We sit in the waiting room for hours. We order food but none of us seems to be very hungry, instead just picking at our sandwiches. Aspen stares off into space for a little bit or gets up and paces for a while but for the most part, she sits sandwiched between us. Finally, around 8 pm she falls asleep with her hand wrapped around mine and her head resting on Roman’s shoulder.
When the doctor walks in an hour later, asking for Aspen, I hate to wake her up but I know she’ll want to know what he has to say.
“Family of Adeline Monroe?” He asks.
“Yes.” Aspen says, leaping from her seat.
“How is she?” I ask, wrapping my arm around Aspen’s shoulders.
“She’s stable now. We were able to remove the tumor and we believe that we got all of it.
She’ll have to go back for regular checkups for a couple of months but barring any regrowth, she should be great.” He says with a smile.
Aspen’s whole-body sags with relief and she cries as she thanks the doctor.
“When can I see her?” She asks.
“It might be an hour or so before she’s awake. She’s been in observation for a while now. We wanted to make sure she was stable before we came and talked to you. You can go back to her room now though if you like but only one visitor at a time for right now.”
Aspen nods and he tells her the room number and to limit the number of visitors, that Adeline will be tired and weak for a couple of days still. We thank the doctor again and tell Aspen that we’ll be waiting right here for her and for her to take her time. She reaches up and brushes a kiss against both of our lips before she starts to head for her friend’s room.