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“I’ll stay with her,” Jersey said.
“I thought you weren’t her doctor anymore,” I said as we stopped in the hallway right outside the door.
“Officially, I’m not. I am just coming back on shift and wanted to stop in and check on you guys. I was looking over her chart when Jersey came out and said she was waking up. The other pediatrician on duty is tied up with an emergency, so I said I’d check on her.”
“Well, thank you. I do appreciate that.” I told him as I studied his kind eyes. “How do you think she is? She didn’t remember you.”
“I really didn’t expect her to.” He told me. “A lot of time, people with TBI’s, don’t recall the incident or what happened directly after it.”
“Okay, that makes me feel a little better.”
“You can expect her to be disoriented for a while, and she might not even remember me being here this time. But so far, her reflexes are pretty good, and her long-term memory seems okay.”
“But what about when you told her to touch her nose. She touched her cheek.”
“That has to do with spatial recognition. A lot of people who have experienced a TBI, especially to the frontal lobe, will have those kinds of issues. Most times, with therapy, she will work through that, and either learn to cope, as her brain heals.”
Learn to cope? I glanced down the hallway, trying to digest his words.
He put his hand on my shoulder again, “How are you holding up?”
“I don’t matter in this,” I told him, and he frowned.
“You absolutely do matter in this. Marisol is going to need you to be strong, mentally, and physically. You can’t be that for her if you aren’t taking care of yourself. I know you are worried about her, but you also need to worry about yourself.”
“I realize that Doctor Young. I do, but right now all I can think about is her. Once I know she is out of the woods, I’ll deal with what I need.”
“You’re a good mother, Charlotte.”
I laughed sarcastically, “I wouldn’t exactly call me a good mother, but thank you.”
He stepped closer, lifting my chin with his knuckle, “No, you are a good mother. I can tell how much that little girl means to you and how much you want to protect her.”
For a few seconds, the two of us stared at one another, and I had the most absurd urge to step on my tiptoes and kiss him. I was crazy, and obviously overly thankful for his care of Marisol. “Thank you,” I finally replied.
He let go of my chin, almost reluctantly, and his knuckles skimmed over my cheek, probably accidentally, but the touch radiated straight to my spine and down to my very core. The look in his eyes suddenly wasn’t one of a doctor that was trying to console me but of a man wanting something more.
In the next moment, I thought I had imagined it as he glanced over my shoulder and his eyes shuddered while he took two steps back. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later, Charlotte.”
