Hey Now, Hey Now (It'll All Be Well)

Bob Kelso was having a good time. Barely even nine o'clock and the new nurse was laughing at his jokes. Batting her dark-lashed eyes at him, she murmured "Oh Doctor Kelso you so funny!" And there was the other reason to like her. She was just as beautiful as all those woman he'd seen in nam but hadn't dared to know intimately simply because death hung over him like a stench and he'd been too afraid for his own life to go after a pretty face or shapely set of legs when he barely knew if he'd make it to the end of the day let alone the next week.

Leaning on the counter beside them, he gave her a wink and said "Oh yeah? Well here's a good one for ya, it goes like-"

"Uh, sir."

He flicked his gaze to the right. It was an intern. Scowling at the horse-faced young man, Bob demanded "What is it horse-chompers? Can't you see I'm busy."

The young man reddened, but held out a chart to him. "There's this patient - she's eight and has a broken wrist-"

"What of it? Kids break their wrists all the time. Probably fell off some damn monkey-bars!"

"I doubt it sir," the young man said with a sneer. "There were some other bruises on her and her brother, he had a real nice shiner, Kelso."

Feeling the good vibes he'd had just a minute ago evaporating, he gave the nurse - Hoa - an apologetic smile. "Sorry sweetheart, duty calls."

"You can tell me joke other time," she said with a giggle.

He grinned and gave her arm a squeeze. "You betcha." And followed the intern to the patient.

Stepping into the room, he saw a little blond girl tucked up in the big white bed with a boy of nine or ten sitting beside her as he read aloud some magazine that he'd probably found in the waiting room down the hall.

"Hey there sweetie," he greeted as the little girl's eyes rose to meet his. "I'm Doctor Kelso."

She looked to her brother then. The boy had straightened right up at the sight of him and crossed his arms in a way that was just a bit comical; it was obvious the kid was imitating someone, though, who that was Bob didn't know.

"I thought he was Paige's doctor," the boy growled while simultaneously frowning at the horse-faced intern beside him.

Raising an eyebrow, Bob didn't give up completely on pleasantries. "You're right buckaroo, he is, but he's also just an intern and wanted a second opinion, ya see."

Glaring hard at him underneath his mop of curls, the boy spat "No, I don't see. I think it's pretty obvious she just broke her wrist, what else could he possibly need an opinion on?"

Looking around, Bob wondered where these kids parents were. Surely they wanted to be here with their daughter? Unless..."Where are your parents, sport?" He asked.

"Getting somethin' to eat," the boy answered.

Bob frowned. This wasn't normal behavior for parents, surely the mother at the very least would have liked to stay with her daughter? Especially given that she wasn't ten and quite possibly the baby of the family. He'd seen how some mothers carried on. A cough was pneumonia, a sprained ankle was broken and would be so until proven otherwise. Even then they didn't quite their bitching.

Looking to the intern, horse-chompers, Bob mused that he may have made a keen observation for once. Approaching the boy and girl, he leaned in close and remarked "That's quite the bruise there, buckaroo."

"So?" The boy snapped. "I got in a fight, is that so bad?"

Nodding along, he glanced to the girl, Paige, and saw her worrying her lip. "Not at all," Bob concurred. "I got in a few when I was growing up too." Giving the boy his hand, he said "Now, what's your name kiddo?"

Narrowing his gaze, the boy reluctantly took his offered hand and answered "Perry."

Putting on his ass-kissing grin, he gave the young hand a strong shake. "Well, I'm very glad to meet you Perry!"

"I'm not glad to meet you," the little brat grumbled as he extracted his hand.

Smile falling away, Bob hissed "Don't you know you're supposed to respect grown-ups you little twerp?"

Perry narrowed his eyes. "I don't respect anybody who doesn't respect me too."

"Per-"

He held his hand up "I got it, Paige," he winked at her.

"Okay.." and she settled back with her eyes on the cast decorating her bird-bone thin arm.

Taking up the chart by the girl's bed, Bob remarked. "I see your family isn't from around here."

"We're from Pittsburgh and yes it is the pitts."

The way the boy said it brought a chortle from the doctor. The kid wasn't all brattiness after all. "Cute. Girls like cute, ya know."

Crinkled up his face, Perry declared "Who has time for girls?"

Bob thought of Hoa just outside the room at the nurses station. He wondered what she'd look like in red silk.

"What about me? Don't you have time for me Perry?" Paige asked with an anxious tremor to her voice.

Shifting so he was completely turned to meet his younger sister's gaze, Perry whispered "I'll always have time for you Paige."

