By the time she reached Oncology Two, the same room they had all met in a couple of days previously, Finn was already there, tapping away busily at his phone.
“Morning,” she said, trying to sound chipper. “How’re you today?”
Finn looked up from his phone and gave her a smile that wiped away all her nerves.
“All the better for seeing you, Edie,” he said walking over to her. “Thank you so much for the note you left me last night. I’ve never been on the receiving end of such compassion. Well, not for a good many years anyway.”
He seemed to have grown a good few inches since she last saw him, and that was incredible seeing as he must have already been over six foot. But he looked strong and tall and ready for action. The feelings soon rubbed off on Edie.
“You’re very welcome,” she said. “It’s good to know that it helped. You seemed to find yesterday very difficult, understandably, and I wanted to make it a bit nicer for you.”
“You did,” Finn said, practically skipping over to a table where he had set up his laptop and perching on the edge. “After I spoke to you, I went and apologised to my team. It felt… I don’t know…right. They were all so willing to forgive me for being an idiot.”
Edie loved the way his cheeks were flushing at the excitement of his words. She followed him over and deposited her own bag on the table.
“I don’t know how you’ve done it Doctor Fletcher, but I feel like a new person. And I’ve got you to thank for that.” The smile dropped off his face as he spoke and he looked into her eyes, his own eyes dark and hungry. “So, thank you, Edie.”
Edie’s breath caught in her throat. He was so gorgeous. His eyes felt like they were burrowing into her soul and reading exactly how she felt about him. She felt the blood pulsing in her cheeks and had to take a deep breath to steady her legs.
“Anytime,” she whispered, trying to force her eyes to stop looking at Finn’s, to gain some semblance of control back over herself.
It was no good though. It was as though he had a put a magic spell over her. No matter how much her brain screamed at her that she needed to walk away because she was pregnant with another man’s baby, she couldn’t help but ignored it. The tension in the room was thick with so many unspoken feelings.
“Sorry to interrupt,” a voice came from the door of the room. “Is this the right place… oh yes, hello again doctors.”
Mr and Mrs Bates stood at the door.
“Kenneth, Mrs Bates, so lovely to see you again, please do come in,” Edie said, feeling a bit hot under the collar as though her and Finn had been caught doing something they shouldn’t. “Take a seat and we’ll get started.”
The tension in the air soon changed from one form to another as Kenneth relayed his fears to Finn and Edie. Edie tried her best to allay them with truths about how far they’d come and how much they were willing to give in order to try new things.
Edie knew that without the treatment Kenneth wouldn’t be for this world for much longer, and she felt he was okay with the risks involved. It was always hard when talking about death with patients, Edie found, because it wasn’t a subject that humans were very open about in general. Edie would love to make it a less taboo subject, teach the world that death was important to talk openly and honesty about, but right now she had enough on her plate.
Subconsciously she rubbed her stomach. The conversation was coming to a natural close and she could hear the sound of a child crying in the distance. Not unusual for a hospital, but this cry was so heart breaking, Edie felt like her own eyes were going to spring with tears any second. And from the looks on the others’ faces, she wasn’t the only one.
Edie stood and walked with the Bates’ to the door, shaking their hands and wishing them all the best. As they were leaving, the child’s crying hit a crescendo and Edie spotted an harassed looking Mary and an even sadder looking Anna. Anna’s face was bright red with the exertion of the tears.
“Oh no, Anna, what’s the matter?” Edie said, waving a final goodbye to the Bates’ and kneeling on the floor to be nearer to Anna.
When Anna let out another keel, Edie wondered if being so close wasn’t such a good idea. The young girl had a good set of lungs on her. Anna shoved Monty the teddy into Edie’s face, her bottom lip quivering as she tried to tell Edie what was wrong.
“He’s going to die,” she eventually managed to get out between garbled words and snot and hiccups.
Edie glanced up at Mary who looked close to tears herself. She stood up and ushered them both, and Monty, into the room and closed the door softly behind her.
“Doctor Cooper, are you able to have a chat with Mary while I look over Monty, please? He’s not very well,” Edie said, looking over at Finn who looked a bit shell-shocked himself.
“Yes, of course. Mary if you’d like to take a seat over here with me, Anna I’m sure Doctor Fletcher will be able to help you with Monty.”
The young girl looked up through her thick fringe at Finn, her eyes mis-trustful and wary, but to everyone’s relief her tears had stopped. Anna sniffed, and stuttered.
“And will you do the same for my mummy?” she whispered, as tears once again started falling down her red cheeks. “Both of you? You’re going to make my mummy better too?”
Edie’s heart broke in two at the girl’s words. She heard Finn’s sharp intake of breath and wished she could hold him and tell him it was going to be okay. But she had a patient to help, and a little girl and teddy who needed her.
Mary sat down with Finn and Anna picked Monty up very gently and walked over to the table furthest away from where Finn was explaining to Mary what had happened at the first surgery. Edie laid Monty down and pressed her ear against his chest, feeling the warmth from Anna’s hugs, smelling the young girl’s shampoo in his fur.
“His heart sounds okay, and his breathing is good,” Edie said, turning Monty over onto his tummy on her hand.
