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Little Voices

Little Voices

Short Story · Imagination
By:  Greedy PassCompleted
Language: English
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13Chapters
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Synopsis

Feel-Good Story

Plot Twists

Counter Attack

Male POV

Freak

Doctor

Redemption

Mind Reading

Face Slapping

I understood babies. The baby in Room 403 cried out, "My butt itches! It is not a stomachache!" A newborn in the ER screamed, "Something is stuck under my belly button!" A preemie babbled softly, "I want my mommy..." None of that prepared me for that day. Dr. Margot Aldrich, the country's foremost authority in pediatrics, stood before a packed auditorium and examined a baby who had screamed himself purple. "We will keep observing." The mother fell to her knees. "Please, my baby is dying..." Margot let out a short laugh. "Am I the expert here, or are you?" The room went silent. In my ears, a tiny voice raged. "Are you grown-ups blind? Something is stuck under my belly button! It is not a stomachache! Somebody cut me open already!" I did not stop to think. I pushed through the crowd, dropped beside the crib, and looked Margot in the eye. "Dr. Aldrich, let me try."

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Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Margot Aldrich looked up and saw me standing beside her, her expression already impatient. "Which department are you from?"

"Pediatric resident. Rowan Beckett."

"A resident?" She set her pen down and let out a laugh.

"Did anyone ask for your opinion? I was already a department chief before you were born. What would a resident know?"

A few interns nearby stifled their laughter. The baby's mother glanced up at me, then lowered her head again in disappointment.

My fingers trembled. I knew what charging in would cost me. It would mean termination, a hospital-wide disciplinary notice, and the end of any future in pediatrics.

The tiny voice kept looping in my ears, growing more desperate by the second.

"Ow ow ow, it hurts so bad!

"Where is this old hag even poking? She is way off!

"Under the belly button! Under it!

"I am gonna die and you people are still just watching?"

The baby's dark eyes were locked on Margot, unblinking, his little mouth wide open as he screamed himself hoarse.

Margot's expression hardened when she saw I had not moved. "Young people these days. Restless, reckless. Learn a little and suddenly you think you are ready for the spotlight.

"Do you have any idea what this occasion is? It is the National Pediatrics Conference. Everyone in this room has more experience than you could dream of, and you, a resident, think you can walk up here and take charge?"

She paused, then turned to Dr. Caroline Whitby, the hospital's director. "I have examined the child. There is nothing seriously wrong. We observe for now. The mother is simply too anxious."

Caroline glanced at me. The look said everything it needed to, that I was out of my depth.

All she said was, "Rowan, step back."

The tiny voice exploded into wailing.

"No more observing!

"Something inside me is stuck! I am gonna die!

"Is this old hag even a real doctor?

"Help! Somebody do something!"

Margot stood up, smoothed the front of her white coat, and turned to her assistant. "Note it down. Transfer to a general ward for observation. If the crying continues tomorrow, run another exam."

The assistant nodded and reached for the baby. The tiny voice came out cracked and hoarse, barely holding together.

"I am only three months old... I do not wanna die... This stupid hospital... this stupid old fossil..."

I clenched my fists until my knuckles went white. Every rational thought told me to stay out of it, but my feet would not move.

The humiliation Margot had dealt me in front of the entire room was still fresh, yet the baby's face had gone from purple to almost black, and the crying had faded to a thin, reedy whimper.

The tiny voice was still pleading.

"Under the belly button... it is stuck... it hurts..."

The assistant's hands were already on the baby's swaddle. I did not stop to think. Two strides and I was there, pushing the assistant's hands aside and pressing down on the swaddle to keep the baby in place.

"Do not transfer him! I can do this!"

"You?" Margot scoffed.

"A pediatric resident, and this confident? That is bold."

Caroline glanced at me. This time she spoke, her tone measured and even.

"Rowan, I know your heart is in the right place."

