least for the next couple of days after she would be discharged to give social services the time to look for the relatives of the little baby. She had a license to foster, something she had started with her wife before she died.
Emery leaned back in the cot, closing her eyes as she breathed slowly. The baby’s little hand was still wrapped around her finger.
Emery's breathing evened out as she could see imaginations appearing in front of her eyes.
It was her wife, the woman she thought she would spend the rest of her life together with. , the one that she saw as the person that she would grow old together with.
. The one that died in her arms after she got into a massive car pile up.
“Hey Emmy, you did an amazing job, you saved a baby and you are staying with her so she isn’t alone, just like you did with me in my last moments.”
Emery could hear the voice of her late wife in the back of her mind. For a moment she thought the dream was real but it wasn’t so she kept her eyes shut, hoping that the dream would continue.
“I know you are thinking of taking her home. I know you Emmy,” her wife’s voice sounded.
“Just know that I will look over the both of you, I am so proud of what you have become and the woman you are Em.”
Emery felt a tear running down her cheek. She missed hearing the voice of the woman she loved so dearly and somehow those words hit her right into the heart.
“I am calling her Artemis, just like the promise we made before you died.” Emery said as she opened her eyes and looked at the baby.
When she looked up she could see a woman standing in the doorway. Emery smiled when her eyes landed on the badge. Trinity Santos, Peds.
‘’I heard there was a baby,’’ Trinity started as she walked closer, quickly sanitising her hands before she put on some gloves. ‘Hi little one,’’ she whispered.
‘’They ordered some tests when she came in, I don’t know if they came back already,’’ Emery said as she pushed herself into a more upright position.
‘’The lab has been backed up,’’ Trinity explained as Emery nodded.
‘’Her saturation is still a little low even with oxygen,’’ Trinity noted as Emery nodded slowly. ‘’She seems older than twenty-eight days,’’ Emery said softly as Trinity let out a sigh, ‘Which means she was abandoned and if the parents come back we have to call the police.’’
Trin wrote some things down in a chart. ‘’I will put a rush on the labs and come back when the results are in,’’ Trinity said as she took off her gloves and put them into the bin in the corner of the room. ‘’You can stay if you want.’’
‘’I am not leaving her alone, she doesn’t deserve to be alone anymore,’’ Emery said as she looked at the baby and smiled. ‘’Look at you being strong,’’’ she whispered as Trinity couldn't hide the smile on her face. ‘’She is the strongest little girl I have seen today.’’