The resident stayed beside Paige's examination bed for a few moments after explaining why the injury concerned her.
I kept watching the doctor's face.
I wanted her to tell me there was a simple explanation.
Something that could be treated quickly.
Something that would allow me to take Paige home without having to think about the makeup or the bruise again.
But the resident didn't offer that kind of reassurance.
Instead, she looked carefully at Paige's left leg.
Then she asked me another question.
"Has anyone told you how this injury happened?"
I shook my head.
"No. I didn't even know she was injured until I changed her."
The doctor glanced at the nurse.
I noticed that small movement.
I couldn't tell what it meant.
The nurse stepped closer to the bed and checked Paige's position.
Paige was still crying, although her cries had become weaker between the louder bursts.
That frightened me almost as much as the screaming.
She looked exhausted.
Her little face was flushed.
Her eyelashes were wet.
I wanted to pick her up and hold her against my shoulder.
But I was afraid of touching her leg.
"Can I hold her?"
I asked quietly.
The nurse looked at the resident.
"We're going to help you keep her comfortable while we examine her," the doctor said.
I nodded.
There was something awful about standing next to a baby you loved and not knowing whether touching her would hurt.
I had held Paige so many times before.
I had never been frightened of my own hands.
Now I was.
The resident explained that Paige needed X-rays.
She wanted to see whether there was damage beneath the swelling.
I understood immediately what she meant.
A broken bone.
I hadn't wanted to say those words to myself.
But they had been somewhere in my thoughts since I saw that Paige barely moved her left leg.
"Do you think it's broken?"
The resident answered carefully.
"That's one of the things we need to check."
I looked at Paige.
Her left leg was resting almost completely still.
The right one moved whenever she became upset.
I thought about that difference again.
I had noticed it on the changing table.
At the time, I hadn't known what it meant.
Now a doctor was ordering pictures of the bones inside her leg.
The nurse began arranging what was needed.
I stood to one side while she worked.
I wanted to be useful.
But there was very little I could do.
I asked whether Paige would need medicine for the pain.
The nurse assured me that the medical team was addressing her discomfort.
That was the first thing anyone had said that gave me even a little relief.
Not because I believed Paige was going to be fine immediately.
But because someone finally understood that her crying wasn't ordinary fussiness.
It wasn't teething.
It wasn't a baby being difficult.
She was hurting.
And the people around her were treating that pain seriously.
The resident asked whether I was Paige's mother.
"No. I'm her aunt."
"What's your sister's name?"
"Kate."
"And Paige's father?"
"Ryan."
She wrote the names down.
I watched the movement of her pen.
Then she asked how long Paige had been with me.
I told her Kate had dropped her off around nine that morning.
I explained that Paige hadn't begun crying hard until about twenty minutes after they left.
The resident asked whether I had witnessed any fall.
"No."
"Did anything strike her leg while she was with you?"
"No."
"Was there any accident?"
"Nothing. She was with me the entire time."
I could hear the strain in my voice.
I was afraid my answers sounded defensive.
But I didn't know how else to explain it.
I hadn't seen anything happen.
I had only discovered what was already there.
The doctor didn't accuse me of anything.
She simply kept asking.
"Who brought Paige to your house?"
"Kate brought her inside."
"Was Ryan there?"
"Yes. He was in the car."
"Did he come inside?"
"No."
The doctor made another note.
I remembered Ryan sitting in the car while Kate carried Paige and the diaper bag to my door.
It hadn't seemed important.
He was going shopping with his wife.
There was nothing unusual about him staying outside for a few minutes.
But the doctor wanted to know.
And suddenly I understood that even ordinary details might matter.
The resident asked whether Kate had mentioned an injury.
I shook my head.
"She said Paige was teething."
"Anything else?"
"She said Paige had been restless overnight."
I paused.
"She also told me to use my judgment if Paige got difficult to settle."
The doctor looked up.
"What did you understand that to mean?"
I thought about it.
"That I could decide what she needed. A bottle, some comfort, whatever helped."
I swallowed.
"I didn't think she meant anything serious."
The doctor wrote that down too.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then I asked the question that had been bothering me since I entered the hospital.
"Should I call Kate?"
The resident looked at me.
"Have you spoken to her since you found the injury?"
"No."
I felt uncomfortable admitting that.
I had been so focused on getting Paige examined that I hadn't wanted to lose time.
I had taken the diaper bag and my phone and left.
I hadn't stood in my kitchen trying to decide what my sister would say.
I hadn't waited for permission.
Now I wondered whether I should have contacted her sooner.
"I came straight here," I explained.
"I thought Paige needed a doctor immediately."
The resident nodded.
"Seeking medical care was important."
Those words settled something inside me.
I had been second-guessing nearly every part of the morning.
The bottle.
The walking.
The way I shifted my hand.
The baby wipe.
At least I knew I had been right about bringing her in.
The nurse returned to explain how Paige would be taken for imaging.
I listened carefully.
I asked whether she would be moved much.
I asked whether someone would support her leg.
I asked whether I could stay nearby.
The nurse answered each question patiently.
I could tell she had probably dealt with frightened family members before.
But she didn't make me feel foolish.
She treated my questions as reasonable.
I appreciated that more than I could say.
Before they moved Paige, the resident returned to the makeup.
"Can you describe exactly where you saw it?"
I pointed toward the left thigh without touching it.
"Over the swollen part."
"Did you see anyone apply it?"
"No."
"Do you know whether your sister uses that kind of cosmetic?"
I hesitated.
Kate owned makeup.
Most adults I knew did.
But that didn't tell me who had put anything on Paige.
"I know Kate wears makeup," I said.
"But I don't know whether that was hers."
