I was glad to have taken the time to see my friend, and now it was time to call my mom and see if there was anything she needed. I knew I was taking care of a lot with this, but it was how I felt needed, and I wanted to feel good in whatever way I could dealing with the news of her cancer.
I would deal with things if they changed more in the future, but for now, I didn’t see the harm in what I was doing. I wanted to be there for my mom no matter what she needed, and by calling her so often and asking her daily, I felt she knew that.
It might be even harder for me as the disease progressed, but I was willing to put up with that later if it meant I would get to spend time with her now.
I knew everything had a cost, and I was willing to pay this one.
She was my mother, after all.
And that meant the world to me.
FIVE
Trevor
I spreadthe papers across the desk and pointed out in each drawing where I was talking about. Nick nodded as he followed along, his lips a thin line as he concentrated on what I was saying.
“The fact is that we’re dealing with a time frame,” I said. “And I’m not talking like we do with other cancer. Obviously, everyone is dealing with a time frame in life. But, we’re like on an accelerated clock with this one, and I want them to know just how serious this is. If he doesn’t quit smoking, he will be dead before the end of the year.”
“Don’t take it personally if he is,” Nick warned me, but I gave him a look.
“I’m going to talk to him today. But he’s not until this afternoon. I’m speaking with Ms. Dennis this morning. Soon, in fact.”
“She’s the breast cancer case, isn’t she?” Nick asked. “If you don’t mind, I would like to be in here for that meeting. It’s a unique case and I’d like to pick up on any pointers if possible.”
“It’s scary unique, but that’s fine,” I agreed.
We were interrupted with a knock at the door, and Mr. Franklin, the CEO of the hospital, stepped into my office.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he said, and both doctors were quick to assure him he wasn’t. “Good. I just wanted to stop in and talk to Dr. Hall for a second. Doctor.”
“Yes?” I gave him a nod, and he smiled.
“I just wanted to tell you that your hard work around this place has not gone unnoticed. I see you go above and beyond with every patient, and I’m telling you right now we see that all the way up the branch. I don’t know what your plans are in the future, but I can tell you right now for as much as I wanted you to stay in the hospital, I’m seeing you moving on to bigger and better things,” he said.
“Thank you, sir.” I reached out and shook his hand. I could see Nick was impressed, too. He was a younger doctor whom I’d basically taken under my wing. I was one of the youngest doctors at the hospital, and I wanted him to see that it was just a matter of hard work that got acceptance.
Clearly, that was paying off.
We chatted with the CEO for a few more moments before he left, and Nick disappeared to find Ms. Dennis. Ordinarily, I would have had one of the nurses grab her for me, but since Nick wanted to be in the room for us discussing the surgery, I figured I would have him be the one to retrieve her.
I was surprised when they returned, however, and she had a young woman with her. Gwen quickly introduced me to her daughter.
“This is Harper. You’ve already heard so much about her, I’m glad for the chance to get to introduce the two of you face to face.” Gwen beamed.
I was shocked with how stunning her daughter was.
It was obvious Harper was her mother’s daughter. They looked so much alike, but Harper was a lot younger. Her mom had already told me she was in her mid-twenties, she was single, and she worked as a teacher. I almost felt bad knowing that much about her without her knowing anything about me.
But then, her mother had only talked about her the last time she came in for me to see her. It was the first time the two of us had met, and while I had been polite when she first brought up Harper, I now wracked my brain for anything and everything she had said about her daughter. The girl was beautiful.
I stumbled over introducing myself, and I could have punched Nick in the face with the look he gave me. He could see I liked Harper. We had been friends long enough he knew when I liked a girl beyond just commenting on her or checking her out, and he clearly found it entertaining I thought that about Harper. But, Harper wasn’t the reason why we were there, and I wasn’t going to give him the chance to say anything that could embarrass me.
“It’s a pleasure,” I said as I shook her hand. I moved along quickly with Gwen about the results, but I noticed that Harper’s eyes lingered on me for a few seconds longer than what would have been normal. My heart skipped a beat when I realized she had been checking me out, and I told myself to stop it before I did something stupid.
“No cancer,” I said. “You are still in remission, and with any luck, we can keep it that way.”
“Oh!” Gwen clapped her hands together and Harper threw her arms around her mother. She was sobbing into her mother’s arms, and I could see just how hard this was on her.