CHAPTER SIXTEEN #2
“I would just like some answers,” she told him. “I’ve lost so much, and I feel like I don’t even have a life anymore. At least not one that I’m in control of.”
“I understand, and we’ll keep looking until we get an answer for you,” Dr. Donner said with an encouraging smile. “Julian has made sure we know that. And once we get an answer, we’ll work out a treatment plan for helping you with your symptoms.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He pushed back from the desk where he’d been making notes throughout their conversation. “Now let’s get this testing started.”
He opened another door and invited a woman to come into the room.
“This is Rachel,” he said. “She’ll be taking your vitals and drawing some blood.”
Rachel was a petite woman with a friendly smile. “Come on through here.”
After a glance at the door leading to where Ben and the others were, Amelia followed her through the door into a room similar to others she’d spent time in over the years.
Over the next several minutes, the woman weighed her and took her blood pressure.
Once that was done, Rachel had her sit at a lab table, then prepped her and began to fill tubes with her blood.
Amelia looked away. It wasn’t that the sight of blood made her feel faint or anything, but she didn’t need to see what was happening.
Rachel took several tubes, then removed the needle and put a bandage on the spot in her elbow. She then set a juice box and a cookie on a napkin in front of her.
“We took a lot of blood, so just sit there for a minute and eat that.”
Amelia wondered if she’d seen the last of Ben until after all the testing was done. She had to admit that she didn’t like the idea.
She’d already been alone through so much of her health journey, and she wanted him to be there with her. And she kind of thought that he would be willing to be there if she asked.
“How are you feeling?” Rachel asked after she finished labeling the tubes.
She almost gave the number response but caught herself in time. “Fine.”
“You can go back to the waiting area through there,” Rachel said, pointing to another door beside the one that led there from the office.
Happy that she’d get to see Ben again, Amelia slid off the stool and slowly made her way to the door and opened it.
Ben got up as soon as she appeared, a worried look on his face. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, though I think I just had an encounter with a vampire,” she said. “She took an awful lot of my blood.”
Ben grinned. “I’m sure it was for a good cause.”
He led her over to a set of chairs, apart from where Luca sat. Julian and Anthony weren’t in the room.
Amelia sank into the chair with a sigh. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. She felt Ben shift beside her, but didn’t open her eyes.
“If you want to doze off, I’ll wake you when they need you.”
“I might do that,” Amelia said.
The fatigue didn’t always overcome the pain so that she could fall asleep quickly, but that day it did.
But it seemed like just a blink of time before Ben’s voice broke through her sleep.
“Hey, sleeping beauty,” he said. “They need you.”
She blinked her eyes, looking around. Dr. Donner stood a short distance away, watching her with a smile.
“Ready for more?”
She glanced at Ben. “I guess so.”
“We’re going to do some full-body scans to get an idea of what’s going on everywhere.”
“So, like an MRI?”
“Yes, we’ll do an MRI, but also a CT scan. They each show different things and will give us the best overall idea of what might be going on inside your body.”
Ben stood up, then held out his hand to help her to her feet. “I’ll be here when you’re done.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in a bit.”
He gave her hand a squeeze, then let go.
Amelia’s stomach was knotted as she left the room with the doctor. As much as she wanted answers, there was a sudden fear about what they might find.
As they walked, the doctor explained everything they were going to do and encouraged her to ask any questions she might have.
For the next couple of hours, they moved her from one scan to the next. By the time they were all done, it was almost two and a half hours later.
Returning to the room where she’d left Ben, Amelia moved slowly. Even though the scans hadn’t required physical exertion, she had still been exhausted by everything.
The fatigue was settling into her bones, making her movements even more laborious than usual.
She spotted Ben as soon as she entered the waiting area.
Julian was back, seated across from him, the two of them leaning forward in conversation.
Ben looked up immediately when she entered, rising to his feet.
"How'd it go?" he asked, reaching for her elbow to steady her.
"I think I'm done being a science experiment for the day," she said, attempting a smile that she was quite sure didn’t look genuine. "They've looked at every inch of me from the inside out."
Ben guided her back to her chair, his hand warm against her back. "You look exhausted.” He turned to look at Julian. “Are we done here now?”
“Let me go see what Dr. Donner has to say,” Julian said as he got to his feet.
Once he’d disappeared into the office, Ben took Amelia’s hand. “Are you hungry?”
“What time is it?” Amelia asked.
“Almost three.”
“I thought it was later.”
“I’m sure you’re ready to call it a day.”
“I am,” she agreed. “But I’m also very grateful for all of this. I just want a light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Listen,” Ben said. “Even if there’s no light at the end of the tunnel right now, you still have people who are holding the light for you in the darkness.
Me, your folks, Layla. We’re all at your side, walking with you, holding a light so you don’t trip.
And we’ll keep doing that until there is a light at the end of the tunnel. ”
“Thank you,” she said. “I didn’t expect you to support me like this when I first saw you back in Serenity.”
“I’m glad you’ve let me be there for you,” Ben said. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
When he gently put his arm around her shoulders, Amelia leaned into him, closing her eyes as she let him support her.
Did she have the right to lean on him that way? To take advantage of the support he offered her when she wasn’t giving him anything in return?
But his words had touched something deep inside her. Regardless of whether she was taking advantage of his kindness, Ben was offering himself as a support system, and right now, she needed that more than she needed to protect her pride.
"It means a lot," she whispered. "More than you know."
The office door opened, and Julian emerged with Dr. Donner following close behind. Amelia straightened slightly, though Ben's arm remained around her shoulders.
"We’re done for now,” the doctor said. “It will be a week or two before we compile all the results, then, depending on what they tell us, we’ll be able to formulate a treatment plan for you.”
Amelia could hardly believe that she might finally be able to gain control of her life again. She had a feeling nothing was going to remove the symptoms she dealt with on a daily basis, but if they could give her medication and advice on how to manage them, she would count it as a win.
She would forever be indebted to Ben and his family for helping her, and she didn’t know how she’d ever repay them for the help they’d given her.