I See Dead People

It's been three weeks, and Harry can say he has settled in pretty well. It was a week ago when some nurses helped decorate his room. Harry always liked the stars; it was only right that his room was decorated like space.

His cupboard back at the Dursley's had paper stars on the ceiling that he would make in school and hide away in his pockets when no one was looking. But this was even better!

There was even a long, galaxy-colored snake that wrapped around the top of the wall. Harry's walls weren't the only thing decorated, though; his bed was too! The nurses showed him all of his sheets, and they all had some kind of animal; some of them were in a spaceship or a space suit. Harry's favorite had to be the dinosaur; it was a reptile like a snake, and Harry liked snakes.

So yes, Harry could honestly say that it has been a great week and he has settled in nicely.

______

Elizabeth Stanfield was worried; when was she not? She had multiple children under her care, each of whom needed a lot of attention. Over the past few years of working at St. Nune's, Elizabeth could say that she managed the chaos pretty well, with a few adjustments.

There were still a few things that she wished she could fix; almost every child was on some type of medication, and that was terrible. Then there were the children that shouldn't even be in the facility, like Tertia and Kitsugaya, both innocent children given up by parents who don't understand.

That was another issue that ran rampant throughout the whole hospital. Elizabeth couldn't count how many innocent people were left here just because their families couldn't be bothered to put just a little bit of time and effort into their care.

Elizabeth welled up with pride every single time one of her own charges left the hospital for good. It meant that she did something; understandably, it hurt when she looked at kids like Aanya and Adken, who would only be able to leave the ward and move upstairs towards Longterm.

It hurt even more when kids like Dennis showed up. The type of kid that you know can get better but just won't. Every single time Dennis left, Elizabeth would morbidly guess the number of days he would stay out; it seemed that each time was shorter than the last.

Then you have the kids that should be in the hospital for some time. Oh, you don't want them to be, but you know it is safe for them. Kids like Ylva, Miriam, and Aurora come to mind. All three of those girls battle their inner demons; you can never tell if they are winning or losing.

Then there are the kids that you are just unsure about, like Odette, for example. The girl—well, the young lady—was thrown into the hospital due to her frivolous and overzealous activities. Elizabeth, at first, thought it was normal; the sixteen-year-old was just growing up. But after a while, she had to agree with Odette's parents, at least partially. She did agree that it was abnormal behavior, but it wasn't depraved.

There were all these different kinds of people and all these different categories to put them in, but Elizabeth was hesitant to put her newest charge anywhere. Harry was an interesting character; at times, he was a normal six-year-old, if a bit shy. But there were times where you could see something was up and that he wasn't all there.

Elizabeth noticed it the first day she saw him—how he stared off in the distance and then started talking to himself. Or when he had that panic attack right when he stepped into the juvenile ward. It was also obvious by the way he moved that something was up; he never talked to the other children. If he wasn't drawing in his room, he would be sitting in the corner of the eating room, playing with the broken toy soldiers he brought.

It was alarming how many times in the first week Elizabeth thought she lost the boy, only to find out that he was hiding in a corner somewhere, or interestingly enough, under the couch in the common area. Elizabeth was only slightly mollified by his ability to escape from her eyes due to Kitsugaya almost always seemingly aware of Harry's presence.

There was only once that Kitsugaya did not know where he was. Elizabeth could admit that she went into panic mode and called out for the boy, only for him to answer by opening the bathroom door with a shy, hesitant face.

She had to assure him almost eighteen times that it wasn't his fault, that she wasn't mad, and that she made a silly mistake by not checking the occupied light above the door. She wasn't too sure she convinced him because she'd noticed his reluctance to go to the bathroom.

You would think that with all of that evidence, he would be firmly put in the unsure category, but Elizabeth was sure something was up with him. Elizabeth had reason to believe that the boy fell into the first category with Tertia and Kitsugaya.

Elizabeth remembered clearly how Harry's aunt wanted to be done with him. She didn't even get the boy his shots because 'he didn't seem sick.' Hell, no matter how hard Harry tried to subconsciously hide it, everyone could see his baggy clothes.

Elizabeth knew they could afford fitting clothes for the kid. The way Petunia Dursley was dressed screamed the higher end of the middle class. It bugged Elizabeth how hard it was to convince her that Harry needed his own clothes and that, no, the hospital didn't have suitable clothes for him. There was one thing for sure: the Dursleys were a hard family to work with.

The hospital decided to put the Dursley's on a watchlist; one more screw up that involved the care of Harry, and an investigation would be called.

It seemed that Elizabeth's youngest charge was very good at occupying her mind. Elizabeth usually did take the time to get to know any new child in her care, but Harry's closed off nature made it difficult. It was so difficult that she found herself paying way more attention to him than the other kids.

It wasn't a problem when it came to the older ones, but the younger children would start to take notice, and no one wanted Aurora to realize that she wasn't the center of attention.

Still, Elizabeth had to make a note to get Harry an evaluation, as there were a couple of things that concerned her.

Elizabeth sighed, turned to her papers, and got to work on the evaluation request. The faster it happened, the better.