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FORTY
While Kent loved his job as a paramedic, he hated hospitals. He loved treating people and saving lives and moving on to the next. He had never been invested in a patient before—that was until he met Palmer. She changed him. Kent couldn’t pinpoint the one thing or moment when everything shifted for him—it might have been a culmination of the events surrounding Maeve, and Kent finding Palmer’s list, or it could’ve been when she’d told him she had no one. He’d always had someone, whether it was his parents, his army unit, or the people he worked with. Kent always had someone he could call if he needed anyone. To have no one had to be the loneliest feeling in the world. Palmer had him now. He would be her champion.
They sat in a hospital room, waiting for a surgeon to come in and do the biopsy Kent didn’t want Palmer to do. The stress that occupied any medical procedure wasn’t good for her and could cause a seizure. She could convulse on the table, and then what? He’d be in a fight to get her out of there—against doctor’s orders. He had hoped Courtney wouldn’t be able to pull off a quick appointment, that the clinic would tell them to come back in a few weeks—they didn’t have weeks.
Kent had never seen someone die the way Palmer was. Her tumor was killing her slowly. Bit by bit, the octopus was eating up any free space left in her brain. At times, Kent marveled at Palmer’s will to live because on the outside, he could see it slowly taking her life, and she was either seemingly unaware or was fighting with what might she had left.
Palmer slept in the hospital bed while Kent sat on the window ledge, watching her. Once they’d put her in the gown for the procedure, she’d told them she was cold. At first, Kent thought it was a ploy to get some warm blankets, but then he touched her and realized she was freezing. Another sign, he told himself. They were starting to add up and not in his favor.
As he sat there, watching her sleep, he wondered if he himself had made the right decision by not encouraging her to seek treatment. If he had, they wouldn’t be where they were right now. Not in Arizona, waiting for some test, and definitely not married. His entire existence these past months was a result of the one decision she’d made.
When they’d met with the staff earlier, and Palmer had given them her diagnosis, they wanted to run every test possible to see if they could help her. Palmer and Kent knew there wasn’t anything anyone could do, but doctors are insistent. They think they can fix everyone, and when someone walks into your clinic, telling you they’re fine with dying, there’s no way you’ll believe them.
That was when Kent became Palmer’s champion. Her voice when the doctors wouldn’t listen. They were there for the biopsy and nothing else, and once the five-minute procedure was concluded, they’d be out of there. Kent still had a tough time grasping why they were there. If she had the disease, what was she going to do, seek treatment? Tell her sister? What was the purpose?
The door opened, and a team of three walked in. Kent went to Palmer and gently woke her. It was taking longer than normal for her to wake, and that bothered Kent. He leaned next to her ear and said, “Honey, it’s time to wake up.” This was the first time he’d used a pet name for her, and he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not, although it was entirely fitting. It took a little more coaxing from him for her to finally rouse. She looked around the room and blinked rapidly.
“We’re at the clinic. Remember?” Kent recognized the panicked look on her face. “Hey, look at me.” She did and smiled when he came into view. “Do you know where you are?” He hated having this conversation in front of people who didn’t know her.
Palmer shook her head slowly.
“Courtney needs your help,” he said, hoping she’d remember Courtney. “The doctor is going to take a sample of your liver, and then they’re going to test it to see if it can help her.”
“O-okay,” she stammered. “Will it hurt?”
Kent shook his head. “No. Just a little pinch in your side, and then we’ll be all done, and we can go to the Grand Canyon.”
The Grand Canyon wasn’t on her list. She had an irrational fear that she would fall over the edge if she went, but Kent assured her he’d never let that happen to her.
“Okay.”
Kent motioned for the doctor to continue, and when he asked Kent to step out of the room, he refused. “I’m not leaving her.”
