The woman smiled. “Nothing’s wrong. Hannah wouldlike you to join her. I believe she’s a little anxious.”
My shoulders slumped as the panic leached out of my body. Thank God. I gave a chin jerk to Nicolas, who returned it, before I followed the woman down the narrow hallway.
Opening the last door, the woman stepped back and motioned me to enter. “She is waiting for you in here.”
I cautiously stepped inside the room and my eyes immediatelywent to Hannah, sitting in a chair in front of a messy desk. The rest of the room blurred around me as I walked to her side. In the distance I heard the soft click of the door closing. “Hi, there. Are you okay?”
“Yes. No.” Hannah’s shoulders shook with her suppressed sobs. “I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t want to do this. I’m so scared. Oh, God, why did this have to happen? Why now?”
“Hey, hey. Ssshhh.” I bent over and took her into my arms. “It’s okay,mon chou. You’re going to be fine. I swear it’ll all look so much better once we have some answers and a straight course of action. We’re going to get through this together.”
“I just…I wish I hadn’t been so stubborn. I really want my mom here. She has this way of talking me off my self-imposed cliffs.”
“I can send one of theguys and have her here in thirty.” I took a step back and reached for my phone when Hannah’s hand on my arm stopped me.
“No, it’s okay. You’re a good substitute, as far as calming influences go. Besides, we’d have to explain to her first what’s going on. And I don’t think that’s a conversation we should have on the phone.”
“Well, I think—” I broke off as the door opened and a woman in her fortieswearing scrubs and a lab coat entered.
“Are you ready for me?” she asked.
“Yes, Dr. Ledbetter. You were right. Having him here to argue with me helped calm me down.”
The doctor smiled. “My wife has the same effect on me. I’ll never understand how someone can simultaneously be aggravating and calming. One of life’s mysteries, I assume.” She turned to me. “Did Hannah explain to you what we’vetalked about so far?”
“No.” I shook my head. “We were still arguing.”
“That’ll happen.” The doctor sat behind her desk and opened a folder. After she looked at it for a moment, she replaced the folder on the desk and placed her hands on top of it. “As I told you, Hannah, we’re dealing with thyroid cancer. We’ve run the labs—both your blood work and your biopsy—and I believe we’ve caught it early.We need to do some imaging tests to confirm, but from your biopsy and our physical exams, I believe we’re dealing with a T1a tumor, which means the tumor is small, less than half an inch across, and the cancer has not spread. In your case, we’re recommending surgery to remove the tumor and radiation to treat the area.”
Hannah gasped and swayed in her seat. I reached over and took her hand inmine. Hannah squeezed my hand and I squeezed it back.
Her doctor leaned forward. “This is all good news, Hannah. You are stage one. The five-year survival rate is almost one hundred percent. With treatment and follow-ups, there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to do whatever you want in just a few months. This treatment will only take a few weeks. And we should be able to give you the all cleara few months after that. Now, I know this is a lot to take in, but I want to schedule the surgery as soon as possible. The faster we treat this, the quicker we get you cancer-free.”
We both nodded, still shell-shocked by all the information.
“I can fit you in Wednesday morning. Does that work for you?”
A tear rolled down Hannah’s cheek and I brushed it away. I gave her a reassuring smile, thenturned to the doctor. “Yes, it does.”
“Great. The nurse will call with all the relevant information. I know this is difficult. But you have the best prognosis possible, and I happen to believe the best medical team on your side. We are going to beat this, Hannah. You have to believe that.”
“I do, Doctor. Thank you,” Hannah whispered.
I leaned forward in my seat. “Thank you, Doctor. But I’mafraid there’s one more matter we need to discuss.”
“Yes?”
“Can we trust that your office will not leak any of this to the press?”
The mood in the room turned frosty. After giving Hannah a slight smile, the doctor turned and met my unwavering gaze. “I can assure you that we treat patient privacy here with the utmost importance.”
“That may be. I, however, am not a patient.”
Hannah’s doctornodded tightly. “I will have a talk with my staff. We do not allow leaks of any kind with regard to our patients’ privacy. That includes relatives and guests.”
“I appreciate it.”
“However, I will caution you. The hospital is a huge place with a large number of staff, patients, and visitors that I will not be able to vouch for. You might want to consider that going forward.”
“We will. Thankyou.”
I gave Hannah a tight smile as we stood up to leave. Now I just had to figure out how I was going to shield Hannah from the ugliest part of being with me while she was going through the ugliest part of her life.
