They were getting close to a break though. He could feel it. His interns could feel it. Why else would there be a race every morning to see who would make it to the lab first.
One afternoon between doing his rounds, Jake was taking note on the things they’d been trying to do when he heard his interns gasp. “You’re not supposed to be here”, he heard Dr. Emerson say. Whomever she was speaking to didn’t responding.
Jake looked up in to see a face that he hadn’t seen in several months. “Cassidy, what are you doing here?”
“We need to talk, Dr. Draiman”, the young mad said solemnly.
“About?” Jake asked.
“In private, Doctor. You’re not going to like what I’m going to say.”
Jake stood and led the young man to his office. “Ok, you wanted to talk. Do so”, he said calmly.
“Dr. Draiman, there are people in Washington that don’t want you to succeed on your research. I know because while I was working under you, I was being paid to sabotage your work. The D.O.D wants to use your research in weaponry and when the discovered that they couldn’t the started getting shitty. I’m just giving you fair warning that there may be Cabinet and Congressional hearings over this.”
Jake nodded solemnly. “It takes serious balls to do what you just did, Cassidy. I’ll give you that much credit. Why warn me?”
“Because even though you fucked any chance of me ever becoming a doctor in the United States, I still respect you. I also realize that not being able to get into any med program in the country is Karma. I tried to screw you out of everything you fought for and still are from what I can tell. I deserve what I got.”
“Again, that takes a huge set of stones. Thank you for the warning. I’ll keep a look out for the courier that brings the bad news.” He extended his hand. “I’m sorry about you not being able get back into medical school. You would have made an excellent doctor.”
“Thank you Dr. Draiman, that means a lot.”
“I don’t say what I don’t mean, Cassidy. Not how I was raised. If you need anything like a letter of recommendation, let me know. I’ll do what I can do to help you out there.”
“Thank you, Dr. Draiman”, the young man said as he took Jake’s hand and shook.
“Not a problem, Cassidy.”
---------------
Jake called it an early day that day. He finished the notes he was taking and had his interns go home for the day. Being the Chief of Neurology gave him the power to do that. He didn’t bother calling to let someone know that he was going to be home a little early. Someone always seemed to know.
When he walked in the door, he found his mother lying in the floor. That’s not something she usually did. “Mom, are you ok?” he asked when he walked in the door.
“My back gave out. Help me up then go find your father for me please, Jacob.”
“No problem, Mom.” He helped his mother to her feet and got her on the couch, then jogged up the stairs to his father’s office. “Dad, its Jake”, he said to announce himself.
“It’s open Jake. What’s up?” his father called.
Jake opened the door. “Dad, when I walked in I found Mom on the floor, lying on her stomach. She said her back gave out.”
David looked away from his computer screen to his son. “Repeat that. I thought you just said you mother’s back gave out.”
“That’s what she said when I came in the door. She had me help her up so that she was on the couch then told me to come up here to find you.”
David hit a couple of keys on his keyboard and jumped up from his desk. “Take me to her. She’s going to the hospital after this shit, like it or not.” Jake led his father to where his mother was sitting on the couch in the living room as asked.
When she heard the men coming down the stairs she spoke. “David, I need to go to the ER. I can’t continue not knowing what’s going on with my back.”
“Jake said your back gave out.”
“It did. I need to know what’s going on. Take me to the hospital, please.”
“Not a problem, baby. I was going to make you go anyway”, he said with a laugh. “Let me go get my keys and I’ll be right back.” He ran back up the stairs to get his car keys from the office.
“Jacob”, she called as she waited for her husband to come back downstairs. “There’s a lasagna in the fridge, homemade of course. Put it in the oven around 3:30 if your Dad and I aren’t home yet. Make sure your brothers and sisters get their homework done. They give you any problems, call or text one of us and we’ll handle it.”
Jake nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. You’ve got it.”
She smiled at her son. “Go say hi to your wife and daughter before you have to deal with the chaos of having your brothers and sisters home”, she said when her husband came running back down the stairs. She snaked an arm around his neck and pulled herself to standing, and carefully walked out to the car with her husband’s help.
