Free Healing the Boss's Heart by Valerie Hansen Page A

area. Nobody made a peep. Except for this little girl, that is.”
    Maya nodded. “I heard her crying.”
    “Praise the Lord you did,” Michael said. “I’ll tell the incident commander what’s going on and let him send a properly prepared search-and-rescue unit out there. No sense having civilians stumbling around in the dark and getting hurt when we have plenty of trained people to do the job right.”
    “I thought you said only adults were unaccounted for,” Maya remarked, trotting to keep pace with the men. “Who do you think this little girl is? Does she look familiar?”
    Michael glanced at the child’s scratched, dingy face as he gently stroked her hair. “No. I don’t place her. We have lots of toddlers in our congregation but this one is a stranger to me.”
    “Me, too,” Maya said. “I haven’t seen any little girls like her in Layla’s preschool or day care, either. I suppose she could have been visiting the area with some tourists. It is summer and we did find her near the river.”
    “First things first,” Greg said flatly. “We don’t need to know her name in order to get treatment forher. Not in an emergency situation like this.” He led the way into the open-sided tent and went straight to a doctor clad in a formerly white coat that had begun to look a lot like the spotted, torn clothing everyone else was wearing.
    “She seems okay to us,” Greg told the middle-aged man, “but we have no idea how she got so far out of town or who her parents are.”
    The doctor put his stethoscope to the child’s chest and listened while Greg continued to cradle her. “Sounds okay. I don’t want to touch her eyes without sterile solution to flush them out. Best thing to do is have her transported to the hospital.”
    As he spoke he was feeling the toddler’s arms and legs and flexing the joints. “No pain in her limbs and just one little bump on her head. I’d say she’s fine, considering. Still, the hospital is the right place for her.” He glanced toward the back of the tent. “Unfortunately, we don’t have an ambulance available.”
    “Would it be all right if I carried her over?” Greg asked.
    The doctor nodded. “I don’t see why not. You got her this far. The sooner we put her into a controlled medical environment, the better.”
    Greg looked to Maya. “Are you coming or do you want to stay here with your daughter?”
    “Layla’s in good hands. I’ll go with you. You might need me.”
    He wasn’t about to argue. Yes, he could care for the abandoned child himself, yet it was somehow comforting to have Maya by his side. Although that was an unusual response for him, he wasn’t too surprised by it. They had all been through a terrible trauma and everyone’s emotions were bound to be on edge. Even his.
    He shouldered through the crowd and started off toward the local hospital, taking extra care to watch his step so he wouldn’t trip and fall while carrying the little girl.
    “Funny. I’m kind of glad there was no ambulance,” he said, once he and Maya were in the clear. “It seems wrong to turn her over to strangers when no one even knows who she is.”
    “I’m sure they’ll find out. If not tonight, then soon. She must have parents nearby.” Her voice became a whisper as she added, “I just hope and pray they survived.”
    All Greg could say was, “Yeah. Me, too.”
     
    Leaving their foundling at the chaotic hospital was harder for both of them than Maya had thought it would be. She almost wept as a nurse accepted the child, made a few notes on a chart, then hurried away with her, headed for the pediatric ward.
    Gregory thrust his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “Well, mission accomplished. What now?”
    “I suppose we should go back to the church. Ihaven’t had anything to eat since lunch and you probably haven’t, either, have you?”
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “You have to eat. We’re going to need all the energy we can get in the next few days.”