Raising an eyebrow at the fierce declaration, Bob put aside the chart and took a step back to align himself with horse-chompers. Leaning in close to the young man, he whispered "I want you to get in touch with Social Services, alright? I'll keep an eye on them until then."

"Yessir," the intern agreed before leaving.

Forcing another grin, Bob voiced yet another question for the two. "What brings you all the way to California, kids?"

The girl, all fair-haired beauty, answered for both of them. "Daddy's job had him move out here to work at this office for the rest of the year."

"Did it?" He said with feigned interest. "What's your dad do?"

Perry, all angry boy rebuke, hissed "He doesn't do anything worth talking about!"

"Is that so?"

All of them looked to the doorway to find a tall fellow with a faintly round woman just behind his shoulder. Crystal eyes flashing all kinds of danger, Bob dared a look from the corner of his eye to Perry.

The child's face had gone white.

Shoulders curling forward, the curl-topped head bowed and all the fight seemed to evaporate from the boy as he whispered "No sir."

Not looking satisfied, the man came forward and thrust a hand into Bob's face. Taking it on instinct, he knew he was shaking the hand of a devil as the man told him "I'm a traveling manager for a restaurant chain, I go where they say go and this spring it happens to be here."

Giving a pleasantly neutral nod, Bob inquired in a voice he barely recognized at his own, "What made you decided to move the family with you?"

"It didn't sit right to leave them all the way in Pittsburgh for eight months with only a smattering of visits in between. Besides, it's good for kids to see a bit of the world, don't you think?"

"Oh definitely," he concurred with half-hearted enthusiasm. "My wife and I took our son to New York last fall when I had a business conference there last fall."

Smiling falsely, Perry and Paige's father remarked "Bet he liked that, didn't he?"

"He certainly enjoyed seeing a musical with his mother," Bob replied only to receive a raised eyebrow from the tall fellow.

Face a faint look of bemusement, the children's father all but sneered "A musical? What is he? A pansy?"

Bob tensed. Standing up then, he said to the man. "We'd like to keep Paige over night for observations, but if all is well, you can take her home tomorrow morning."

Crystal eyes grew suspicious, but a plump hand brushed his forearm and he looked back only to bob his head at the woman. "That's alright by me," he finally answered with a cocky grin. "C'mon now, Perry, we better get on home."

"But Paige-"

Brows furrowed, the man barked "Percival!" The boy slunk over to his father's side and looked several years younger as the hand of his father came to rest on the back of his scrawny neck. "It's late, let's head home." The fellow declared. "Paige will be alright until the morning."

"St-"

The father turned and glared down at his wife. "What Claire? Think I'm wrong too?"

Casting her eyes down, the woman mutely shook her head and with a scowl on his face, the man lead them out of the room and only called back an insincere "Love you Paige-baby!"

Once very much gone, Bob shifted his stare to the girl. "Is your brother going to be alright?"

"Perry's been learning how to give as good as he gets from a bigger boy down the street," she imparted in a halting voice. "He'll be okay."

Sucking in some air through his nose, he accepted what Paige gave him. "Alright," and with no more to say, he left.

The next morning, he heard from Hoa that the social worker who visited Paige got nothing but lies of falling from her and when Bob saw Perry again, the kid's lip was split.

Seeing as the boy's parents were busy with the discharge forms and horse-chompers as he explained the necessary care for Paige's wrist; Bob took a seat beside the kid.

"How'd that happen sport?"

Gazing straight ahead, the curl-topped boy ignored his question and instead whispered "Thanks for taking care of Paige. I can't fix broken bones - not yet, anyway."

"Planning to be a doctor, are you?" Bob inquired almost pleased by the information.

Perry looked at Bob then with blue eyes almost glittering. "I'm good at helping Paige - that wrist was a fluke, but when I'm all grown, I want to be able to help more than just her."

Offering a hand to the child, he gave the child the serious attention he would to a man that he considered an equal. "Good luck, Perry," he told the boy.

"Thanks, sir," Perry smiled as he shook his hand for a second time.

XxxxXxxxX

Bob would carry on for years after, occasionally wondering if the boy - Perry - achieved his dream or if he ended up dead and buried thanks to his father, but as more and more time passed it fell deeper into the recesses of his mind. That is, it did until a young man by the name of Percival Ulysses Cox showed up on Bob's roster for new interns at Sacred Heart.

I quite like the idea of chance meetings. What about you guys?

Thanks for reading and please review :)

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HORSE - "A brother and sister bond over a game of hoops."

or

Tumblers and Fat Knuckles - "Jack had just wanted a snack. He hadn't expected to find his dad nursing a drink on the couch."