---------------
Jake went out to his little house long enough to bring his wife and daughter inside. Miri was three months old now. Her personality was coming out. She was a friendly little thing who had an opinion about everything, and would share it whether you wanted to hear it or not. When Daddy said that Grampa had taken Gramma to the hospital, she had something to say about that and she made it clear that she wasn’t happy that Gramma and Grampa weren’t in the house. “Well, Miri baby, there’s nothing I can do about Gramma and Grampa not being home. Gramma was hurt”, Jake explained to his baby girl. She still didn’t like the idea of Gramma and Grampa not being at home when they went inside.
Jake played with his little girl and Delilah put the lasagna in the oven to bake, he couldn’t have been happier to have a little girl. True, every man wanted his son; that boy who would pass on the genes and the name. But, Jake knew he was blessed with a little girl first. She was perfection.
Her progress included holding her head up and looking around, cooing and babbling, rolling over and trying to sit up without support. Her Daddy thought she was so silly. He would actually get down in the floor with her and play. And that’s what he was doing when his brothers and sisters came home from school. “Jake, what the hell are you doing?” Marc asked when he walked into the house.
“I’m playing with my daughter. Problem Marc?”
He shook his head. “Do what you do, man. Where are Mom and Dad?”
“ER. Mom’s back gave out on her. She was lying in the floor when I got home from work.” He was holding Miri’s legs down and doing sit ups with her. “And ten. Such a strong baby girl. You’re gonna box with Uncle Marc one day and beat him up.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Yeah, right”, Marc said like he wasn’t convinced. “I’ll stomp that little monster.” His back was turned to the scene in the living room floor.
Delilah slid in behind Miri and took her hands. “Oh, really Uncle Marc? Get your butt down here and prove it”, Delilah said in a high pitched voice.
Marc got down in the floor with his little niece and put his dukes up. “You know, Miri. Grampa always taught me never to hit a girl.”
Miri blew a raspberry at her uncle. “Chicken”, Delilah said in her Miri voice, then took Miri’s balled up little fist and popped Uncle Marc one right in the nose.
“What was that? A cheap shot?”
“Stop talking and start boxing”, Delilah said in her Miri voice and popped him twice more in the nose with a once two punch.
“Ow, my nose!”
“If you can’t take the heat, Marc”, Meagan began.
“Then stay out of the kitchen”, Makayla finished with a laugh.
---------------
Meanwhile, in the ER, David sat at his wife’s bed side as they waited on the doctor to come in. “I hope nothing serious is wrong”, he said.
“I don’t think it’s serious. I’ll have to really cut down on the hours that I work, but thankfully I run it so, I can do what I need to do to cut back. I’m going to start passing more of my clients off to Maddie though. I can’t do this shit too much longer.”
“How long have I been telling you that you need to take it easy and slow down?”
“For a while now, I know. I just can’t do it. I’m bored out of my mind if I’m not doing something productive.”
“I know. Maybe you should find a hobby instead of trying to work yourself into a grave.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I don’t know, honey. Something that’s easier on your back, perhaps?”
As he finished the sentence, who should walk in but Dr. J. “Brie, David, what the hell are the two of you doing here?”
“My back gave out earlier, Mongan. I’ve been waiting for months for you to get back with me to tell me what’s going on. Now, you WILL tell me what’s wrong with my back because I’m not leaving until you do. It’s that simple.”
“Brie, I understand the hostility, but you have to understand that these tests take time.”
“And you’ve had four months. I saw you a month before my granddaughter was born and she’s three months old now. Hell, she was born on my birthday. I’m 58 now and I share my birthday with an angel named Miriam. NOW, figure out what’s wrong with me.”
He flipped through her chart and found the X-rays that had just been taken not long after she and David had arrived. “I’ll show you what’s going on.” He put the X- ray on the screen and turned it on. “You see that”, he took the end of his pen and pointed to a spot on the X-ray in her lumbar spine. “Your vertebrae are fusing together. If you don’t slow down, then you’re not going to have any range of motion after a while.”
“What do you mean by slow down?”
“Moderate exercise as compared to what I KNOW you do now, cut back on the amount of massages you give in a week and probably more exercise in the water rather than on concrete.”
She sighed. “Good thing I was passing more of my clients to Maddie this month anyway. The fewer clients I see these days the better.”
“The most I can do is give you more of those pain killers you like so little.”
“Is there anything I can do to prevent this from getting worse?”
“Don’t take so much Cal-Mag? Honestly, Brie, it’s genetic so, not to really.”
“Why does this have to happen to me and why as I’m trying to prepare to retire?” she asked looking at David.
No comments:
Post a Comment