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13 Chapters
Chapter 1
Margot Aldrich looked up and saw me standing beside her, her expression already impatient. "Which department are you from?""Pediatric resident. Rowan Beckett.""A resident?" She set her pen down and let out a laugh."Did anyone ask for your opinion? I was already a department chief before you were born. What would a resident know?"A few interns nearby stifled their laughter. The baby's mother glanced up at me, then lowered her head again in disappointment.My fingers trembled. I knew what charging in would cost me. It would mean termination, a hospital-wide disciplinary notice, and the end of any future in pediatrics.The tiny voice kept looping in my ears, growing more desperate by the second."Ow ow ow, it hurts so bad!"Where is this old hag even poking? She is way off!"Under the belly button! Under it!"I am gonna die and you people are still just watching?"The baby's dark eyes were locked on Margot, unblinking, his little mouth wide open as he screamed himself hoars
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Chapter 2
Caroline spoke with a steady tone. "Dr. Aldrich is the top of the field in this province. She has seen more children than you could count in a lifetime."She already said to observe. Do not be reckless and make a fool of yourself in front of the whole hospital."Caroline waved the nurse over, signaling for the baby to be taken away.I stepped in front of the nurse. My voice shook. "Dr. Whitby, let me run one exam. Just one. I promise nothing will go wrong.""Promise?" Margot closed the distance between us in two strides. She backed me into a corner until the cold wall pressed against my spine."I spent thirty years in pediatrics and there are still cases I could not call with certainty. And you, a resident, have the nerve to guarantee results?"Your hospital cycles through a new batch of graduates every single year. The ones I actually thought were worth a second look? I could count them on one hand."You finished your degree, rotated for three months, and now you think you are
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Chapter 3
I walked over to her."Dr. Aldrich, the baby is fine."The results are in, and it was an incarcerated hernia."I held up the report. "You agreed earlier that you would stop pulling rank. So do you have anything to say now?"When I handed her the ultrasound report, she took it. She read it once, then read it again. Everyone in the room watched her.She gripped the edge of the paper, her thumb rubbing back and forth across the surface, as if she could scrub the words off it."Well, your approach was certainly unconventional."I blinked. "I am sorry?""I said you have nerve."She pushed the report back toward me. "The textbook symptoms did not match, so you took a shot in the dark with an atypical presentation. You guessed right, and you got lucky."I stared at her face, cycling through every reaction I had braced myself for. I had expected anger, embarrassment, silence, or deflection. None of them matched what she did now, which was brushing the entire result aside as nothing m
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Chapter 4
Margot held the X-ray up to the light, studied it, set it down, then turned back to the monitor to check the readings. She went through the morning’s test results one more time.She stood at the bedside with her hands resting lightly on the rail, staring at the child for a long time.She turned her head, her gaze passing over Caroline and landing on me."You are so talented, are you not?"Here is your chance. Let us see if you can prove yourself again.""Dr. Aldrich, that is not appropriate." The on-call doctor stood between us, looking from me to Margot and back, clutching a medication bottle with no idea who to hand it to.Margot waved him off, her tone leisurely. "This resident from your hospital just single-handedly diagnosed an incarcerated hernia. I am sure a little problem like this will not be beyond him either."She took a step forward until she faced me directly, her gaze bearing down. "You are the one who is so confident in his own judgment, right? The one who said I
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Chapter 5
"...it is different..."I snapped my head up and stared at the IV line attached to the monitor. Clear liquid dripped through it, one drop at a time.I turned to Margot, my voice shaking. "Dr. Aldrich, what medication is this child on?"Her expression froze for a second. The monitor alarm shrieked as the oxygen saturation dropped to fifty-five.The tiny voice came again, so faint it sounded like the last of his strength being spent."Hey... mister... the old bat... she changed my medicine... something is wrong with it..."My breath caught. Inside the IV line, another drop of clear liquid fell."Dr. Aldrich, when was this bag changed?"I barely recognized my own voice. It came out dry and tight, like it was being squeezed out of me.Margot glanced down at the IV bag. "Standard protocol. It gets changed when it needs changing. What is the problem?"The tiny voice came again, even fainter, like a thread about to snap."Mister... she is not... this is not the first time she chang
