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"Okay."
"Goodnight, Ben."
"Goodnight, Selina."
That was the last word I ever said to her. I don't know when she was gone. A rough estimate would be around two am when she slept around eleven pm. She was alive for three more hours.
As promised, I never one day looked at Chloe and wished it was her who had left. I did my best, but it wasn't really the best nor could it qualify as good. She was turning six, and it felt like she was the one trying to make the father-daughter relationship work. Olivia was right. I needed to stop giving excuses and finally accept my role as a father.
"We're done!" Olivia announced as she made her way downstairs.
She was dressed indoorsy and dressed Chloe in the same manner.
"We're going to study and play," Chloe said.
"You should come join us after you bathe," Olivia said.
"Did Daddy brush before eating?" Chloe asked.
"Ben, what's wrong?" Olivia asked. "You're grinning too much."
"Oh it's nothing," I said as I wiped the little tear on my left side. "You two just look so beautiful that's all."
She had six more days to stay here. Even if we had switched to a strictly platonic relationship, there was still a lot I could learn from her.
Chapter nine
One Can Only Hold Back for so Long (part one))
Olivia
Four days had passed since I came to Richmond, and I'd been crushing it. Martha had taught me so much that I felt inexperienced whenever I thought about handling the kids at Helen's.
The children at Ben's hospital were either waiting for transplants, suffering from serious injuries, or were survivors of the aforementioned. Each child was unique in her eyes and the way she treated them differed; but she didn't do it in a way that would make the other children left out. To be honest, she was wasting her time as a nurse. She should have been a pediatrician from the get go.
"What's with the look? You seem pissed, it'll scare the children," she said as she gave on of the kids his regular shots while I held the tray, holding the syringe and the drugs.
"I don't get why you're a nurse," I said. "Surely you could have become a pediatrician. You know so much that even the degree holders here ask you for advice."
"You sound like Ben," she sighed as she pulled out the syringe and put pressure on it with cotton soaked in methylated spirit. She gave the young boy a kiss on the arm. "Can you hold it for me, Isaac?"
He nodded and pressed the wound.
"I don't even like being in a position of power, but I've always wanted to be a nurse so I can provide support," she continued. "I like supporting people, that's all."
I understood her angle, but still felt that she could have done a better job as a degree-holding doctor. She wasn't the only selfless one here. I worked with Dr. Solomon in most of his emergency operations; he was skilled at what he did. He had efficient communication skills and knew how to assign whoever worked with him to their strength.
"How did you learn all that?" I asked.
We had just stabilized a patient who suffered from a knife wound to the stomach. And he pretty much had everything under control with the rest of us.
"Would you believe me if I told you, Dr Ben Sullivan and his brother Ethan Sullivan taught me?" he asked.
"Aren't they younger than you?" I asked.
"True, in terms of experience as well, but I am far older," he replied. "But what they lack in experience, they excel in skill."
"Skills? Like their specializations?"
