Where is Your Heart At?

Chapter 2: Snoring

Where is your heart at?

Chapter 2

Snoring

Dr. Anthem wasn't at all a human doctor. She normally left that up to Dr. Clign; he was good at it and she was good at mechanics.

She stood there for a moment watching the young girl clinging to her uncle who patted her back as she wailed. Soaking wet with perspiration and absolutely scared. She was even sure that Gadget was crying. What could she do?

It felt like a stone in the bucket of her memory for a moment. She knew exactly what to do.

"Symptoms?" She didn't actually give him time to answer. She had children once, she had dealt with this many times. She motioned to the bed she had Gadget lay down on whenever he came for check ups.

He walked over and placed Penny down on the table. These were the moments where it would have been handy to have a spouse around. Something he wasn't sure he would ever have. He just wasn't the marrying type.

"Alright kitten." Anthem leaned over and looked into the crying toddlers eyes. Penny took a swing at her, she didn't want this woman. She wanted her uncle. Penny turned and held up her arms to Gadget. Gadget leaned down and gathered her into his arms and to Anthem's amazement he climbed up onto the table instead putting Penny into his lap.

"Very good...listening to the needs of the young and then working yourself into the equation. You'll still make a good dad yet." Anthem pulled something from a drawer and walked over to the toddler who tried to take a swing at the woman again. Gadget took her tiny fingers into his hands and kissed them.

"Hush now. Let her see if you need something for..." Penny made a gurgling noise but just before she even spewed anything there was a trash can in Anthem's hands and holding it up to the toddler's face. You'd think a tiny belly wouldn't have much else to spew, but it did.

"How?" Gadget asked. Anthem held out a wet cloth for Gadget to clean Penny's face with. Anthem shook her head and put the trash can nearby just in case.

"Years and years...and years of experience." She slowly picked up something and leaned down looking at Penny. "Heya kitten. Can you open your mouth for me? I want to look at the back of your mouth." She looked up at Gadget as if asking permission.

Gadget chuckled, patting her arm softly and nodded.

"Go ahead, sweetheart." She opened her mouth a little and Anthem turned on the light on her pen.

"Alright stick out your tongue as far as it'll go." She said in the most childlike voice she could muster. Which wasn't hard since she was actually pretty short. She could have been mistaken as a teenager. A small stick with cotton on the end of it went right into her mouth. Penny made a gagging motion before glaring at Ren who placed a small sucker into her hands.

"It'll help with the sick feeling." She told Gadget.

Gadget watched her intently. The little girl curled back into Gadget and popped the sucker into her mouth.

"I'll be back in 20 minutes." She told Gadget as she walked over to a huge chemistry set along a table. He saw her mess with this stuff before. He hated the smell of some of them. There was one that glowed a soft green. He wanted to know what it was. To him it looked like the way radioactive materials in cartoons glow.

Picking up the long Q-Tip, cutting the end of it off, and putting it into a beaker. Adding a few other things as she went along. She sat there for a moment swirling the contents around as she looked over something on the computer screen.

What was she waiting for? Finally after a good 15 minutes the liquid was now a sandy pink color.

"Strep." She threw the contents into the sink and sighed. "She didn't catch a cold from the storm like I figured. It looks like she might have caught this from someone you both had been around in the past two weeks. The rain just gave it a better condition to spring forward and take root." She looked up at Gadget and almost smiled.

"What?" He asked. She gave an almost mischievous grin.

"I guess I get to see how well this body does with sickness." Oh geez yeah, this is a new body and he wasn't sure how well he was going to do with it and having a cold.

He groaned as he looked down at Penny who had just been given a popsicle. The soft purple color told him it was grape. Penny had never had one before and wasn't sure how she would do.

Almost too curious she bit down on the popsicle and a smile spread across her face.

"This will lower her temperature well enough to take some medication." Ren told Gadget who shook his head as he put his cheek onto Penny's head.

"This is a lot easier than I thought."

"Oh you think this is easy? Try the flu! The idea of your own kid..." She stopped herself and looked at Gadget who seemed almost horrified about what she was about to say. He knew the flu could kill even the most healthy of people.

Ren cleared her throat and touched Penny's forehead. "I don't have a thermometer for infants so this will just have to do."

"Col..." Penny held out the popsicle stick for Ren. Ren smiled kindly at her and plucked the tiny stick from the pint sized hand.

"Yes, it is cold. It's good for you since you were hot." She tried to explain to the two year old.

"Hot?" She looked up at Gadget and held out her hand. He leaned down and touched his forehead. She giggled and curled into him. Yawning and closing her eyes.

"Alright kitten, here's some medicine." Ren walked over and held it out for Gadget to take. The dropper was so small in his large hands.

"Say ah." He told his niece who opened her mouth and took the medication like a pro.

"Oh only if my kids took medication like that. Mine would try to avoid it at all costs. Even on into their teenage years." She stretched and walked over to a closet.

"I guess we should head back h..."

"Oh no you don't. You are likely contaminated. Doctors order you to stay here, I'll watch over both of you and...I want to document you." He was just a lab rat to her sometimes. Or at least that's what he felt like.

"Alright...here you go." She pulled off the couch cushions and pulled out the bed. Having a couch bed had its uses.

"If I sleep here, where will you sleep?" Gadget asked. Ren walked toward the bed again with an arm full of sheets, and blankets.

"I slept in the observatory. I haven't slept here in a very long time." The bed was big enough for two. This must have been where her and her husband slept. Now that he thought of it the building was sizable but not enough size for a family where did the kids sleep?

"It's not like we lived here beforehand. Our house is...too big now. I don't want to go there anymore. It's full of memories of them." A sudden thought hit Ren like a brick. She stood straight up like she had gotten struck by lightning.

"Gadget..." He looked around like there was a threat until he heard a giggle. "I'll sell it to you..."

The smile that spread across Gadgets face told Ren she had a deal.