The doctor nodded.
I was relieved she hadn't asked me to guess.
She wanted facts.
I could provide facts.
Anything beyond that felt dangerous.
I didn't want to say something about my sister that I couldn't prove.
I didn't want to protect anyone by hiding what I had seen either.
Those two feelings were beginning to pull against each other.
I loved Kate.
She was my sister.
I had trusted her when she told me Paige was teething.
But I loved Paige too.
And Paige was the one lying on a hospital bed with a swollen leg.
The nurse prepared to take her for X-rays.
I moved beside the bed.
"Hey, sweetheart," I whispered.
Paige turned her face slightly toward my voice.
She didn't smile.
She didn't reach for me the way she sometimes did.
She only made a tired little sound.
My throat tightened.
"I'm right here."
I said it again because I couldn't think of anything else.
"I'm right here, baby."
The nurse adjusted the blanket around Paige.
I watched every movement.
The green sleeper was still with her belongings.
I remembered opening it at my house.
I remembered how carefully I had moved the fabric around her legs.
It seemed strange that a piece of baby clothing could hold so much meaning.
That morning, it had been an ordinary green sleeper.
Now I couldn't look at it without remembering the first moment I noticed something was wrong.
The imaging process felt longer than I expected.
I tried not to show how anxious I was.
I knew the staff needed to do their work.
I also knew Paige couldn't understand why unfamiliar people were touching her.
I stayed close whenever I was permitted.
When she cried, I spoke softly.
When she settled briefly, I stopped talking and let the quiet remain.
I didn't want to overwhelm her.
I only wanted her to recognize my voice.
At one point, I looked toward the door and thought about Kate again.
She was probably still expecting to return to my house after shopping.
She probably thought Paige was there.
I had no idea whether she had checked her phone.
I had no idea whether she was wondering how the baby was doing.
I wondered whether she would be angry that I'd brought Paige to the hospital without telling her first.
Then I looked at Paige's face.
Whatever my sister thought, that decision was already made.
And I would make it again.
After the X-rays were taken, Paige was brought back to the examination area.
The staff kept her leg supported.
I stood beside her while we waited.
There was a chair near the bed.
I sat down for a moment.
My hands were trembling.
I looked at them.
They were the same hands that had held Paige that morning.
The same hands that had warmed the bottle.
The same hands that had opened her sleeper.
The same hands that had wiped away a small patch of concealer.
I pressed them together.
I wished I could make them stop shaking.
The nurse came back to check on Paige.
I asked whether the X-rays were ready.
She said the doctor would review the results.
I nodded.
There was nothing else to do.
A few minutes later, the resident returned.
Her expression was serious.
She pulled a chair closer.
I knew before she spoke that this wasn't going to be a conversation about sore gums or diaper irritation.
"We've identified an injury to the bone in Paige's left leg."
I stared at her.
For a moment, I didn't understand the sentence.
Then I heard myself ask,
"A fracture?"
The doctor nodded.
"Yes."
I looked toward Paige.
My niece was six months old.
She couldn't crawl around the house getting into trouble like an older child.
She couldn't stand up and fall.
She couldn't even explain what hurt.
Yet there was a fracture in her little leg.
I felt my eyes fill.
"How?"
The word came out before I could stop it.
The doctor didn't pretend she knew.
"That's something we need to understand."
I wiped my face quickly.
I didn't want my fear to interfere with what she was saying.
She explained that the team would need to look carefully at the circumstances.
They would also need to determine whether there were any other injuries.
I looked at her.
"Other injuries?"
She nodded.
"With a baby this young, we need to be thorough."
I thought about the bruise under the concealer.
I thought that had been the whole problem.
Then the X-ray had shown a fracture.
Now the doctor was telling me they needed to check for more.
I glanced down at the diaper bag beside my chair.
I had carried it into the hospital without opening it.
Kate had handed it to me that morning.
At the time, I had believed it contained nothing more than diapers, bottles, clothes, and the ordinary things Paige might need.
I looked back at the doctor.
"Please check everything you need to."
My voice sounded small.
But I meant every word.
I wanted Paige treated.
I wanted her safe.
And I wanted to understand how a little girl who couldn't speak had ended up with an injury nobody had told me about.
The doctor explained that additional medical staff would be involved.
She said someone might need to ask me more questions.
I nodded.
I wasn't worried about repeating myself.
I would tell the same story as many times as necessary.
I knew what had happened while Paige was with me.
I knew what I had seen.
I knew what I hadn't seen.
And I was beginning to understand that both mattered.
The resident stood.
Before she left, I asked one more question.
"Is Paige going to be okay?"
The doctor looked at her.
"We're going to take good care of her, and we'll explain what we learn as we go."
It wasn't the simple promise I wanted.
But it was an answer I could trust.
I moved my chair closer to Paige's bed.
Her breathing had become quieter.
She looked exhausted.
I rested my hand near hers without moving her leg.
Her tiny fingers curled around one of mine.
I stayed there.
For the first time since Kate had dropped her off, Paige wasn't screaming.
The silence should have felt comforting.
Instead, it gave me room to think.
About the fracture.
About the makeup.
About the questions.
And about the fact that somewhere outside that hospital, Kate and Ryan still hadn't heard what the doctors had found.
I knew I couldn't leave them uninformed forever.
But I also knew that the next conversation would be very different from the one I'd expected to have when they returned from shopping.
Click here to continue reading: PART 6: I Called My Sister From the Hospital, but Her Questions Made Me Realize How Little I Knew About Paige’s Night
My Sister Left Her Six-Month-Old Daughter With Me That Saturday, and One Strange Thing She Said Kept Coming Back to Me
Part 5 of 20