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Chapter 6
I took half a step forward and lowered my voice. "But when the lab results on that bag come back, you had better have your answer ready."Margot did not respond. She set the bag down on the counter, turned, and walked out.Caroline stood in the doorway, her eyes moving from me to the bag on the counter. She said nothing, but I watched her take out her phone and start dialing.In that moment, I knew this was no longer only about one bag of medication.I went back to the on-call room and locked the door behind me. I did not sleep that night. I went through the patient files until the sky outside the window began to lighten.The abandoned infant’s admission records were thin, but the only section I cared about was the medication log. Something was off.According to the treatment guidelines, an infant with severe brain damage should have been receiving an imported neurotrophic agent, administered once daily at one vial per dose. A single vial cost over three hundred dollars, nearly h
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Chapter 7
The report came back after dark.Philip handed it to me and took off his reading glasses. "This child's level of consciousness is far higher than the previous diagnosis suggested. He has full sensory perception. He can process speech, orient himself spatially, and localize external sounds. All of that is still intact."This is not brain damage. It is pharmacological suppression. Prolonged use of the wrong medication created an artificial state of neural inhibition."I stared at the lines on the report, my fingers gripping the edge of the paper. I stood there for a long time.It was not brain damage. He had been chemically suppressed, which was exactly what the baby had told me.I went back to the on-call room and laid three documents out on the desk. The medication administration record, the pharmacy dispensing comparison sheet, and the neurological assessment report. I flipped through them once more, then gathered them up and slipped them into a folder.Early the next morning, I
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Chapter 8
Gary had his head down, his hair falling over most of his face. A gray jacket was draped over his wrist, and he did not look at me.As he passed, his step faltered for a fraction of a second, so brief it was almost imperceptible. Then he kept walking, following the two plainclothes men around the corner and into the elevator.After the elevator doors closed, the hallway stayed silent for a few seconds.Caroline stood in the doorway of her office, staring in the direction of the elevator. She watched for a long moment before turning to face me."Come with me."I followed her inside. She closed the door and gestured for me to sit. She stood by the window with her back to me."Yesterday afternoon I brought the materials to the Health Commission. The disciplinary board received a separate anonymous submission at the same time, pointing in the same direction."Gary has been taken in for questioning."She turned around and leaned against the window ledge."He confessed. It has been
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Chapter 9
"This is from the disciplinary board, delivered first thing this morning. It is Margot Aldrich’s suspension notice."I looked down at the paper. The letterhead was official, and the language was formal."Does she know?""She was notified at eight this morning," Caroline said. "She has not come into the hospital."A car horn sounded outside the window. I turned and looked out.A police cruiser was pulling slowly out of the parking lot. Through the glass, I could not make out who was sitting in the back seat. The car turned out of the entrance and merged into the morning rush. Within seconds, it was gone.I looked down at the suspension notice on my knees. The edges of the paper were creased where I had been gripping them."I am going to go check on the child."I stood, walked out of the office, crossed the hallway, and pushed open the ICU doors.He was still in bed. The tubes were still in place, and the numbers on the monitor flickered steadily.I walked to the bedside, leane
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Chapter 10
By the fourth night, the presentation was down to forty-five pages. Every page had data, timestamps, and the signature of the person who recorded it. Not a single page contained the words I believe or I felt.The afternoon of the symposium, the auditorium was full. Hospital leadership sat in the front rows, doctors from every department filled the seats behind them, and more people stood lining the hallway. A camera was mounted at the back of the room.When I walked up to the podium, I caught something in my peripheral vision. There was a seat in the corner, against the wall, where the light barely reached.Margot was sitting there. She was not wearing her white coat. She had on a dark jacket, her hands resting on her knees, her face half hidden in shadow.I opened the presentation."Good afternoon. My name is Rowan Beckett. I am not here today to talk about theory or principles. I am here to walk you through two cases I handled personally."The first slide was the incarcerated h
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